The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been severely criticized over recent allegations that department resources were used during a partisan political battle in Texas. On Monday May 12th, more than 50 Democratic Texas state legislators fled to Oklahoma to avoid hearings and prevent the Legislature from having quorum on a bill that would redraw congressional districts in the Republicans’ favor. The same day, a DHS agency was contacted in order to track a plane carrying several of the Democrats in hopes of returning them to the state capitol. The Monday on which the Democrats left Texas, a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officer placed a call to one of DHS’s agencies, the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (AMICC) asking for help in locating a plane owned by State Representative James E. “Pete” Laney (D-Hale Center). Officials have said the agency was led to believe the plane had crashed or was in trouble. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has also been accused of being involved in contacting AMICC as well as placing calls to the FAA asking for the location of Laney’s plane. State police were also sent on a manhunt in order to locate the missing Democrats and bring them back to the capitol. In an extremely troubling effort to assure secrecy and avoid accountability, all documents and communications held by the Texas DPS were ordered destroyed shortly before the Texas Democrats returned to the state. A grand jury in Travis County is examining the destruction of state documents addressing the state police manhunt that took place to locate the absent members. The FAA is also reviewing whether it was acting inappropriately by assisting DeLay in searching for the plane. The calls placed to the AMICC, however, are recorded on tape and are in the possession of DHS. Democrats, led by Rep. Jim Turner (D-TX), are requesting tapes of the conversations in order to ascertain what exactly was said during the phone calls, and if, in fact, the AMICC was misled into using federal resources to aid Texas Republicans. DHS has refused to release the tapes and has said an internal inquiry is being conducted on the matter. Those within the agency as well as White House spokespersons have dodged questions about the abuse of DHS resources for unrelated issues. The reluctance of DHS to release the tapes, some of which have already been released to the media, is quite troubling. DHS, which was created only last November, is already reflecting the Administration’s affinity for secrecy. The department’s recent actions not only deprive useful information with which to objectively evaluate the agency’s actions, but also set a poor precedent for how forthcoming the agency will likely be in the future. DHS was created to protect the nation from further terrorist attacks and help ensure a safe country. An atmosphere of secrecy, however, is counterproductive to those ends since it has been proven that information sharing and openness are vital in the efforts to create a more secure country and stop terrorism.