Thread: Obama administration to put drug arrests on ICE

Obama administration to put drug arrests on ICE
Thursday, June 18, 2009 | 12:33 PM

Historic "merger" of federal turf Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff

June 18, 2009 (WLS) -- From Chicago to El Paso and coast-to-coast there is going to be a major troop surge in the war on drugs.

For the first time, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are being granted the authority to make federal drug arrests. Previously, the power to investigate illegal drug cases was held by federal officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI.

The announcement from U.S. Homeland Security and the Justice Dept. comes after a year of infighting between the agencies and their federal responsibilities. "Moving past old disputes and ensuring cooperation between all levels of our Departments has been one of our top priorities since taking office," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder in an unusual joint statement.

"Today's agreement reflects our commitment to working together to protect the American people from violence and criminal activity along our borders. Ultimately, this agreement allows us to utilize the full range of the federal government's capabilities to disrupt and dismantle drug cartels and other criminal organizations that seek to infiltrate our borders" they said.

The growing drug violence between Mexican cartels that has spilled over America's border prompted a "merger" of arrests powers. ICE officials have pressed for expanded drug powers since 2003, when the agency took over customs investigations.

The surge in the drug war will more than double the number of federal agents that the DEA employs. Currently the DEA has 4,800 agents.

"Giving ICE agents the authority to investigate drug trafficking cases, enhancing information sharing capabilities between ICE and the DEA, and ensuring full participation in intelligence centers will strengthen our efforts to combat international narcotics smuggling, streamline operations and bring better intelligence to our front line personnel" stated Napolitano and Holder.

The move will also relieve a personnel strain felt by the DEA since expanding its presence in Afghanistan, which supplies the majority of the world's opium.

It is unclear how quickly the joint arrest powers will affect drug trafficking on Chicago streets, where most of the heroin inventory is from Mexico and much of the cocaine supply is shipped via Mexican supply routes.

While the surge expands federal drug arrest power, there is no indication that a similar surge will occur in illegal immigration arrests. Authorities have not publicly discussed the possibility of a reciprocal move to allow federal drug agents to also make immigration arrests.

Currently, many local police departments and federal agencies other than ICE take a pass on reporting the immigration status of arrestees.

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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=6871807

Currently, many local police departments and federal agencies other than ICE take a pass on reporting the immigration status of arrestees.

Therein lies the problem! We have 20 million illegal invaders in this country! Doesn't ICE have more than enough to keep them busy, especially since many other local, state and even federal law enforcement agencies simply turn a blind eye to illegal invaders - even when they are in their custody!

ICE is already woefully understaffed and funded given the magnitude of the illegal invasion before us. I certainly hope expanding the authority of ICE does not further impact their ability to investigate and arrest illegal invaders currenty squatting in our country.

True, but one advantage of this might be that since most of these drug cartels use illegal aliens to bring the drugs in and distribute them, we might be getting 2 birds with 1 stone this way, stopping the illegal drugs and deporting the illegal aliens who run the business. I've believed that this massive illegal drug operation was made possible for the cartels through illegal immigration where their operatives would work by day as a cover and run the drugs by night. They protect their operation on the "hard working immigrant" who is really a hard running drug dealer.

I know illegal aliens aren't buying brand new F-150's and paying for stuff with wads of cash earning minimum wage. And someone gave them the money to pay these coyotes ... thousands of dollars to bring them here in the first place.

We cannot even get the "deporting the illegals" part right Judy! The drugs are simply a by-product of that failure! We wouldn't have a drug issue if we didn't first have the illegal invader issue!

Besides, you can bet that when ICE does make a bust and drugs are involved, the appropriate agencies are notified and involved.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea per se. What concerns me is that ICE may prioritize those cases involving drugs and disregard those cases without the drug element. I'm simply concerned ( especially with pro-illegal Napolitano at the helm) of a directive that views simply being in this country illegally, and without any additional criminal element being involved (like drugs) may no longer be a priority for ICE.