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.
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.
VCAS 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.
Joint Criminal Alien Removal Taskforces (JCART) identifies, investigates and arrests at-large criminal aliens with, but not limited to, convictions for drug trafficking offenses, crimes of violence and sex offenses. JCART will also identify and target aliens involved in human trafficking, smuggling and transnational organized crime for increased information collection. In addition to working with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, JCART partners with other law enforcement entities, such as probation and parole offices, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Prisons and local law enforcement agencies to conduct special operations.
Approximately 27 percent of inmates in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody are non-U.S. citizens. ERO created the Detention Enforcement and Processing Offenders by Remote Technology (DEPORT) Center in Chicago to process this population through CAP. ERO officers and agents assigned to the DEPORT Center conduct interviews of BOP inmates nationwide using video teleconference equipment. Through the combined effort of the DEPORT Center and local ERO resources, criminal aliens from all federal detention facilities are taken into ERO custody upon completion of their sentences.
The Rapid REPAT program offers selected criminal aliens incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails the opportunity to accept early release in exchange for voluntarily returning to their country of origin. Aliens who have been convicted of non-violent offenses may receive early conditional release if they have a final order of removal and agree not to return to the United States. Eligible aliens must agree to waive appeal rights associated with their state convictions. If aliens re-enter the country following removal under the Rapid REPAT program, state statutes may provide for revocation of parole and incarceration for the remainder of the alien’s original sentence. Additionally, aliens illegally re-entering may face additional federal charges and penalties. Rapid REPAT also helps participating states reduce the costs associated with detention.
