Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It’s responsible for enforcing federal immigration and customs laws, in an effort to protect national security and public safety.
ICE History and Statistics
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed in 2003 as part of the federal government's response to the 9/11 attacks. It is the combination of several border and revenue enforcement agencies that existed before 9/11, including the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the United States Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ICE currently employs more than 20,000 people in the United States and worldwide and has an annual budget of close to $6 billion. After the FBI, it is the largest investigative agency in the federal government. The director of ICE is appointed by the President of the United States and reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. ICE is responsible for enforcing more than 400 U.S. statutes aimed at keeping the United States safe and secure.
ICE Responsibilities
ICE is responsible for enforcing federal laws, both criminal and civil, that encompass border control, customs, trade, and immigration. Its job is to protect the integrity of the U.S. borders, and ICE special agents have been given the broadest investigative authority available from the United States government.
ICE's particular duties include identifying and investigating vulnerabilities in the nation's border, economic, infrastructure, and transportation security. In its investigations, ICE uses undercover agents, surveillance, confidential informants, and cooperating defendants.
Organization
ICE has two principal operating components:
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
This office is devoted to criminal investigations of the illegal movement of people or goods into, out of, or within the United States. HSI agents investigate a broad spectrum of crimes that have to do with trade, travel, immigration, and finance, including human trafficking, drug and arms smuggling, money laundering, cultural property crimes (art and antiquities theft and smuggling), cybercrime, and terrorism.
ICE special agents conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage or attack. HSI also oversees the agency’s international affairs operations and intelligence-gathering, operating in more than 40 countries around the world.
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
This part of ICE is devoted to the enforcement of U.S. civil immigration laws. It is responsible for identifying “removable aliens”—that is, aliens who are subject to deportation—detaining them, and making sure they leave the United States. (An alien is a foreign-born person who has not become a U.S. citizen.) Its first priority is to arrest and deport convicted criminals, people who pose a threat to national security, fugitives, and people who have recently entered the country illegally. ERO has “fugitive operations teams,” which find, apprehend, and remove aliens who fled immigration proceedings and are in the United States but subject to an outstanding warrant of deportation.
ERO also works with people who fear persecution in their home countries and are seeking political asylum in the United States.
ERO’s immigration enforcement officers and agents operate a detention system and oversee transportation and deportation of undocumented or criminal aliens. ERO is also responsible for a program that identifies removable aliens in jails and prisons within the United States.
