Exactly. The marginal profit lost to the teams and the players from the sale of these items is fractional and hence not a major problem for the Federal government. The police should be able to handle this. I am all for intellectual property and its protection, but it should be protected by its owners, not by the taxpayers.
Abu, ICE: Get back to work!–Taxpaying Citizen

lonewolf on October 17, 2006 at 1:29 pm

Time for a Minutemen North chapter for Eastern Michigan.
Nice thing about Detroit: that’s where the movie “Robocop” is set.

Jeremiah on October 17, 2006 at 1:50 pm

As a legacy Customs Special Agent, as well as a legacy Customs Inspector, I welcome the opportunity to provide a different perspective on Commercial Fraud Investigations within ICE.
I can see how many might see ICE’s work in this area might be totally misconstrued as serving only the interests of big business. Furhermore, I will NOT say that big business does not benefit, because they do. However, the American public DOES benefit when large scale commercial fraud schemes are identified, because the violations involved touch upon many different areas. For example:
SAFETY: ICE investigations have, over the years, identified many foreign-made and imported products that have borne fake safety testing labeling, such as UL (Underwriter’s Laboratories) or fire retardancy labeling. In identifying these fakes and frauds, ICE has spared the public the potential tragedy of deaths or serious injuries occuring as a result of these improperly labeled items.
TAXES: Those who engage in transborder commercial fraud (e.g. knock-offs of designer goods) also defraud the U.S. treasury of funds, both in the way of import duties AND income taxes on the sales of those goods. Less money in the coffers means less money to hire the staff and purchase the support materials for our war efforts overseas and our war on terror here at home.
MONEY LAUNDERING: It is well known that drug traffickers and terrorists utilize commercial fraud schemes (e.g. double invoicing, where two sets of books are kept regarding actual income vs. stated income) to launder millions upon millions of ill-gotten dollars for their benefit. Focused, long-term forensic investigations by seasoned and dedicated ICE agents have uncovered many of these dastardly deeds over the years, resulting in criminal arrests and forfeitures of millions of dollars to the U.S.
The problem here is, again, many are concerned that, given limited resources, ICE must choose between enforcing immigration law and customs law, neither of which are being served well because you have two missions withing one agency that are completely incompoatible with one another.
Well, one shouldn’t have to be sacrificed for the other – BOTH ARE EQUALLY AND CRITICALLY IMPORTANT !!! If this concerns you, like it should, please write to your Senator, your Congressman and the President and ask WHY Immigration and Customs are NOT separate entities, and how this is hurting national security.
THIS IS NOT LARGE SCALE COMMERCIAL FRAUD, AND MOST OF IT IS NOT EVEN FRAUD AT ALL. BUT IF IT WERE, THEN WHY WAS NOT A SINGLE VENDOR ARRESTED AND NOT A SINGLE INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED BY ICE FOR EITHER THE SUPERBOWL OR THE ALL-STAR GAME? ANSWER: BECAUSE THEY KNOW THESE ARE SOLE INDIVIDUALS SELLING A FEW T-SHIRTS, WHICH IN MOST CASES DO NOT EVEN APPROACH VIOLATING ANY VALID TRADEMARK. THAT’S WHY THIS WHOLE OPERATION IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MANPOWER FOR AN AGENCY THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING REAL WORK AND DEPORTING ILLEGAL ALIENS.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

4EVERCUSTOMS on October 17, 2006 at 9:56 pm

I think ICE hanging out at the World Series would bother me more if I believed they’d be doing anything useful otherwise. Heck, they’d probably just be at their office watching the game if they weren’t there in person.
Go Tigers!

Dan on October 18, 2006 at 12:40 am

Well, I didn’t use any of Mr. Ilitch’s trademarks. He may own some D’s, but not any Hebrew letters. Here are some Hebrew baseball caps for Detroit fans. I bet you’ve never seen an Olde English Daled before.
http://detroitdaled.com

Johan Amedeus Metesky on October 18, 2006 at 1:54 am

Dear Ms. Schlussel:
I have noted your response to your earlier post, and would like to respond.
When you and others say that ICE should “do its job” and “remove illegals”, precisely to WHICH division are we referring: the Office of Investigations (OI), the Office of Detention and Removal (DRO) or the Federal Protective Servive (FPS)?
With regards to the protection of Federal buildings and their occupants, FPS is charged with that responsibility. Not once, in my entire tenure within ICE, have I been asked to investigate a crime that occurred at a Federal building or a crime involving one of their occupants. By the way, FPS officers don’t even have BORDER enforcement authority anyway – Will someone please explain to me, then, what they are doing withing ICE (as were the Federal Air Marshals at one time, too)?
With regards to OI, their mandate, per OPM, is the conduct of complex singular and multi – agency/jurisdictional INVESTIGATIONS which IDENTIFY, DISRUPT and DISMANTLE CRIMINAL enterprises. With all due respect, unless we are looking at an organized smuggling venture or an organized conspiracy by a specific employer to hire illegals, the identification and removal of single-issue illegals hardly constitutes any element of the above definition. By their nature, the OVERWHELMING majority of immigration matters are ADMINISTRATIVE in nature, NOT criminal, and do NOT require a GS-13, GS-1811 series Special Agent to do this work (Besides, I’ve never deported anyone in my time, to date, as an ICE Special Agent).
Now, behind Curtain No. 3, is DRO, whose officers (GS-12, GS-1801 series) outnumber OI Special Agents by almost 75 %. These officers ARE the ones responsible for identifying, apprehending and deporting these illegal aliens that have everyone up in arms. But, guess what? Every DRO office has their own director, SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT FROM ICE’s SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE IN THAT AREA. So, even if Abu Moskowitz in Detroit, Jesus Torres in Miami, Elissa Brown in Chicago, etc. told their respective DRO counterparts to round-up, incarcerate and deport illegals, the DRO directors can simply look at those SACs and say “F**k you. We’ll do whatever we want, and we’ll do it whenever we’re damn good and ready”.
So, you see, the anger here is misplaced. The types of investigations I cited above are EXACTLY the type of work that SUPPOSED to be done BY THE ENTITY THAT’S SUPPOSED TO DO IT !!! – NO MORE, NO LESS. THEY FIT THE DEFINITION OF THE JOB DESCRIPTION OF WHAT A SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT GETS PAID TO DO.
Therefore, if there are concerns about the identification and removal of aliens NOT part of a complex criminal enterprise, please address them to:
Field Office Director, Detroit
333 Mt. Elliott St.
Detroit, MI 48207
Phone: 313-568-6049

4EVERCUSTOMS on October 18, 2006 at 6:40 pm