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"ICE" = "Immigration and Customs Enforcement".

What CUSTOMS stuff are they doing???

Seriously?

My agency worked with Customs people (before and after the reorg that spontaneously created "DHS" ). There was a very "core" function that they were responsible for and it was/is HUGE and critical to the import/export commerce of the U.S. They are inspecting, tracking manifests of ships, trucks, trains, and planes that go in/out of the U.S. with goods. They are also dealing with the monetary side (assessing/collecting/tracking tariffs/fees, etc), which was WHY they were originally under the Department of Treasury.

Then you have this same 2002-manufactured "CBP" = "Customs and Border Protection".

What are they doing other than duplicating "enforcement" at the border?

And what "literal border" is there when you have people handling customs work away from borders with planes that might land in those cities? That concept makes it all confusing using an explicit term of "border" for those Customs employees who are operating inland but know that their work is handling import/export activity happening at inland airports and in some cases, waterways (river/lake ships).

THEN you have the "replacement" of what was "INS" (Immigration and Naturalization Service) that became "USCIS" (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) that took on the original "immigration" function.

So "immigration" was essentially merged with "Customs" and then artificially split up into what is now "ICE", "CBP", and "USCIS".

The whole 2002 reorg thing to create DHS was REDUNDANT and they had to "pad it" by taking away employees from the Department of Transportation to create "TSA" (Transportation and Security Administration" ). They ridiculously took some staff from the Department of Agriculture who worked for "APHIS" (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service" ), who were originally inspecting agricultural goods coming in the U.S. for pests, and who worked at the docks and airports, handed them guns, and made them LEO. I actually worked with a local one, because our agency had a partnership with APHIS and Customs and coordinated reporting and tracking of goods coming/going across the border to cover our respective "missions".

They need to go BACK to an "Immigration" (people) group and a "Customs" (products) group, and then put "enforcement" BACK under DOJ.