I can’t wait to leave this agency – you’re only scratching the surface of the shenanigans going on in this outfit.
‘Zambonified’ on his post addressing the ICE movie with Harrison Ford, mentioned the ‘disgrunted’ agents.’Zambo’ wrote a well thought out post overall and is probably a stellar boss for some lucky few. I however had to force myself to read the rest when I read only the ‘disgruntled’ make it on Schlussel’s blogs. Thank God for her and the fact that someone is doing SOMETHING to point out the fraud, waste and mismanagement taking place in this ill-conceived experiment, otherwise known as ICE.
The ‘digruntled, angry agent,’ is the standard MO employed by the “G” to discredit someone in any agency, and it marginalizes them for what may be very valid concerns expressed by him or her. I joined this agency to serve and protect and serve this great nation – much like ‘zambo.’ I’m not a sheep, but when I’m dealing with managers which have no business being in that position, but acquired it because they kiss the ring, lick the boots or for their own aggrandizement. I don’t tend to hold back, however in ICE – fuhgettaboutit!
You’re/we’re disgruntled right?, never mind that a freshly minted GS, was in an office inland for 4 years goes to the border..never served on a grand jury, nervous breakdown on the job and now directs a RAIC office. Gimme a break!
Never mentioning or acknowledging that we might actually have a valid concerns with our agency. IN addition to the fact that the leadership is asleep at the switch and completely unqualified to run it – it’s beyond reproach.
It goes beyond legacy INS and USCS agents too – I was in both, served proudly. I don’t partake in the USCS is better or INS is. Whatever! Both agencies have their share of ate up ‘sandbags.’ Even though the agents continuously scream ‘no’ to paybanding (read MaxHR). The agency is unrelenting in something that WE clearly don’t want. Also we have no avenues to redress issues, if we voice then we’re just blacklisted- so what do we do? Much like the issue of ‘excepted service’ – if that happens we’ll just become a revolving door agency like the present FAMS. Voice your opinion, and next thing you’re called in to bring in your badge and gun and shown the door – yay! Moral soars that way…

Cracked_ICE on May 25, 2007 at 4:48 pm

Maybe ICE will implement a bona fide transfer policy. If Meyers leaves, then maybe the DSAC of LA could just be appointed without being confirmed – just like how the DSAC/LA job was acquired just a transfer. But, then again she would have to fight the Director of Office of Investigations for the position. Now THAT would be a GREAT chick fight!!!

iceicebaby2007 on May 26, 2007 at 1:13 am

I hear the Forman (PP and Lucy) twins are at it again. It seems that PP has taken care of Lucy by having her moved and promoted to a position at JFK Airport. The sad thing about it, according to my sources inside ICE, is this was done after an internal investigation it to problems with the NYC ICE office. It appears that PP decided to move her sister out of the city to the airport so she wouldn’t be associated with the problems found in the city.
However, 7 of Lucy’s subordinates have been put out on the street, to include an ASAC that had been recently promoted, on administrative leave pending possible termination.
Not only has Lucy been sheltered, but the number 2 guy Delsandro(sp), long time friend of PP, is also being protected. I understand this is being done with the cooperation of the internal investigators.
Meanwhile, PP and Lucy are still screwing with people that don’t kiss their a## or play their game. I also heard, that the agent that uncovered the problems with the NYC office was not given the job he had been selected for and moved somewhere else.
The term inside ICE is DTM (Dead To Marcy), if you are given that label you career is over. So fear and intimidation is the rule within ICE, nice place to work.

ficedup on May 26, 2007 at 8:16 am

That’s a good point by the previous poster, that DHS needs significant reform. ICE has been such a blood bath that they kinda forgot all about “Mr. Burns” making a mess out his department dragging it to last place in worker satisfaction. Now “skullhead” is going down on Democrats with this ridiculous fantasy that there will be a place for him in the next administration. Instead of going out on his feet, bonehead is going out on his knees selling ICE and DHS down the river with Amnesty Part Deux. Never in my life have I seen people I work with pretend they don’t see you because you’re outspoken and not good for their career, good people but sold out for what? A chance to earn a few more dollars a month? One of the weathiest guys I know is only 37 years old, never made as much as an agent. It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep and your dignity went south when you let these sociopaths rule your life and turn you against your coworkers. Take some time off, think about it, there is a cost to living a lie, it’s your health.

code7 on May 26, 2007 at 9:46 am

I am retired law enforcement, served as VP for our Union and after the reading the preceding comments from ICE agents, I have to wonder if anyone at ICE is doing any real law enforcement on Illegal Immigration.
It seems to me, that ICE has turned into an agency run by political appointees where everyone is more concerned about their position and salaries than the invasion from Mexico.
If half of what you guys are saying is true, then Americans that rely on your enforcement are up shit creek.
I was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburbs which now looks more like a border town in Mexico than America. Raids or sweeps have been totally discontinued and Illegals live and work here with impunity. (25 years ago sweeps or raids were a common site around here with the green buses packed full of illegals on there way to the Mexican border for deportation.)
Don’t you people have any representation in your union that could do something about the likes of Julie Meyers and her incompetent cronies?
There are plenty of Internet based anti-Illegal immigration groups that would love to get the word out to reform ICE. The only place I know of were we can learn about this crap is right here with the reporting of Debbie Schlussel and this forum.
BTW-I had no idea ICE paid $125,000 a year for street agents, I guess times have changed.

ScottyDog on May 26, 2007 at 4:46 pm

There is no union for agents. The biggest stab in the back comes from the local PD who don’t want to support the handful of agents who work immigration enforcement. Street agents don’t make $125,000 a year either until they have been there for most of a career. When I graduated from college they made $11,000 year, the LAPD at that time started at $30,000 and was already commited to Special Order 40. A program that set the standard for leaving immigration enforcement to someone else.
Now we are getting kicked in the nuts by the same people that put us down for not doing more, they want enforcement, and then allow their elected officials to pass ill conceived legislation like the proposed Amnesty before Congress now. Anti-immigration groups? Please. Those guys have as much political power as wet Wonder Bread.

code7 on May 26, 2007 at 7:26 pm

and for even more dead weight on morale, the DSAC in SAC/LA just appointed a new GS14 program manager. This newly promoted 14 has no prosecution experience that I know of. She seems to have gotten the job because DSAC Nancy Drew needed a BFF. They are required to post an announcement that such a GS14 position is available. But they did not. Not even a memo tacked to the wall. No one in the Long Beach office heard about the position opening up and very few (meaning, just the one BFF) in the Los Angeles office knew about it. This agency sucks. This SAC office sucks. And it is probably only going to get worse. God I am glad I only have a couple of more years.

rivfedup on May 26, 2007 at 8:58 pm

Doesn’t ICE have to follow OPM rules concerning open announcements? Doesn’t CBP open their announcements, maybe only within CBP but they still open them up to everyone within their agency.
Doesn’t OPM monitor ICE hiring practices?
Since HRO-Max is dead, and replaced by a new one, because of lawsuits. Looks like the intelligence folks are the new beta test site. But since Office of Intelligence is incompetent they will more than likely get pay raises out of the deal.

iceicebaby2007 on May 26, 2007 at 11:18 pm

It’s nice to see the exposure of the Chakwin regime. I feel sorry for the guys in that office though when the retribution wheel for that posting begins to spin.

longshanks on May 26, 2007 at 11:30 pm

The best I could tell about the LA office with respect to hiring Supervisors was that announcements were placed on the desks of the agents they wanted to promote. Some offices had parallel postings of the same job, canceling one and promoting from the one no one saw. Supervisors were picked from a club that had some sort of white-brown-black rule. This total lunatic caught them stating something to that effect and sued, which is the only other way to get promoted there. This guy cost us all a full day of cultural sensitivity training for calling one alien “Pedro” and another “Rabbi” on a worksite enforcement raid. I confronted him about it and he claimed the guys name was Pedro and the orthodox jew was a Rabbi. This guy managed to get through some law school and get hired as an INS attorney, but they through him out and ICE got stuck with him. I can’t believe he was never fired let alone promoted with years of back pay. He posted all sorts of right wing gun nut pieces in his cubicle and paraded around first in a cheap three piece suit and then in raid shirt, scary! The affairs going on in the office were really something, the ugliest people you ever saw all shacking up together to form a club, I want to laugh but the images have scared me.

code7 on May 27, 2007 at 6:36 am

SAC LA’s list of managers: SAC is a 30-something Joe Hardy. The DSAC is Nancy Drew. Neithe of them have much street, prosecution experience. A LINS ASAC is an alleged womanizing scheming kiss ass. A new BFF program (wo)manager can’t process an alien to save her life, but because she’s got nothing swinging between her legs, she gets a 14. Then again, Nancy Drew’s ass wiper/kisser can’t be a man and still be able to go into the ladies room, now can he? You have another LINS female ASAC who got her position because of the positions she got in for the former LINS DSAC. There are acting GSes all over the place not getting 14 pay even though the recent kool aid memo said 14 pay WAS being given to acting GSes. And now you have a new addition to the SAC Long Beach office having to park in the parking lot a couple of blocks away from the office, even though all the other ASACs and DSAC and SAC and GSes park in the basement. For this andother reasons, he is now leaving ICE.

rivfedup on May 27, 2007 at 6:25 pm

Last night my spouse was reading this column and the accompanying posts over my shoulder. This lead to quite a heated discussion which illustrates how detrimental this agency has become to it?s employees. In summary, my family and I are considering a change in location. In considering this change, the questions that beg to be asked and ANSWERED are what direction is the agency going (besides into the toilet), what are the future plans for this agency, what is available in other places or disciplines?
Answers for the aforementioned questions are no where to be found!!
However, based on this column and the posts it is more than apparent that the west coast is as messed up as the east coast! Incompetence and nepotism seem to be the order of the day. The rules apply to some, but not to all!!
Morale continues to plummet and the HQ answer is: agents must where ties!! We are further told that failure to do so will result in disciplinary action. To whomever came up with this one, nice job knucklehead!!!!
And please, one person didn?t come up with this. Maybe one person wrote the memo, but it had to be signed off by several people. This also applies to the ICE Job Fair poster which placed us under Transportation and Immigration. That poster had to be approved by several people before being published.
My spouse asked a question during our debate last night, ‘if your HQ people put something out that says acting G/S are supposed to get the money, and that apparently does not happen, what happens to the HQ management if AGS’s are not paid??? Well, as usual, I did not have a adequate answer.
Other questions that beg to be answered are; when is someone going to take a good, long hard look at this agency and its spiraling decay, when are legacy agents going to be properly trained before assuming duties they are not trained for, when are we going to address the real problems of this agency, when will management incompetents be punished and so on?? As for PP?s sister, after she finished throwing some of her own people under the bus, then driving the bus over them several times, she gets an Acting DSAC job at another office. So much the better for us, since no I?ve spoken to has any respect for her or wants to be anywhere near her.
Agents in droves are leaving this agency. That?s not a deniable rumor, that?s a FACT! HQ management is failing to address the real issues and seems to be set on the implosion of this agency.
And worst of all, the families of the employees are starting to feel the tension. My family had nothing to do with 9/11, the formation of this agency and its seemingly apparent demise. Yet, every time I come home and don?t have an answer to a question about our future, they are the ones who suffer. My families are looking for simple answers to simple questions. Of course, HQ is not inclined to answer any of them…… but I do have to wear a tie!

ICEDover on May 28, 2007 at 10:59 am

Until systemic changes occur the hiring practices and problems in ICE will NOT be fixed!
There is violations of Title 5, to promotions that were not announced within ICE. And there is fraud, waste and abuse of government funding for those who were hired under a specific series and do not perform those duties.
Write or call in any of these legitimate abuses to OPM OIG and send the same letter to your congressman and to DHS as well.
Retirement and Special Investigations (202) 606-2423
Health Care Fraud (202) 418-3300
Or Write To:
OPM Office of the Inspector General
1900 E Street NW Rm #6400
Washington, DC 20415-0001
The only way to change these promotion abuses is to make it clear to those that can influence (congressman or OPM) the practices within ICE.
This this is still the United States of America, and if you feel that your complaints are legitimate, and you want a better agency, THEN LET SOMEONE WHO CAN PRODUCE A RESULT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON! If enough people do this is will have results because everyone answers to someone whether they think so or not!!

iceicebaby2007 on May 28, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I appreciate your enthusiasm ICEICEBABY, but damn, people have been complaining since the beginning and things have only gotten worse. I say everybody should jump ship and get the hell out of this mess. There is no accountability within ICE HQ when it comes to any Congressional oversight. This agency has run wild since day one and it wont stop until it self implodes.

kcrat on May 28, 2007 at 12:28 pm

Remember when 4EVERCUSTOMS trashed me for suggesting business casual Fridays to improve morale, make the hot Summers more comfortable, and save over $150 dollars a year in dry cleaning bills? Well how do you like the memo on reminding us to wear a suit and tie? Amazing, it’s like we have a organization behaving like a sociopath opposed to an individual.
The GS promotions don’t really bother me that much because the job is horrible, you spend all of you time in the office on your butt with tedious reporting for a salary that just isn’t that much more.
A former SAC told me once that the joke going around managemet was that they were the only ones getting their hair cut on their own time.
Gee, I can be one of the butt kissers and work like an accountant or I can go with basic cable, cut my own lawn, clean my own pool and take coffee to work. It’s a no brainer, leave the stupidity to the experts, spend time with your family or work on your resume. Being a retired SAC is not like being a retired General, no cares about what you think anymore.

code7 on May 28, 2007 at 6:45 pm

For the first time in several years I see an upturn in morale. It hasn’t come from anything done by the likes of PP, the IP, Nancy Drew, Jr (Chakwin) or any of the other problem makers. It has come from this website and the light it is finally shining on the darkness caused by these people. Let’s keep up the pressure. A huge thank you to Debbie for giving us this forum.

longshanks on May 28, 2007 at 10:39 pm

If you want to jump ship from ICE, that is an individual choice, but REPORT legitimate violations of Title 5 or fraud, waste and abuse.
Otherwise, write into the ICE SUGGESTION BOX found on their website or write your congressman.
I think that it is wrong and immoral to promote personnel outside the law, which governs ICE. It is just plain WRONG. So, lets do something about it – that is all we can do. Numbers DO matter.

iceicebaby2007 on May 29, 2007 at 12:28 am