Debbie,

Obama is using the looming sequester to push through a defacto amnesty.

National security is not among the top priorities of this Administration nor is enforcing our immigration laws or securing our borders.

They wanted to release illegal aliens and the Administration had ample discretion not to do so. The sequester was simply a convenient excuse. Gary Mead’s forced retirement is a sign of ICE’s future and its not a good one.

When it comes to protecting this country, the Administration’s attitude towards illegal immigration, shared by many in the GOP opposition, leave America royally screwed.

NormanF on February 27, 2013 at 5:56 pm

“I’ll bet it all that Gary Mead didn’t vote for Obama…”

Jarret said that people who didn’t support Obama would be punished.

DS_ROCKS! on February 27, 2013 at 6:25 pm

I am not surprised. An individual at such an agency would not release all of those illegals on their own authority. Either Janet Napolitano or Barack Obama are behind the release. It is poetic justice that it happened in Los Angeles, which is ground zero for amnesty and special privileges for illegal aliens. Barack Obama does have a penchant for screwing over his followers, because he can. Do you think that the Mayor of Los Angeles will have the guts to speak out against the Obama Administration over this release? It is doubtful.

Worry01 on February 27, 2013 at 6:52 pm

Janet Planet….what on earth have you done now?

#1 Vato on February 27, 2013 at 7:05 pm

While listening to Rush today regarding this, I thought of that moron John Morton and that mannish disaster “Big Sis”. I bet you those 2 are doing Obama-Putin’s bidding on this. And I know of Morton because of THIS site. Did that jive turkey find a job yet?

It’s a hard race to win but Janet Napolitano is one of the most useless, retardo, disaster-causing freaks in the Obama-Putin administration. She is odious and sick. It’s pretty bad when you have guys who have deep voices DEEPENING their voices to imitate that Lezzers put on deep ass voice (as the Lesbionic Man DOES put it on because when she has to cut video for the nation, her manly voice suddenly gets a tick more feminine and she actually sounds like a FEMALE professor).

She prolly (ironically, as head of HLS) puts the same thing down her pants as Harry Sherer’s foolish character does in “This Is Spinal Tap” when at the airport.

The GOP are toast. Anyone who thinks ANYONE in that bunch is gonna save us is gas huffing. It’s as obvious as the Dolly Parton’s chest that they are slaves to Obama-Putin and the Donks.

Obama-Putin is getting things done and the “little victories” he is accumulating are dizzying and one day they will coalesce and create a huge victory that will make the heads spin of those who paid attention and who didn’t pay attention. But it will be too late.

This is how a tyrant gains ground. It’s frightening.

Skunky on February 27, 2013 at 8:02 pm

Typical Obama. Find someone to push under the bus every time he messes up. At this rate there won’t be a soul left to sacrifice in 6 weeks.

Michelle on February 27, 2013 at 8:29 pm

” After all, right now, ICE is like that disastrous Carnival Cruise ship with no electricity, plumbing, toilet paper, food, or water” and also like the cruise ship, they’re both full of shit!

Mitch on February 27, 2013 at 8:37 pm

The release of these criminals is certainly not good news.

But even without the sequester, I wonder how many of them would have been released soon anyway, given the Government’s record of coddling criminals, including those who are illegal aliens.1

Would this just be speeding up a process that would have taken place anyway, fairly soon?

Little Al on February 27, 2013 at 8:39 pm

Let’s hope the government abolishes ICE, the agency is a total train wreck. The government could realize a huge savings with the move.

The government could put legacy Customs agents in CBP, and put legacy INS agents in charge of the maintenance, transportation, prosecution, and investigation of aliens, under the direct control of Border Patrol. Those employees who are neither legacy Customs or INS could be put into either agency based upon their individual qualifications, pre-dating their entrance into ICE. If they had a minimum of a four year college degree and at least five years of investigative experience they would go to Customs and if they only possessed a high school degree, or a college degree and no prior investigations experience, they would be assigned as immigration agents. Also, by returning the immigration agents to their real full performance grade of GS-12 the government would enjoy even further savings.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed folks!

King David on February 27, 2013 at 9:20 pm

Really, David? Still clinging to the old INS vs. Customs thing? That’s just depressing. Get over it, my man.

Legacy INS on February 28, 2013 at 12:13 am

Let me guess, Dave…you rearrested a drug mule that a squared away inspector found for you? Great job. You’re a shit-hot investigator alright. Lolz.

Legacy INS on February 28, 2013 at 12:17 am

Gary is retiring again. He retired about three to four years ago from DHS/ICE/DRO. He returned again and now is retiring once more. He was not in a covered position, thereby, he was not subject to the mandatory retirement age limit for Federal Law Enforcement Officers, such as 6c or 12d.

Former ICE DRO on February 28, 2013 at 12:32 am

Why would a ‘mensch’ fall on his sword for Obama?? What would that accomplish except muddy the waters for a guy who deserves to have his transparency seen for what it is. It is extortion against the people, and any opponents, and he’s endangering the welfare of americans. And Mead…. the mensch knows this, so …. why fall on his sword? For Obama?
Why not simply say that he had nothing to do with this debacle and he’s ashamed that it was done…why leave his honor in the dirt for the extorter in chief?

mgoldberg on February 28, 2013 at 7:51 am

Before abolishing ICE I think we should abolish the DEA! We spend so much money on trying to fight issues that simply cannot be defeated!

Kershaw on February 28, 2013 at 9:13 am

THE RELEASE WASN’T A MISTAKE. It was part of Obamas’ plan to alarm the sequester situation. This regime is pathetic in how they are able to manipulate the weak minded.
Hopefully Woodward will be angered and do a Watergate type expose’ on the Obamas. Maybe we can finally get to the truth.
He may be the only person that can pull off an expose’ and be believed. They discredit any body that sullies the name obama.

Bob on February 28, 2013 at 9:47 am

hhmm lets see we have hagel loves iran and muslims hates jews we have head od cia whos muslim we have head of of homeland who cant find a terrorist under her bed were in good shape generals are desrting the sinking ship america today is full of immigrants who hate the american way of life

martin on February 28, 2013 at 10:27 am

Glad to see it finally coming to this….what a pathetic waste of taxpayer’s money and run by pole smoking golden boys.

Can’t miss them…they’re the ones with the glazed doughnut look on their faces and legacy customs pins on the lapels of their JC Penney sportcoats!

LMFAO!!!!!!!

IceNoMore on February 28, 2013 at 11:18 am

Calling Gary a good guy is like saying that doing bad things is good as long as you cover it up well. It’s all about point of view I guess, to those he helped to get undeserved positions and Contructor’s Companies that made millions with him in power, he is Messiah no doubt. To those that are targets of his retaliation techniques, on the whim reassignments, downgrades and overblown fact finders investigations, well…they probably think of him as a Messiah too. In case you all forgot, Gary was always with those who is in power right now and you couldn’t get ‘yes’ fast enough out of him. Money and Power is tha name of the game. If he is out of Power today, wait a little and see who will pay him tomorrow. Would it be the same company he made millions for or would he fade away with the rest of “good” SESs like his former friend John Torres he betrayed?

JustAnotherServant on February 28, 2013 at 11:30 am

According to a report in the Daily Rash, during his appearance on CBS This Morning, Joe Biden said the Department of Homeland Security is “crawling with lesbians.” http://www.thedailyrash.com/biden-says-department-of-homeland-security-crawling-with-lesbians

Holly on February 28, 2013 at 1:08 pm

Holly, VP knows the best. Gary hired a few of those himself as a part of the program I bet.

JustAnotherServant on February 28, 2013 at 1:24 pm

DHS/HSI can sequester the over paid ins clerks posing as agents, GS-13 and above, with the money saved on salaries paid to those that sit on their ass all day waiting for lunch, ERO/DRO could easily pay for detaining the illegals. So, once again, the ignominious ins part of HSI/ICE with the stroke of a pen, releases illegal aliens from detention, of course making sure that they agree to report to ICE regularly. This can only happen in the ins domain, which is all administrative, and not criminal. It’s tantamount to FBI releasing arrested terrorists, DEA releasing drug smugglers, the Marshals releasing prisoners, they can’t do that legally. There was no mechanism, policy, or rules, in the legacy Customs service to release anyone once arrested, not even the counterfeit NFL tshirt sellers. But of course I don’t expect any of the legacy ins Clowns to comprehend that, especially since most of them themselves were awarded GS-13 and above pay, with the stroke of a pen; and many were given the title “special agent” with the mighty stroke of the DD’s pen. So now the timing is perfect, with the stroke of a pen demote the ins Clowns back to their full performance level of GS-7-12, and the Clown ASACs to their full performance levels of 12-maybe 13, definately not SES, divert those savings to Detention. And while the going is good, with the stroke of a pen, abolish ICE/HSI, they’re worthless anyway; move all the “special agents” (the ins Clowns) to DRO/ERO or BP, they’re the ones doing all the work.

MF Jones on February 28, 2013 at 2:34 pm

MR. Jones,

That’s a lot of stroking of the pen in a dream with clowns as main characters. I get it, heart wants what the heart wants and you loved the way it was, never the way it is.

JustAnotherServant on February 28, 2013 at 2:56 pm

MF “No Cojones” Jones is once again letting his battleship mouth get ahead of his rowboat ass. With all his banter centered around clowns, he must be one of the legacy customs ass-clowns that screwed up the agency from the start.

customs, customs don’t be blue…Tinker was a fairy too.

Now go pour yourself a steamy mug of STFU!

IceNoMore on February 28, 2013 at 4:16 pm

bow down before the one you serve.
you’re going to get what you deserve.

Frankz on February 28, 2013 at 5:17 pm

Gary was against this two months ago when it was tabled by JM and his staff. No doubt he made the decision to roll because of it.

FlyingPig on March 1, 2013 at 9:39 am

95% of the complaints at ICE/HSI from special agents in the field at SAC/RAC offices, have been about how no one does criminal investigations anymore, no one “does anything”, except process and release, and these are special agents, not DRO or ERO (Early Release Org.) Special agents at one time were expected to conduct criminal investigations and make criminal arrests, that was their job. Now Special agents are not expected to conduct criminal investigations or make criminal arrests; just hang around waiting for that next big worksite operation that never comes, and are still getting GS-13 pay, and promotions to 14′s and SESs. Lagacy ins got all the benefits of being a special agent when ins merged with Customs, yet did not do any of the work required. All they brought was a dysfunctional, bigoted culture, full of gossip queens and ass kissers extraordinaire; their former clerks are now ASACs that have never conducted a criminal investigation in their careers. And now no one is doing any of the work required. Now would be the perfect time to clean house, sequester ICE/HSI by paying for what they are getting, which is not much. Demote the Clowns to their full performance levels of GS-7-12, and transfer the savings to the guys that are doing the real work right now, DRO. The pen is mightier than the sword, ask any former ins DD.

MF Jones on March 1, 2013 at 11:55 am

@ MF No Cajones” Jones

Demote the pole puffing, back stabbing legacy customs clowns because they weren’t doing any investigative work either. Milking cases by doing a BS ROI entry off a phone call and not pounding the ground doesn’t quite qualify. Major cases including dope, child porn, human trafficking, et al were being closed with successful prosecution by legacy INS agents while the tinker bells from customs were still writing limp ROI entries on cases 4-5 years old with no movement towards Grand Jury or prosecution. It was the “Look at me…look what I did” which amounted to zero, zip, nada. But the Golden Boy Club took care of their own no matter how much the f**ked up or did nothing while SAC’s, ASAC’s, RAC’s (the vast majority legacy customs) went after INS with a vengeance.

Legacy INS did BOTH immigration and customs cases….legacy customs refused to do immigration because they didn’t know how and weren’t held to the fire by their blue brethren because their “special”….what a joke!

Glad I pulled the pin on that impotent agency a long time ago.

IceNoMore on March 1, 2013 at 2:24 pm

IceNoMorON you are exactly that and 200% unclear on the concept. USCS was fine where it was and the truth is INS was abolished because they were derelict in their duty. Maybe YOU werent’ but the majority was.

Leave it alone…you sound like a sour puss fool.

patriausa on March 1, 2013 at 5:09 pm

I don’t know why Gary Meade resigned, but he also was a vindictive manager, as well as an efficient one, according to some I know. Most however would take the bad because the good was good enough. Maybe he retired in protest, but he wasn’t forced out at all from what I heard.

In the end though, this one is pretty simple folks, they are cutting loose bed spaces to save money so people don’t have to be furloughed. Is that a good thing? I don’t know, but I would rather have a full complement of agents and officers than holding onto people with non-violent convictions. If we were going to furlough, I wouldn’t target agents first. Not to knock our admin staff, but they could furlough everyone of them except the timekeeper who submits our T&A’s and part-time the staff that handles facilities and contracts at HQ that keep our bills paid and lights on. Do that, then we could fund some more bed spaces to get those criminal aliens back in. (and outright fire the admin officer in my SAC)

Of course, this scores political points with all of the latino voters who have complained that the Obama administration has deported more than any other administration prior. That is mainly due to systems that identify criminal aliens while still in custody, and not administration goals to be the biggest deporters ever. By letting these aliens go, they get to curry favor with a group that was pissed. Was it Obama/Biden’s idea? Probably not, but they knew he’d like it, plus the gradual release over the next few weeks gets to scare people on sequestration. I’m sure that they’ll get a pat on the back.

On another note, I’d really like to know where MF works. Does anyone on here honestly see more administrative arrests and processing than they used to? We hardly do admin arrests, unless it is directly related to a smuggling or fraud case, anymore. And if we’re so bogged down with processing aliens, why are the stats in my office going up? I think MF and KD just see an admin arrest and fall apart, rather than just getting it out of the way and moving on. If this is so debilitating to your work, how many have you done this year? One maybe….two? A handful one week as the duty agent?

And equating releasing administratively arrested aliens with terrorists and criminals is ridiculous. First, you as an agent never had any control over the detention of a criminal arrestee, neither did the Customs service. Once arrested, they are held in custody before trial only to secure their presence for trial or sentencing. It’s the judge who has say, not an agent or agency, whether they are released, held on bond, or detained. As for aliens, they are held if they pose a risk of flight prior to their deportation proceedings being completed, for non-mandatory custody cases, that is the decision of ERO. No mandatory detention aliens are being released, it is always the discretion of the agency, and it’s not the only time they’ve done this. I remember a time when we had no money for detention at all and cut loose every administrative arrest except for a mandatory detention. I think this is bad policy, but by example Jurisdictions release convicted criminals from municipal and county jails before their sentences are finished all the time because of budget constraints. Could they fire some of their deputies to afford more detention space? Sure, but they don’t for obvious reasons.

Don’t get me wrong, I think releasing these aliens is a bad idea and even worse message. I also think that they could have cut back on vehicle use and furloughed admin staff to save $ and kept more in custody. But on this one, you legacy Customs whiners ought to be glad for the merger. Without these immigration detainee bed spaces to cut, you’d be getting furloughed one day a week like all these agencies.

please on March 1, 2013 at 9:23 pm

Based on the writing style and repetitve use of “clowns” MF Jones used to post as QTD. If memory serves He was a Customs agent in Chicago who was fired years ago. Perhaps he works at Mcdonalds now.

Steve Stevenson on March 1, 2013 at 9:58 pm

CBP internal affairs agents have GS14 pay. Start cutting there.

sandiegofed on March 2, 2013 at 2:35 am

INS NEVER did any cases but immigration cases (Title 8). INS was not allowed to investigate anything Customs or drug related. In a lot of INS districts the special agents there were not even allowed to initiate proactive investigations, or even interview people outside of a Port of Entry. Interestingly, now in ICE, most former INS special agents talk about how there where hardened, badass, gang investigators taking down organized gangs and getting into knock-down-drag-out brawls, which is totally hilarious as INS investigators were specially prohibited from working any gang-related cases or working on gang task forces via a memo from the Commissioner of INS, Doris Meissner (the Commissioner who also took INS employee’s guns away because she rightly realized that they were not law enforcement officers). INS agents were only allowed to process the deportation paperwork AFTER the alien gang member was arrested and put into a jail.

Let’s not forget that INS was an agency that allowed people to become special agents without ANY prior law enforcement training. There are legacy INS agents in ICE now that have never been through any law enforcement academy.

Customs was one of five federal agencies with general arrest authority, which means that the agency could investigate any federal violation (Customs also had state peace officer status in many states).

King David on March 2, 2013 at 11:06 am

Everybody calls them Clowns, it’s not a patented term exclusively for use by QTD.

Ins had a union that prevented them from working late nights and weekends, legacy ins fail also always fail to mention that fact. They wouldn’t work past 3:00 pm unless the union got approval for overtime. Another fact is that the District Director regularly appointed “special agents” from the ranks of clerks, secretaries, and temporary workers. The agents were regularly assigned by the DD to work adjudications, granting residency and asylum to applicants. In short, they did very little criminal “investigations”, but a lot of mundane, GS-5, bullshit immigration busy worm sort of what is being done now. By the way Customs just released 2,000 detainees that were selling NFL t-shirts, or that were busted by inspectors at the ports. 3,000 more in March.

MF Jones on March 2, 2013 at 12:07 pm

King D and MF:

I don’t want to call you guys (or girls as it may be) liars, because you may just be misinformed. I think some of your venom has got to be because you work in an office that had a batch of INS slugs and those were who you dealt with most. That said, I will set you both straight:

- you are wrong about INS investigations being solely title 8. If money laundering, assault, peonage, hostage taking, Manna Act or other violations happened in the course of an immigration investigation we can and did paper it. True, only an INS OCEDETF or VGTF agent would work directly on drug cases and only then while in their TF, other dope cases we’d turn over to locals or the DEA, sometimes to Customs. But I think the poster earlier was pointing out that legacy INS agents have SINCE the merger closed dope cases and that legacy Customs have stayed away from human smuggling/fraud type cases.

- I personally went out on gang task forces and arrested gang members on admin charges all the time. INS guys were everywhere on these TF’s, they loved having us to put pressure on the gangs and get cooperators by using admin authority. It was a GREAT tool. Stupid to think otherwise.

- EVERY INS agent had to have at least gone to the Special Agent training, deportation/immigration agent training, inspections or border patrol academy. If some clerks were hired to become agents through a promotion announcement, they were sent to school. If you were a DEO, Examiner, or Clerk and got hired as an SA, you HAD to go to the Special Agent academy. Now you’ve been told, so stop lying.

- MF, you are MF’ed. After the merger it was a joke how much more we legacy INS agents worked at night than the legacy Customs guys outside of the contraband/narcotics group. Everyone of those cyber/AIRG/financial pussies was in their car and out the door an 4:29 pm (normally with a stop at the store or for h-hour), and G-d forbid if you needed them to help with an early morning surveillance. The INS union didn’t prevent shit. If you had a case that was rolling that night, too eff’n bad, you were working as long as it took, supervisors did not have to seek Union approval. What we did get was protection from some 18 hour planned shift scheduled out 3 weeks in advance, and either got more people to work or received OT after 10 hours. As for weekends, I got called out constantly, and very frequently HAD to do surveillance on Saturdays. The Union could help you from being railroaded (but in truth ended up protecting slugs too) but they did not save us from weekends or nights. That’s a fact from someone who lived it. Now, stop lying.

please on March 2, 2013 at 4:29 pm

Of course INS agents worked nights, they got overtime after the second hour (whereas Customs agents only got LEAP). If an INS did A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G on a weekend they got OT AND a floating day off during the work week. There were INS agents buying new Harleys just from the overtime they were receiving from operation ICE storm in Phoenix. Did the Customs agents get OT? No.

And, the story about the requirement for INS special agents having to go through some sort of an academy is just plain wrong. There are legacy INS agents in ICE who have never been through any academy. And, ICE has continued the INS tradition of just allowing people to transfer into ICE law enforcement positions. My friends at the academy tell me that the head of the academy has no LE experience and no college degree (seriously, for the lead position at the academy the person should have exemplar qualifications and experience), and the head of international affairs is an attorney with no LE qualifications (and this person is interfacing with LE counterparts in foreign countries, what must they think of us?).

Please, please school yourself.

King David on March 2, 2013 at 7:15 pm

KD-

You’re a rube. If overtime work was assigned well in advance of the week, anything past ten hours is paid as OT. That’s in the regs, try reading them. Secret Service and many other agencies got the same deal. It’s not some union benefit, it’s something an agency is required to do by LAW. If Customs agents didn’t ask for it, that’s their problem. And the only thing floating here is your turd of a post, there were no “floating” days off. In ten years pre-merger I got about 8 hours of OT total, I’m sure in some places there was more, but in my office we never had the budget. I have averaged about 15 hours LEA worked per week for my career, and unlike every Customs agent I know, I never counted my commute nor had any “availability” hours. I worked.

I have never met a single legacy INS agent who did not go either to deportation, inspections, border patrol, or special agent training. If you know one for a fact (and I doubt it) it is an exception.

The acting head of OIA is an attorney, so what? Last time I checked, law enforcement encompasses “legal” issues, especially with issues such as trade violations, repatriation, and money laundering, etc. If that was a more operational position like the head of HSI, I might agree with you, but I don’t care. OIA still answers to law enforcement personnel at HSI. As for experience, I just read the dude’s bio, says he worked for DOJ in Bogota advising on narco trafficking issues. Seems like to me that is some sort of qualification. What does that have to do with INS “tradition”.

I will agree with you on one point though: if the head of training (I’m assuming you mean HSI) doesn’t have experience or a degree, that’s pretty poor. But that would be a bad decision in any agency, and would have been criticized in legacy INS too.

You’re describing a world full of uneducated, under performing, lazy and incompetent employees that I don’t recognize. I can tell you this: the taxpayers got a good deal with INS agents in my experience, we worked hard and produced, and that’s all you can ask.

please on March 2, 2013 at 7:51 pm

If you want evidence of INS special agents that were bereft of any LE training, then I would suggest that you review the cases of the District Directors that brought a lawsuit against ICE, in which they prevailed, and as a result they were made GS-15 1811’s overnight. They had no prior LE training, which ICE used initially as a reason to deny them 1811 status; they won because they could prove that there were legacy ICE special agents, prior to the merger that did not have any form of LE training. Maybe they were some of them gang “investigators?”

Also, if you talk to people who were at the academy at the time of the merger, there were plans in place to make those legacy INS agents with no prior LE training go through the ICE academy. Some agents were put through, but the plan was ultimately shelved because there were so many agents without any form of LE training that the cost would have been prohibitive.

King David on March 2, 2013 at 11:20 pm

I think you’re off on both accounts. What you had were District Directors who started in say – inspections, then became an agent, then got promoted to supervisory inspections or adjudications, then became District Directors. Going from covered, to non-covered, to secondary coverage positions was the issue, and it was just a way to push those out in favor of Legacy Customs personnel. Technically, those District Directors who thought they were SA’s weren’t, unless they had come directly from INS Investigations. If you worked your way to the top to become a DD, you would normally make a pit stop in a non-covered position along the way (inspections, exams). Most were useless and no one would have missed them anyway. But it is not accurate to say these people didn’t have some form of LE experience. At one time they used to train and arm adjudicators in the old INS, a lot of these long time INS employees had been gun toters at one point.

There were a small number of HQ and region positions that they didn’t know what to do with after the merger who were converted to SA’s, those people were sent to the academy. They also set up a cutoff date for those that hadn’t been to CITP or Immigration Special Agent training. If you were not a GS-12 by some date in the fall of 03, you had to go to CI school. If you had already been an INS SA GS-12 as of that time and had been to the BP, Inspections or Deportation academy, you were grandfathered. They didn’t send everyone to CITP who hadn’t been already because it would be ridiculous to send a GS-12 agent with years experience in investigating and prosecuting cases back to the academy.

You are going off of rumors, I know people that were directly affected by this and went back to FLETC for CITP, or had just made the cutoff.

Bottom line: legacy INS agents probably make up no more than 15% of the HSI rank and file, and only about 10% of senior leadership. It is time to get past blaming this small and relatively non-influential minority. Immigration enforcement will always be a political football, but there is no “INS” culture to blame at HSI. John Clark – Marcy Forman – Jim Dinkins, all legacy Customs and the only heads of investigations since the merger. That is our institutional culture. USCIS is the agency that inherited the INS culture.

please on March 3, 2013 at 12:50 am

Please: It is just a matter of perception. From where you were, INS, looking up from the very bottom, anything would be and is an improvement. But, from someone coming from Customs, looking down at what HIS/ICE is, which is an “improved” version of INS, just magnifies how low we have sunk.

I just don’t have the wherewithal to make you understand because you have lived in the environment of mediocrity for so long that it had become your normal existence. It is akin to trying to explain the Theory of Relativity to a monkey.

King David on March 3, 2013 at 9:12 am

I got it. Say no more. You need to perpetuate your fantasy that Customs was the elite of the elite. A corps of unstoppable investigators, partnered with their intrepid inspectors, all driven by infallible policies devised by their brilliant managers. Thank goodness Customs single-handedly stopped drug trafficking, money laundering and IPR fraud and then came on to save INS from itself. Customs would have been successful, having placed all of their personnel in every senior leadership position and but a 2-3 of SACs, but they were thwarted in this effort by a handful of GS’s who didn’t go to college. Thus the glory of ‘ol Customs was dimmed, the shine of their badges muted, and King David, MF, QTD and the bunch had to sadly trudge along towards retirement. Of course, being perfection personified, you would think our Customs heroes could actually use their new authorities and existing skill to make an even better agency, but living in the past and complaining about the present leaves no time to work for the future. Keep cashing that paycheck boys, the rest of us will make up for the time you spend crying and looking at your lucite encrusted badges reminiscing about the old times.

please on March 3, 2013 at 10:18 am

LA’s SAC never did a case in his life, yet here he is running the largest office in the country. He worked as a deportation officer, then got hired on as a agent, then immediately went to the LESC, then got his 14 at HQ. He wants us to get informants signed up but he never had one. what gives.

Por Favor on March 3, 2013 at 11:32 pm

King Douchebag and MF ‘No Cajones” Jones are “Legends in Their Own Minds” which seemed to be the staple of most legacy customs twinkies who are all blow and no show.

Dismiss them as the little children they are….

IceNoMore on March 4, 2013 at 9:53 am

DENIAL is a natural defense when confronted with overwhelming facts. The old ins DD’s wielded tremendous power, and also abused it, by handing out coveted “special agent” letters to former secretaries, clerks, inspectors, adjudicators, maintenance workers, etc., with the stroke of a mighty pen they were given the special agent title. Some had training, the ins training curriculum that centered around the apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants, as most of the ins job categories do. That left very little room for criminal investigations, which is why ICE/HSI is now overflowing with incompetent CLOWNS. At the whim of the DD, agents were assigned to process asylum and resident applications. The ins agent union, which by the way was the only one in federal law enforcement and that fact speaks volumes, allowed it. Fact: there are former secretaries and temporary worker clerks that ingratiated themselves with the DD and were given “special agent” positions even though they had absolutely no law enforcement experience. Fact: a former ins GS-13 supervisor, who was bumped up to a 14 after the merger, admitted that he had never worked a CI, and had no other agents in his group ever work one either, so he was not familiar with the CI policy. Fact: After the merger Customs discovered many of these former fat cat “special agents” had absolutely no training, and attempted to force them to graduate from the academy; very few did, some got waivers (which DID NOT mean they were qualified, just connected), and some retired. Fact: there are legacy ins agents right now that never went to agent training, never worked a CI, never did a surveillance, never gathered evidence, never arrested anyone criminally, never worked a case, yet got their 13 and expect to be promoted to 14. Fact: ins had no formal chain of custody for evidence, the desk drawer was good enough for the good ol’ boys. Fact: Most of the “agents” time were spent processing illegals for “deportation”. Fact: legacy ins had no formal safeguarding procedure for grand jury evidence, well because they never went to one. BTW Customs just released 2,000 counterfeit t-shirt sellers, and plan on releasing 3,000 more in March.

MF Jones on March 4, 2013 at 11:54 am

The SAC of San Francisco reportedly does not have a college degree and his experience was in seizing Mexican bologna and avocadoes in San Diego as an inspector. The SAC of DC reportedly does not have a college degree and has no investigations experience. The SAC of New York reportedly has no investigations experience and has a college degree from a paper mill. The head of the ICE academy reportedly also does not have a college degree and has no LE experience.

That’s the beauty of the INS system: No experience required for hiring or advancement.

Kind David on March 4, 2013 at 12:04 pm

MF – your supposed facts aren’t even worth addressing in detail. A little bit of truth mixed with a lot of fiction to make a universal point. Secretaries getting appointed to SA jobs by the DD, really? No formal chain of custody, really? Don’t you want to be at least credible, even if you are just trolling for responses? I’ve said before on here in response to you and others that there were slugs who hid from work and who only wanted to do admin arrests, but there was no time left for criminal work, really? And you say we are in denial…..

King D –

SAC SF is legacy Customs, don’t blame us for him, or his selection. Besides, in his HSINet bio he’s a hero, just read it. As for SAC DC, well, he has his own issues, but to be fair he was a field agent who did cases, and not just admin arrests. You are spot on with the SAC NY, but for one important matter: it was legacy Customs folks that fell in love with him and set him on his path to glory. It was no INS “system”, but your infallible former Customs leaders that made him their golden boy. So, please tell me once again how it is that an INS culture ruined it for you, when it is your leaders pulling the strings at every turn.

Hmmm, ever think this place sucks because of, well, people like you? Clark-Forman-Dinkins, 22 of 26 SACs. It’s yours, own it.

Please on March 4, 2013 at 2:39 pm

Please, you miss the point. Because HSI was modeled after INS, those people with their lackadaisical qualifications were allowed to advance so far. The SAC of SF has a high school degree in an area of the country where local police officers have a minimum of Bachelor’s degrees and command staff a minimum of Master’s degrees (would it be any surprise then that the locals think that he is a joke?). The SAC of DC has no background in ACTUAL criminal investigations, and sources say does not even possess a high school degree. The SAC New York’s “law enforcement” experience was comprised of sitting in a jail in Orange County, California and processing illegal aliens.

Customs upper management sold out the agency for personal enrichment because they knew that they would go far in ICE. Ask Customs employees about the memo that Clark sent out ordering people not to say anything bad about the merger because at one point it looked like it would not go through.

As for Dinkins, sigh, let’s keep in mind his Customs nickname: “Dumb-kins.” He seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice more than anything else.

But not for the fact that ICE is just a renamed INS, these people would not be where they are today. It took an average of ten years in Customs to make supervisor grade, in ICE they have people making it three years out of the academy.

And MF Jones is correct in that INS seized property and that there was no property chain-of-custody involved. Ask people about the Phoenix, Arizona INS office where property was kept in an unlocked bank vault—guns and other property disappeared from that area and no one knows where it went. And although you refuse to believe it, there are people in INS who were hired as Special Agents with no LE training. As I have said before, contact work force management or the Dallas hiring center and they will verify it for you.

HSI = INS

King David on March 4, 2013 at 7:25 pm

There was a policy (written, not imagined) in place for chain of custody and seized property at INS, sounds like Phoenix did not follow it. Every office I went to, including my own, had a locked evidence room, an assigned evidence custodian and normally a couple of backups. Those people were the only ones with the combo to the room. You had to sign your evidence out and be witnessed by a custodian. Typical stuff for any law enforcement agency. Now, as for the personal property of administrative arrests, that WAS a mess, but that was an ERO issue.

I know for a FACT that the legacy Customs leadership would have done anything they could have to prevent the merger. The die was cast and there is nothing a career employee could do but make the best of a bad situation. That said, they have been in charge since the beginning, and still head up the HSI Director, Deputy, and the head of Ops and Programs. Hell, for years Marcy Forman controlled every promotion in the agency, she created most of these problems and was hardcore Customs all the way. The culture created here in HSI is not the old INS, not by far. I am not saying it is worse, or better, but it is nothing like the old INS culture.

Please on March 4, 2013 at 10:08 pm

ins policy wasn’t worth the paper it was written on, unless you took it with you to the latrine. ins policy and procedures were pretty much lax and ineffective. Some followed, most didn’t. It was like they ran the agency, half-ass. ICE/HSI today is being run the same way, ins sub-standards, every immigration law is being violated by everyone; in immigration court everything is appealable, that’s why deportations and other adverse action against illegals takes years; every immigration law passed during the last amnesty period of Simpson-Mazzoli regarding employment of illegals, is being violated, and no one does anything about it, not even ICE/HSIO. Customs is hamstrung having to promote Clown ins “agents” to positions because of agency affirmative action, can’t discriminate against the lncompetant unqualified. Customs tried to clean house but were overwhelmed by the enormity of the incompetance of ins. So now we have what we have: ICE/HSI the fumbling, bungling, keystone kop, clown of an agency that is the laughing stock of all federal law enforcement; the agency no criminal needs to worry about, unless they work at Chipotles, the agency where bureaucracy and Clownism reigns.

MF Jones on March 13, 2013 at 12:35 pm