A tragic shooting between two federal agents assigned to ICE was yet another signal of a broken system. An ICE Supervisory Special Agent with an Immigration background shot a higher ranking supervisor more prone to the Customs background six times before being killed by a third Special Agent.  

With the formation of the Department of Homeland Security two investigative agencies with very different enforcement missions were combined to form Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration Special Agents worked cases involving illegal immigrants, document fraud, employer sanctions and so forth while Customs Special Agents worked cases involving goods, patents, and an array of other investigations that had nothing to do with Immigration.  

ICE is an enforcement arm of DHS which is plagued with turmoil with little cohesion existing between the two once separate and vastly different agencies which were combined to form it. Priority is wrestled between the two factions with management from Customs wanting to concentrate on Customs-related investigations while those from Immigration believe those cases merit the equal resources from the agency.

President Obama believed that the enforcement of many Immigration related crimes is no longer a priority and the Customs side of ICE prevailed through his tenure with Immigration investigations getting a much smaller percentage of the resources and budget.  

Yet the American Public demands more emphasis on Immigration related crimes and under President Trump that pendulum is swinging back towards Immigration related enforcement.

ICE Special Agents who began their careers in the Immigration world were exasperated as most of the resources of this agency were dedicated to Customs related offences.  Now that's finally changing


Border Patrol and ICE: Even more fractured!

Generally investigative divisions of major law enforcement agencies are made up of street officers who have promoted up into the position of investigator allowing for a common history between the investigators and the street officers.

ICE is the investigative arm for Immigration Violations that get past the U.S. Border Patrol yet there is ever-increasing tension between these two agencies. Border Patrol Agents are the uniformed agents enforcing the Immigration Laws of the United States yet few ICE Special Agents are hired from the Border Patrol ranks-instead recruited off of the street with no previous Immigration experience. This causes jealousy and further widens the chasms between these two agencies as their rank and file members have no common history.

The less than efficient operations of ICE affect the general populace of the United States, whether you live in Spokane, Washington or Tampa, Florida , as the investigation of criminal aliens and illegal immigration is a public safety issue.

Pick up the pieces and start all over

Immigration and Customs Enforcement needs to be disassembled with agents specializing in Immigration assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol and those specializing in Customs assigned back to their traditional duties.  ICE should be dismantled and a new organization mirroring normal law enforcement agencies created.  

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ADVANTAGE TO HIRING INVESTIGATORS OFF THE STREET RATHER THAN PROMOTING BORDER PATROL AGENTS INTO THOSE POSITIONS!  IMAGINE ANY LARGE POLICE DEPARTMENT HIRING THEIR DETECTIVES FROM COLLEGES WHILE MAINLY IGNORING THE COPS ON THE BEAT!  MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL!!!!

​Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):  A BROKEN AGENCY

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