No. 22: Miami

Think Miami, and beaches, palm trees and sun come to mind. But the city ?including surrounding Miami-Dade County ? has the third-largest number ofHomeland Security Department employees in the nation, after Washington andLos Angeles.Miami has a large Transportation Security Administration presence because ofMiami International Airport, said Diana Gonzalez, coordinator of the Miami-DadeDefense Alliance. "We have a sizable [Federal Aviation Administration] presence,too, because of Miami and the other airports. At Homestead Air Reserve Base,for example, the control tower people are [also] FAA employees."Ranked at No. 22, Miami had 27,565 military and civilian jobs in 2005.The Coast Guard, another DHS agency, is well-represented in Miami, too."Then, of course, you have Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, as well,"Gonzalez added.The area also has a large military presence, which grew during the gradualhandover to Panama of the canal and its installations in the late 1980s and1990s. In September 1997, the Southern Command, whose responsibilitiesincluded Latin America and the Caribbean, moved from Ancon Hill, near PanamaCity, to Miami.The Miami-based command comprises more than 1,200 military and civilianpersonnel from all service branches and several federal agencies. It is responsiblefor defending the Panama Canal and surrounding areas and is also chargedwith contingency planning, operations and security cooperation for Central andSouth America, the Caribbean, Cuba, and the Bahamas.In all, the local military presence is a $1 billion industry for Miami-DadeCounty and accounts for more than 24,000 jobs, according to the Association ofDefense Communities.Gonzalez said contractors should know that the military is only one facet ofMiami-Dade's diversified economy. "International trade is another big component,"she said. "The things they would need to know are the major industriesthat are there already, and how?they interconnect with the federal government."