A homeland security employee sent me this depressing story about the FBI and DHS feuding over a name change:

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not get a name change, Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia told employees Friday afternoon.

The announcement puts an end to a months-long effort by ICE officials to change the name to the Bureau of Investigations and Criminal Enforcement, a title they felt more aptly described the range of missions carried out by the agency, which is the investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department. The recommended new name received favorable reviews from senior homeland security officials, including Asa Hutchinson, the department’s undersecretary for border and transportation security, but ultimately was not adopted.

“While hopeful that our name could be changed to more accurately reflect the scope of our mission and the diversity of our law enforcement authorities, I feel it is more important at this time to move forward,” Garcia told employees in an e-mail.

The assistant secretary cited the need to issue ICE badges and credentials to agency personnel, and the length of time that had passed since the name change was proposed, as reasons for his decision. Because ICE’s name has been in flux, ICE agents still carry badges from their former agencies, such as the Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Some ICE employees say the name change was scuttled by the FBI, which did not want ICE to use the word “investigations” in its title. “Every agent feels that way,” said one ICE agent. A former Homeland Security official who asked to remain anonymous backed this view, saying the issue was discussed by FBI Director Robert Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. “There were some meetings on it at very high levels involving Secretary Ridge and Director Mueller, and the bottom line is the FBI won out,” said the former official.

My source comments:

The FBI now has authority to enforce immigration laws, has taken terrorism financing investigations away from DHS, and is currently seeking statuatory authority to investigate strategic crimes/export crimes (traditionally a Customs responsibility) and is seeking border search authority (an authority always unique to immigration and customs authorities). Once more, they derail a plan that would have had a tremendous impact on this agency (ICE) in terms of morale, cooperation, and identity. It seems that much of our job is “smoke and mirrors” because the FBI is really doing the work that Homeland Security was intended to.

I’m sympathetic to ICE agents who feel demoralized. But the idea of Ridge and Mueller wasting time on this catty turf war is ridiculous. Can’t they just all get along? Don’t they all have something better to do with their time and our money?

comments (0)   trackbacks (0)