TOPICS
TOPICS
Key immigration enforcement official steps down
The top U.S. official charged with detaining and removing illegal immigrants has stepped down, Homeland Security Department officials said Monday.
Anthony Tangeman, who ran the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detention and removals branch, left his post on Friday, according to ICE spokesman Garrison Courtney.
As detention chief, Tangeman tried to focus his office's efforts on rounding up alien absconders, or illegal immigrants who flee after receiving final deportation orders. There are an estimated 400,000 such absconders in the United States. But with only 2,600 law enforcement officers, Tangeman admitted he was strapped to make a dent in the backlog of cases.
Tangeman's office fared well in the Bush administration's fiscal 2005 budget proposal, receiving funds for 357 additional immigration enforcement agent positions.
Courtney said Tangeman stepped down for personal reasons.
David Venturella, who served as Tangeman's deputy, is now interim chief of detention and removals, Courtney said.
Tangeman's departure will not halt ICE's efforts to reduce the absconder backlog, including a program that uses electronic ankle bracelets to keep tabs on certain illegal immigrants, Courtney said. "We're still pursuing everything just like we were," he said.
COMMENTS
- What's the problem Mr. Appointee, is the pay not enough to cover the aggravation? A Civil Servant will surely be left behind to clean up the mess! GovExec.com reader Posted April 1, 2004 3:18 PM
- Yet another one abandons the sinking ship! Does anyone detect a pattern here, with ICE and DHS in general? It is very difficult to fill management positions at this agency, or to retain managers already here. DHS has only been in existence for a year, and yet the Deputy Secretary went back to the Navy, and the Chief of Staff, Chief Financial Officer, and others left after only a few months. Many talented people are also declining offers to fill key jobs at DHS. Why? A recent article in "The New Republic" stated, "DHS is a bureaucratic Frankenstein, with clumsily stitched-together limbs and an inadequate, misfiring brain". The geniuses who created this monster obviously had no idea what they were doing, or what the agencies they destroyed actually did to protect the U.S. Now they want to eliminate long standing civil service rights and protections, and do away with the impartial and objective General Schedule pay system. No wonder employee morale is at rock bottom, and we have no faith in our leadership. Is the country safer as a result? I don't think so! GovExec.com reader Posted March 30, 2004 11:17 AM
