DHS’ 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment Indicates the Threat of Domestic and Foreign Terrorism in the Homeland Remains High

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA), released today, is designed to inform both the public and the Department’s partners of the threats to public safety and security, in order to assist federal, state, and local partners in preparing, preventing, and responding to an ever-evolving threat environment. The HTA describes a threat environment that is expected to “remain high” over the coming year.   

“The Homeland Security Assessment provides an important overview of the dynamic and evolving threat landscape, illustrating just how varied and challenging the threats we confront are,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “It is because of the remarkable DHS workforce, and our close collaboration with our federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners, that we are able to meet the challenges and keep the American people safe and secure.” 

Assessments from the 2025 HTA: 

• Public Safety and Security: The terrorism threat environment in the Homeland is expected to remain high over the coming year. This is due to a confluence of factors, including potential violent extremist responses to domestic sociopolitical developments — particularly the 2024 election cycle — and international events like the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat. Meanwhile, foreign terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al Qa’ida maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland. 

• Illegal Drugs: Illegal drugs smuggled into and sold in the United States by transnational and domestic criminal actors continue to pose a lethal threat to communities in the United States. DHS has surged resources to address this threat, seized more fentanyl in the last two fiscal years than in the prior five years combined, and is investing in new technology to increase detection capabilities. Thanks to these and other efforts, the number of overdose deaths have declined by more than 10 percent in the 12 months leading up to April 2024 – the largest drop in overdose deaths in recorded history. That said, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids remain the most lethal of drugs trafficked into the country and continue to pose a national security threat. Adulterated cocaine and methamphetamine also pose a threat. 

• Influence Operations and Transnational Repression: We expect the Homeland will face threats to public safety from state actors using subversive tactics in an effort to stroke discord and undermine confidence in U.S. domestic institutions. Malign foreign actors seek to target ethnic and religious minorities, political dissidents, and journalists in the United States to silence and harass its critics abroad. 

• Border and Immigration Security: Migrant encounters at our border have steadily declined since the beginning of 2024 and have declined even further since the issuance of the Presidential Proclamation and complementary Interim Final Rule (IFR) were announced on June 4 – decreasing more than 55% in the past four months. We nonetheless expect some individuals with criminal connections to seek to continue to exploit migrants. DHS remains acutely focused on identifying those who may present a threat to public safety or national security and stopping them from entering the United States. 

• Critical Infrastructure Security: Domestic and foreign adversaries are expected to continue to target our critical infrastructure via prepositioning, cyber, and physical attacks. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), Russia, and Iran are expected to remain the most pressing foreign threats to our critical infrastructure.  Nation-states, criminal hacktivists, and financially motivated criminals will likely hone their techniques to disrupt U.S. services or to conduct espionage focused on gaining access to U.S. networks and critical infrastructure entities. We assess that domestic and foreign violent extremists will continue to call for physical attacks on critical infrastructure in furtherance of their ideological goals and, in response to international conflicts and crises. 

• Economic Security: Our adversaries – including the PRC – will continue non-market policies and practices, economic espionage and coercive economic tools, and illicit acquisition of technologies and intellectual property to undercut U.S. and partner competitiveness. 

Operational components and offices across the Department are involved in combatting threats and working alongside our federal, state, and local partners. Some examples of these efforts include:  

• DHS conducts screening and vetting of individuals encountered at the border to identify national security or public safety threats and refers any individuals who are identified as posing a threat to public safety or national security to the appropriate law enforcement authority for detention, removal, and potential prosecution. DHS continually monitors available sources of intelligence and law enforcement information to identify new threats and public safety risks. If and when any new information emerges, DHS, including ICE and CBP, works closely with the FBI and other partners to take appropriate action. 

• In addition to biometric and biographic screening and vetting of every individual encountered, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has expanded information sharing agreements with international partners to enhance their ability to prevent, detect, and investigate trafficking and other crimes. CBP’s National Targeting Center continuously works to detect individuals and travelers that threaten our country’s security, while also building a network of partner nations committed to fighting global threats. 

• DHS, through CBP and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), has stopped more illicit fentanyl and 
  arrested more individuals for fentanyl-related crimes in the last two fiscal years than in the previous five 
  years combined. 

• DHS is leading the federal effort to combat fentanyl internationally, through information-sharing, 
  multinational enforcement operations, and global cooperation with federal, state, and local 
  partners and stakeholder to disrupt fentanyl networks within our communities. 

• DHS has arrested over 3,600 subjects connected to fentanyl-seizure events, which directly 
  degrades the organized criminal networks responsible for bringing fentanyl into our communities, seized over 2,200 pill presses, and seized over 27,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl to stop it at our 
  borders and in our communities before it can hurt the American public. 

• United States Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) provided over 300 trainings and briefings to over 40,000 participants in the past year, including to state and local law enforcement, government officials, educators, mental health professionals, faith-based leaders, and workplace security managers across the country. 

• DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) works with government and private sector partners – including owners and operators of critical infrastructure and public gathering places – to prepare for and respond to cyberattacks, as well as enhance security and mitigate risks posed by acts of terrorism and targeted violence by providing resources addressing Active Shooters, School Safety, Bombing Prevention, and Soft Targets-Crowded Places. 

• Since the beginning of 2023, CISA has conducted over 1,000 physical security assessments and 700 cyber assessments, leveraging our field staff, including our Election Security Advisors, to provide expert guidance and tailored assistance. Also since January 2023, CISA has conducted over 140 tabletop exercises, and more than 400 trainings reaching tens of thousands of participants.  

• CISA shares information via multiple lines of effort, from disseminating timely and actionable intelligence and information directly to stakeholders, to developing best practice security products describing risks and how to mitigate them. The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which is partially funded by CISA and membership that includes all 50 states and 3800 local jurisdictions, provides cybersecurity services to, and enables rapid real-time situational awareness and cybersecurity information sharing across, the election infrastructure community. 

• The Office of Intelligence and Analysis’s (I&A) National Threat Evaluation and Reporting Program continues to provide tools and resources for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners on preventing terrorism and targeted violence, including online suspicious activity reporting training. 

• DHS’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Intermodal Security Training and Exercise Program (I-STEP) and Exercise Information System (EXIS®) work with government and private sector partners – including owners and operators of critical transportation infrastructure – to enhance security and reduce risks posed by acts of terrorism. 

• DHS’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) educates and trains stakeholders on how to identify indicators of radicalization to violence, where to seek help, and the resources that are available to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. 

• The DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships engages a coalition of faith-based and community organizations, as well as members of the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council (FBSAC), which DHS reconstituted in July 2022, to help build the capacity of faith-based and community organizations seeking to protect their places of worship and community spaces. 

• DHS launched the Prevention Resource Finder (PRF) website in March 2023 in collaboration with more than a dozen federal partners. The PRF is a comprehensive web repository of federal resources available to help communities understand, mitigate, and protect themselves from targeted violence and terrorism. 

• SchoolSafety.gov consolidates school safety-related resources from across the government. Through this website, the K-12 academic community can also connect with school safety officials and develop school safety plans. 

• DHS provides funding for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, nonprofits, and institutions of higher education to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism through its Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program. On September 18, 2024, DHS awarded $18 million in funding to 35 organizations working to develop and strengthen their communities’ capabilities to combat targeted violence and terrorism. 

• This year DHS’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) awarded over $450 million in funding to support target hardening and other physical security enhancements to non-profit organizations at high risk of terrorist attack. 

• In 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 DHS designated domestic violent extremism as a “National Priority Area” within its Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), enabling our partners to access critical funds that help prevent, prepare for, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from related threats. 

The complete Homeland Threat Assessment can be found and shared HERE.