Soft close parts of DHS pending a decision to shrink or dismantle it
What the document says“The Secretary therefore can and should use his or her inherent, discretionary leadership authority to “soft close” ineffective and problematic corners of the department.”
The chapter says this is pending a possible presidential decision to shrink or eliminate DHS itself. The Secretary would shift personnel, funding and operational responsibility away from the offices being closed and into what the chapter calls mission-essential components. It states that doing so would support a legislative move to shrink or dismantle the department by showing the agency can perform critical functions without its current bureaucracy.
What the document actually says“The Secretary therefore can and should use his or her inherent, discretionary leadership authority to “soft close” ineffective and problematic corners of the department.”
So the Secretary can and should quietly shut parts of the department down. The parts that do not work.
This department is very large. The book says parts of it should be closed down quietly. Staff and money would move to other parts. The book says this would help make the case to shut the whole department later.
Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Workforce Optimization Initiative
2025-02-11 · 90 FR 9669
The order tells every agency head, the Secretary of Homeland Security included, to prepare large scale reductions in force and to prioritize in them all offices performing functions not mandated by statute, all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and any component the administration suspends or closes, while hiring is held to one for every four departures. Functions related to public safety, immigration enforcement and law enforcement are exempt from both the ratio and the reductions, which is the shift toward operational components the chapter describes. The route is not the chapter's: this is a presidential order applying across the government rather than the Secretary using discretionary leadership authority on particular corners of the department, it names no Homeland Security office, and it does not tie any closure to shrinking or dismantling the department.
The order tells every agency to plan deep cuts. Work not required by law goes first, while police and border work is spared. That shift is the one the chapter described. But this order comes from the President and names no office at this agency.
2 agency rules
- Changes to Geographical Jurisdictions and in Case Handling ProceduresFederal Labor Relations Authority · August 29, 2025
- Transfer of the Functions of the Tax Division to the Civil Division and the Criminal DivisionJustice Department · December 10, 2025
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.