Fact Sheets

ACCESS (PDF | 146 KB) - State and Local Coordination > ICE ACCESS
ICE Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS) provides local law enforcement agencies an opportunity to team with ICE to combat specific challenges in their communities. ICE developed the ACCESS program based on experience gained in responding to widespread interest from state and local law enforcement agencies in the Delegation of Immigration Authority—287(g) program. ICE ACCESS coordinates an umbrella of services and programs.

Immigration Cross-Designation - 287g (PDF | 94 KB) - State and Local Coordination > ICE ACCESS
ICE, the largest investigative agency in DHS, is responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws as part of its homeland security mission. ICE works closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in this mission.

Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) - Office of Investigations > Smuggling, BEST
ICE is the largest investigative agency in DHS. ICE is charged with enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to securing the border and combating criminal smuggling.

Criminal Alien Program (CAP) (PDF | 36 KB) - Detention and Removal Operations > Detention and Removal Operations
ICE, the largest investigative agency in DHS, places a high priority on combating illegal immigration, including targeting illegal aliens with criminal records who pose a threat to public safety. ICE’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP) is responsible for identifying, processing and removing criminal aliens incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons and jails throughout the United States, preventing their release into the general public by securing a final order of removal prior to the termination of their sentences, when possible.

Customs Cross-Designation (Title 19) - State and Local Coordination > ICE ACCESS
ICE, the largest investigative agency in DHS, is charged with a wide array of law enforcement duties aimed at protecting the homeland. In order to be more effective in that mission, ICE works collaboratively with federal, state, and local partners in a force multiplier approach to investigations.

Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces - Office of Investigations > Fraud
Immigration fraud poses a severe threat to national security and public safety because it creates a vulnerability that may enable terrorists, criminals, and illegal aliens to gain entry to and remain in the United States. ICE uproots the infrastructure of illegal immigration by detecting and deterring immigration fraud.

Fugitive Operation Teams (FOTs) (PDF | 40 KB) - Detention and Removal Operations > Detention and Removal Operations
ICE established the first Fugitive Operations Teams in 2003 to dramatically expand the agency’s efforts to locate, arrest, and remove fugitives from the United States. An ICE fugitive is defined as an alien who has failed to leave the United States based upon a final order of removal, deportation, or exclusion; or who has failed to report to ICE after receiving notice to do so.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center - Office of Investigations > Public Safety, National IPR Coordination Center
ICE, the largest investigative arm of DHS, plays a leading role in investigating the production, smuggling, and distribution of counterfeit products. ICE investigations into these IPR violations focus not only on keeping counterfeit products off U.S. streets, but also on dismantling the criminal organizations behind this activity.

Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) (PDF | 45 KB) (En Espanol PDF | 45 KB) - Office of Investigations > Law Enforcement Support Center
LESC is a national enforcement operations facility administered by ICE, the largest investigative agency in DHS. LESC is a single national point of contact that provides timely customs information and immigration status and identity information and real-time assistance to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on aliens suspected, arrested or convicted of criminal activity.

Operation Community Shield - Office of Investigations > Public Safety, National Gang Unit
In February 2005, ICE began Operation Community Shield, a national law enforcement initiative that targets violent transnational street gangs through the use of ICE's broad law enforcement powers, including the unique and powerful authority to remove (deport) criminal aliens, including illegal aliens and legal permanent resident aliens.

Operation Firewall - Office of Investigations > Operation Firewall
In recent years, the smuggling of bulk currency has become a preferred method for drug dealers and other criminals to move illicit proceeds across our borders. ICE has taken a leading role in combating bulk cash smuggling, teaming in 2005 with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to launch Operation Firewall, a comprehensive law enforcement operation targeting criminal organizations involved in the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency.

Operation Predator (PDF | 44 KB) - Office of Investigations > Public Safety, Predator
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security, places a high priority on enforcing laws against child pornography, sexual exploitation, child sex tourism and other crimes against children. Under Operation Predator, the agency’s flagship initiative targeting child sex predators, ICE has made more than 11,600 arrests since 2003.

Rapid REPAT (PDF | 51 KB) - Detention and Removal Operations > Detention and Removal Operations
In November 2007, ICE began meeting with state executive agencies to discuss the concept of ICE Rapid REPAT (Removal of Eligible Parolees Accepted for Transfer) as part of the ICE ACCESS (Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security) initiative. The concept, recently implemented in Puerto Rico and Rhode Island, is modeled after two programs in the States of New York and Arizona that capitalize on ICE’s ability to more effectively identify and ultimately remove criminal aliens from the United States while still preserving the integrity of the criminal justice system.

Secure Communities (PDF | 90 KB) - Secure Communities > Secure Communities
Secure Communities is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiative to moderize the criminal alien enforcement process.