This thesis explains how the merger of American internal-external security policy following the terrorist attacks of September 11th transformed concepts of nationality and national belonging within the United States of America. Through Critical Discourse Analysis of the Executive National Strategies between 2001-2005 alongside the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System briefings, this thesis traces the formation of three interconnected shifts in American policy. It begins through discussing the post-9/11 American “path of action,” targeting enemy nations and the merger of the realms of internal and external security, moves into the reframing of migration as a domestic threat under NSEERS, and concludes through tracing these developments to the formation of the “Homeland Security state,” codifying the changes seen both during and after the War on Terror which persist in the nation-state today.