WEBVTT

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Thank you so much, Lisa,
and thank you all for giving me

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the opportunity to share some remarks.
I want to start on a note of solemnity

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and resilience, and end on a note of
generosity and hope, and in between

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speak of the challenges that we are
facing and how we are addressing them,

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and what it says about who we are and
who we want to be. And I want to make

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brief remarks so we leave as much time
as possible for a conversation.

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Yesterday at the Department of Homeland
Security's headquarters in St.

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Elizabeths we had a special ceremony.
Shortly after 9/11, in the aftermath of

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that tragic day, amidst the rubble, a
tree was found that was struggling, but

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still alive. And it was a Callery pear
tree and the New York City Department

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of Parks and Recreation took custody of
the tree and rehabilitated it over the

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ensuing weeks and months and years, and
it was termed the "survivor tree." And

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when it produced a seed, a seed would
be distributed to a community or a town

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that had unfortunately also suffered
tremendous tragedy and loss. Sadly,

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there are many of them, and the seeds
have been distributed to them, whether

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it be Orlando, Newtown, Boston, Las
Vegas, and many others. The seeds of

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that survivor tree have also been
distributed to places of tribute and

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honor and memory. And we in the
Department of Homeland Security, we're

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extraordinarily privileged to receive a
seed planted yesterday. And it speaks

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to the resilience of our country. And
to that, to the fact that that

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resilience is born of the work and
dedication of people across the

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country, including those in the
Department of Homeland Security. At

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this time in our country, two days from
9/11, we think, of course, of the lives

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that were lost on 9/11, 2001 as a result
of the tragedy, and we really doubled

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down on our commitment to ensure that
this country, our American way of life,

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our principles are everlasting and we
dedicate ourselves to that. The

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Department of Homeland Security is
facing extraordinary challenges now

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that grip our country and that are
really uppermost in our nation's mind.

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We have extreme weather events that are
unprecedented in frequency and scale

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and speak of the disastrous
consequences of climate change. We are

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observing a 300% increase over last
year in the number and severity of

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ransomware attacks and it speaks of
cybersecurity as a critical and urgent

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priority of ours. We are addressing, of
course, the annual phenomenon of

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irregular migration, and the
significant challenge at our Southern

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Border. And we are addressing a rise in
domestic violent extremism, the most

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significant terrorism-related threat
that we face in our homeland. This in

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addition to the day-to-day work that we
dedicate ourselves to, this in addition

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to the 2,285 community vaccination
centers that FEMA—an agency within

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the Department of Homeland
Security—stood up in our united

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battle against the pandemic, and, of
course, this in addition now to the

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designation that the President made of
the Department of Homeland Security as

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the lead federal agency in Operation
Allies Welcome, the effort to resettle

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Afghan nationals here in the United
States. I am asked often how we do it

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all. Do we have the resources to manage
through the challenges that our nation

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faces in the service of the mission, to
which we are dedicated to keep the

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American public safe and secure? And
the answer is a very straightforward

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one. We do because of the people that
comprise the Department of Homeland

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Security. We do because of the
extraordinary talent, dedication, and

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efforts of the men and women of our
department. Let me speak a little bit

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about each of the challenges that I
have identified and how we are

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addressing them and what it says
fundamentally about who we are and who

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we want to be. And let me start with
the challenge of domestic violent

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extremism. When the Department was
first formed, the focus from a

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terrorism-related perspective was on
the foreign terrorist fighter, the

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individual who was a resident abroad
who sought to penetrate our defenses

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and do us harm here on the homeland.
And we've built, of course, a system

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and processes to address that threat.
Over the years that threat evolved and

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it became the homegrown violent
extremists that was our most prominent

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threat on the homeland, with respect to
the terrorist threat writ large. It was

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the individual already resident in the
United States, who was radicalized by a

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foreign terrorist organization's
ideology, and sought to do us harm here

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on the homeland. Now what we have seen
over the past few years is that threat,

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once again, evolve. And now the threat
is the domestic terrorist, the domestic

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violent extremists. The individual who
is radicalized to violence by reason of

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an ideology of hate or false narratives
that are propagated on social media or

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other online platforms. And one thing
is very important to remember as we

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have observed the terrorism-related
threat evolve throughout the years, and

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that is that its prior iteration has
not disappeared from our threat

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landscape. The fact that one threat
becomes more prominent—the threat

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evolves and a particular brand of that
threat becomes most prominent—does

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not mean that its prior iteration has
disappeared. We remain focused on the

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foreign terrorist, we remain focused on
the homegrown violent extremists, but

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we also must adapt our systems and
processes, as we do to the new threat

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that has emerged or has increased in
prominence. And so when people speak of

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the situation in Afghanistan and ask
questions about what that means for the

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threat landscape, and do we have to
build new processes and systems, should

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the threat of al Qaeda rise in
prominence. Once again, the answer is

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no, because we have never dismantled or
weakened the systems that we built

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then, we have only added to them so
that we are as dynamic as the threat

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landscape we confront and that we are
dedicated to address in the safety and

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security of our homeland. One thing
that we are doing now that might be

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different than what has been done in
the past is the manner in which we are

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addressing the domestic violent
extremists, the domestic terrorist

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threat. When that thread was the threat
of homegrown violent extremism, we

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developed a program called Countering
Violent Extremism. And we went into the

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communities to assist those communities
in countering the threat. But what we

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learned is that we had challenges in
overcoming issues of trust and really

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building a partnership as vibrant and
strong as what was needed. And so as we

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tackle the threat of domestic
terrorism, our model is a bit

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different. What we are doing—and this
is because fundamentally the Department

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is an organization of
partnerships—what we are doing is

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focusing on equipping and empowering
the local communities to identify the

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threat before it materializes and
prevent it from ever occurring or ever

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being realized. And if, sadly, the
threat does materialize, to be

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resilient in withstanding it. And so,
how has that manifested itself? Let me

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give two brief examples. Number one,
for the first time ever, our FEMA grant

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programs to local jurisdictions have
included the requirement that a certain

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percentage of those funds that had
community receives—7.5 percent—be

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dedicated to the fight against domestic
violent extremism. Number one. And

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number two, we have created the Center
for Prevention Programs and Partnership

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to really build on that concept of
partnership to disseminate information

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to state, local, tribal, and
territorial officials so that they are

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equipped with real-time actionable
information to address the threat as it

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emerges. And so we're focused on
empowering and equipping, we're focused

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on partnership. The issue of extreme
weather events. We of course have

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suffered hurricanes, tornadoes,
earthquakes, fires in this country

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before but the frequency of these
events is greater than ever. And we are

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seeing their severity only increase.
What is different about how we are

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tackling that, let me give one primary
example, and it speaks of a value that

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we hold dear and it is the value of
equity. The fourth estate, very

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correctly and necessarily communicated
to us concern with respect to the

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manner in which individual assistance
was provided to people, to members of

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communities, who had suffered from
extreme weather events, and who by

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reason of past disenfranchisement,
could not access the relief that we are

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equipped and empowered to provide. For
example, in minority communities, homes

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have been passed down for generations
without the traditional paperwork that

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perhaps some of us might enjoy, a deed
of trust, for example, documentary

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proof of ownership. And despite their
ownership, in fact, they had difficulty

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accessing individual assistance because
of that absence of documentation and

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paperwork. That is a bridge in the
service of equity that we must cross.

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We must close that divide and indeed,
by reason of this issue raising

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prominence, because of journalistic
integrity, we have closed that divide.

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And we have crossed that bridge, and we
have reformed our policies and

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practices so that no one is left
disenfranchised from the individual

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assistance that we, as a matter of law
are empowered to provide. Cybersecurity

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and, specifically, ransomware, to which
I alluded at the outset, and the

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extraordinary increase in its frequency
and severity. But a month ago, a small

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group of hospitals were hit with
ransomware that disabled their

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information systems and they were
unable to provide critical care to

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patients and those patients had to be
moved. The scourge of ransomware is

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extraordinarily significant, quite
acute, and is something that we are

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treating with tremendous urgency. As a
matter of fact, before the Colonial

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Pipeline attack that galvanized the
American public's attention, we began a

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60-day sprint of focus on ransomware to
raise awareness of it, to communicate

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practices that anyone can employ to
guard against it, and we have launched

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StopRansomware.gov, a very innovative
and novel one-stop shop for information

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for the American public to best defend
against it. This again, I think, is

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reflective of a core principle of
partnership and an all-of-community

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effort to address one of the
significant challenges we face on the

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homeland. And why is an
all-of-community effort necessary with

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respect to ransomware and the
cybersecurity threat writ large?

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Because in cybersecurity we say that we
are only as strong as our weakest link

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and because of our interconnectedness,
it is the responsibility of each and

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every person to enhance their
cybersecurity so that our whole

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ecosystem is more secure. Lastly, on
the issue of the challenge of

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immigration and irregular immigration,
specifically, of course. We have

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experienced surges many times before in
our nation's history. And in fact in

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the 21st century, 2005, 2009, 2014,
2019, and so on. We have experienced

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over the last four years prior to this
administration a very different

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approach to irregular migration that
defined the approach of the

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administration that preceded it. And we
are very focused in the Department of

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Homeland Security to restoring the
values of this nation and how we handle

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irregular migration and the individuals
who seek refuge in the United States.

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And I want to give two examples of it,
and it speaks to our commitment to

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respect the dignity of every
individual. We have changed the

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language that we use to refer to
migrants who arrive in the United

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States and seek relief and who do not
have yet lawful presence. We do not use

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the term “illegal alien” unless we
are referring to that defined term in

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the statute itself, whether we are
quoting from the statute or referring

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directly to it. We use the term
“non-citizen.” In addition, no

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longer will the United States
government accept substandard treatment

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of individuals in immigration detention
and fail to respect the dignity that

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they—like any human being—have. And
as a result, we have for the first time

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ever closed two immigration detention
facilities that did not succeed in

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adhering to that core value. Our vision
for the Department is a Department that

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is nimble to address the dynamism of
the threat landscape that we confront.

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To not only be prepared to address the
threat that is before us, but to be

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nimble and dynamic, to be ready for the
threat that might come one day that we

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do not yet see. To reestablish, also,
the security of our values as well as

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to strengthen the security of our
homeland. And let me then, in this

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regard, end on a note of generosity and
hope because the challenges that we in

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the Department confront are, quite
frankly, at the epicenter of the divide

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that this country is suffering and the
divisiveness that we are enduring. Our

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Department is privileged to have been
designated as the lead federal agency

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in Operation Allies Welcome, the
all-of-government and the

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public-private effort to resettle
vulnerable Afghan nationals here in the

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United States. And what we have seen
across the country is an extraordinary

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outpouring of generosity regardless of
political party affiliation, and

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regardless of what one thinks of many
of the issues I have discussed. It is

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not unanimity, by any means, but it is
a united effort to extend this Nation's

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generosity in its proud tradition of
being a place of refuge. Allow me to

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share two stories from my visit to Fort
Lee, one of the military facilities

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where the vulnerable Afghan nationals
reside until they are resettled into

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the communities across the country.
First, I was able to meet one of the

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immigration officers at the military
installation who was processing the

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paperwork of the Afghans. And this is
an individual who in 2009 and 2010

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himself had served in Afghanistan. And
he had met during his time of service

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there an individual who provided him
with interpretation support in

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Afghanistan, an individual who made his
job successful, and he kept in touch

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with the Afghan interpreter over the
course of the ensuing 10 years. And but

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two weeks ago, this immigration
officer, which served in combat in

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Afghanistan, who would maintain
communication with the interpreter who

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had worked side by side with him those
10, 11, 12 years earlier across the

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world, was able to process the
immigration paperwork of the

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interpreter and his family as someone
who our country had rescued and brought

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to safety here to the United States.
Every soldier whom I met at Fort Lee

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commented about how it was one of the
proudest chapters in their careers of

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service to be a part of Operation
Allies Welcome and to contribute to the

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effort. And they shared with me the
fact that, as the Afghans disembark

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from the bus that has brought them to
the military facility, the soldiers

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provide the children with an American
flag. And when the children wave that

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flag, their fathers place their hands
over their hearts in gratitude, in

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reverence, and out of respect for what
our country has meant to them. And that

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is what we stand for and that is what
we can the Department of Homeland

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Security, under the leadership of
President Biden and with our sister

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agencies and departments across the
federal enterprise and with communities

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across this country are so very proud
to deliver to people in need. Thanks so

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very much. Thank you so much.