Department of homeland security (DHS)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works to defend the country from unlawful border crossings as a result of the 9/11 reforms. Border security is critical to the safety of US people. Illegal actions along the border pose a significant threat to the country's security, and devising solutions to this problem will help to ensure the country's security. Border criminal activities pose serious hazards to the state, including illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and terrorist strikes (Helsloot, 2015). Thus, establishing and developing best practices to lead risk mitigation of border illegal activities is a critical component of ensuring the country's dynamic and meaningful security.  Best Practices for Preparing and Developing Border Risk Mitigation

One best practice is supporting the border guards and providing expansion training capabilities to them. Training of the border agents is a vital aspect which will assist in maintaining the safety of the agents, decrease liability and ensure that the agents have an understanding of what they do and work towards the fulfillment of the mission. Providing full funding to the border guards is a support strategy that will be efficient in curbing the illegal activities. One of the challenges in dealing with border crimes is that the guards lack the required resources and this hampers their ability to carry out their jobs effectively (Manjarrez, 2015). Thus supporting the guards by giving them full funding is one of the major strategies of risk mitigation.

Allowing flexibility within homeland security and enforcement of DHS border enforcement security task force is also another best practice. Flexibility will ensure that DHS carries out its activities without any form of interferences. A collaborative nature has to be enforced by the police and the bodies responsible for identifying and solving the border crimes have to do it in a more proactive way. This will assist in deterring the type of illegal activities committed at the border. The US government has adequately fund the activities of homeland security for realizing the set objectives (Hazari & Sgro, 2013). More authority has to be given to DHS and the set policies have to characterize the immigration enforcement investigation. Expansion of the DHS border enforcement security task force should done and has to include the state, federal and the agencies that work in risk mitigation. State defense force (SDFs) has to work in collaboration with DHS to assist in the growth of teamed efforts at the border.

There should be border infrastructural investment focusing at the ports of entry. This will aid in decreasing the illegal activities carried out at the border and also improve the security. In an effort to realize the border infrastructural investment, the private sectors have to be encouraged to invest in the border infrastructure. This will also work towards reducing the costs incurred in transacting and moving people and goods across the borders (Manjarrez, 2015). Private investment is one of the best ways of tackling the problem of border investment. It will save the country a lot of resources and the security at the border will be enhanced.

Border Risk mitigation Activity.

Border risk mitigation activity will involve the process of developing actions and options which are directed at enhancing the opportunities and decrease the threats therefore assist in projecting the objectives. The activity involves implementation and monitoring. Implementation is where the risk mitigation process will be executed. The monitoring process will involve tracking, identification of new risks and evaluation the plan effectiveness. The following activity shows the processes that will be involved in the risk mitigation process.

Risk Mitigation Activity



Border risk events and their Probabilities and consequences

Relationships are defined of the risk events are assessed



Identify Assess probabilities and

2. Border Risk Impact Assessment

Border Risk Identification

Risk Consequences









Reassess existing risk

Risk Tracking

Events and identify risk events

Assess risk criticality







4. Risk Mitigation,

Planning,

Implementation, and

Evaluation Process

Monitoring



Risk mitigation

3. Risk

Prioritizing

Analysis











The first step will involve the risk identification process. Here, the risk events and their relationships are defined. Assessing the probability and consequences of the border risk mitigation are is done at this phase. The consequences that will be tabled could incorporate the costs, the technical performance impact, schedule, and also the ability or the functionality impacts. The second step in the process will involve the risk impact and assessment. Under this step, the criticality of the risks will be established. The decision-analytical rules that are applied to rank the risks in order of their criticality identification will be done. The last activity to be done under risk mitigation includes the assessment of the risk events and grouping them as either high or medium depending on the criticality. This will form the risk mitigation, planning and implementation phase and keen monitoring will be done using the watch list. Reassessment of the existing risk events and identification of the new risks will be done.

Conclusion

Gaining the control of the border and enhancement of its security is not an option in the United States. The enforcement of strategies that are directed towards this effort will depend on the ability and the determination of the American government to enhance the citizens’ safety. The government should aim at fostering the policies and fully give the homeland security the ability nurture security and mitigate illegal activities.













References

Hazari, B. & Sgro, P. (2013). Illegal Migration, Border Enforcement, and Growth. Review Of Development Economics, 4(3), 258-267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9361.00093

Helsloot Ira. (2015). The journal of contingencies and crisis management. New York City. John Wiley and Sons.

Manjarrez, V. (2015). Border Security: Defining it is the Real Challenge. Journal Of Homeland Security And Emergency Management, 12(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jhsem-2015-0052