Homeland Security Agencies

The USA Patriot Act grants government agencies powers in terrorism investigations that it already uses in non-terrorist crimes. Several law abiding citizens have been approached, questioned, and interrogated without probable cause of any criminal activity, basically for engaging in political speech protected by the constitution (Bailie, 2012). The Act freely eliminates privacy rights for individual Americans, it creates more secrecy for government activities, which make it extremely difficult to know about actions the Government are taking.

With good intentions, the Patriot Act allows the government to pry into Americans' lives through computer and phone records as well as credit and banking history (Source 5). This oversteps the U.S. Constitution as the First and Fourth Amendment were created to give citizens freedom and the right to deny search and seizure

Constitution. Along with this expansion of surveillance powers is the "sneak and peek provision" (The USA-PATRIOT Act and the American response to terror; panel discussion, 2002). During a discussion panel in 2002, David E. Suchar discussed this provision stating the "sneak and peek provision, which allows the government to conduct secret searches of anyone, including citizens, without notifying the person that they have a search warrant and that the search is authorized". Suchar further stated this provision is "a very broad standard that probably could be met in a tremendous number of cases and not limited to fighting terrorism in any way, shape, or form" (The USA-PATRIOT Act and the American response to terror; panel discussion, 2002, para. 18). From a civil liberties perspective, the surveillance expansion provisions within the Patriot Act are troubling when considering the possibility of abuse, and the trouncing of fourth amendment rights.

While this act made legislative changes that increased surveillance and the investigative powers of law enforcement agencies to protect America from further terrorist acts, the passing of the USA Patriot Act has reduced the privacy rights of Americans and also does not

It is clear why the breach of security on the southern border is of concern to both governments as well as to citizens of US and Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working to secure the border by ensuring that an effective combination of staffing, technology, and infrastructure is utilized to protect the more than 8,000 miles of land and maritime areas along both the northern and southern borders, however the current system in place needs urgent changes in order to secure the borders and move forward to target all illicit activities that take place on the border. The next step will be redirect the attention and work on the effects that it brings to citizens of the countries involved. It is easy to think only on the effects that it brings to United States but also for Mexico it has a negative impact. It is often assumed that illegal immigrants are all Mexican citizens crossing the border however this statement is not a fact. Mexico is being used as a bridge by illegal immigration immigrating to United States from neighbor countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Peru. The federal government, the DHS and agencies involved in securing our borders need to create a comprehensive plan to guarantee the DHS gains

Several acts severely infringe the civil liberties of Americans; for example, Title II of the act provides for enhanced surveillance procedures. Authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications became expanded if these communications might be related to terrorism or computer fraud. There are 25 separate sections providing significant new authority for the government to monitor mail, e-mail, voice mail, and telephone and computer communications. Search warrants will be easier to obtain, and they will be broader in scope. Warrants will be valid for longer periods. The FBI can ask for a warrant requiring any tangible items which can include books, papers, records, documents, etc…(the warrant may be non-specific in nature). This is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of search and seizure.

The U.S.A. Patriot Act creates significant expanded powers to federal and state law enforcement agencies to fight against terrorism in the United States and abroad. The Act enabled law enforcement agencies to circumvent the Bill of Rights in the fight against terrorism. Law enforcement was now able to; search and seize without probable cause, to detain individuals without a trial, monitor religious and political events without suspecting criminal activity, listen to conversations between lawyers and their clients or deny legal representation to individuals accused of crimes. Although the intent of the Patriot Act was to combat terrorism in the United States and abroad, it is presently being utilized against the citizens of America. Therefore, the Constitutional rights of every American citizen are being violated.

The Act? The Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was signed by none other than George bush on October 6 2001, the act itself is abbreviated for uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism act of 2001. Now what this act contained was a series of amendments, or orders that a lot of aspects of modern society had to be monitored and recorded so that way another attack like 9/11 wouldn’t happen. Basically they enhance domestic security against terrorism, heightened surveillance procedures, increased border security, removing obstacles to investigate terrorism,and increased information sharing.They made a wall between everyone's life and theirs with a hug peep hole. Any sensible person would say that such action is for the national security of our country and it makes us a safer country. Although this does make for a huge security benefit for our country, it is sad to say that nobody really has true privacy. How much privacy do we really

Knowledge is power, and with that power comes control and wealth. Any government would want to obtain through surveillance all the knowledge it can about its citizens and the Patriot Act does just that. The Patriot Act came about shortly after the 9/11 when the American public looked to the government for protection against future attacks. Many in congress did not have time to read nor thoroughly debate the legislation. Numerous times in the past the United States government has placed more emphasis on security than civil liberties especially during national crisis. Most Americans think our Constitutional rights are absolute, but they would be wrong in assuming so. The passage of the Patriot Act gave the federal government greater latitude in its interpretation of those civil rights and surveillance of the American public. The “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” (USA Patriot Act). limits the Fourth and First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights for the sake of security.

On October 26, 2001, a law was signed into congress by George W. Bush known as the Patriot Act. The initial purpose of the act was to monitor terrorist like activity that could happen on U.S. soil and that could affect the way of the American life. Although its sole purpose was to monitor suspect activity, it gives citizens little to no privacy. In Martin Letter from Birmingham Jail, he explains how he believed that a just laws should follow the code of ethics. However, this law is the farthest from having morals or being ethical, it’s used to invaded the privacy of U.S. citizen. The USA Patriot Act is an unjust law, it violates the right to freedom and abuses the right to have privacy, and it can lead to unlawful consequences.

The Patriot Act is a clear infringement of the right of people to not be searched and seized. Roving Wiretaps, Section 206, allows the government to acquire a warrant to tap any phone or computer of someone who is suspected to be a terrorist. Critics noted, however, that if the suspect comes into casual contact with someone who is innocent in terms of the acts, the privacy of the latter could be trespassed upon. This is a violation of the Fourth Amendment; the security and privacy of someone who is innocent would be infringed upon. Foreign Intelligence Wiretaps and Searches is a provision similar to that of the Roving Wiretap but for those who are suspected as foreign spies. Critics claimed that international spying and terrorism is too easily given as an excuse and has led to an excess of intelligence taps compared to the criminal taps. “Sneak and Peak” Warrants also comes in violation of the Fourth Amendment because the provision allows the FBI to search and investigate any home or business without prior warning to that of whom they would search and intrude upon, a clear violation of unreasonable search and seizure.

In the entire span of the United States history, the commitment of the protection of Americans civil liberties have frequently been tested and strained. The biggest breach of national security was on September 11, 2001 which ended in the compromise of the trust of American people because they had felt lied to and vulnerable all because of a broken pact and a failure to protect America with an agency founded to prevent such a catastrophe. After these acts of terror Congress felt they needed to do better and step up their game, they decided it was time to act so just one vote short of unanimous bipartisan support, they passed the USA Patriot Act. The measure gave law enforcement officials sweeping new powers to conduct searches without warrants,

In this research paper, it will discuss the types of borders the United States has, what are the threats associated with the border, and what strategies are in place with Canada and Mexico to combat and prevents these threats from entering the country.

The PATRIOT Act was launched in 2001 in the wake of terrorism as a way of aiding the government to respond promptly to the terrorist attacks. One of the provisions of the Act is that the FBI could conduct investigations with delayed search warrants and wiretap communications without the consent of the public. This allowed the FBI to view the houses of people they suspected to be involved with terrorism, investigate their bank accounts without even informing them prior to the deed. In summation, they could request for the information of

One of the primary responses of the U.S. government after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), in addition to declaring war on terrorism, was to perform an in-depth analysis of the intelligence community. The sole purpose of this was to: (1) understand the issues that prevented or hindered the intelligence community from knowing about, stopping or mitigating attacks, and (2) determine what steps should be taken to ensure that an “intelligence failure” of similar kind would not occur again. To carry out this, Congress authorized the creation of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) with the mandate to specifically investigate the performance of the