You are here: Fairness.com > Resources > Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)


Self Description

October 2006: "Created in March 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agency was created after 9/11, by combining the law enforcement arms of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the former U.S. Customs Service, to more effectively enforce our immigration and customs laws and to protect the United States against terrorist attacks. ICE does this by targeting illegal immigrants: the people, money and materials that support terrorism and other criminal activities. ICE is a key component of the DHS “layered defense” approach to protecting the nation....

Our mission is to protect America and uphold public safety. We fulfill this mission by identifying criminal activities and eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation’s borders, as well as enforcing economic, transportation and infrastructure security. By protecting our national and border security, ICE seeks to eliminate the potential threat of terrorist acts against the United States. "

http://www.ice.gov/about/index.htm

February 2004: "As the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brings a unified and coordinated focus to the enforcement of federal immigration laws, customs laws, and, as of November 2003, air security laws. ICE brings to bear all of the considerable resources and authorities invested in it to fulfill its primary mission: to detect vulnerabilities and prevent violations that threaten national security. ICE works to protect the United States and its people by deterring, interdicting, and investigating threats arising from the movement of people and goods into and out of the United States; and by policing and securing federal government facilities across the nation."

http://www.ice.gov/graphics/about/index.htm

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2011: "There are so many things about this story that are crazy, it's difficult to know where to start, so let's give the most important point first: The US government has effectively admitted that it totally screwed up and falsely seized & censored a non-infringing domain of a popular blog, having falsely claimed that it was taking part in criminal copyright infringement. Then, after trying to hide behind a totally secretive court process with absolutely no due process whatsoever (in fact, not even serving papers on the lawyer for the site or providing timely notifications -- or providing any documents at all), for over a year, the government has finally realized it couldn't hide any more and has given up, and returned the domain name to its original owner. If you ever wanted to understand why ICE's domain seizures violate the law -- and why SOPA and PROTECT IP are almost certainly unconstitutional -- look no further than what happened in this case."

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/08225217010/breaking-news-feds-falsely-censor-popular-blog-over-year-deny-all-due-process-hide-all-details.shtml

November 2011: 'In a June 17 memorandum, John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, laid out more than two dozen factors that its agents and lawyers should weigh when deciding whether to exercise prosecutorial discretion to dismiss a deportation. The memo called for “particular care and consideration” for veterans and active-duty troops, elderly immigrants and minors, and those brought here illegally as children.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/us/politics/president-obamas-policy-on-deportation-is-unevenly-applied.html

August 2011: "A 21-member Secure Communities task force was established in June by John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency running the program, in response to resistance from states and cities. Mr. Morton assigned the group to examine narrow issues concerning the program’s impact that had drawn complaints from immigrant leaders."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/politics/26immig.html

July 2011: "While the administration of George W. Bush focused on headline-making raids that resulted in arrests of immigrant workers, the Obama administration has gone after employers with ICE’s I-9 audits on the theory that employers who hire unauthorized workers create the demand that drives most illegal immigration."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/business/smallbusiness/how-a-small-business-can-survive-an-immigration-audit.html

December 2010: 'In a 69-page affidavit seeking the warrant, an agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the unit of the Department of Homeland Security that did the investigation, said the five sites — rapgodfathers.com, torrent-finder.com, rmx4u.com, dajaz1.com and onsmash.com — were used “to commit or facilitate criminal copyright infringement.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20music.html

May 2010: 'But after protests by Latino groups, demonstrations at the Georgia Capitol by her sorority sisters and a letter of support from the university’s president, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency granted a one-year deferral on her deportation so she could finish college. The “deferred action” means she could still be deported, but will be allowed to apply for an extension next year.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/us/15student.html

March 2010: 'In what may be the largest H-1B fraud case ever brought forward, the government has run into trouble with a judge having dismissed a number of counts and suppressed some of the evidence taken from an IT services firm's computers.'

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/judges-ruling-deals-us-major-setback-in-h-1b-fraud-case-517

July 2009: "Veloz is one of hundreds of U.S. citizens who have landed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and struggled to prove they don't belong there, according to advocacy groups and legal scholars, who have tracked such cases around the country. Some citizens have been deported."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/27/MNGQ17C8GC.DTL

July 2009: "The study by the school’s Immigration Justice Law Clinic, backed by several law enforcement experts including Nassau County’s police commissioner, found a widespread pattern of misconduct by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement after analyzing 700 arrest reports obtained from the agency through Freedom of Information lawsuits."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/nyregion/22raids.html

May 2009: "The program began as a pilot effort in October and operates in 48 counties across the country, including Fairfax County. This year, fingerprints from 1 million local jail bookings will be screened under the program. It also operates Dallas, Houston, Miami, Boston and Phoenix, according to ICE, and will expand to Los Angeles this year and nearly all local jails by the end of 2012."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR2009051803172.html

November 2008: "Hospitals say the federal government ignores the burden posed by these patients. In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not assume any responsibility for the health care of illegal immigrants unless they are in federal immigration detention, said a spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel, and it does not get involved in repatriations undertaken by hospitals."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/us/09deport.html

July 2008: "In the first nine months of this fiscal year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made 937 criminal arrests at U.S. workplaces, more than 10 times as many as the 72 it arrested five years ago. Of those arrested this year, 99 were company supervisors, compared with 93 in 2007."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072002293.html

June 2008: "In some cases, the police received training and a measure of jurisdiction from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under a program that lets officers investigate and detain people they suspect to be illegal immigrants."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/us/09panhandle.html

May 2008: "Such episodes are among more than 250 cases The Washington Post has identified in which the government has, without medical reason, given drugs meant to treat serious psychiatric disorders to people it has shipped out of the United States since 2003 -- the year the Bush administration handed the job of deportation to the Department of Homeland Security's new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051303243.html

May 2008: "Federal officials say deaths are reviewed internally by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reports them to its inspector general and decides which ones warrant investigation. Officials say they notify the detainee’s next of kin or consulate, and report the deaths to local medical authorities, who may conduct autopsies. In Mr. Bah’s case, a review before his death found no evidence of foul play, an immigration spokesman said, though after later inquiries from The Times, he said a full review of the death was under way."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/nyregion/05detain.html

May 2008: "After Sept. 11, the Bush administration transferred responsibility for border security and deportation to the new Department of Homeland Security, which gave it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- a reconfiguration of the decades-old Immigration and Naturalization Service -- in 2003, the year the Post used as the starting point for counting detainee deaths. Each year since, the number of detainees picked up for deportation or waiting behind bars for political asylum has skyrocketed, increasing by 65 percent since July 2005."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/immigration/cwc_d1p1.html

August 2007: "The deal averted a trial set to open in U.S. District Court in Austin, and it was made after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began improving education, recreation, medical care and privacy standards at its first large holding facility for illegal immigrant families, the 512-bed T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, which opened in May 2006."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701315.html

September 2007: "As the United States has stepped up enforcement efforts over the last two years, it has sent more and more Mexican immigrants home, where they have little or no work. Last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported 183,431 people after raids nationwide."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/world/americas/03mexico.html

April 2008: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has 16,000 employees, enforces immigrations laws and operates detention centers holding about 30,000 people awaiting trial or deportation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/washington/09homeland.html

April 2008: 'The suit, against officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on behalf of 10 plaintiffs, including two United States citizens, contends that teams of ICE agents used “deceit or, in some cases, raw force” to gain “unlawful entry.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04immig.html

October 2007: "Gang member arrests have increased 73% over 2006, from 2,294 people to 3,974, ICE statistics show. ICE has arrested 7,655 people from more than 700 gangs on immigration and criminal violations since the program began in 2005, ICE spokesman Michael Keegan said."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-08-gangs_N.htm

November 2007: "Yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released new written guidelines for agents, establishing how they should treat single parents, pregnant women, nursing mothers and other immigrants with special child or family care responsibilities who are arrested in raids."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17citizen.html

November 2007: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Pat Reilly did not dispute the report's numbers but challenged the criticism. The agency's procedures protect children from abandonment, she says. 'We grant humanitarian relief in the case that someone is a single parent or sole caregiver of a child,' she says. 'We go to extraordinary means to find out.'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-31-immigration-kids_N.htm

October 2007: A statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, “The family had full due process of law and exhausted all legal avenues of relief.” Family members “self-deported” after officials allowed them time to put their affairs in order, the statement said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/us/31immig.html

October 2007: Finding uncertified companies feeding the market is not difficult. Orient Pacific International, the Milan registrant whose owner did not show up, advertised that it makes and exports pharmaceutical ingredients to “worldwide famous medical companies.” The owner, Mr. Xu, is accused of selling counterfeit medicine to treat ailments like cancer, mental illness and heart disease, according to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/world/asia/31chemical.html

October 2007: 'We believe, based on [alleged Kurdistan Workers' Party member Ibrahim Parlak's--Ed.] conviction in Turkey for participating in terrorist actions against the Republic of Turkey, that he has no legal right to remain in the U.S.,' said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302082.html

October 2007: 'Department of Homeland Security law enforcement personnel may not and do not prescribe or administer medication to detainees,' the ICE statement said. 'Only trained and qualified medical professionals, including officers of the U.S. Public Health Service, may prescribe or administer medication.'

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/12/doping.immigrants/index.html

October 2007: Only after the agents had herded her other children into the living room, frightened her aunt and uncle, and drawn a gun on a family friend staying in the basement, Ms. Delarosa-Delgado said, did she awake to discover that her house in Huntington Station had been the mistaken target of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/nyregion/04raid.html

October 2007: Until yesterday, officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement who conducted the operation would not answer questions about the raids, which began last Monday and ended Sunday night, and have drawn protests from immigrant families and their advocates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/nyregion/02raid.html

September 2007: The administration has identified 1,362 victims of human trafficking brought into the United States since 2000, nowhere near the 50,000 a year the government had estimated. In addition, 148 federal cases have been brought nationwide, some by the Justice task forces, which are composed of prosecutors, agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and local law enforcement officials in areas thought to be hubs of trafficking.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401.html

June 2007: Castaneda's case is one of several that lawyers are investigating on behalf of illegal immigrants who they say were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with manageable illnesses and released with infections that threatened life and limb.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061201890.html

January 2007: Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have asked companies to join the ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers program, known as IMAGE, operated by the department's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division. It calls on businesses to submit all I-9 employee eligibility verification forms to ICE for an audit and to 'ensure the accuracy of their wage reporting' by verifying workers' Social Security numbers, according to a description of the program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/28/AR2007012801172.html

December 2006: The investigation is continuing, say officials with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the hope that some of the newly arrested workers will lead law officers to 'document rings' that provided the stolen identities. The 10-month operation began in February, when ICE learned that 'large numbers' of undocumented immigrants might be using Social Security numbers assigned to US citizens.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1214/p01s01-ussc.html

October 2006: As federal, state, and local officials crack down on illegal immigrants across the country, attitudes continue to harden among those who want them to stay and those who want them to go. In places like Stillmore, Ga., Arkadelphia, Ark., and Charlotte, N.C., raids and crackdowns have uncorked a phenomenon for those left behind: a sense of moral confusion about mass roundups and midnight raids.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1003/p01s01-ussc.html

May 2006: Legislatures in Ohio, South Dakota and Arizona have passed bills this year requiring that state or local police check the immigration status of everybody they encounter, and report suspected illegal immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Several other states have similar bills pending.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/02/AR2006050201728.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Organization Aug 9, 2004
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Federal Protective Service (FPS) Organization Jun 25, 2007
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR) Organization Nov 21, 2009
Opponent (past or present) Vision Systems Group Organization Apr 1, 2010
Organization Executive (past or present) Michael J. Garcia Esq., M.A. Person Jul 2, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) John Morton Esq. Person Feb 22, 2011
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Julie L. Myers Esq. Person Jan 5, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) David J. Venturella Person May 24, 2009
Organization Executive (past or present) Julie Myers Wood Person May 24, 2009

Articles and Resources

103 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 08, 2011 Breaking News: Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details...

QUOTE: The US government has effectively admitted that it totally screwed up and falsely seized & censored a non-infringing domain of a popular blog, having falsely claimed that it was taking part in criminal copyright infringement. Then, after trying to hide behind a totally secretive court process with absolutely no due process whatsoever...

 Techdirt
Nov 12, 2011 Deportations Under New U.S. Policy Are Inconsistent

QUOTE: A new Obama administration policy to avoid deportations of illegal immigrants who are not criminals has been applied very unevenly across the country and has led to vast confusion both in immigrant communities and among agents charged with carrying it out.

 New York Times
Aug 25, 2011 Meant to Ease Fears of Deportation Program, Federal Hearings Draw Anger

QUOTE: A task force set up by the Obama administration to ease political tensions over a deportation program has held the last of four public hearings, which instead served largely to galvanize vocal protests against the policy....

 New York Times
Aug 25, 2011 In Echo of Pancho Villa, Modern Raid Shakes a Town on the Edge of Extinction

QUOTE: Ninety-five years and a day after the infamous Villa raid, another group of armed men crept into Columbus [New Mexico]....They led away in handcuffs Columbus’s mayor, police chief, village trustee and numerous others accused of smuggling guns, ammunition and body armor across the border to Mexican outlaws.

 New York Times
Jul 13, 2011 As Immigration Audits Increase, Some Employers Pay a High Price

QUOTE: While the administration of George W. Bush focused on headline-making raids that resulted in arrests of immigrant workers, the Obama administration has gone after employers with ICE’s I-9 audits on the theory that employers who hire unauthorized workers create the demand that drives most illegal immigration....The upshot of the more aggressive enforcement is that even employers who have followed the rules can be devastated by an audit that compels them to fire valuable, long-time employees.

 New York Times
Apr 26, 2011 Deportation Halted for Some Students as Lawmakers Seek New Policy

QUOTE: ICE officials in central Florida recently invited immigration lawyers to bring forward illegal immigrants facing deportation who did not have criminal records, offering provisional authorization for them to remain here and work legally.

 New York Times
Apr 04, 2011 Unfair to Immigrants, Costly for Taxpayers

QUOTE: Only about half of (the deported immigrants) have a criminal record, many of them are here legally, most of them have their due process rights violated and all of them are subjected to substandard conditions before being returned to their countries of origin... Not only is the program an injustice... it has cost the city tens of millions of dollars.

 New York Times
Mar 28, 2011 Arriving as Pregnant Tourists, Leaving With American Babies

QUOTE: For months, officials say, the house was home to “maternity tourists,” in this case, women from China who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to deliver their babies in the United States, making the infants automatic American citizens. Officials shut down the home, sending the 10 mothers who had been living there with their babies to nearby motels.

 New York Times
Feb 08, 2011 Students in Legal Limbo After Immigration Fight

QUOTE: ...thousands of immigrant students who declared their illegal status during a nationwide campaign for a bill in Congress that would have put them on a path to legal residence.... leaves students like her who might have benefited from the bill — an estimated 1.2 million nationwide — in a legal twilight.

 New York Times
Dec 19, 2010 Music Web Sites Dispute Legality of Their Closing

QUOTE: federal authorities shut down five Web sites last month on suspicion of copyright infringement, they gave no warning and offered no details of their investigation... the operators of several of the sites said in interviews that they were innocent of infringement, and criticized the investigation for misrepresenting how their sites worked.

 New York Times
May 14, 2010 Student’s Arrest Tests Immigration Policy

QUOTE: after protests by Latino groups, demonstrations at the Georgia Capitol by her sorority sisters and a letter of support from the university’s president, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency granted a one-year deferral on her deportation so she could finish college. The “deferred action” means she could still be deported, but will be allowed to apply for an extension next year.

 New York Times
Mar 30, 2010 Judge's ruling deals U.S. major setback in H-1B fraud case: Parts of government's case against IT services firm dismissed and electronic evidence suppressed

QUOTE: In what may be the largest H-1B fraud case ever brought forward, the government has run into trouble with a judge having dismissed a number of counts and suppressed some of the evidence taken from an IT services firm's computers.

 InfoWorld
Jan 09, 2010 Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail

QUOTE: thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry....107 deaths in detention counted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October 2003...

 New York Times
Nov 21, 2009 Growth of counterfeit drugs sparks international response: Authorities in the U.S. and across the globe conduct raids this week to intercept fake medications.

QUOTE: Counterfeit drugs are the latest -- and potentially most dangerous -- front in the long-running battle against intellectual-property crimes

 Los Angeles Times
Nov 16, 2009 Taint of Corruption Is No Barrier to U.S. Visa

QUOTE: former and current State Department officials said Equatorial Guinea’s close ties to the American oil industry were the reason for the lax enforcement of the law [baring official Teodoro Nguema Obiang from entering the U.S,. to his mansion].

 New York Times
Sep 07, 2009 U.S. expands H-1B fraud case against IT services firm

QUOTE: The U.S. government late last month filed a new, expanded 18-count indictment that now seeks $4.9 million from a New Jersey IT services firm it has accused of fraudulently using H-1B visas.

 Computerworld
Aug 28, 2009 New DHS laptop search policy: crap sandwich, fancier bread

QUOTE: So, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] gets it: our laptops allow us to carry our lives around with us, and losing them... raises legitimate fears of exposing irrelevant personal information. Just because they get it, however, doesn't mean that they're going to act upon that knowledge in any significant manner.

 Ars Technica
Aug 27, 2009 Mayhem Crosses the Border With Informers: U.S. Agents Recruiting Mexican Drug Figures

QUOTE: in order to fight the drug traffickers, federal anti-narcotics agents have brought Mexican cartel members north of the border, to use them to gather intelligence and build cases. That has also led to friction between U.S. law enforcement agencies.

 Washington Post
Aug 17, 2009 Officials Say Detainee Fatalities Were Missed

QUOTE: More than one in 10 deaths in immigration detention in the last six years have been overlooked and were omitted from an official list of detainee fatalities issued to Congress in March, the Obama administration said Monday.

 New York Times
Aug 05, 2009 Modder arrest a reminder that most console hacks are illegal

QUOTE: The question some gamers are now asking themselves: am I breaking the law [for modifying gaming systems]? The answer is not comforting.

 Ars Technica

103 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]