TOPICS
TOPICS
Homeland Security bureau goes after gangs
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau announced Monday the launch of an operation focused on helping state and local law enforcement go after the nation's most violent gangs.
ICE officials said the bureau is uniquely suited for the effort because it can combine immigrations and customs enforcement powers to target, disrupt and, if necessary, deport members of violent gangs in the United States.
"We have incredible immigration authorities and customs authorities under one roof right now, and we're able to bring that to the table," said Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia, who is in charge of ICE. "We not only can take them off the streets and detain them, but we can deport them from the United States, and that is an incredibly powerful tool in going after a criminal organization."
The effort, called Operation Community Shield, targets the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang, commonly known as MS-13. According to ICE, the operation has already netted 103 MS-13 members, including 30 in New York City and 25 in Washington. The operation will initially focus on six major cities: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Baltimore, Newark and Washington.
Garcia said ICE can handle the effort, because it will leverage the resources of state and local law enforcement. ICE has been under a hiring freeze and austere spending restrictions since last year due to a budget shortfall.
"This is a perfect example of where we should put our resources," Garcia said. "Violent gang members are causing incredible problems [and] public safety issues in communities."
"Our goal is simple," Garcia added. "Under this operation, ICE uses intelligence on MS-13 organization and membership provided to us by state and local law enforcement partners and then, whenever possible, we arrest and deport members of the gang. At the same time, we will investigate their assets to cut off their funding, [and] we will seize their cash and weapons and other assets that serve as tools of their trade."
As part of the operation, ICE will make its databases of gangs available to state and local law enforcement. Other federal agencies that will participate in the operation include the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ICE will also coordinate with foreign governments.
Garcia said threat assessments conducted by ICE field offices indicate that a large number of MS-13 members are foreign born and in the country illegally. According to ICE, the gang has also been "involved in or linked to a range of criminal activities, including human smuggling, drug trafficking, arms smuggling and intergang violence.
Garcia said, however, he has seen no conclusive evidence that MS-13 is connected with al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization. "But if you have a large-scale criminal organization operating in the United States and one that is reported to be smuggling -- smuggling contraband, smuggling people and exploiting border vulnerabilities -- you have to accept that as a homeland security risk," he said.
COMMENTS
- This should really be posted to the story where all the mud slinging is going on. But it's too far down site. I can only believe it is new hires who believe nothing is wrong at ICE nor understand why the experienced agents are speaking out. There are very serious problems with our agency that need to be addressed and addressed NOW! My beef is not whose legacy agency duties are more important to Homeland Security or who are the better agents. Both legacy agencies duties are important and there are enough good & bad agents to go around from both legacy agencies. The complaint is that none of us are being given sufficient tools to carry out what our job descriptions say that we must. To conduct complex investigations in our assigned program areas. I take my job VERY seriously. What ICE Agents do or do not do can effect the lives of thousands of people. If we do not have the funds nor the mechanism in place to quickly and effectively conduct investigations, it will enable the terrorist or agent of a hostile country to purchase WMDs, TOW missiles, military vessels & aircraft and the more serious items as critical and dual use technology to use against our citizens in the U.S. or our military abroad. It will cause counterfeit (sub-standard) parts to be smuggled into this country which can and has caused civilian and/or military aircraft to crash (yes Virginia, there is more to our counterfeit investigations than Gucci purses). It will enable millions of dollars to get into the hands of our enemies to be used as tools against us. I could go on. We cannot stand by & do nothing when we see our historical authorities being slowly erroded to other agencies that do not have a clue on how to conduct these investigations. I cannot say it better than Former Park Police chief Teresa Chambers, (on an unrelated issue). "IF I ALLOW MYSELF TO WALK AWAY FROM BEING SILENCED FOR DOING WHAT I WAS HIRED TO DO . . . THEN I HAVE TAKEN MY PATRIOTISM AND THROWN IT IN THE TRASH." You can stand by & say nothing. My conscience will not allow me to do the same. ICE COULD have been an awesome agency (bureau? service?) to contend with if we had a sufficient budget and people at the helm who understood what former Customs and INS agents duties were and what is required to carry out those duties. But I fear irreparable harm may have been done. ICE RAC Nashville Posted April 1, 2005 6:20 PM
- Art, Your new mission statement was great (not to mention right on)!! Gave me something I haven't had in two years. A sorely needed laugh (albeit it a sad one). RAC Nashville Posted March 31, 2005 10:19 PM
- This past weekend I read, in the upcoming edition of Newsweek, an article about MS-13. In one part of the article, the FBI complains that ICE scooped up one of their "persons of interest" that, apparently, THEY did not want "touched" yet. Well, Secretary Chertoff, here's a perfect opportunity for DHS to stand up to the FBI and give them what for. MS-13 and other violent gangs with foreign origins are NOT necessarily "terrorists"; therefore, DHS is entitled to utilize the ITS Title 8 and Title 19 authority to conduct an investigation into the activities of these gangs without the FBI's so-called "permission" or "blessing". Although DHS would like to cooperate with our brethren at other Federal agencies, as well as state and local entities, DHS needs to exercise its own jurisdictional competence, instead of cawtowing to the whims and desires of the FBI. SECRETARY CHERTOFF: DO YOUR DUTY AND DEFEND YOUR INVESTIGATIVE ARM. TELL THE FBI THAT WE DO NOT NEED THEIR "PERMISSION" OR "BLESSING" TO CONDUCT OUR OWN INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONGRESS HAS GIVEN US THE AUTHORITY TO DO. NO MORE COWTOWING, NO MORE SUBMISIVENESS, NO MORE SELL-OUTS TO THE FBI SO THAT WE CAN DO ALL THE WORK WHILE THEY TAKE ALL THE CREDIT IN THE PRESS AND BEFORE CONGRESS. GovExec.com reader Posted March 20, 2005 9:36 PM
