Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

About Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Official ICE protects America through criminal investigations and by enforcing immigration law to preserve national security and public safety. Created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE now has more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world. ICE’s broad mission includes counterterrorism, counterproliferation, counternarcotics, immigration law enforcement within the interior, and investigating crimes ranging from customs fraud to human trafficking and child exploitation. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) enforces immigration law in the U.S. interior, detains removable noncitizens and provides ICE’s detained population with healthcare. Arresting and removing noncitizens who threaten public safety and national security — including known or suspected terrorists, gang members, and those who have committed egregious human rights violations or war crimes — are among ERO’s most important missions. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identifies and builds criminal cases against transnational criminal organizations, terrorist networks and other criminal elements that threaten the United States. It investigates and prosecutes human trafficking, child exploitation, cybercrime, financial crime and a variety of other crimes of exploitation. The directorate’s expert special agents also investigate intellectual property crime, trade fraud and export violations. ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor is the largest legal program in DHS, representing the U.S. in hearings before the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review and prosecuting human rights violator and national security cases.