USSS Passed Over?

Referencing the "...go the way of Customs" quote from before, I think he was referring to the fact that Customs was merged with INS to form ICE., a new agency. Over two hundred years of tradition was washed away with that move. Customs was one of the best jobs in federal law enforcement and now it is no more. Both the USSS and Customs were brought into the DHS fold, but Customs was done away with while the USSS was allowed to remain intact.

Sooner or later (probably sooner), the USSS will lose the name and traditions that have been around since 1865. There is a large belief out there that the agency will be moved under the new Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) aspect of ICE and will basically be the Office of Protective Operations within DHS and do nothing but protection.

[worfusa2008]

Are you speculating or are you in on the ground floor? Just wondering because......

I have lately wondered how long it would take Big Sister to break up the Service and put it's investigative responsibilities under control of another agency in DHS. Today I noticed that DHS and ICE arrested a man for nothing more than linking sports websites to his web site. The AUSA for the Southern District of New York claimed he had violated the copyright law. How they relate that to Homeland Security is beyond me.

It looks like ICE is becoming Big Sister's go-to agency for fraud investigations. I expect them to be pouring over Title 18 of the U.S. Code looking for more obscure violations that might be newsworthy. Watch to see how little DHS parcels out to the Secret Service from its appropriations and how HQ divides it up between investigations and protection.

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

[worfusa2008]

Sooner or later (probably sooner), the USSS will lose the name and traditions that have been around since 1865. There is a large belief out there that the agency will be moved under the new Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) aspect of ICE and will basically be the Office of Protective Operations within DHS and do nothing but protection.[/quote]

A confidential informant still on active duty advises that this rumor is gaining steam and is making the rounds of the Field Offices. The question is raised whether those serving in an Office of Protective Operations will remain as GS-1811 Criminal Investigators qualifying for Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP)since Detail Agents on shift work will not be conducting investigations. I can see DHS having to resolve a lot of personnel issues. I believe that the USSS losing the name and traditions that have been around since 1865 is of little importance to Secretary DHS.

As a former Customs (ICE) 1811 hearing these rumors about the USSS makes me sick. By 2006 most of the good Customs 1811s left ICE for other agencies or just retired. ICE was taken over by incompetent 1811s from INS. At first I had no biases at all towards INS guys but once I started working with them you could really see the difference between them and Customs guys. There were many INS 1811s that never went to college, nor graduated from CITP, or any advanced agency specific Agent training. They were 1801s or Border Patrol guys whom they just tossed a Special Agent badge too and said, "Your now an 1811. Go forth and don't get the agency sued too many times." On search warrants we were more afraid of the INS guys shooting us than the bad guys. For the INS guys it was a great move into DHS. They got their 13 and now they could investigate real criminal cases. Immigration work is not a criminal investigation. I should know. I got moved into an immigration unit and it was complete BS. The Customs guys saw the writing on the wall and got out while the getting was good. If they move the USSS into ICE-HSI or whatever the hell they are calling it today I would be very afraid. Next thing you know you will have some emotionally unstable INS supervisor who was stamping passports a few years earlier and getting sued half a dozen times trying to tell you guys how to do protection. And if this sup doesn't personally like you they will try to ruin your career. Run guys. RUN!

Whatever happened to the old rumor that the FBI wanted the prestige of protecting POTUS and was going to take over the USSS?

When I was in SS school in the early sixties, Rufus Youngblood spoke to the class about the desire of the FBI to take over Presidential protection.

Rufe said that if he honestly thought they could do a better job, he would support the change.

However, he felt the bureaucracy of the FBI would interfere with the effort. Our smaller, more focused agency was, in his view, more capable of doing the job well.

He would be disgusted to see where we are now and where it looks like we are headed.

Alas..........................

When I was in SS school in the early sixties, Rufus Youngblood spoke to the class about the desire of the FBI to take over Presidential protection.

Rufe said that if he honestly thought they could do a better job, he would support the change.

However, he felt the bureaucracy of the FBI would interfere with the effort. Our smaller, more focused agency was, in his view, more capable of doing the job well.

He would be disgusted to see where we are now and where it looks like we are headed.

Alas..........................

Unfortunately "Old Days" the old days are long gone. There are many who like Rufe would be turning over in their grave if they saw what was going on today. I am afraid DHS is the end of USSS.

[worfusa2008]

HSI Special Agents have legal authority to enforce the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (Title 8), U.S. Customs Laws (Title 19), along with Titles 5, 6, 12, 18 (Federal Criminal Code and Rules), 21 (international drug smuggling), 22, 28, 31 (Money and Finance), 46, 49, and 50 statutes; giving them the broadest federal law enforcement jurisdiction of any agency. HSI has more than 8,500 Special Agents, making it the second largest federal investigative agency within the United States government next to the FBI.

Excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immig ... nforcement

Apparently the FBI, under Louis Freeh, tried to demonstrate they could do a better job at protection in the 90's when Merletti was the USSS Director. The FBI felt, with the overwhelming manpower, that they could do protection better and at a lesser expense than the USSS since they would not have to fly agents all over the country to stand post. With their large field offices, they would not have to pay for rooms, per diem, airline flights and rental cars since they could just tap their field offices or RA's to do the job without all the logistical hassle. From what an instructor told me years ago, they failed miserably.

The rank and file FBI guys I've run into really want nothing to do with protection or white-collar crime for that matter. They want the violent crimes and terrorism and some don't even want terrorism. It's the upper echelon at the FBI that want everything...they basically want to create one federal agency that does it all...basically a national police force. Congress should have clipped the FBI's wings after 9-11 and taken away all the CT/CI investigations from them, but Mueller did a great job keeping the congolmerate intact.

HSI Special Agents have legal authority to enforce the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (Title 8), U.S. Customs Laws (Title 19), along with Titles 5, 6, 12, 18 (Federal Criminal Code and Rules), 21 (international drug smuggling), 22, 28, 31 (Money and Finance), 46, 49, and 50 statutes; giving them the broadest federal law enforcement jurisdiction of any agency. HSI has more than 8,500 Special Agents, making it the second largest federal investigative agency within the United States government next to the FBI.

Excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immig ... nforcement

You are 100% correct. ICE could be a great agency that could do a lot of cool stuff. But hence the COULD BE. It is a guess, but a very educated one, but I would have to say of those 8,500 that they are claiming many guys are new (less than 5 years on) and many are former INS. I spoke about how great the INS guys are a few posts back (no training, no college, no investigative experience). It should tell you something when an Agency doesn't get 13s.

When I was an Agent there, the upper management really wanted to compete with the FBI. So they fudged their numbers to look bigger than they were. They were/are probably counting 1801s. The whole reason the FAMs were under ICE for a little bit was because ICE upper management wanted to make them all 1811s (even promised the guys that) and have more Agents than the FBI. But Congress put a stop to that and said, "ALL HELL NO!" Then ICE dropped them like a bad habit.

It took us so long to get our ICE badges and commission books because they could not decide on a name. They wanted to go with Bureau of Investigation and Criminal Enforcement. But the FBI freaked and put a stop to that. I noticed that the INS guys were really obsessed with the FBI. It was like they all really wanted to be FBI Agents but couldn't get hired there. The funniest part was in my office they had their own ICE JTTF unit and it was like the prized unit. I heard from friends in the unit it had no direction. One day they were told to do this and the next day they were told to forget everything from yesterday and now do this. They could not stand the unit. Most other agencies hate JTTF. These former INS guys could not wait until the next JTTF meeting. Just pathetic. The Customs guys would make fun of them for this.

Basically it is an agency that has no identity and has no clue what direction it is going. It lost all of its veteran and dedicated Agents. These guys might know Title 8 but they know little else. The one old Customs unit I was in the good veteran Customs 14 quit because he could not stand the new INS ASACs and SAC. They replaced him with a guy who had never done the type of investigations the unit conducted. He could not answer any questions or offer any guidance and had no clue what the Agents did everyday. All he new was STATS! The immigration managers had no patience for criminal investigations that may take months and only result in one stat. They were used to administrative immigration arrests where you could go out everyday and arrest a few people. That was all they cared about. Criminal investigations were a waste of time to them. They would be sitting there high-fiving over 40 immigration arrests this month! It was sad.

At the time I was there ICE was severely under funded. I did not have a G-Ride for months. When I finally got one it was in a garage getting fixed with 150,000 miles on it and it was 10 years old. It then broke down on me routinely stranding me beside the road waiting for another Agent to come pick me up. When I first got to my field office they did not even have a place for me to work. I had to tear apart an old cubicle. And being a former cop, I was looked down upon for some reason by the INS guys. It was like having tickets on the Titanic. Everyone was so miserable and it was like there was this impending doom. Management played favorites with their INS people, they were vindictive, and retaliatory over personal stuff. It was a great place to work! And I am putting it lightly. You should hear the Customs guy older than me. It is like they wanted to stage and armed revolt. It was bad.

My ICE commission book said that I could investigate "any Federal crime that effects the United States" or something like that. They have definitely set these guys up for taking over stuff. But most of these guys could not investigate their way out of a wet paper bag.

Apparently the FBI, under Louis Freeh, tried to demonstrate they could do a better job at protection in the 90's when Merletti was the USSS Director. The FBI felt, with the overwhelming manpower, that they could do protection better and at a lesser expense than the USSS since they would not have to fly agents all over the country to stand post. With their large field offices, they would not have to pay for rooms, per diem, airline flights and rental cars since they could just tap their field offices or RA's to do the job without all the logistical hassle. From what an instructor told me years ago, they failed miserably.

The rank and file FBI guys I've run into really want nothing to do with protection or white-collar crime for that matter. They want the violent crimes and terrorism and some don't even want terrorism. It's the upper echelon at the FBI that want everything...they basically want to create one federal agency that does it all...basically a national police force. Congress should have clipped the FBI's wings after 9-11 and taken away all the CT/CI investigations from them, but Mueller did a great job keeping the congolmerate intact.

That is what so many old Customs guys said. September 11th, was an FBI failure. But not a thing was done to that agency. They completely destroyed Customs. Messed with you guys at the SS. And did all this other crap. Weren't the Treasury agencies doing just fine in Treasury?

I saw a report a few years back were they asked people in the Bush administration about ICE and CBP. No one could really articulate why either one was created. Wow, you guys just messed with a ton of people's lives and have no clue why? Really?