The Biden administration, stung by resistance from sanctuary cities, moved Tuesday to rebrand the government’s immigration law detective force, saying Homeland Security Investigations does far more than pursue immigration cases.
Although it remains part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the deportation agency, HSI said it wants to be known for its wide-ranging investigators with a global reach and the power to pursue cases including drugs, gangs, sex and labor trafficking, terrorism and counterfeit goods.
The rebrand began with a new address, HSI.gov, which is no longer associated with ICE but is hosted as part of the primary DHS.gov site.
“The new website is a reflection of HSI’s commitment to its mission and core values in fighting global threats and protecting American lives,” said Katrina W. Berger, the head of HSI. “With more than 400 criminal statutes to enforce, HSI’s broad and diverse criminal investigative mission has an immediate impact on public safety and the security of our communities.”
The bureaucratic reshuffle is not the full divorce from ICE that some HSI agents have advocated. That would likely take an act of Congress, which created HSI as part of ICE during the government reorganization after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
HSI agents have complained for years about being part of ICE, in particular being associated with the deportation side of the agency known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO.
Agents say sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with HSI on investigations, even those related to gangs or areas not related to immigration, because they don’t want the stigma of working with ICE. Some jurisdictions have laws limiting cooperation.
ERO employees said they wished HSI had stepped up to defend other ICE colleagues. One described HSI’s rebrand as a show of “petulance.”
The head of ERO, Daniel A. Bible, wrote a message to his employees signaling some displeasure with the rebrand.
“ERO has and always will continue to focus its decision making on its most important attribute: each of you,” he wrote. “I do not intend to conduct a wholesale rebranding of ERO. ERO operates with professionalism, honor, compassion and integrity. Our mission will not be swayed by political theater or media rhetoric, and our identity will remain steadfast.”
Skepticism of ICE escalated in the Trump years, fueled by left-wing politicians who led a “Defund ICE” campaign that included some 2020 presidential hopefuls.
Then-Sen. Kamala Harris, California Democrat, didn’t call for full defunding but said the agency needed a shake-up. At one point, she compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan. She said there was a “perception” that ICE used the same tactics as the racist terrorist organization.
She said ICE’s “fear and intimidation” was particularly acute for migrants from Mexico and Central America.
Frustrated agents confronted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the perceptions early in his tenure and asked about splitting HSI from ICE.
Mr. Mayorkas suggested that the issue fueling the problem wasn’t HSI’s work in ICE but rather erroneous views of ICE.
“As difficult as it is for the HSI workforce to conduct its investigations in a jurisdiction that will not work with us, let me say: Imagine the work of ERO and the challenges it has,” he told employees in a tele-town hall. “I think we have a lot of education to do, and I think we have a lot of educating to do not only with city officials in terms of what we do and how we do it, but I think we have a lot of educating to do of the American public.”
One ICE employee said HSI has an “identity crisis” and is still trying to figure out its role. The FBI or the Drug Enforcement Administration could investigate many of its cases.
Jon Feere, who served as ICE’s chief of staff in the Trump administration, said if the goal was to get better cooperation from cities and counties that object to immigration enforcement, then HSI might be disappointed.
“All sanctuary jurisdictions are well aware that HSI is part of ICE and that HSI has the authority to enforce immigration laws,” said Mr. Feere, who is now with the Center for Immigration Studies. “A new webpage isn’t going to change these jurisdictions’ hostility to immigration enforcement.”
He said the border chaos under President Biden has created more immigration work for HSI with an explosion of migrant child labor cases and ongoing immigration fraud.
“HSI has a lot of work within the immigration space on its plate,” he said. “No new webpage is going to change that.”
HSI’s new website downplays immigration work. Its “What we investigate” section lists 14 areas of expertise, only one of them centered on immigration. In that case, the focus was on the cartels leading smuggling operations.
In fiscal year 2023, HSI said, it made 33,108 criminal arrests, seized 1.2 million pounds of narcotics and helped in cases involving 731 victims of human trafficking.