The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released the 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA), which expects the threat of foreign and domestic terrorism in the United States to “remain high” over the coming year. DHS also highlighted resources available to help combat potential threats.
The annual HTA provides the public and officials with a detailed report on the most pressing threats to the United States in order to assist federal, state, and local partners in preparing, preventing, and responding to them. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said the HTA illustrates “just how varied and challenging the threats we confront are.”
2025 Threat Assessments
Public Safety and Security: The terrorism threat environment in the United States 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 United States.
Influence Operations and Transnational Repression: DHS expects the country 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.
Critical Infrastructure Security: Domestic and foreign adversaries are expected to continue to target the country’s 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 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. DHS said 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.
Border and Immigration Security: According to DHS, migrant encounters at the U.S. border have steadily declined since the beginning of 2024 and have declined even further since the issuance of a Presidential Proclamation and complementary Interim Final Rule (IFR) were announced on June 4—decreasing more than 55% in the past four months. The department, nonetheless, said it expects 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.
Other threats identified in the 2025 HTA include economic attacks and espionage from U.S. adversaries and the trafficking and sale of illegal drugs, especially fentanyl and other opioids.
DHS Efforts
The department also provided examples of its efforts and resources to combat threats identified in the 2025 HTA. Some highlights beyond the drug, economic, and border issues include the following:
- 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 Sept. 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.
- 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 field staff, including 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.
- 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.
The complete 2025 HTA can be found here.