Illegal Immigration: Interior Enforcement, Part 4

For Part 1 of this series, click here; for Part 2, click here; for Part 3, click here.

Task Force Investigations

When local, state and federal law enforcement agencies work together, the resulting synergies can’t be overstated.

I spent roughly ten years as a senior special agent of the INS assigned to the Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force. For four years, I was the INS representative of the Unified Intelligence Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. Some 20 years ago, I decided to compile arrest statistics to see how much involvement aliens had in narcotics-related crimes. Back then, some 60% of the defendants who had been arrested by DEA in New York City were identified as being “foreign born” while nationwide some 30% of those defendants were identified as “foreign born.”

That foreign nationals are heavily involved in narcotics trafficking is not a new problem, but it is a major factor of the problem that our nation’s “leaders” have refused to address! Combining forces with other law enforcement agencies greatly enhanced the effectiveness of INS efforts to neutralize drug trafficking organizations.

Conversely, information contained in immigration files offer tremendous insight into the risk of flight of criminals. This issue is of great importance when a criminal is arrested and is being arraigned. A federal magistrate or a judge must consider two primary issues in fixing bail: danger to the community and risk of flight.

The alien file often reveals a criminal alien’s history of using multiple identities, having been deported and then reentering the United States illegally or failing to show up for immigration hearings.

Furthermore, ICE’s participation in a criminal investigation can save other agencies and prosecutors from unwittingly entering into a plea bargains that enable aliens to avoid criminal charges that would result in their deportation from the United States.

ICE agents can also help to bring additional charges against a criminal aliens such as visa fraud or benefit fraud.

Additionally, an illegal alien in possession of a firearm can be sentenced for a term of five years. Only an ICE agent can provide the necessary evidence that the defendant found to be in possession of that weapon is, indeed, an illegal alien.

ICE agents can be instrumental in “flipping” informants. There are provisions of law that can be used to provide an informant and his family, with lawful status in our country if they are instrumental in assisting law enforcement agents in major criminal investigations.

An ICE agent can also arrest members of criminal organizations on immigration violations without revealing that he is part of a task force that has targeted other members of a terrorist or criminal organization.

If our nation is to gain the upper hand in the many threats that confront our nation and our citizens, it is absolutely essential that there be an adequate number of ICE agents and supporting resources to make the interior enforcement of the immigration laws the priority is desperately needs to be.

It is the politicization of the immigration laws that has gotten our nation into the mess it is in and it must end.

As I noted on a recent “Fox and Friends appearance, our nation’s twin addictions – cheap labor and narcotics – - encourage illegal immigration and its attendant crimes.

Our nation and our citizens are threatened by the prospect of terrorist attacks as well as by the criminal activities of international gangs and narcotics trafficking organizations including the extremely violent and pernicious drug cartels of Mexico and other countries. The only solution is to take on the cartels and win!  This will require a comprehensive approach that couples control of our nation’s borders with effective interior enforcement. Both are vital.