The name ICE, short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is synonymous with the #AbolishICE movement that even reached Congress, with members calling to dismantle the agency. The “Abolish ICE” movement has been out of the daily media news cycle since the November elections with the focus now being on the wall, or lack thereof. Is the time now right to rethink ICE as a whole?
ICE is broken into two distinct organizations in one; the Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, and the Enforcement and Removal Operations, ERO. When in ICE, I spent time with all sides of the enforcement spectrum, at the border and in the interior.
ICE, including its sub-branches of HSI and ERO, was created after the Department of Homeland Security came into existence in 2003. The creation of DHS took the U.S. Customs Service Investigations and merged it with the Detention and Removal Operations and the Immigrations and Naturalization Service Investigations. In my opinion, the attempt to marry three distinct agencies into one after working both sides of the gamut has never worked since its inception. Their missions are too distinct and separate.
Right now, when ERO needs funding, they sweep it away from HSI, which affects HSI programmatic investigations, including counter-terrorism. This, along with the optics that surround immigration enforcement, prompted 19 of HSI’s top law enforcement agents to call for a break between HSI and ICE.
The government could eliminate a needless layer of bureaucracy by moving ERO and HSI directly under the Department of Homeland Security. Streamlining and reducing the massive footprint gives back millions of dollars in salary and resources to taxpayers.
ERO’s mission is to “identify, arrest, and remove aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts.” The mission of interior immigration enforcement and HSI focuses on criminal organizations that are “ illegally exploiting America’s travel, trade, financial and immigration systems.” This is a a broad investigative mission, with a focus on crimes with an international nexus.
These two agencies, HSI and ERO, enforce critical laws. They should not be used as political footballs, as they have for the past year under the ICE umbrella. In the end, ICE by any other name is no different in that immigration laws will be enforced regardless. But with the right changes, it might be more effective and less hamstrung by politics and needless bureaucracy.
Dr. Jason Piccolo is a former Border Patrol agent, ICE special agent, and DHS supervisor. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and nationally recognized whistleblower for the 2015 release of unaccompanied alien children to criminal sponsors.
