WASHINGTON – Building on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to combatting all forms of terrorism and targeted violence, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced today that DHS has established a new Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) to improve the Department’s ability to combat terrorism and targeted violence, consistent with privacy protections, civil rights and civil liberties, and other applicable laws.
“CP3 will help build local prevention frameworks to provide communities with the tools they need to combat terrorism and targeted violence,” said Secretary Mayorkas. “Individuals who may be radicalizing, or have radicalized, to violence typically exhibit behaviors that are recognizable to many but are best understood by those closest to them, such as friends, family, and classmates.”
CP3 will replace the Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention while ensuring DHS’s efforts are grounded in an approach to violence prevention that leverages behavioral threat assessment and management tools, and addresses early-risk factors that can lead to radicalization to violence.
Secretary Mayorkas also announced a new, dedicated domestic terrorism branch within the Department’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) to ensure DHS develops the expertise necessary to?produce the sound, timely intelligence needed to?combat threats posed by domestic terrorism and targeted violence. I&A will also continue leveraging the National Network of Fusion Centers and our deployed intelligence professionals who collect and analyze threat information alongside our state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners to increase timely and actionable information sharing in a dynamic threat environment.
The creation of CP3 and the I&A Domestic Terrorism Branch are the latest actions DHS is taking under Secretary Mayorkas’s leadership to comprehensively combat domestic violent extremism, including violent white supremacy.?Since January 20, 2021, DHS has increased the development, production, and sharing of intelligence and other actionable information central to countering domestic violent extremism, which now poses the most significant and immediate terrorism-related threat to the United States. On January 27, 2021, DHS issued a?National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin?due to the heightened threat environment. It was the first NTAS issued in more than a year and also the first to focus solely on a domestic threat.? Further, in February, Secretary Mayorkas?designated combating domestic violent extremism as a ‘National Priority Area’ for the first time?in FEMA grant programs.?As a result, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments are required to spend at least 7.5 percent, or a minimum of $77 million, of their DHS grant awards toward combating this threat.?The Department is also increasing training opportunities for law enforcement partners, including through threat assessment and management programs related to domestic violent extremism.
Secretary Mayorkas has directed DHS to embrace a whole-of-society approach to combatting domestic violent extremism and all other forms of targeted violence and terrorism by building trust, partnerships, and collaboration across every level of government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and the diverse communities we serve. The federal government cannot do this alone – we must work together.
