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Return to Article: FEATURES Wasted Year

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  Once again GovExec.com says that ICE is responsible for enforcing customs and immigration law in the interior while CBP is responsible for enforcement on the border. Please get this right! ICE works along with CBP to enforce customs laws at the border. The biggest ICE offices are located in Los Angeles, Houston, El Paso, NYC, San Diego and Miami (these cities aren't in the "interior." Perhaps GovExec.com gets this information from DHS Officials who also have trouble understanding what it is we do.

  GovExec.com reader Posted March 21, 2006 4:50 PM
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  W O W - what a compelling article!!! As a current employee of Homeland Security/CBP Air, the authors really hit the mark with regard to content and correctness.

  Unlike some of my career civil service colleagues, most of us in the field don't place any confidence in Mr. Kostelnik or the long-term viability of CBP Air. He has rapidly gained a reputation within ranks as a "know-it-all" and a puppet for Border Patrol Chief Aguilar. Many of us look at Mr. Kostelnik, as part time help (here today -- gone tomorrow).

  As an outsider, Mike Kostelnik needs to brush up on a few things before he offers a quote. He is responsible for a law enforcement air force, not a "corporate air force." But then again, what can we expect from part-time help?

  GovExec.com reader Posted March 16, 2006 2:34 PM
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  There is really nothing that I can add to the article. It clearly tells how it is in DHS. The street level employees, though demoralized, are trying to make it work. However, the political appointees are just empire building. The best thing I think any DHS political appointee can do to help DHS is to resign and let a career person fill the position. Starting with Mr. Chertoff and followed by his "daughter-in-law" Julie Myers.

  GovExec.com reader Posted March 14, 2006 12:21 PM
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  This story only begins to scratch the surface of problems at DHS, particularly at ICE and CBP. It is pathetic and I do not believe it will get better. ICE in particular is bleeding talent and experience as people are searching for a way out of this nightmare. A wise man would scrap the entire thing and go back to the way it was. I do not see any wise men on the horizon.

  GovExec.com reader Posted March 12, 2006 4:01 PM
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  "Wasted Year", my behind! More appropriate is "Wasted Since Day 1" (that's three years, folks). Let's face it: DHS is a blessed disaster.

  Bluntly, unless Congress (like they seem to be doing on the Dubai ports deal) can get it together and force feed King, er, I mean, President Bush and his royal court a quick and decisive DHS reorganization and overhaul, DHS will continue to flounder into oblivion, and end up on the fringes and irrelevant to anti/counterterrorism and Homeland Security.

  Interesting piece today: Sen. Clinton blasted the new immigration bill for making someone's illegal presence in the U.S. a felony. Well, what the heck are 5,000 ICE criminal investigators supposed to do if we're not going to enforce the law, for God's sake? Lord knows, we've given away everything else: drugs, money laundering, weapons, etc.; maybe we should just sit back and twiddle our thumbs while the president, Congress and the American people figure out what they really want, and what the true meaning of Homeland Security is.

  For you see, 9/11 might be a once in a lifetime event. However, every day, on the streets of America, enemies, both foreign and domestic, wield a different brand of trans-border "terror:" drug dealing, money laundering, weapons trafficking, human trafficking, gangs, kiddie porn, etc. And, these evils did, do and will affect more Americans in more places on a daily basis than 9/11 ever will; it's just that they won't make CNN Breaking News or the front page of the New York Times.

  GovExec.com reader Posted March 8, 2006 8:33 PM