Inside ICE: Volume 3, Issue 5

Myers Praises ICE’s “Historic” Accomplishments in FY06

Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, speaking before the media in Washington, D.C. October 30, called ICE’s accomplishments during Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) “historic,” and said the agency succeeds because its people continue to strive for excellence and aspire to the highest standards of performance.

Assistant Secretary Myers made the remarks during a news conference called by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to review the department’s accomplishments during FY06. ICE Director of Investigations Marcy Forman and Director of Detention and Removal Operations John Torres joined Assistant Secretary Myers at the event.

“Ultimately,” Assistant Secretary Myers said, “it has been the people of ICE who have made this a successful and historic year. I am truly honored to lead the more than 15,000 men and women of ICE, who face the threats, meet their obligations and perform their missions every day with courage, integrity and a high level of accountability.”

During her remarks, Assistant Secretary Myers noted that ICE had ended the “catch and release” policy along the borders that had been the standard for decades, setting records for the removal of criminal and other aliens in the process.

She also noted that ICE had reinvented worksite enforcement, using the IMAGE program to help businesses that want to comply with the law, while using criminal prosecutions and asset forfeitures against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. In FY06, ICE arrested 668 individuals on criminal charges, and more than 3,100 on administrative charges. That is nearly triple the arrests made by INS in its last full year of operation.

In her remarks, Assistant Secretary Myers focused on ICE’s efforts to make America safer, noting the increase in ICE Fugitive Operations teams to 52, as well as ICE’s efforts to target criminal alien gang members through Operation Community Shield, and to protect our children through Operation Predator. She also mentioned ICE’s partnerships with federal, state and local law enforcement officials, including the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces and the establishment of Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces in 11 major U.S. cities.

Assistant Secretary Myers recognized a wide range of ICE accomplishments, from the establishment of Trade Transparency Units in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay to combat money laundering and trade crimes, to the expansion of ICE’s arms and strategic technology investigations. She also praised the Federal Protective Service, which was named the lead agency for the government facilities sector of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan.

“During this year we continued to work toward building a new agency culture,” Assistant Secretary Myers said, “an ICE culture that builds on the best practices of our legacy agencies while recognizing that our merged authorities and expertise require new training, new ideas and unified leadership.”

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Myers Praises ICE’s “Historic” Accomplishments in FY06

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