Earlier: ICE SVU Annual Report Out, No Immigration Enforcement Inside The United States

Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002, one of the enforcement components was none too happy to be part of an agency that had an immigration law responsibility. This component was first called the Bureau of Investigations and Criminal Enforcement, then the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), later renamed to U.S. ICE, now just ICE. ICE was subdivided into two enforcement sub-components originally called the Office of Investigations (OI), the investigative arm of ICE, and the Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO), the detention and deportation arm of ICE. Some years later, OI became Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and DRO became Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

OI/HSI was the combined and rebranded legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) OI and U.S. Customs Service (USCS) OI, essentially the offices of the INS and USCS that conducted criminal investigations of violations of federal statutes dealing with immigration law and customs law respectively, staffed by Special Agents, the title of most Federal employees in the Criminal Investigator 1811 Series of employment classification.

There was a great rivalry between the two, with the legacy USCS having a slight edge in prestige, as their journeyman pay grade was GS-13, while the legacy INS journeyman pay grade was GS-12. Eventually after the creation of OI/HSI, those legacy INS Special Agents were promoted to GS-13 at the journeyman level, but also lost their representation by a union.

The DRO/ERO was the former legacy INS Office of Detention and Deportation (DDP), which actually physically removed aliens from the United States.

HSI was immediately dominated by legacy USCS Special Agents and managers, Customs pukes as they were known colloquially for both their arrogance—they thought they were the best investigators ever—and their ignorance of immigration law, policy, and procedure. The result was that HSI wanted to get out of immigration enforcement, which led them into enforcement of laws unrelated to immigration, from corralling street-walkers and strippers to enforcing copyright infringement for the National Football League (NFL) on Super Bowl Sundays and for Hollywood, or raiding antique car collectors, anything but investigating violations of Federal immigration law, such as benefit fraud, visa fraud, or illegal employment, which is part of HSI’s statutory responsibility. In fact, HSI has all but ended the enforcement of Federal immigration statutes in the United States. Instead, HSI decided to become the Sex Police for the United States, which is why I refer to HSI pejoratively as ICE Special Victims Unit (ICE SVU).

Because ICE SVU is so opposed to immigration enforcement, it sought to separate itself from the rest of ICE. It was so busy with “real” investigations that it was hampered by being part of ICE and sought to be a little Secret Service, a little Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), or little Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), enforcing all Federal laws but immigration law. The problem there being that the United States already had an FBI and did not need another. The United States needs an immigration enforcement agency tracking down and arresting illegal aliens, arresting visa fraudsters, and those working illegally, but that is not what ICE SVU wanted to do.

In the ICE SVU flight from immigration enforcement, it has taken another step, it no longer wants to be part of ICE, but since it cannot leave ICE technically and legally, it will leave ICE in its own mind. (h/t reader W.R. Flynn)

“This is a big step forward,” the acting director said …

But HSI has long been familiar to those who track immigration-related law enforcement for its ties to its parent agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is something that HSI is now trying to change.

The agency on Tuesday is going through a rebrand, changing their website from being associated with ICE to just HSI.gov.

That reflects an intentional push to distance HSI’s work from immigration policy, which has increasingly fueled Democratic attacks on ICE and led some cities, counties and states to enact so-called “sanctuary” policies to prevent cooperation with ICE officials related to a suspect’s immigration status.

Homeland Security Agency Under ICE Rebrands To Aid Its Investigations, by Luke Barr, ABC News, April 23, 2024

So, instead of fulfilling their statutory authority to enforce immigration laws, ICE SVU complains that their ability to perform their duties was impacted by their name.

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The reality was that they did not want to perform their statutory duties, enforcing Title 8 of the United States Code, the criminal and administrative provisions of immigration law, such as alien smuggling.

“So many of our stakeholders are our law enforcement partners, the American public, private sector partners, NGOs—[they] are often confused about what we do, and the civil immigration enforcement side of the ICE mission is not what HSI does,” HSI Executive Associate Director Katrina Berger told ABC News in an interview.

That is a flagrant lie by Berger. One of the primary responsibilities of ICE SVU is the criminal and administrative law violations by illegal aliens in the United States. Firstly being their mere presence, which ICE SVU is charged with identifying and arresting any illegal alien in the United States. Two other important provisions of criminal and administrative immigration law enforcement assigned to ICE SVU is work-site enforcement and investigation of criminal fraud in immigration benefits. Those two aspects of immigration law enforcement have both criminal and administrative functions, prosecuting illegal aliens for illegal employment and using fraudulent documents in employment and criminal fraud in obtaining immigration benefits.

So, to appease illegal sanctuary jurisdictions, ICE SVU will now only be SVU.

“Having a being branded as ICE, having an ICE email address, we’re oftentimes not able to partner with law enforcement in certain jurisdictions that aren’t working with ICE, oftentimes college campuses, schools,” Berger said.

Instead of charging ahead and executing their duties, ICE SVU was cowering in the corner because some other random agency would not work with it. Did ICE SVU need permission from local police departments or cities that were sanctuaries or was it a Federal agency that could go where it wanted and do what it wanted? The legacy INS did, the FBI does. Why is Berger so concerned about being popular with the cool kids? Partly because she’s a woman and women need social approval for what they do. But mostly because this is just part of another Biden Regime Administrative Amnesty, the we won’t enforce the immigration laws of the United States inside the United States amnesty.

The rebrand is a better opportunity for HSI to inform the public about what they do—and keep criminals off the streets, Berger said.

HSI’s mission is broad, officials note, from preventing terrorists from entering the country to identifying and supporting victims that are rescued from child exploitation situations to stopping financial fraud and the flow of counterfeit goods.

“We focus on our mission which is the global investigation of transnational crime impacting on our communities, and that really gets lost out there,” Berger said. “We are a criminal law enforcement agency.”

“… keep criminals off the streets …” That is not in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (HSA). What ICE SVU should be doing is keeping illegal aliens off the streets, but Berger apparently supports illegal immigration. But what is in the HSA is that immigration law should be enforced in the interior of the United States, and crimes like terrorism are the responsibility of the FBI [RINOs Rush To Legitimize The Obama Regime Administrative Amnesty, by Federale, Federale Blog, August 7, 2014]. In fact, ICE SVU‘s mission is narrow: customs and immigration law enforcement, which generally means drugs and illegal aliens, neither of which ICE SVU wants to do as they might muss up their hair.