The last available Dept of Justice annual case prosecution statistics from 2002 of the U.S. Customs Service and the INS prior to the merger of these agencies indicate the following:

In 2002 INS Office of Investigations had 2,255 agents, Customs had 2,779 agents, about 220 more than INS., However, according to the facts, below, INS agents accomplished more – put far more bad guys in jail and presented higher quality work as indicated by far less rates of cases declined for prosecution.

In fact, in 2002, only 690 INS cases compared to 918 Customs cases were declined for prosecution.

In 2002 INS filed 17,814 cases with the US Attorney’s Office that were “concluded” by Federal Prosecutors; Customs had only 8,650 cases – less than ½ the production of INS but 220 more agents.

And the INS focused on the worst of the worst criminal aliens –not only cases that could produce the biggest asset seizures or the most ROI’s per day.

You describe Customs work as more complicated, but a load of smuggled aliens speaking foreign languages along with their smugglers is far more difficult to handle, develop as prosecution witnesses and protect to win a prosecution than a container of fake Pokémon cards, T-shirts or even dope, particularly if the aliens are slaves.

Every prior INS agent that I knew who went to Customs had been a failure in INS and had never completed a criminal case. It’s a joke to say that they left to pursue more cerebral work.

In fact, they did not have the stomach for the comparatively tough INS street work and the complexities of dealing with foreigners to make criminal cases.

“Truth Matters” cute….

Would not be the first time. The USCS SAC/NY in the 1980′s used to do very personal interviews before selecting female agents to get their senior 13s.