I have been a long-time advocate of increasing the resources and attention paid to the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States.  I have referred to interior enforcement of these laws as the "Third leg" what I have come to refer to as the "Immigration Enforcement Tripod."
 
To reiterate this concept, the inspectors enforce the immigration laws at ports of entry, the Border Patrol enforces the laws between ports of entry and the special agents of ICE enforce the laws from within the interior of the United States (along with the personnel assigned to the Detention and Removal program) and back up the other two components of the immigration enforcement tripod. 
 
Interior enforcement encompasses a number of significant elements including, as the article I have attached below illustrates, the so-called "Employer Sanctions" program which is designed to discourage the hiring of illegal aliens.  The other elements of interior enforcement includes the investigation of fraud; both fraud documents as well as fraud schemes that would enable aliens to obtain immigration benefits to which they would not be entitled if all facts were known.  These benefits can include the conferring of resident alien status and even United States citizenship.  Additionally, interior enforcement also encompasses investigations into alien smuggling and human trafficking, the apprehension and prosecution of  criminal aliens who have been deported from the United States because of criminal convictions, the identification of criminal aliens who have been convicted of felonies and their subsequent removal from the United States upon completion of jail sentences for their original felonies.  Finally, the interior enforcement program also contributes special agents to various task forces such as the Drug Task Force, where I spent many years as a senior special agent and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
 
While not entirely conclusive, you can see that the interior enforcement mission is a multi-mission operation and its goals are critical to the success of the overall objective of securing our nation against illegal aliens, especially those who are a threat to our nation.  I am greatly encouraged that for the first time in quite some time, ICE appears to have a director who understands the need to remove the incentives that draws the majority of illegal aliens across our nation's borders.  However, in order for ICE to be the effective agency it truly needs to be, this nation needs to provide ICE with much greater funding in order to carry out its many missions.  ICE should be routinely doing the sort of investigation that was highlighted in the article I have attached below and the administration has been very reluctant to actually provide those needed resources to the enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States as well as along our nation's borders.
 
On March 10th of last year, in fact, I testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims at a hearing that was entitled,  "Interior Immigration Enforcement Resources.  I was called upon to comment on the fact that the Congress had authorized funds to hire an additional 800 special agents for ICE while, incredibly, the administration only wanted to hire an additional 143 new special agents.  I was disappointed that given the ongoing war on terror and all of the other issues confronting ICE that only 800 new positions were being funded.  I cannot begin to tell you in civilized language my reaction to the administration's desire to slash that number of new positions to a mere 143.  You can read a copy of the entire hearing at:
    
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/printers/109th/99785.pdf
 
In addition to hiring many additional special agents to enforce the immigration laws, which apparently MS Myers, the assistant director of ICE, wants to enforce, the agents need to be given the training that they need in order to be truly effective.  When I attended Border Patrol Academy, all INS enforcement personnel were required to undergo training in the Spanish language.  This was because it is recognized that the great majority of illegal aliens speak Spanish and it was also recognized that you cannot investigate people you are unable to communicate with.  Additionally, it is vital that these agents all be given on-going training to identify altered or counterfeit identity documents because it is these documents that are the linchpin that holds the immigration enforcement program together.
 
All of these issues need to be adequately and effectively addressed as soon as possible.  It is also critical that there be no further discussion about any guest worker amnesty program for aliens who are already illegally present in the United States because all that such programs do is encourage even greater illegal immigration, swamping the limited resources of all of the immigration law enforcement components as well as the adjudications program.
 
To sum it up, I am encouraged by Julie Myers' stated goals of targeting those who violate our nation's immigration laws to increase their profit margins and encourage more illegal immigration.  Now if only the administration and the Congress would give her the resources ICE desperately needs to make such investigations a routine occurrence through the country!  This needs to be seen as "business as usual" for ICE if our nation is to truly deter illegal immigration and not a rare occurrence.
 
-michael cutler-  

Former INS officer