ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the politics of America’s attempt to provide homeland security, the defense of its people and borders. The 9/11 attacks were the turning point in American discussions of homeland security. In the United States, state and local government are responsible for providing “first responders,” the emergency personnel who rush to the scenes of accidents and other dangerous situations. America’s immigration laws are complex and difficult to reform because they are the product of conflicting interests- the desire to import cheap labor, unite families, and offer safety for those fleeing foreign violence and war, versus the desire to protect current workers, limit the growth of certain ideologies, contain existing divisions, and avoid new financial burdens. The political debate about the migration crisis on the southern border continued longer than that over the “Muslim ban” and involved additional aspects of national security policy.
