ICE names new HSI executive leadership

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today the selection of Katrina W. Berger as the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Executive Associate Director, and Patrick McElwain as the HSI Deputy Executive Associate Director. HSI is the principal investigative component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – investigating, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations and terrorist networks that threaten or seek to exploit the customs and immigration laws of the United States.

Prior to this assignment, Berger served as the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) for HSI Atlanta. Berger began her distinguished federal law enforcement career in 1998 as a special agent with the U.S. Customs Service in Tampa, Florida, and has held many key leadership positions within the agency, including serving as the Assistant Director for the Mission Support Division in HSI Headquarters; Chief of Staff for the ICE Deputy Director; the Deputy Assistant Director of HSI’s Domestic Operations Division; and the Deputy Assistant Director for the Transnational Crime & Public Safety Division. She also served as the SAC in Dallas and Deputy Special Agent in Charge in New Orleans. Berger was the first ICE Deputy Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Fusion Center. Prior to entering federal law enforcement, Berger served as an Assistant Public Defender in the Florida Keys and Tampa. She also served as an Assistant Attorney General with the State of Florida’s Office of the Attorney General in Tampa. Berger received her Bachelor of Arts in History at Virginia Tech, her Juris Doctorate at Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad College of Law, and her Master’s in Criminal Justice at Loyola University, New Orleans.

Prior to this assignment, McElwain served as the Assistant Director of International Operations, Deputy Assistant Director for the Counter Proliferations Unit, and the Director of the Federal Export Enforcement Coordination Center for HSI. In 1997, McElwain began his career with the United States Customs Service in Laredo, Texas, as a special agent. In 2001, he continued his service in New York before heading to Washington, D.C. in 2004. From 2008 to 2012, McElwain served as a supervisory special agent and was later promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge in HSI Houston. In 2012, McElwain was selected for the role as Associate Deputy Assistant Director at Domestic Operations in Washington, D.C. McElwain has over 20 years of federal law enforcement experience as a special agent. Mr. McElwain graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from James Madison University.