Nick Miroff reports for the Washington Post:
The political backlash against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has turned so intense that leaders of the agency’s criminal investigative division sent a letter last week to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen urging an organizational split.
The letter, signed by the majority of special agents in charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigative Division (HSI), offered a window into growing internal tension at the agency as an “Abolish ICE” protest movement has targeted its offices and won support from left-wing Democrats.
Though ICE is primarily known for immigration enforcement, the agency has two distinct divisions: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), a branch that carries out immigration arrests and deportations, and HSI, the transnational investigative branch with a broad focus on counterterrorism, narcotics enforcement, human trafficking and other crimes.
The letter signed by 19 special agents in charge urges Nielsen to split HSI from ICE, because anger at ERO immigration practices is harming the entire agency’s reputation and undermining other law enforcement agencies’ willingness to cooperate, the agents told Nielsen.
[‘Quit your jobs’: Protesters confront ICE workers at Washington headquarters]
Since President Trump’s inauguration, the state of California and several of the country’s largest cities have barred their law enforcement agents from cooperating with ICE by declaring themselves “sanctuary” jurisdictions. That has made it increasingly difficult for HSI agents to fight drug cartels and conduct major criminal investigations in the country’s largest urban areas, the letter said.
“The perception of HSI’s investigative independence is unnecessarily impacted by the political nature of ERO’s civil immigration enforcement,” the agents wrote.
Trump took office promising to quickly deport “2 or 3 million” foreigners, and following his inauguration, ICE interior arrests jumped nearly 40 percent. In recent months, the agency resumed carrying out large-scale workplace raids, winning glowing praise from the president, who said Wednesday at a rally in North Dakota that ICE agents are “mean but have heart,” and that they are “liberating” U.S. communities from the MS-13 gang.
Trump officials say they fear the transnational gang, whose members the president calls “animals,” could take advantage of lax enforcement at the border.
In their letter to Nielsen, the agency’s top investigators painted a starkly different picture — telling her their crime-fighting capability is being stifled by politics.
“Many jurisdictions continue to refuse to work with HSI because of a perceived linkage to the politics of civil immigration,” the investigators wrote. “Other jurisdictions agree to partner with HSI as long as the ‘ICE’ name is excluded from any public facing information.”
In one indication of eroding morale, the special agents told Nielsen that making HSI its own independent agency “will allow employees to develop a strong agency pride.”
The letter, marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” was first reported by the Texas Observer, which posted a copy.
ICE’s acting director, Thomas D. Homan, has been a vocal Trump supporter and an enthusiast of the president’s immigration agenda. But he has announced his retirement and is stepping down this month. A nominee to replace him has yet to be named.
Nielsen has not publicly responded to the letter.
A senior ICE official in Washington said the HSI agents’ letter was “not well received” at the agency’s headquarters, calling it “ill conceived and poorly timed” at a moment when so many staffers feel besieged by the backlash.
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Not surprisingly, a regime built on lies, racism, and White Nationalism isn’t going to be good at much except lies, racism, and White Nationalism. And, that’s the perfect description of the Trump Administration.
Good for these courageous ICE agents! Maybe that’s where a future Administration should look when it comes time to rebuild, rename, and rebrand ICE to shed it’s well-deserved “American Gestapo” reputation earned under Trump, Sessions, and Homan.
And, contrary to the truly idiotic statement by an “obviously chicken” DHS “senior official,” this “rebellion” is a timely and reassuring sign that folks on the inside understand just how toxic the Trump/Sessions dishonest and racist immigration enforcement policy is to real law enforcement, which requires widespread tactical use of “prosecutorial discretion,” intelligent deployment of resources, respect for the courts and judges’ time, a willingness to “just say no” to broken and counterproductive laws that unfairly target racial groups, and, most of all, strategies to gain and keep community trust.
Trump & Sessions are completely inimical to real law enforcement and national security. That’s why they, and not undocumented individuals who are hard-working members of our communities, are an existential threat to the security, welfare, and very continued existence of our republic.
No country can survive a kakistocracy over a long period of time! That’s one thing that Trump, Sessions, and their White Nationalist cronies prove every single day!
The majority of Americans did not vote for this evil “clown show” (and their tone-deaf, unprincipled supporters) to govern us. Somehow, we let an unprincipled minority without concern for the common good, honesty, morality, or human decency seize control. If we don’t take our country back soon through the ballot box, it might be too late!
Get out the vote! Remove all of the clowns and their enablers! Like my “new buddy” George Will said last week: nobody should vote for a Republican this November! (Although to be fair, Georgie detests Democrats — he just doesn’t fear them as much).
PWS
06-29-17