State of Insecurity: The Cost of Militarization Since 9/11

The costs of this evolution are many, in terms of surveillance and the costs to individual privacy, growing xenophobia and racism and their costs to immigrants and people of color, mass incarceration, and the cost of lives lost in war and violence, all in the name of security. [...] The financial costs continue to pile up: the Pentagon budget is higher than at the height of the Vietnam War or the Cold War, and growing, accounting for more than half of the federal discretionary budget in typical years. [...] In its most recent strategic plan, the first of four strategic goals of the Depart- ment of Justice (DoJ) was to “enhance national security and counter the threat of ter- rorism,” The second was to “secure the borders and enhance immigration enforcement and adjudication.” While ICE and CBP may round up and deport immigrants, it is the DoJ that prosecutes immigration cases. [...] We include most programs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because of the agency’s origins in the post-9/11 response, and because of its core mission to safe- guard the country and borders from external threats. [...] Federal law enforcement programs are included because counterterrorism and border security are part of their core mission, and because the militarization of police and the proliferation of mass incarceration both owe much to the activities and influences of federal law enforcement.