Second Open Letter to the 110th U.S. Congress

By Miguel Contreras,
Posted on Fri Dec 15th, 2006 at 11:17:57 AM EST

Two new recently released Washington Post-ABC News polls finds most Americans losing faith in the current administration, with a majority (57%) of Americans saying they trust Democratic lawmakers President Bush "to do a better job coping with the main problems the nation faces." Democrats were also favored over Bush when respondents were questioned on specific problems facing the nation, such as the "war on terrorism," Iraq, the economy, and most overwhelmingly, on the subject of health care, in which 64 percent trusted the Democrats to handle over Bush (26%)

Dear Honorable Members of the 110th United States Congress:

This letter concerns several issues, but I will only mention the ones that need your immediate attention: Immigration; Terrorism, Identity Theft; and Allegations of Corruption and Mismanagement at DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigration

DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) primary responsibilities now appear to focus mainly on the arrest of illegal aliens and conducting employment related enforcement operations. These immigration enforcement initiatives have been conducted for years by the Legacy INS and U.S. Border Patrol. It appears that the other enforcement Customs initiatives such as the investigation and prosecution of drug and money smuggling organizations, unlawful export and import of weapons of mass destruction, financial crimes, Customs fraud have taken a “back seat.”

ICE is targeting employers who allegedly hire illegal aliens. I am sure there are thousands of employers hiring illegal aliens who present fraudulent identity cards. ICE’s intend to continue conducting such “employment raids” by the cover of “Identity Theft.” If ICE wants to investigate identity theft all they have to do is to go the major cities’ international airports, sub-way trains, bus depots and they can buy counterfeit immigration and social security cards from U.S. born United States Citizens. Sources tell me that in Los Angeles, CA for $20.00 you can buy a counterfeit social security card from a "street vendor."

Another major identity theft culprit is our own U.S. Government. A number of federal agencies have “lost” laptops containing thousands or millions of personal data which can be used to steal the identity of another person. ICE basically has become an immigration enforcement agency. Please refer to the reports listed below regarding this issues.

One major problem at ICE is that most of the Special Agents in Charge positions are occupied by Legacy Customs managers while Deputy Special Agents in Charge positions are occupied Legacy INS. INS had excellent Fraud Investigations units targeting counterfeit immigration and social security cards well established criminal organizations. They also had another unit, called “Area Control” who used to target employers hiring illegal aliens. Thus, ICE is running an immigration enforcement program by Legacy Customs employees who lack the expertise in this area. As a result, there is a friction between INS and Customs managers, supervisors, and line employees. Forget about the concept of “working together as a team” - what you ended up having is a dysfunctional ICE.

Terrorism

On December 14, 2006, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned law enforcement agencies of possible terrorism attacks if the "blind sheik," Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman who, dies in U.S. custody. Is DHS and ICE prepared for such an attack or are they still planning their next immigration employer raid?

It is well known that all investigations and prosecutions of any transnational and international terrorist act at the United States targets domestically and abroad rest with the FBI. As always there is still a turf between the FBI and ICE coordinating and sharing information. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley initiated an inquiry into a “turf battle” between ICE and the FBI at Houston thanks to retired ICE high ranking official Joseph Webber who wrote to Sen. Grassley.

Webber retired from ICE under a “very big cloud” and with a number of EEO complaints where he was accused of being a racist and discriminating against Hispanic Legacy Customs and ICE employees. One wonder, why is it that Sen. Grassley usually takes on a “face value” complaints filed by ICE or other federal agencies' White (Caucasians) employees but disregard those filed by non-White employees. To my knowledge he has never accepted a complaint by a Hispanic federal employee.

ICE continues asking the U.S. Congress for more money to justify its anti-terrorist enforcement operations. Frankly, when you look at the ICE's mission, the agency uses anti-terrorism efforts in almost all of their mission statements and objectives. The truth is, the interception and identification of any terrorist rest with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors who allegedly have also problems dealing with ICE employees. Apparently CBP and ICE are having problems working together and sharing information. Unless ICE poaches into FBI's territory, they cannot investigate any cases of terrorism even if it involves illegal aliens, legal immigrants or U.S. citiznes. When Legacy INS identified a potential immigrant terrorist, the FBI had to be immediately contacted and the case turned over to them.

Identity Theft

When the news about ICE’s Swift Company raids nation-wide about illegal aliens using stolen identity cards (Identity Theft) hit the street by our main-stream media organization, for two days the public was made to believe that this was the work of only one agency: ICE. Then I wrote a story about ICE’s not having jurisdiction about conducting investigations on Identity Theft.

The agency responsible for this types of crimes is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) but since according to its website, FTC doesn’t have enforcement personnel to investigate Identity Theft crimes, other federal agencies such as the US Secret Service and US Postal Inspection are listed. ICE is not listed. Several days letters, DHS and ICE gave an official press conference and invited to pose at this conference guess who? The FTC commissioner.

ICE’s using the Identity Theft existing problem in America as a pre-text to go after illegal aliens working for small and big companies, such as Swift. Perhaps, ICE is blaming our illegal alien guests for manufacturing, trafficking and transporting counterfeit identity identification cards. Sorry but they are not. They are merely the "users." No wonder the morale at ICE among its line special agents is getting worse.

I estimate that they are probably hundreds or thousands of Identity Theft Criminal Organizations operating in the USA thanks to our government for going after the “user” - You see it is like illegal drugs. Do you see DEA going after the “drug user”? The answer of course is no, they work complex drug cases in an effort to dismantle large drug trafficking organizations. Sources within ICE report that when they present "draft" of complex drug and money laundering opening investigations, their ICE supervisors reject such reports because allegedly, the marching orders are to do nothing but immigration work.

Another major problem with this Identity Theft crises is that one of the “free” main suppliers of personal identification is not other than our own U.S. government agencies. There has been a number of federal agencies, including Legacy US Customs losing laptops by the thousands.

Corruption and Mismanagement at DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Corruption and mismanagement at both Legacy Customs and INS is nothing news. There has been several studies, congressional hearings, GAO investigations, Offices of Investigations at both agencies before and after the merger of March 1, 2003 into one agency, ICE under DHS.

Despite all of the attempts by ICE's federal oversight agencies the problem continues and it is spreading like cancer. I kindly direct the reader to make use of the below reference material posted in this story, dealing with this subject.

DHS and ICE have been applying for and obtaining millions and may be billions of tax-payer monies to purchase allegedly “state of the art” security equipment to prevent and detect explosives, drugs, bombs etc., that is not working. Recent studies (some sponsored by U.S. government grants) indicate that if we were to hit with another Hurricane Katrina or another 9/11 attack that we are not yet ready to respond. One of the reasons is that our intelligence community is not sharing information and “turf” battles between federal agencies still exist.

Another major problem which got some other federal agencies very, very upset is the fact that the salary of an ICE manager, supervisor and special agent is not compatible with the duties they are performing. Case in point, a DEA special agent journeymen level used to be GS-1811-12. Now I am sure they all are GS-1811-13, since their counterpart ICE special agents are GS-1811-13s. One more, FBI special agents’ journeymen level is a GS-1811-13. I selected the FBI and DEA as a comparison because the job hiring requirements are by far above the ICE hiring, retention and promotion policies and regulations. OPM needs to take a closer look at ICE and how the promotion policies are being conducted. For instance, I got word that the ICE’s Resident Agent in Charge (RAC) position of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) at Calexico, CA is being elevated to a GS-1811-15.

I don’t know how many agents the current ICE-OPR RAC supervises, but between 1995 to 1999, that office had approximately 10 agents and the RAC was a GS-1811-14. From 1999 to the present, that office grew in numbers after the DHS merger in 2003 but still that office is very small. However, the ICE Calexico Investigations for years, its RAC was only a GS-1811-14 while managing almost 100 special agents and several supervisors. This RAC recently got promoted to a GS-1811-15, a grade he deserves.

The problem is that we have ICE offices nation-wide headed by Senior Service Executive level with a very small staff. The same goes with ICE’s OPR and Investigations. The heads of some of these offices are staffed by less than 10 special agents, yet their grade level is that of a GS-1811-15, while some other big ICE offices are being headed by a GS-1811-14.

In the 1980s, the Legacy INS’ investigations branch was headed by an Assistant District Director for Investigations. INS special agent’s journeymen level was that of a GS-1811-11. Their senior supervisors were GS-1811-13, while the regular supervisor was only a GS-1811-12. Later INS started to elevate their grade level status. The INS and US Border Patrol’s Anti-Smuggling Units agents’ pay scale was that of a GS-1811-12. After the merger of INS with Customs, all GS-1811-12s got automatically a promotion to GS-1811-13, the Legacy US Customs journeymen level.

I reported before that at Legacy Customs and later with ICE, we had some SAC’s (SES) with only a high school diploma or a GED. Still at ICE’s Investigations and OPR we have GS-1811-14s and GS-1811-15's with high school, Associate or Bachelor’s Degree diplomas and of course some ICE’s sponsored executive management training at some university. Once again, if you were to compare and review the pay structure between the FBI, DEA and ICE and management for each agency, you will see that ICE is at the very bottom of the pole with the FBI being the agency with more strict hiring, retention and promotion opportunities. What is happening at ICE in this area is mismanagement.

As to corruption at ICE, I reported before that discipline is NOT even-handle. For the most part, supervisors and managers who are reported to OPR or the DHS’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) are not investigated, and if they are, the investigation is merely a “cursory” limited inquiry. Still if a formal investigation is conducted and the charges are proven, the culprit usually receives a “slap on the wrist” while the line special agent, if not part of the “good-old-boy network” receives the ultimate “capital punishment:” Termination, a demotion or a long suspension without pay.

ICE managers and supervisors after getting arrested by outside agencies and the public is aware of their arrests, or if a serious investigation is proven, the culprit is merely relocated to another office, sometimes with a promotion at the tax-payer expense.

A review of several Internet Bloggers regarding ICE is that supervisors and special agents are advising prospective ICE applicants NOT to apply with ICE because it is an agency being led by incompetent leaders and where morale is at the lowest among its employees, and instead these prospective applicants are being told to apply with the FBI, DEA, or ATF.