FIRED! Pink slipped! Shit-canned! 86’d! Booted! That’s what career bureau-douche-bags like Brian Moskowitz and Roberto Medina should be!!! They’re a disgrace to our country, to law enforcement, and themselves. It’s just disgusting that these clowns are rewarded, shuffled, and still employed in Immigration & Customs Enforcement. Shame! Shame!! SHAME!!!

Yiddish Steel on August 19, 2006 at 1:01 am

“That Medina refused to escort illegal aliens to the border and deport them is outrageous and disgraceful.”
I’m not here to defend or denigrate anyone, but I wanted to clarify this one statement based upon protocol that I have come to understand has been established between the investigative (OI) and detention and removal (DRO) offices of ICE.
First of all, yes, you’re reading it right: OI and DRO are SEPARATE divisions within ICE (much like FPS); both have their own management structure, and my (or any other) SAC cannot order or dictate that a DRO director do or not do a certain thing.
Second, it is my understanding that it is OI’s function to INVESTIGATE, and DRO’s function to DETAIN AND REMOVE (that is why DRO has the tools necessary (like a fleet of prisoner transport vans) and the budget (e.g. to contract JPATS flights to foreign countries) to move illegal aliens outside the U.S.
I will not speak for any other aspect of Mr. Medinah’s relationship with AZ law enforcement, but I would respectfully suggest that research be done as to who the DRO director is in Phoenix, and ask him or her why aliens are not being transported to the border. But to ask Mr. Medinah this question, especially since it is outside his area of responsibility, seems misdirected.
Is there really a need for a DRO office within ICE if OI is now expected to be tasked with transporting large numbers of aliens to the border, and what will become of any sort of investigation if we took criminal investigators away from their primary function and had them doing “bus runs” all day? It would be like taking an NYPD detective (whom you would expect to be INVESTIGATING robberies, rapes and homicides) and asking him or her to simply transport prisoners between jails all day.
The simple fact is, you can have OI do one or the other, but not both. Therefore, DRO (which, by the way, consumes almost two-thirds (that’s right, TWO-THIRDS) of ICE’s annual budget needs to be held accountable if what Gov. Napolitano and Sheriff Arpaio are saying is true.

4EVERCUSTOMS on August 19, 2006 at 7:45 am

Debbie,
Outgoing Phoenix SAC Roberto Medina AKA ” Speed Bumb’s” pending transfer to El Paso normally would be considered a down grade, disciplinary transfer from a high profile position as the Phoenix Special Agent in Charge. El Paso’s nickname used both by Legacy Customs and INS Agents was and still is ” Hell Paso”, not exectly the Garden Spot of Duty stations, nor a compliment.
It was a duty station reserved for upper management screwups and misfits like ” Speed Bump”.
Having served in El Paso before as an Agent, I pitty the poor Agents having to deal with the likes of ” Speed Bump” at the head of the helm there in the Sun City.
Keep up the good work and reporting.
Many rank and file ICE SA’s love your website!

ICE Flunkee on August 21, 2006 at 12:32 pm

Debbie,
First of all, let me express that your articles are very popular and well liked on this side of the country. Keep up the good work.
The Phoenix ICE Special Agent in Charge is in charge of all of Arizona. This is worrisome if Abu Moskowitz is slated to take over this part of the country. He was not very welled liked when he worked here as an agent and will be less liked as a SAC.
Pompous Medina is as slow as molasses. No wonder they named him ?speed bump?. He can?t make simple decisions, unless he takes 2 weeks to ponder over them, and then he has his ASACS make them for him.
However, in an effort to keep things accurate, I feel it is important to mention that Medina has attempted to work with the local Phoenix agencies. Sheriff Arpaio (my Hero, in combating crime) has refused to have his deputies cross-trained, which would have empower them to enforce federal immigration laws. He would have gladly accepted the training if ICE would have paid his Deputies? salaries. Instead they pass a state law, which costs them even more to prosecute, and is a law, which they are obviously ill, equipped to enforce.
Governor Napolitano needs to spend more time, administering her state resources and keep her nose out of the federal issues. She has taken on the position that she runs every agency within Arizona, to the extent that she prevented numerous federal emergency medical units and federal tactical units from deploying to Louisiana, to assist with the Hurricane Katrina relief. The fact that she was told she did not run the local ICE Office of Criminal Investigations has put Medina on the outs.
Detention and Removal (DRO) is in charge of removing aliens from the United States. The SAC, who is in charge of criminal investigations, does not run DRO. It would be incorrect and irresponsible to blame that on OI.

Liquid Asphalt on August 22, 2006 at 12:40 pm

For anyone who thinks that a transfer to El Paso is a “downgrade” for Mr. Medina, please keep in mind that he retains his Senior Executive Service grade, and that he is making the move back to his hometown – where he will be among family and live in a substantially lower cost-of-living environment than Phoenix/Scottsdale. Couple that with a lack of state income tax in Texas, and Mr. Medina gets a notable raise in take-home pay as well.
Punishment? Nope.

Mice1 on August 25, 2006 at 3:08 pm