AAF uncovered multiple examples where Jennifer Higgins spoke on panels related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), primarily in the context of women in leadership positions.  This suggests, for a senior leader of a federal agency that has real responsibilities relating to national security, Higgins’ priorities are misplaced.

More troublingly, however, Higgins has advocated for outright diversity quotas.

In a 2021 “Fireside Chat” for women in DHS, Jennifer Higgins advocated for “taking those things into consideration” when making hiring decisions.  In this context, “those things” to which Higgins refers are “diversity” metrics she discussed earlier in the presentation.

Higgins: You might have diversity in your entry level positions, but there are tremendous barriers that abound in our leadership positions.  And, so, I think it’s really, really important for us to dig into the reasons why that’s the case.  And I think, in a lot of ways, it’s taking a look and recognizing at the barriers that people faced before they even joined our department.  You know, whether it was, growing up in a particular community, whether it was, um, you know, challenges that they had, um, in school, um, you know, microaggressions that they had to deal with on a regular basis.  All of that led people to have a particular experience even before they enter the DHS workforce.  And so for us, it’s really critical to recognize that and to take those things into consideration when we’re making hiring choices and hiring decisions. And, so, a big part of what the department is doing is actually trying to do more “barrier analyses” to be able to really assess, okay maybe on the surface we have a diverse workforce, but if we just dig a little bit deeper we will realize that we actually have a lot of work we need to do.

Higgins’ insistence on including DEI criteria in DHS hiring decisions raises concerns that she and the Department are prioritizing wokeness over national security.

Timestamp: (4:00 – 5:20)

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Beyond misplaced priorities, one comment made by Jennifer Higgins during the previously discussed ‘Fireside Chat’ merits special attention.

In response to a question about “the most compelling and evolving threats facing homeland security,”  Higgins’ first response was “homegrown extremism.”  Shortly thereafter, she cited “misinformation, malinformation, disinformation”

It’s not going to come as any surprise to the group that’s listening today that, you know, homegrown extremism, lone wolf actors, cyber threats, transnational criminal organizations, terrorist fighters who are exploiting conflicts that are happening right now around the world, um, ideological, ethnic driven terrorism threats, the threats abound in our landscape right now.  One of the things, though, that I think is interesting given the work that I do in the immigration space is probably a threat that people don’t immediately think of when they think of Homeland Security.  And that is, I find an emerging area, to be particularly interesting, in the area of misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation.  Um, you know, the use of those tools to be able to undermine institutions.

Higgin’s preoccupation with issues such as “homegrown extremism” and “misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation,” versus the far more tangible threats of international terrorism and the porous southern border, could easily be weaponized against American citizens, and is illustrative of the general misfocus of the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden Administration.

(0:22 – 1:20)

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