Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoffis an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under Presidents George W. Bush andBarack Obama, and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act. He previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as Assistant U.S. Attorney General. He succeeded Tom Ridge as United States Secretary of Homeland Security on February 15, 2005...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth28 November 1953
CountryUnited States of America
We certainly have to fill out the ranks of FEMA in terms of its senior level with experienced staff.
We're working very closely with the governor and the other state officials to make sure that we are completely connected in terms of their needs and what capabilities they're asking us to bring to the table, ... American Morning.
We're racing the clock in terms of possible injury. We're racing the clock in terms of illness, and we're racing the clock to get them food and water.
I was very unhappy with the lack of situational awareness I had in the couple of days after Katrina. I never want to be in the position again where I don't have real eyes on the ground to tell me what is going on in no uncertain terms as opposed to waiting to get reports coming through the media or inconsistencies from the field.
We may have to force people to get together in terms of picking a particular type of technology and starting to build to that technology, as opposed to everybody exercising their right to buy their own system, you know, at will.
And if we make the process political, if we start to make it personal, we're actually going to frustrate good public policy, in terms of managing this money.
We were prepared for one catastrophe. The second catastrophe, frankly, added a level of challenge that no one has seen before.
We were prepared for one catastrophe, ... The second catastrophe, frankly, added a level of challenge that no one has seen before.
We have to continue to use both low-tech and high-tech tools to assist our Border Patrol in patrolling this portion of terrain and protecting ourselves against people who want to sneak across.
We will not tolerate lawlessness, or violence, or interference with the evacuation,
We will work tirelessly to ensure that our fellow citizens have the sustained support and the necessary aid to reclaim their homes, their lives and their communities,
We're going to uncover people who died, maybe hiding in houses, got caught by the flood, people whose remains are going to be found in the streets, ... It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine.
We're going to be better prepared for this hurricane season than any other prior year.
It would be enormously difficult if we were to attempt to control illegal immigration at the border without having some legal avenue to address the fact that there is a high demand for non-U.S. people to come in and perform certain kinds of jobs,