Rogers Decries Politicizing of ICE Report
by Mickey McCarter
Wednesday, 30 December 2009


Worksite Enforcement Strategy given to press before Congress

An apparently sensitive document provided to the press prompted the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tuesday to recommend that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revise policies to safeguard law enforcement sensitive information and authorities for declaring that information unclassified.

The recommendation stems from an incident where DHS released ICE Worksite Enforcement Strategy guidelines to the New York Times for an article that appeared on April 30, 2009. Congress received a copy of the same guidelines, marked as law enforcement sensitive, later that day.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who requested the IG review, characterized its findings as proving that DHS was "playing politics" with the leak of the report.

"Today's release of a DHS Inspector General Report, which I requested, demonstrates that individuals broke departmental regulations, policy and prior practice by releasing important law enforcement designated materials to the New York Times before ICE employees or Members of Congress had an opportunity to review this vital information," Rogers said in a statement Tuesday. "Clearly, the New York Times is not the approval authority for ICE worksite enforcement policy and the fact that some at DHS believed this to be the best approach is shocking.

"I am concerned that individuals within DHS and ICE would politicize such important security and policy information, and I hope the Secretary will take immediate steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he added.

ICE should take steps to make certain that its classification of law enforcement sensitive material remains consistent and strictly define who can remove the designation of sensitive information from such documents, acknowledged the IG report, Release of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Worksite Enforcement Strategy.

The agency also should obtain a final review of the specific document, its Worksite Enforcement Strategy, to determine if it is indeed law enforcement sensitive and reissue it without the designation "For Official Use Only, Law Enforcement Sensitive," if appropriate.

ICE concurred with both recommendations.

The IG report noted that the leak of the document to the New York Times created confusion as to whether sensitive information was inappropriately released to the public. ICE spurred development of the Worksite Enforcement Strategy after a worksite raid of a Yamato Engine Specialists facility in Bellingham, Wash., where the agency arrested 28 illegal immigrant workers on Feb. 24, 2009. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before Congress the following day that she was unaware the raid was occurring. She instructed ICE to clarify its mission priorities and procedures for conducting such raids.

The Worksite Enforcement Strategy was finalized in response and then passed to the New York Times as part of a strategy to publicize it.

But the document had carried a designation as law enforcement sensitive information through its drafts until the day before its release, the IG report found. DHS apparently limited involvement in the final draft of the strategy in order to keep it from being leaked to the public, the report added.

DHS officials then decided to provide an exclusive interview with the New York Times as part of its publicity for the rollout of the strategy, the report said.

"Officials involved in the creation of the strategy could not verify when or why the LES [law enforcement sensitive] designation was removed from the document. Although it is unclear who removed the LES designation during drafting, the final strategy signed on the evening of April 29, 2009, did not contain an LES designation," the report stated.

ICE transmitted the strategy to its field offices without the designation as law enforcement sensitive information. But then "with an abundance of caution," it marked it with the law enforcement sensitive designation before releasing it to Congress the same day.

"Although the need for better internal coordination and communication within the department led to confusion over the Worksite Enforcement Strategy's release and sensitivity designation, this event appears to be isolated and is not a systemic issue within DHS or ICE," the IG report concluded. "Nevertheless, ICE should take additional steps to enhance its safeguarding of law enforcement sensitive information to avoid potential future disclosures."

http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/11631/128/