United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is responsible for identifying and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation and infrastructure security. Employing approximately 15,000 people, ICE is charged with the enforcement of over 400 federal statutes within the United States and maintains attaches at major U.S. embassies oversees. As such, ICE Special Agents arguably possesses the broadest investigative authority within the United States Government. The mission of ICE is to protect America and uphold public safety by targeting the people, money and materials that support terrorist and criminal activities. ICE is led by an Assistant Secretary who is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The Assistant Secretary reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

History

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 following the tragic events of September 11, 2001. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security the functions, expertise, resources, and jurisdictions of several once-fragmented border and revenue enforcement agencies were combined and reconstituted into Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Consequently, ICE is the largest investigative arm of DHS, and the second largest contributor to the nation's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part, based upon their law enforcement functions, included the investigative and intelligence resources of the United States Customs Service, the law enforcement resources of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the United States Federal Protective Service. Consequently, ICE is also charged with the protection of federal buildings within the United States.

Organization

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for eliminating border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security vulnerabilities. As such, the ICE organization is composed of four law enforcement divisions and several support divisions. These divisions of ICE combine to form a new investigative approach with new resources to provide unparalleled investigation, interdiction, and security services to the public and other law enforcement partners in the federal and local sectors.

• Office of Investigations - OI uses its broad legal authorities to investigate issues such as immigration crime, human rights violations, human smuggling; narcotics, weapons and other types of smuggling (to include weapons of mass destruction), strategic crimes, financial crimes, cybercrimes and import/export enforcement issues. ICE Special Agents also conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation. Additionally, select ICE Special Agents are cross certified as Federal Air Marshals and/or Secret Service agents.

• Office of Intelligence - Intelligence Research Specialists are responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of strategic and tactical intelligence data for use by the operational elements of ICE and DHS.

• Office of Detention and Removal - DRO is responsible for public safety and national security by enforcing the nation's immigration laws and ensuring the departure from the United States of all removable aliens. DRO officers, known as Deportation Officers, do this by identifying, apprehending, and removing undocumented and/or illegal aliens from the United States. DRO is also responsible for the ICE Criminal Alien Program (CAP) by identifying and deporting criminal aliens from the nation's jails and prisons following their terms of imprisonment. As such, ICE is partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service in co-operating JPATS, the Justice Prisioner and Alien Transportation System otherwise known as Con-Air.

• Office of the Federal Protective Service - responsible for policing, securing and ensuring a safe environment in which federal agencies can conduct their business by reducing threats posed against the more than 8,800 federal government facilities nationwide. FPS employs over 2000 police officers and over 15000 contract security guards to perform their mission.

• Office of the Principal Legal Advisor - The Office of Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) provides legal advice, training and services to support the ICE mission and defends the interests of the United States in the administrative and federal courts.

• Office of Congressional Relations - The Office of Congressional Relations (OCR) represents ICE’s core values and Department of Homeland Security objectives through federal Congressional liaison activities.

• Office of Professional Responsibility - The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving employees of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). OPR preserves the organizational integrity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by impartially, independently and thoroughly investigating allegations of criminal or serious administrative misconduct by ICE and CBP employees worldwide. Additionally, OPR inspects and reviews ICE offices, operations and processes so as to provide executive management with independent reviews of the agency's organizational health. In this role, OPR assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of ICE in carrying out its mission.

ICE and Immigration Law

"The days of ignoring immigration law are over," Marc Raimondi, A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said. "A failure to comply is not an option. The person ordered to be removed needs to comply with that order or we'll assist them with compliance. To think of people illegally in the country who have been convicted of crimes are walking around is outrageous." ^*

Julie Myers, the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security told a press conference. "America's welcome does not extend to immigrants who come here to commit crimes." ^*

Controversy

ICE, along with its sister agency Customs and Border Protection (CBP), performs similar functions regarding the enforcement of federal law relating to a border nexus. Some in Congress, to include members of the public, feel ICE would be most efficient if merged with CBP. Most of the cases ICE investigates originate with a referral from CBP. These cases include the smuggling of narcotics, goods, weapons, and humans into the United States. Additionally, CBP maintains U.S. ports of entry which are targets for smugglers to illegally pass their illicit goods into the United States. There are those who feel the combined infrastructures of ICE and CBP should be merged into one agency with the border inspectors, deportation officers, and Special Agents working hand in hand to combat crime. Another controversy is the separation of the U.S. Border Patrol from CBP if the ICE/CBP merger takes place. Some feel the U.S. Border Patrol should be separated from under the aegis of CBP and elevated into its own agency reporting directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security (as ICE and CBP already do).

Additionally, ICE operates detention centers throughout the United States that detain illegal immigrants who are apprehended and placed into removal proceedings. Kellog, Brown and Root (KBR), the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Corporation, released a press statement on January 24 2006 that the company had been awarded a no-bid contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to support its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.

External links

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• U.S. Marshals Service - JPATS Website

United States federal law enforcement agencies | History of immigration to the United States | United States Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | Иммиграционная и Таможенная Полиция США