For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
I am pleased and proud to release to the public today our new mission statement for the Department of Homeland Security:
“With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values.”
This statement is intended to reflect the views and the values of our employees, and to be in their voice, not mine. Almost 3,000 of our people answered my call for ideas for our mission statement, and we received many thoughtful answers. Across all components, the three words most often invoked in the submissions were “honor,” “integrity,” and “safeguard.” These words are contained in the statement. The word “values” was included to reference, among other things, our missions to preserve and promote this Nation’s immigrant heritage and humanitarian spirit, as well as the freedoms and civil liberties we must balance and preserve in the pursuit of our security mission. We wanted to limit the statement to one sentence.
In the development of this statement, I was pleased to consult all three former Secretaries of Homeland Security.
This statement is intended for all our components and all our approximately 226,000 personnel across the entire Department. My hope is that our people will see it as the capstone of our Unity of Effort initiative, and our unifying mission statement for now and long after I am Secretary of Homeland Security.
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