Return to Article: Homeland Security bureau needs extra $300 million to get through year
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8745
Is the writing on the wall? We should go back to pre-DHS legacy agencies. CBP was just the customization of INS and Agriculture. The legacy agencies were screwed up but at least the missions attempted rather than ignored.
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8558
What about getting a larger cubicle, relevent to your grade level?As a GS-13 ICE Special Agent, I have been given a cubicle that is cramped and lacks any useful storage compartments. Where's the justice in that? Wasn't there a study done on grade versus personal office space, particularly as it relates to cubicles?
Any comments?
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8508
Hey, Senior Special Agent in Los Angeles, try reading The Washington Times op-ed article dated Feb. 28, 2005, titled "Fixing Homeland Security". Or how about the Heritage Foundation and Center for Strategic and International Studies report titled "DHS 2.0-Rethinking the Department of Homeland Security", or numerous other articles and reports? Instead of knocking fellow agents with valid complaints and suggestions for fixing this mess, you should do something to help things get better, rather than just accepting the status quo, which anyone with any common sense can tell isn't working. Help us fix what's been broken, pal, and you might actually like what develops. By the way, if you've been following these stories, you'd see that it's not just NY agents with legitimate beefs, but also agents, from both INS and Customs, from Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Phoenix, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, Headquarters, and yes, even LA!
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8492
Hey, LA agent, do you want to know what my definition of "pigheadedness" is? It's blindly drinking Kool-Aid provided by the fools who screwed up Customs and INS, in the name of national security. If you had more than a couple of years on this job, you'd realize that many of us have valid complaints about this agency, and the way it was created and is being "managed". If you think things are great, good for you, but not all of us have our heads in the sand. We also want what is best for this country, and have many useful ideas and suggestions to offer. The problem is that when DHS was created, nobody thought to ask those who are actually in this business, and who had a lot of knowledge and experience in this field, for their opinions. I don't know whether you came from Customs, INS or Mars, and don't really care. I would just suggest that you take off your blindfold, and look at what is really going on, before criticizing those of us who see things differently, and are trying to right this wrong, using our First Amendment rights! Instead of taking pot shots at the other side, we should be standing together, fighting for what is right, so that this department can properly do it's job.
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8484
In response to the posting from Special Agent/LA, an obvious legacy ins agent, we shouldn't have to nuture a fractured relationship that was strong before we were separated!!!!! The ins agents relationship to ins inspectors was subservient at best. An agency where SENIOR ins inspectors ordered the agents around like interns. At Customs our relationship with the inspectors served a law enforcement mission; inspect, find contraband and investigate. Please get off your soap box "special agent LA (ins)", your legacy agency was the federal equivalent of a mall security force.
The ONLY positive course of action we can pursue is to MERGE with CBP and get out from under the rock that is ice. ice has failed. The successful investigations/prosecutions are in SPITE of ice, not b/c of ice. The ins was abolished b/c of it's failures. ice has adopted these failures. Even an extra 300 mil will not provide the institutional changes we need. It is difficult for legacy ins to comprehend the VAST authority Customs agents possess, Title 8 is not that difficult. When you read that ice is losing jurisdiction to the feebs and DEA, THAT is TROUBLESOME!!!!!!!!!
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8480
The arguments against what has transpired under the Homeland Security reorganization, and the points made about the negative results, are absolutely clear. Those who disagree that a mistake was made by destroying the U.S. Customs Service were most likely never employeed there as a special agent, or at least not employeed there for any significant time period prior to its destruction. This is not an INS vs Customs issue. It's an issue of one of the best agencies in government that was wrongfully dismantled, with very negative results. You can't call legacy Customs agents "whiners" or "cry-babies" when you don't know where they're coming from. There is a reason for their tremendous loyalty to their former agency, and it says an awful lot about Customs that so many of its former agents are infuriated about this. The same reaction could be expected if the FBI were split apart and merged with separate parts of some other agency. When something good is turned into something much worse, people who speak out against it are right in doing so. Tradition is often times the enemy of progress, but the loyalty to Customs is not a simple matter of tradition. It doesn't matter if Customs was around for 214 years or 10 years. It was a tremendously strong agency that only regressed once it became subject to this transition.
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8479
In looking at many of these comments it's obvious to me that eventually ICE will colapse on its own weight. Everyone is going to be a loser. It has gotten to the point where CBP doesn't even want this mess. Who wants to have a broken down, smelly car in their garage? This agency is a big zero. Mr. Garcia, are you happy now? I hope so, because if you think you can walk away from this mess after you created it, think again. Your reputation is so bad that you're never going to find the kind of job that you're dreaming of. I hope you like working for this administration, they are the only ones that are dumb enough to keep you employed. As for the good people in this agency...both INS and Customs...good luck. I want to leave all of you with one final thought. Customs and INS have the highest percentage of minority employees in Federal Law Enforcement. As a group we have been treated like garbage and now we are fighting among ourselves. Sounds familiar? ...I am not paranoid, I just know what it feels like to be a victim of racism. This administration and in particular the Justice department see us as inferior to the FBI...remember, the FBI had to get sued in order for them to promote and hire more minorities.
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8456
Do ICE and CBP need to be "re-married". Maybe "yes", maybe "no", but here's the real issue.
ICE is "supposed" to be the IN-HOUSE investigative arm of DHS. However, I can cite numerous examples of where CBP often calls in the FBI or DEA (both JUSTICE Department) agencies either before calling ICE regarding a significant event, or, sometimes, ICE doesn't find out about a significant event for days after.
Where I come from, from the school of ACCOUNTABILITY, it is EMBARRASSING to have an ASAC or DSAC call you as a group or SAC duty agent or case agent and ask you questions that you do not have answers to regarding a significant event. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Mr. Chertoff, perhaps it would be best for you to ask Mr. Bonner and CBP that question directly.
Could you imagine what would happen if ICE agents decided one day to go to an airport gate or cruise ship dock and start questioning passengers from foreign, IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF ESTABLISHED PROTOCOLS AND POLICIES? Mr. Bonner would have a fit, that's what, and he'd be right up on Capitol Hill demanding answers. Why aren't Mr. Chertoff, Mr. Loy, Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Garcia demanding answers for CBP's seeming underhandedness? (Oh, I forgot, Mr. Loy and Mr. Hutchinson are both bailing out of this failure to the private sector; excuse my silliness!)
My solution? Even though we are separate entities, we are STILL UNDER DHS, NOT TREASURY, NOT JUSTICE - DHS. If he is to restore ANY integrity to DHS investigations, Mr. Chertoff needs to send out a stern warning: Any incident where another Federal, state or local law enforcement agency is notified about ANY event that ICE even REMOTELY has nexus to before the ICE duty agent in that jurisdiction is notified will be subject to immediate disciplinary action - NO ANDS, IFS OR BUTS.
Accountability needs to be restored and FAST! No more back-door referrals to other agencies by CBP before ICE, the INVESTIGATIVE arm of DHS, knows what is going on.
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8454
Why aren't we hearing about this mess on our local news, world news, Fox News, CNN, Bill O'Rielly, Rush, Tony Snow, Michael Savage, Al Franken, Michael Moore, Dateline, 20/20, or, any other media forum?
The taxpayers need to know how their tax dollars are fraudulently being spent by the DHS and giving people the illusion of state of the art security after 911.
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8451
I haven't heard any complaints that can't be fixed. I closely observed the body language, eye contact, and dialogue between Customs Special Agents and the Customs Inspectors. The Customs Legacy agents are delusional if they believe that kind of relationship can't be nurtured with the ease of growing crabgrass. Heaven forbid you would have to leave your cubicle to access a particular database by respectful interaction with CBP! Tradition is the enemy of progress. 214 years? So what. Rome had more good years and look what happened to them. Some Legacy Customs agents from NY cry like Russian old ladies pining for the "good ol' days under Stalin". Your inexorable pig-headedness is really getting old after two years. Do we need to stop the car and make you get out and walk?
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8431
Some have asked whether ICE and CBP need to be merged. As a Customs agent for over 20 years, and less than two with ICE, I have a few comments to make, based upon my experience, and that of my colleagues around the country.
1. It was a lousy idea to separate agents (similar to police detectives) from the inspectors (uniformed officers), at least in Customs.
2. I don't know why Customs agents and INS agents were thrown together in ICE, as their investigations are incompatible, and have never had anything in common.
3. Since DHS began, we have been told that we can no longer call on CBP K-9 assets to assist with our search warrants, because they are now in a separate agency. Instead, it was suggested that we call the local PD for K-9 assistance!
4. The local CBP outbound inspection team has lost the services of the local field intelligence unit, which moved to ICE, meaning that it no longer receives intell reports that would assist it in targeting outbound shipments for inspection.
5. The Coast Guard, and NYPD harbor police officers, have boarded ships at sea before CBP and ICE, based upon our lookouts, in violation of Customs Title 19 authority.
There are many more examples of why this is not working. These include: Replacing Customs counsel with INS (now ICE) counsel, who have no knowledge or experience in Customs laws and regulations (and vice versa for INS); mismanagement; inferior administrative and budget systems; ICE personnel matters being handled by a couple of legacy INS human resourses people in Dallas, which has caused agents who intend to retire to have great difficulty in doing so, due to the lack of adequate HR assistance; incursions on our authority by the FBI, DEA, Coast Guard, and other agencies; etc., etc.
DHS was a kneejerk reaction to the tragedy of 9/11, and was done to give the public the impression that the government was doing something. What was actually done was a waste of time and resources, and the destruction of America's oldest law enforcement agency, the United States Customs Service, which had a proud, 214 year history of tradition, honor, and service to this nation. I'm still waiting to see how this merger made this country better off, but I'm not holding my breath.
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8426
With the split of agents from inspectors, we lost access to several databases we used to share in common. With one which we used to obtain information about travel itinerary for suspects, we now have to complete a disclosure form and abide by the "third agency" rule in order to get that data from CBP. In many areas since our split, CBP has stopped significant efforts to scrutinize travelers for narcotics and money. This is ironic considering the link that has been established between drugs and terrorism. Instead, they now detain every passenger with the name "Mohammad", even when most of the individuals don't have a matching DOB to anyone of interest, and most of them have already been interviewed 15 times before. Most of these records came from the FBI, which would of course never give out any valuable information. So thousands of individuals, with no matching biographical data, have been interviewed countless times, and CBP has nabbed 0 terrorists. This could have been avoided had the FBI filtered the information through Customs agents as they would have if we were still in one agency. CBP is now represented on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, even though CBP doesn't investigate anything and ICE is already representated there. CBP is seeking to put out a job announcement for an "enforcement officer" position, which entails investigations and presentation of cases to the U.S. Attorney. This duplicates what ICE already does and will cause ICE to lose even more footing than it already has to the FBI and DEA. There are some amazingly scary stories from around the country at different ports about the split. In one case, if CBP arrests a drug smuggler who is also an illegal alien, the policy is to allow ICE to (administratively) arrest the alien but turn the drugs over to DEA. This is all directly due to the separation of Customs agents and Customs inspectors.
I agree that CBP probably does not need ICE - unless they are interested in finding drugs, money, and weapons, and avoiding the excessive wasting of resources on thousands of useless so-called terrorist records. But ICE needs CBP. Since our split, the DEA and FBI have already moved in on several traditional Customs investigative areas, and CBP has even stepped on our toes. A large part of why ICE is so dysfunctional is because of this specific problem.
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8420
The premise that ICE needs to be part of CBP in order to run effective investigations is not disimilar to the illogical argument: the FBI needs to be part of the the police in order to conduct bank robbery and kidnapping investigations.
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8402
Quick question for all. With regard to a CBP/ICE merger, what is different at POEs from how it was before. I seem to recall....
- Customs Inspector/Immigration Inspector makes grab...
- CI passes case to Customs SA OR Immigration Inspector passes case to INS Sr. Inspector or Special Agent
- Prosecution Does/Does not take place.Maybe I have been gone for a while (two years) but that is how it was pre-reorg. If it is the same now, what is the problem? If it is different, maybe a merger would be a good idea if it would somehow optimize enforcement activities on the border.
I would really like some discussion of this because I, as a former II in a couple of places cannot imagine how a merger between ICE and CBP could possibly benefit CBP and its border enforcement mission. In fact, many of my former colleagues are optimistic that the CBP is starting to work, mainly because CBP is finally realizing and taking it to heart that it is what we used to call (OK, sorry for the cliche...) "people" issues are what need to have priority in CT oriented border enforcment. I don't know if that has sank in at ICE.
Furthermore, would CBP get FAMs and FPS? Yipes...
Good luck to all of you.
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8389
"Moving ICE into CBP will only re-create what existed before, and if that was so good, there would have been no need for the creation of DHS."
But that's just the point - there was no need for the creation of DHS. The entire DHS creation was undertaken in vain - a method of giving the public the false perception that our country has taken a bold stride in response to 9/11/01.
The INS needed an overhaul - perhaps separating the enforcement side of the house from the service side, reorganizing the management structure, updating administrative systems to be on par with the best of any federal agency, and drastically increasing the I&NS budget to allow for an increase in personnel as well as these other changes.
Customs, on the other hand, was not in need of change. Customs agents and inspectors worked hand-in-hand very well, the agency had a long history of very successful law enforcement in many areas, and it was one of only three federal agencies which was actually able to pay for its own budget with the money it made.
The thing that Deputy Secretary Loy fails to understand is that the idea of merging ICE and CBP involves more than just money. Throwing extra money at ICE would definitely improve our current situation. But there are inherent structual flaws with the way the I&NS and Customs were destroyed and then transitioned into ICE and CBP which cannot possibly be solved by extra funding. Given the relationship between Customs agents and inspectors (as with a police department's detectives and uniformed officers), and the problems now experienced by their separation, any solution that does not include these two groups under one agency is unacceptable. Additionally, given the fact that INS and Customs investigations had virtually nothing in common, the two groups are not combatible. This, also, has a lot to do with why ICE is dysfunctional. And that's not even mentioning the fact that the FPS and FAMS were also lumped into ICE despite the fact that they are completely unrelated to INS and Customs investigations. In reality, a book could be written on the defects with the creation of ICE and CBP, and money is just a fraction of the problem.
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8384
I am a prospective ICE SA who had cleared all background checks last year. OPM stated everything was set for me to go except... there is a seeemingly never ending hiring freeze! Are there any ideas when the hiring freeze might end? I would be leaving a low paying, poor benefits job I currently do not like, but the overwhelming negativity makes me nervous. Is anyone happy there? Is it really that bad working there? It's not like I'm giving up gravy to go to ICE, but...
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8382
I agree with the Senior Special Agent from Seattle, it would be helpful to have a Department of Homeland Security Special Agent with authority over all the department's investigations. And, I suggested such two years ago. The FBI has the advantage of uniformity, and their prestige, most of which it self-cultivated. Some estimates are there were only around 1,300 Legacy INS Special Agents left at the time of the merger, many had sought GS-13 pay with other agencies. The ones that merged into ICE found a bunk in the servants' quarters. Worst part was that the real contemptuous and hostile reception came from snots with barely a few years on the job. The chronic pity party held by the senior agents only encouraged the younger agents' mutiny. There is significant legislation pending on immigration-related issues and not a single effort was made to include any input from the agents who have the responsibility for enforcing the law. The criminals move fast and adapt on the run, exploiting every single issue we have not anticipated. Knock yourself out writing meaningless reform bills, pat yourself on the back in the news, you idiots in Congress. The battlefield is littered with casualties and YOU pulled the trigger, as surely did the criminal.
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8378
I thought Adm. Loy was supposed to be a "great manager?" Well all he did at DHS was manage ICE into the ground. ICE is seriously one of the most incompetant agencies of all time. Think about it:
--After 8 months and several "audits" and "outside reviews," it's still not clear how much money we need.
--SA's are leaving in record numbers.
--Hiring freezes, training freezes, no performance awards, gas cards that fail while you're at the pump, administrative nightmares left and right, etc.
--The feebs and DEA line up to steal our investigative authority. This, despite Mr. Garcia's repeated inane comments that ICE is a "fantastic tool" in the war on terrorism. I think we all know who the "fantastic tool" is.
--Garcia even caved to the FBI on the name of our agency. Remember that? How demeaning is that -- we can't even come up with our own name, because the FBI won't let us, and Garcia is too weak to stand up for us.
--We do have MOU's WITHIN OUR OWN AGENCY. Is this the sign of a well-managed agency? The Federal Protective Service just does what it wants, and we have nothing to do with the FAMS. Whatever.
Add it up folks. Has anyone ever seen such a mismanaged agency? Anywhere? Maybe in a third-world country? I doubt it. ICE takes the cake for incompetance.
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8376
ICE is an unmitigated disaster, even a circus monkey could figure that out. (A circus monkey, but perhaps not ICE management.) Polititians decided that ICE was a logical creation for some unknown reason, but it was not. It fails on so many fronts...
I would argue that returning to CBP will not solve ICE's problems, however. That is a bit of nostalgia, longing for the "good ol' days." Those days are gone, and the CBP train has left the station. ICE would be playing catch up at this point.
What Congress and Secretary Chertoff need to do is fundamentally re-evaluate what the purpose and function of ICE should be. We are supposed to be "the investigative arm of DHS." We are not. ICE has lost jurisdiction and involves itself only with immigration and customs matters. ICE should be turned into DHS-wide investigative body, dealing with ALL criminal investigations within the purvue of DHS. The FBI still has investigative jurisdiciton over more of DHS than DHS does. ICE is a joke.
ICE should also serve as the ground level collector of homeland security related intelligence for DHS. No agency currently fills that function. The FBI's domestic security program is now venturing into solid DHS jurisdiction, but we make no effort to take care of our own problems - the FBI is not tasked with homeland security, DHS is.
Moving ICE to CBP will not turn it into a true DHS agency, but turning it into a DHS-wide investigative/intelligence body would serve that purpose. Moving ICE into CBP will only re-create what existed before, and if that was so good, there would have been no need for the creation of DHS.
We need a homeland security strategy that makes DHS strong - burying ICE in CBP and BTS will not do that.
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8370
Don't give these jokers a dime. They have proven their financial irresponsibility. The heads of this agency could screw up a one car funeral. Admiral Loy already pulled the plug so why listen to his opinion against the merger of ICE and CBP. In order for ICE to be anything other than the re-named INS, we need to be merged with CBP, lift the hiring freeze, PCS some people, and get back to real criminal investigations. Do people realize there are ICE agents "stuck" overseas with their families well beyond their projected return dates because ICE won't spend the money to get them back? Yet they've wasted thousands on "Ice branding" and other useless endeavors. Congress - DON"T GIVE THEM MORE MONEY!
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8367
Don't give ICE a dime. Give it to another agency that can well spend it. If Adm. Loy is opposing the merger of ICE into CBP, he must have an ulterior motive. His opposition is not for the benfefit of ICE or DHS. Adm. Loy knows that ICE has been castrated by the Justice Dept and Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia. So why is he so bent on opposing this merger? ICE has no jurisdictioin to investigate terrorism, it is nothing more than an immigration enforcement agency that can chose if it wants to investigate traditional Customs cases. The former Customs missions that involve moneylaundering investigations, smuggling investigations, and to some degree export enforcement investigatioins, have been relinquished to the FBI, and the DEA. So why should OMB give ICE more money? To do what? To give bonuses to the people that have worked to castrate ICE on behalf of the FBI? Just give the money to the FBI. We don't need anymore parties, bonuses or cheese for the people that destroyed ICE. Besides Special Agents in ICE are quitting in record numbers to get out of this embarassing agency. Adm. Loy, I hope you don't get a dime and its a shame that you're now doing the dirty work once reserved for Asst. Secretary Garcia. Thanks for nothing. Why don't you hurry up and join your friends in the private sector before all the good jobs are taken.
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8362
ICE was doomed from the onset by poor management in Washington and inadequate funding. DHS management made poor decisions based on preconceived notions as to what they believed were the missions of special agents from Customs and Immigration Services.
"Somewhere around $280 million"...is this what we really need, or just "another guesstimate"? I have an idea, why not put pencil-to-paper and figure out what we really need so that we do not continue to look like bumbling fools before the House Subcommittee. "Give ICE more time to prove itself" - agents in the field have proven themselves, DHS management has not. Loy advising law enforcement is like having an agent command a Coast Guard vessel. Merging ICE into CBP is exactly THE RIGHT thing to do. We now find ourselves crafting Memorandums of Agreement with entities within our own agency. Ridiculous.
ICE had forced upon them inadequate administrative systems that were proven to be a failure prior to the end of the first year. We cannot even take care of our own problem, but we go ahead and do the accounting for ten other DHS entities. This is nothing less then astounding. Managers in the field are constantly reminded that they are held accountable for actions taken in the field offices. At what point are those in senior DHS management "accountable"?
Now comes Subcommittee Chairman Rogers who says that they will not approve reprogramming funds until the subcommittee "is assured that the ICE structural problems are solved". Congratulations Chairman Rogers, ICE is now DOA.
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8361
"...he (Deputy Secretary James Loy) does not think merging ICE into CBP is the right thing to do. He said the department needs to give ICE more time to prove itself..."
Mr. Loy you failed to prove yourself. Under your watch:
- ICE failed to establish a clear mission.
- ICE has accumulated over 800 vacancies. It will take years to recover from this due to the lack of funding for background investigations, drug screening and training.
- ICE failed to provide bullet proof vests to enforcement officers while CBP issued a news release relating to the purchase of new vests.
- ICE has virtually no administrative systems.
- ICE received no award funding while other agencies have lavish award cerimonies.
- ICE's budget systems are so inferior that an independant auditor had to be hired.
- Field offices are not paying their bills because of lack of funding.
- Employee morale is at rock bottom.
- Delusional headquarters managers and spin masters continue to report to the media that no operational requirement has gone unmet.All of this occurred under your watch Mr. Loy. The employees of ICE have nothing to prove. The Department, BTS and Assistant Secretary Garcia have failed to give ICE the required resources and adult leadership.
ICE Supervisory Special Agent
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8358
The thing that Deputy Secretary Loy fails to understand or address in his suggestion for keeping ICE as a separate agency from CBP is the fact that the idea of merging the two agencies isn't simply a matter of financial problems within ICE. The bigger problem is the inherent structural flaw in ripping away an agency's investigators from its uniformed officers, and in merging investigators together from two agencies which had virtually nothing in common (INS and Customs). Indeed, the differences between INS and Customs investigations (and the agencies themselves) make the two virtually incompatible, and that is perhaps the main reason why ICE is so entirely dysfunctional. You can throw all the money at us in the world, and it would definitely alleviate many of our current problems. But due to the underlying flaws in the way this reorganization was undertaken and within our basic structure, we are nothing more than an experiment in futility. These are the issues that need to be addressed during this proposed merger.
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8357
ICE doesn't need any more time that it has already has had to prove it is the disaster that it already is.
As for the OUTGOING deputy secretary, he should have the decency to keep his opinions to himself regarding the proposed ICE/CBP merger, especially that he doesn't have to live with the consequences when he goes off to make that nice high-six or seven figure salary in the private sector.
Mr. Skinner and Mr. Chertoff: Ignore the opinions of a person who has presided over a failure and do your duty-MERGE ICE AND CBP AND DO IT FAST!
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