Department of Homeland Security
subagencies: CBP, CISA, FEMA, ICE, TSA, USCIS
Created in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security is a massive agency which contains variety of agencies concerned with law enforcement, immigration, disaster response and even cybersecurity.
DHS contains the following agencies where DOGE has had linked activities:
- Customs and Border Patrol (CPB): the agency that secures America’s border (and can act 100 miles within from any of those borders). This is also the agency that collects tariff duties.
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA): a centralized clearinghouse and coordinator for defense of America’s physical and network infrastructure. This is also the agency that must be notified when breaches of government systems occur.
- Federal Emergency Management (FEMA): the agency for coordinating federal responses to natural disasters - Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): the agency that handles immigration arrests. The Trump administration is looking to dramatically expand its size and scope for detentions and deportations.
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA): this agency handles security at airports. DOGE is reportedly involved with activities in this agency, but there are no details on this.
- US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS): the agency that supports legal immigration and naturalization to America has been targeted by DOGE for reductions and to create a new $5 million immigration visa.
Positions
| Position | Date | Person |
|---|---|---|
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GSA? DHS
c.2/04
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likely detailed as Senior Advisor «Date unverified, but assuming predates sighting at FEMA» Wash. Post | |
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DHS FEMA
2/05
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internal xfer Wash. Post | |
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GSA DHS
c.2/19
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likely detailed Wired | |
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DHS CISA
2/19
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internal xfer Senior Advisor Wired | |
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DHS CISA
2/19
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likely detailed as Senior Advisor Wired | |
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DHS
3/11
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appointed Chief Information Officer NextGov | |
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OPM DHS
4/XX
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likely detailed «Based on reports talked to TSA and CISA, assuming detail to DHS» | |
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DHS TSA
4/XX
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internal xfer «Reportedly met with TSA» ProPublica | |
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DHS CISA
4/XX
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internal xfer «Reportedly met with CISA» ProPublica | |
| No Start Date Known | ||
| DOL? DHS | Marko Elez, Aram Moghaddassi | |
| GSA? DHS | Luke Farritor | |
| OPM? DHS | Anthony Armstrong, Gavin Kliger | |
| SSA? DHS | Payton Rehling | |
| DHS CBP | Marko Elez, Aram Moghaddassi, Kyle Schutt | |
| DHS FEMA | Kyle Schutt | |
| DHS ICE | Marko Elez, Luke Farritor, Aram Moghaddassi, Kyle Schutt | |
| DHS TSA | Aram Moghaddassi, Payton Rehling, Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, Marko Elez, Luke Farritor, Gavin Kliger | |
| DHS USCIS | Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, Marko Elez, Luke Farritor, Aram Moghaddassi, Payton Rehling | |
Systems
| System | Dates | Access |
|---|---|---|
| CIS |
The CIS contains information about immigrants who use Alien Numbers, or A-Numbers.
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| ELIS |
ELIS acts as a case management system for USCIS and includes information about green cards and petitions, as well as details related to Temporary Protected Status and DACA applicants
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| FEMA-Go |
A system for managing grant program for communities affected by disasters
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| IFMIS |
A system for processing all FEMA grant payments
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| Office365 |
Microsoft Office 365 is used for agency email and knowledge management systems.
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| SAVE |
An online service for agencies to verify immigration status and naturalized/acquired U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.
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| DBIS |
A system for tracking payments and business operations of USCIS
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Events
| Agency | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
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2/08
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2/10
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Sighting:
Edward Coristine appears in an online DHS staff directory with the title of Senior Advisor.
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2/10
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Report:
In a meeting providing him with an overview of DHS programs, Kyle Schutt stuns federal staff in the Office of Civil Rights by declaring one of their programs (CRCL) looks like money laundering.
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2/10
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Access:
Kyle Schutt is granted access to the FEMA Grant Outcomes (FEMA GO) system that is used by FEMA for tracking disaster and other grants across America. He is also given access to the source code for FEMA’s Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS) which processes payments.
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2/11
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c.2/11
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Disruption:
In a meeting, Kyle Schutt asks FEMA staff about the viability of deobligating appropriated funds for the agency, in essence returning the money to Treasury rather than using it for its appropriated purpose.
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2/19
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Access:
Edward Coristine and Kyle Schutt are reportedly given elevated access to CISA systems, including documents and staff emails.
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2/26
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| March 2025 | ||
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3/XX
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Disruption:
Kyle Schutt and Edward Coristine repeatedly pressure staff over the next two months at DHS to use Grok, a chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, despite the fact it had not been approved for use in the agency. A DHS spokesperson later denied the allegations.
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3/01
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Report:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) starts an audit of how DOGE has handled data at several agencies.
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3/19
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Interagency:
During a discussion on how to strip grants from the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State, GSA FAS Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum sends an email to coordinate grant freezes from DOD, DHS and the EPA. He includes DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt, Adam Hoffman and Kathryn Armstrong Loving as the recipients of these requests.
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3/21
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Disruption:
The Trump administration eliminates the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and two ombudsman offices responsible for investigating allegations of abuse from immigrants. This also includes the CRCL program that was characterized as “money laundering” by DOGE staffer Kyle Schutt.
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c.3/24
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c.3/25
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Interagency:
At a meeting on data sharing, an official from ICE requests that the IRS should create a service where DHS staff could simply provide the names and states of potential targets and get a list of all applicable addresses. IRS lawyers are stunned by the possible illegality and continued pressure leads to a series of resignations among staff in legal, privacy and IT offices within the IRS.
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3/28
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Access:
USCIS CIO William McElhaney sends a message to DHS Deputy Secretary asking them to review access that was granted to DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, Aram Moghaddassi and Payton Rehling.
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| April 2025 | ||
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4/04
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4/07
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4/07
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Interagency:
After some qualms about its legality, Leland Dudek signs two memos authorizing sharing data from the Social Security Administration that would allow DHS and ICE to locate immigrants who had been paying taxes to Social Security (despite not being able to collect it).
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4/11
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| May 2025 | ||
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5/06
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5/12
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Disruption:
CISA announces that it will cease posting many cybersecurity alerts on its website and instead only send them to email or X. After a public outcry, it reverses this decision.
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5/12
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Access:
The Department of Homeland Security issues a subpoena to the state of California and Los Angeles County to demand records from a cash assistance program for immigrants (CAPI).
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5/23
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Disruption:
Reuters reports that DOGE staffers Kyle Schutt and Edward Coristine have attempted to gain access to DHS employee emails in recent months and ordered staff to train AI to identify communications suggesting an employee is not “loyal” to Trump’s political agenda. Given earlier reports, the AI in question is like xAi’s “Grok” AI system.
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5/23
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Interagency:
In a podcast appearance, Antonio Gracias reported that the Department of Justice had requested for DOGE to find “10-20 cases” of alleged noncitizen voting in every state.
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| June 2025 | ||
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6/XX
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Interagency:
A lawyer at ICE proposes expanding the original data sharing MOU between the agency to also support requesting data on US citizens and lawful permanent residents (it had been limited to undocumented immigrants previously). Anthony DeMello rejected this change at the IRS and insisted that senior leadership at Treasury would have to sign off on this due to possible legal risks.
(fuzz: meeting date not given)
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6/04
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6/06
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6/18
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Disruption:
Following the guidance in EO 14222, DHS head Kristi Noem demands that every contract and grant worth more than $100,000 must be explicitly reviewed and approved by her. This particularly alarms staff at FEMA who warn that it will destroy the agency’s ability to respond to disasters in a timely manner.
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6/25
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Interagency:
Although he was considered more friendly to the Trump admininstration and DOGE, Andrew DeMello, the acting general counsel for the IRS refuses to turn over the addresses of 7.3 million taxpayers that had been requested by ICE. He declares there are multiple legal “deficiencies” with the request that do not meet the legal safeguards that were listed in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for this process, which declared that such data could only be shared for open criminal investigations.
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| July 2025 | ||
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7/08
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Disruption:
Funds for FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) normally used for disaster relief are redirected to instead provide $608.4 million to ICE for the construction of an immigration detention camp in the Florida Everglades. This anount is only slightly smaller than the entire 2025 budget for the program, which has only $83.5 million in reserve for this fiscal year. Possibly, DOGE aide Kyle Schutt might have assisted in finding money by deobligating other grants.
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7/10
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Disruption:
As predicted by experts, the newly created process that mandates that all contracts above $100,000 must be reviewed and approved by agency head Kristi Noem delayed the ability of FEMA to proactively respond to disastrous flash flooding in central Texas. For instance, FEMA could not get approval to stage Search and Rescue teams in the area before the disaster. The agency also was unable to approve additional staff for outreach and responding to calls from affected Americans.
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7/16
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Access:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Access (CMS) within HHS have reportedly signed a deal to deliver information on all 79 million enrollees in Medicaid to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This information, which includes the addresses and ethnicities of enrollees, will supercharge a surveillance machine assembled by DOGE that is being used by ICE to arrest undocumented immigrants (and others).
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7/22
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