ICE consists of three directorates to accomplish the agency’s mission, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Management and Administration (M&A).
ICE's primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.
Catch up on ICE’s most popular news stories from the week ending March 25, 2016
ICE executes its mission through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes, focusing on preventing terrorism, immigration enforcement and combating transnational crime.
Share
The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) provides ICE-wide direction and support in the biometric and biographic identification, arrest, and removal of priority aliens who are incarcerated within federal, state, and local prisons and jails, as well as at-large criminal aliens that have circumvented identification. It is incumbent upon ICE to ensure that all efforts are made to investigate, arrest, and remove individuals from the United States that ICE deems priorities by processing the alien expeditiously and securing a final order of removal for an incarcerated alien before the alien is released to ICE custody. The identification and processing of incarcerated criminal aliens, before release from jails and prisons, decreases or eliminates the time spent in ICE custody and reduces the overall cost to the Federal Government.
Additionally, integral to the effective execution of this program is the aggressive prosecution of criminal offenders identified by ERO officers during the course of their duties. ERO, in conjunction with the Offices of the United States Attorneys, actively pursues criminal prosecutions upon the discovery of offenses of the nation's criminal code and immigration laws. This further enhances public safety and provides a significant deterrent to recidivism.
Sanctuary policies force ICE officers out of local jails and into corresponding communities. When a local jurisdiction refuses to collaborate with ICE or obstructs the agency's lawful enforcement activities, it places at risk both public and officer safety, requires a much greater expenditure of limited resources and forces ICE to arrest criminal aliens at-large in the communities, instead of a secure, jail environment.
Cooperation between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies is critical to the effort to identify and arrest removable aliens and defend the nation’s security. Every day, ICE places detainers on individuals who the agency has probable cause to believe are aliens who are removable from the United States and are currently in federal, state and local law enforcement agency custody. While many jurisdictions across the country cooperate with ICE’s detainers and work closely with the agency to ensure the safety of local communities, in some cases, state or local laws, ordinances or policies restrict or prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE. Additionally, some jurisdictions willfully decline to honor immigration detainers and refuse to timely notify ICE of an alien’s release, and may do so even when an alien has a criminal record.
ECP screens recidivist criminal aliens encountered through ERO’s enforcement efforts and local law enforcement to seek criminal prosecution to mitigate the risk of future recidivism and enhance the integrity of the U.S. immigration system. Integral to success in this effort is the collaboration with the Offices of the United States Attorneys to prosecute the charged criminal offenders.
Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT)/Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) interoperability is a biometric screening process that is consistent and efficient in the identification of criminal and other priority aliens. ICE leveraged an already-existing Federal information-sharing partnership between US-VISIT and the FBI that helps to identify criminal aliens at arrest or book-in without imposing new or additional workload on state and local law enforcement agencies. It has been fully deployed in all state and local jurisdictions, as well as Federal agencies, to include the DOD. Full deployment of IDENT/IAFIS interoperability has led to an increase in the number of criminal and other priority aliens identified and arrested.
When state and local law enforcement arrest and book someone into a jail facility for a violation of a state criminal offense, they will generally fingerprint the person. The fingerprints are electronically submitted to the state’s fingerprint database, and are then forwarded to the FBI. Provided that the person had been previously encountered and fingerprinted by an immigration official, a “match” will register at which time ICE is notified and an ICE officer determines the person’s immigration and criminal status to establish the appropriate immigration enforcement action, if any. If the person has not previously been fingerprinted by an immigration official, there will be “no match.” In all cases, an ICE or 287(g) designated immigration officer will need to interview the individual to determine the appropriate enforcement action.
Institutional Hearing and Removal Program (IHRP) is a collaborative effort between BOP, DHS, EOIR, and the incarcerated criminal alien. This effort is designed to expedite the review of any applications and to complete the administrative immigration removal process for the alien inmate, prior to the completion of their criminal sentence. The IHRP focuses enforcement efforts on aliens posing the greatest threat to American society – criminals.
