U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) | |
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Annual budget: | $8.4 billion (FY2023) |
Total employed: | 22,358 |
Year created: | 2003 |
Official website: | https://www.ice.gov |
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the agency in the executive branch of the federal government that enforces immigration and customs laws. ICE is a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a United States executive department formed in 2002 to "ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards," according to its official website.[1] ICE helps DHS pursue that mission by arresting violent criminals residing in the country illegally (sometimes referred to as "criminal aliens") and investigating crimes like human trafficking along the southern border of the United States.
History
When the Homeland Security Act of 2002 created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, it created the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—now known as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—within the DHS. ICE formed when the former U.S. Customs Service and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service merged during the shaping of the DHS. While ICE focuses on the enforcement side of United States immigration laws, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the legal immigration process.[3][4]
Since 2003, ICE has targeted criminal aliens near the southwestern borders of the United States and has coordinated with other countries to police sex trafficking.[3]
Work
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In 2016, ICE employed over 20,000 people in all 50 states and in 46 foreign countries, according to its website. ICE serves as the main investigative arm of the DHS.[2][5]
Mission
According to its official website, the following is the ICE mission:
“ | Protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.[4][6] | ” |
Duties
ICE's responsibilities include disrupting transnational criminal organizations that exploit U.S. borders and preventing terrorism by enforcing and administering customs and immigration laws. ICE's primary functions are split between two divisions: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The Office of the Principle Legal Advisor (OPLA) is another division that supports the ICE mission.[4][2]
Enforcement and Removal Operations
ERO aims 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."[7]
Homeland Security Investigations
HSI targets "criminal organizations illegally exploiting America's travel, trade, financial and immigration systems."[8]
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor The OPLA is the largest legal program within the DHS. The office represents the government of the United States in cases regarding exclusion, deportation, removal, and other immigration cases involving terrorism, criminal aliens, and human rights abusers. In addition, OPLA helps ICE with issues such as customs, worksite enforcement, ethics, employment law, and administrative law.[9]
Employment
The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government is a website that tracks workforce trends in federal agencies. ICE ranked number 418 out of 432 federal sub-agencies as of February 2024. The metrics used in this ranking included leadership, pay, innovation, and support for diversity.[10]
Leadership
Patrick J. Lechleitner began service as the acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2023.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
- Official U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Twitter
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Facebook
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on YouTube
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Linkedin
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Instagram
Footnotes
- ↑ Department of Homeland Security, "Our Mission," accessed June 21, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "Budget in Brief: Fiscal Year 2017," accessed June 28, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "History of ICE," accessed June 29, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)," accessed February 27, 2024
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Who We Are," accessed June 28, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Enforcement and Removal Operations," accessed June 29, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Homeland Security Investigations," accessed June 29, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Office of the Principal Legal Advisor," accessed June 30, 2016
- ↑ The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, "Agency Report: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS)," accessed February 27, 2024
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