Homeland Security reorganizes border bureaus

The move consolidates the Border and Transportation Security directorate's air and marine resources within a single agency. Officials concluded that AMO's principal focus has been interdiction-mainly that of drug and human smuggling operations-and therefore its "natural location rests more with CBP than with ICE," which is primarily an investigative agency.

The announcement, made jointly by ICE chief Michael Garcia and CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, stems from a senior review of the integration of air and marine law enforcement assets within the department.

Because interdiction and investigation operations often are closely linked, the division of responsibilities and resources between ICE and CBP within Homeland Security has been contentious, officials from both agencies say. The two agencies comprise elements of the former Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service agencies, which were merged with other agencies in the creation of Homeland Security last year.

Officials at both CBP and AMO declined to comment on the announcement Tuesday.

It is not clear yet how AMO's funding may be affected. Early this month, Garcia froze AMO's budget, along with the budgets of other divisions within ICE, for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Thursday. AMO's planning documents call for the establishment of five new offices along the northern U.S. border, but only two of those offices were partially funded in 2004.

Also unclear is whether AMO employees will move to new offices in Washington to be located with their new colleagues at CBP, or where they will fall on the agency's organization chart.

"It will be an evolutionary affair," says one AMO official, who expects it will take several weeks of planning before final decisions are made.