U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety.
The ICE mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 500 federal statutes and focuses on customs violations, immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism and combating the illegal movement of people and goods. ICE has two primary and distinct law enforcement components, namely, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO); in addition to three supporting divisions: Management & Program Administration, Office of Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which primarily deals with the deportation and removal of undocumented non-citizens, is among the most public and contentious function of ICE. ERO maintains the custodial facilities used to detain people that are illegally present in the United States. In interior offices, ERO officers primarily conduct targeted enforcement operations to apprehend aliens engaged in serious criminal activity. For example, in fiscal year 2020, 90% of those aliens apprehended by ERO had criminal convictions or pending charges at the time of their administrative arrest. This FY 2020 arrest statistic includes 1,800 homicide related offenses, 1,600 kidnappings, 3,800 robberies, 37,000 assaults, and 10,000 sex crimes. At border offices, ERO officers receive and detain illegal immigrants apprehended by Border Patrol. Illegal immigrants apprehended at the border have significantly lower levels of criminal history than those arrested by ERO in the interior of the United States.
ICE maintains domestic offices throughout the United States and attachés at major U.S. diplomatic missions overseas. ICE personnel (special agents and officers) do not patrol American borders; rather, that role is performed by the United States Border Patrol. ERO and HSI operate as two independent law enforcement agencies and have completely separate mission statements. HSI is focused on the disruption of transnational crime, where as ERO is responsible for the apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants.
The Acting Director is Patrick Lechleitner. The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since Sarah Saldaña stepped down on January 20, 2017.
History
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, following the events of September 11, 2001. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, the functions and jurisdictions of several border and revenue enforcement agencies were combined and consolidated into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Consequently, ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and the second largest contributor to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part into ICE included the criminal investigative and intelligence resources of the United States Customs Service, the criminal investigative, detention and deportation resources of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Federal Protective Service. The Federal Protective Service was later transferred from ICE to the National Protection and Programs Directorate effective October 28, 2009. In 2003, Asa Hutchinson moved the Federal Air Marshals Service from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to ICE, but Michael Chertoff moved them back to the TSA in 2005.
The origins of HSI Special Agents date back to the formations of the United States Customs Service in 1789. The taxing of imports led to the creation of the Treasury Department and its sub-components (i.e. Division of Customs Chief). Later, the Industrial Revolution led to some of the first immigration related laws targeting forced labor, human trafficking and child exploitation.
Organization
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for identifying and eliminating border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security vulnerabilities. There is an estimate of about 20,000 ICE employees in approximately 400 offices within the United States and 53 countries.