Congress Should Unite ICE & CBP (Amended Title)

By Michael Cutler

Today's Washington Times includes an article about a recent report released by the DHS Office of the Inspector General that was critical of the current structure, in which two separate agencies share the responsibilities for enforcing the immigration laws of this country, and consequently, dividing the mission of border-security in half.

CBP (Customs and Border Protection) includes the Border Patrol and the inspectors at ports of entry. The current structure of "One face at the border" means that employees who had formerly worked as Immigration Inspectors, Customs Inspectors and Agriculture Inspectors now do all of these jobs. In my opinion this is not the best way to have so many complex and critical issues dealt with. In medicine and other professions, we have specialists who deal with a narrow area because of the complexities of the myriad issues they must deal with. These three missions are sufficiently complex and different that in my opinion, they should never have been merged this way.

ICE, (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) handles the issue of the enforcement of customs laws and regulations and immigration laws and regulations from within the interior of the United States. A bureaucratic barrier, in my opinion, and apparently in the opinion of the Inspector General, has been erected between the two agencies that are supposed to secure the borders of the United States. I would also recommend that the enforcement of customs laws and regulations and immigration laws and regulations are so complex and critical to our nation's security that while it is good to have various agencies with separate areas of jurisdiction to work cooperatively, (I was a member of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force). It must be recognized that these areas of law enforcement are so different that it is ineffective to have all of these laws to be enforced by the same employees.

I testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security on the issue of the dual missions of the Immigration Enforcement Agencies (Acrobat file of committee hearing transcript). I am pleased that the Inspector General's recommendation paralleled what I suggested at the hearings where the issue of uniting CBP and ICE are concerned. I would still strongly recommend that the enforcement of the immigration laws and the enforcement of customs laws be divided, with specialists in each area being given responsibility for these different missions. They could certainly work for the same agency, but the complexities of these laws and regulations, in my opinion require that we have specialists. This would also help Congress to conduct meaningful oversight where the effective enforcement of these laws is concerned.

It is vital that our government does whatever needs to be done to secure our borders and restore integrity to the enforcement and administration of these critical laws. My only question is what is taking so long to address these critical but basic issues?

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