How the September 11th Attacks Affect US International Policies

HOW THE SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS AFFECTED AMERICA’S INTERNATIONAL POLICIES
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Introduction
Terror attacks have always been a subject of discussion among pundits, policy makers and scholars across the world and the discussion is yet to come to an end. Most countries have introduced a lot of dramatic changes when it comes to international policies in an attempt to protect their citizens from terror attacks. American’s invincibility and sense of security was severely destroyed by the September 11th terror attacks and this called for drastic changes in its international and travel security policies. The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon affected the American people in two major ways, the first being intentional policies to decrease immigration and to increase deportations and the second manifested in the creation of the Transportation Security Administration in order to bring more security in travel. This essay will highlight how America’s security policies and transportation security administration changed after the September 11th attacks through a comprehensive review of various scholarly sources.[Biggs, Selden & ‎Lelia, Helms, The Practice of American Public Policymaking. (London: Routledge, 2014), 45.]
Background Information about the attack
The terror attacks were orchestrated and executed by an Islamic Extremist Group commonly referred to as Al-Qaida on September 11, 2001. The suicide attacks were executed using four hijacked airliners. The attacks involved 19 militants who simultaneously hijacked the four airliners and directed them towards the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre. Two of the airliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, while the Pentagon which is located in Arlington County, Virginia, was hit by the third plane. The remaining plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field after the hijackers were confronted by some of the passengers in the plane. Approximately 3000 people, including the 19 militants lost their lives in the attacks in the largest terror attack in American history. There was massive infrastructure and property damage as a result of the attack and the damages were valued to be worth $10 billion.[Ibid] [Birkland, Thomas, Lessons of Disaster: Policy Change after Catastrophic Events. (New York: Georgetown University Press, 2006), 35.] [Ibid] [Ibid]
How the attacks changed America’s security policies
Some changes were bound to happen in the United’s States immigration system immediately after the September 11th attack. The immigration debate that had been ongoing since the early 1990s took a completely new twist after the attacks. President Bush had taken a moderate approach towards immigration prior to the attack, but immediately shifted his approach in an attempt to restore America’s invincibility. In response to future threats of terrorism, the Bush Administration came up with immigration policy measures with some of them appearing to be very controversial. The US government came up with specific policies targeting those with links to the Al-Qaida terror group as well policy measures that were not linked to AL Qaeda. Al Qaida sympathizers as well as those perceived to have direct links with the groups were subjected to very strict immigration measures including Visa restrictions. Various groups such as South Indians, Arabs and generally Muslims were the most affected by the new policy measures. The laws were perceived to be very harsh and were strongly opposed by the civil libertarians. Some scholars argued that programs such as country specific actions and secret detentions undermined constitutional principles but the government was determined to ensure that the policies are fully implemented.[Ciment, James & ‎John, Radzilowski, American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change. (London: Routledge, 2015), 23.] [Mathieu, Deflem & Shannon, McDonough. The Fear of Counterterrorism: Surveillance and Civil Liberties Since 9/11, Society. 3 no. 1(2015),73] [Ibid] [Ibid]
In the aftermath of the attacks, there were secrete detentions and proceedings for close to 1200 suspects. The press and the public were completely locked out of the entire process and most of the suspects were not even allowed to access legal services. Although some of the measures that were directly focused on Muslims have since been discontinued, legal challenges are still in existence. In an effort to advance national security, the US government decided to do away with nationality based policies because of pressure from the civil society and a new immigration system to tackle security issues. Among the new measures include increased cooperation’s of law enforcement at the federal and state levels, expansion of vast databases as well as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.[Clarke, Richard, "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror", Mediterranean Quarterly, 2(2004), 157] [Ibid]
Immigration Policy Changes
The Bush and the Obama administrations have overseen quite a number of changes in the immigration policy despite some little differences in their approaches. The first and the most important policy measure was the creation of a well-resourced new agency is known as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department was established under the Homeland Security Act and began its operations in 2003. The agency was created to specifically handle all immigration related functions in an effort to stop future terrorist attacks. Some of the most notable agencies that operate under DHS include the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency, as well as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The agency has over 230,000 employees and its budget has dramatically increased in the last ten years. The US government spent over $589 billion to create the department. DHS has subsidiary agencies whose functions are related to immigration enforcement and the government has always ensured that the subsidiaries are adequately staffed and funded for them to effectively carry out their operations. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a perfect example of subsidiary agencies under the Department of Homeland Security and since 2002, the agency’s staff has increased in number by close to 50% and its budget has grown from approximately $54 billion in 2002 to over $12 billion in recent years. There has been a similar scale of growth in in the ICE agency and this clearly demonstrates that the US government is very committed to protecting its people by addressing all immigration issues.[Ibid] [Jenkins, Michael, et al., The Long Shadow of 9/11: America's Response to Terrorism. (New York: Rand Corporation, 2011), 56] [Ibid] [Jenkins, Michael, et al., The Long Shadow of 9/11: America's Response to Terrorism. (New York: Rand Corporation, 2011), 22]
The September 11th attack also saw a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement. The number of migrant removals has grown to almost half a million people from 200,000 in 2002 and the figure includes voluntary departures and deportations. Some of the reasons why the number of immigrant removals has increased in the last 13 years include increased spending on border security and the ever growing size of America’s undocumented population. In other words, enforcement activities have been very effective because of increased funding as compared to the amount of funding that was available before the 2001 attacks. There has been a significant increase in the number of criminal deportations in the last 10 years and these deportations include even those that the government is not worried about. A 2011 report by ICE revealed that cases of voluntary departures and deportations under criminal removals in 2011 alone were 188,000.[Mathieu, Deflem & Shannon, McDonough. The Fea...