Rest assured – they’re either on admin leave with FULL pay or temporarily at HQ warming a seat on FULL pay plus per diem pending their reassignment to the office of their choosing, typical ICE. This outfit is pathetic…

Peter Principle on October 31, 2009 at 7:49 am

DS. Do you have any updates? This story broke almost a month ago?

la boy on November 6, 2009 at 8:54 pm

la BOY,

There still not back at work.

OS

Old School. on November 7, 2009 at 1:35 pm

I know both Schoch and Silliman and my gut tells me they didn’t intentionally do anything crooked. However, I think they were in over their heads, surrouned by old-hand cheap shot artists (JG) and master manipulators of the system (KK).

I believe that Legacy Customs-run ICE HQ wanted younger/naive agents as SACs so that hey could browbeat them and more easily keep under HQ thumb.

In the old days we (Legacy INS) had tough, hard headed DD’s that knew about bare knuckle fighting in the back rooms of power, both in LA and in Wash DC.

In the Legacy INS we just didn’t sit around the office performing verbal masturbation seeing how many ROI’s we could produce.

FYI from DOJ sources: Factual stats just before the merger.

In 2002 INS Office of Investigations had 2,255 agents, Customs had 2,779 agents, about 220 more than INS, but, according to the facts, below, INS agents accomplished more – out more bad guys in jail and di higher quality work with less cases declined for prosecution.

For example, in 2002 INS filed 17,814 cases with the US Attorney’s Office that were “concluded” by Federal Prosecutors; Customs had only 8,650 cases – less than ½ the production.

Meanwhile, in 2002, 690 INS cases and 918 Customs cases were declined for prosecution.

Therefore, it is inaccurate to state that INS Office of Investigations was less “Criminal Case” oriented than Customs. To the contrary, despite INS being encumbered with an enormous administrative work load, INS still filed nearly double the number of Federal criminal cases as Customs. The lower ratio of declined cases is also a reflection of the quality of INS criminal casework.

The constant nation-wide outcry for more immigration enforcement is evidence of the importance of immigration casework to the United States of America.

Anyone living in a Southern border state knows of the huge burden and adverse effect of illegal immigration upon the quality of life from the overburdened health, educational and judicial/correctional systems in these areas.

However, I never hear a similar public outcry for stepping up enforcement focusing on ”policing for a profit” to stop counterfeit Pokémon cards or Gucci bags. INS criminal casework was about arresting and prosecuting criminals, not about policing for a profit. And the INS focused the worst of the worst criminal aliens – not on the cases that could produce the biggest asset seizures.

Legacy Customs officers complain that deporting aliens is futile because the aliens just come back. But I don’t see their drug smuggling casework having anymore success at stopping the flow of narcotics into this country.

Suppose you, a life long taxpayer (and possibly a military vet), have a heart attack and arrive at the emergency room one second behind an illegal who also had a heart attack – guess who gets treated first and gets the best chance to live?

But you may not even make it to an emergency room. Over the past 10 years in the Los Angeles area 11 emergency rooms were closed because the hospital could no longer support the cost of caring for the “free” (taxpayer money) care to the illegals.

Are you still saying that policing for a profit stopping the flow of bogus Pokémon cards and Gucci bags is more important to this country than securing our borders?

Too bad that since the merger, thanks to Legacy Customs-run HQ pettiness and (read: justifying HQ GS-14 assholes “harvesting states”), we are now encumbered with 10x more levels of chickenshit paperwork ROI’s, 151’s, SERS, SARS, etc.

It is all important, from the Gucci bags to the drug work and the alien work. It all needs to be done and there is never enough manpower to stop it. So frustrate it, and make it harder to accomplish, with so much HQ petty chickenshit?

BTW I know Torres and I also know Kibble and you aren’t going to find better people, anywhere.

Been Around on November 9, 2009 at 4:07 pm

There are 2 types of GS-14’s:

50% are the ass kissers who spend their careers hiding out in the office volunteering for every admin task that they can to avoid street work, then take all of the OPR jobs, or, volunteer for HQ.

Then 1/4 are the EEO complainers whose only Fed Case that they have ever filed is their own EEO complaint, (too bad most of them are actually justified).

And then there are the minority 1/4 of all GS 14’s who have actually done the job and whose accomplishments and expertise are needed by the other 3/4, above, to plagerize and to fake it like they really know what they are doing.

This GS-14 HQ “sacrifice” BS makes me sick. The majority never had the stomach for street work and have been hiding out in the office their whole careers doing admin support work – and are continuing to hide out in DC schmoozing and kissing ass on their way to a GS 15.

Been Around on November 10, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Bob is TDY to ICE/HQ making per diem money until further notice. Jennifer is TDY to the LESC in Burlington,Vermont making per diem money until further notice. Meanwhile the Operation Yankee ASAC and GS in NYC are still out on admin leave for over 2 years. This is total MADNESS.

MADNESS on November 10, 2009 at 2:54 pm

To “Been Around” …

Since you are such the “agent’s agent”, and HQ needs more people like you and others like you instead of us “empty suits”, I have proposed to management here at HQ that ALL 13s and 14s who have never done an HQ tour be IMMEDIATELY placed on a list for an all-expenses paid, 18 month TDY to HQ without your families, your G-rides, etc. BTW – You can’t say “No”; it’s a TDY, not a PCS; don’t like it? R,R or R my friend.

Plenty of empty cubes here – I would be happy to have your happy you-know-what here so we can share a miserable winter riding the Metro together. Think you’d change your tune and clam up REAL fast …

See you in 2010 !!! Mr. Dinkins and Ms. Ayala, send me the names – I’ll assemble the list post-haste!!! HQ will be overflowing before you know it with the “cream of the crop” …

StillShakingMyHead on November 10, 2009 at 3:20 pm

I can’t wait to get to HQ and, instead of catching bad guys, justifyingt my existence by dreaming up other ways to justify my GS-14 salary, 25% leap, and 20 year retirement – at no street risk whatsoever.

Let’s see if I can institute even more mind numbing stat reporting redundancy to get ield agents to squander even more investigative man hours pounding keyboards instead of the streets…

There must be a way to make TECS and SEACATS even more convoluted and counter-intuitive…

Been Around on November 10, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Been Around,

Good to see you back. I hope all is well. Hope you smell the aspens.

Kids you will all get there. We all hope.

All the best,
Old School

Old School. on November 10, 2009 at 10:37 pm

Seems about right for a Obama appointment embracing people like him self, by the way does he have a American birth cerificate?

71 and still learning on November 10, 2009 at 10:40 pm

sorry its not worth the effort, the voters deserve what they get, this is a sorry lot.

Ed on November 10, 2009 at 10:46 pm

To all you “High Sped, Low Drag” agents out there …

There seems to be a lot of banter on this site about how us “empty suits” here at HQ are a bunch of ass-kissing, do-nothing losers who did nothing but do admin work in our former SAC offices and are still doing that today at HQ, making y’alls’ life miserable with worthless policies, mandates, etc. So, for the record, I’d like to re-iterate where I came from, and what I (and many other GOOD people) in HQ do on a DAILY basis …

I have been in the government service for almost 20 years: 2 legacy INS Inspector at a major air POE, 10 legacy Customs Inspector at a major air/sea POE, including 3 backbreaking years at a major seaport CET before the fancy x-ray equipment, and 7 as a Special Agent – 2 narcotics, 2 JTTF and 3 financial; hardly admin work the way I see it. Like you, I spent many hours out on the field, arresting crooks and trying to make cases, sometimes traveling 2, 3 even 4 weeks at a time domestic and foreign to gather evidence and get the job done.

When it came time, at age 43, to apply for my 14, I was all but advised that HQ was the only place I would be promoted at all-the SAC had his cronies who he wanted promoted, and there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I would get the job where I was at. I spoke to my wife (who actually owned her own business where we were at), and she graciously agreed to help me further my career by trying to set up shop in DC and follow me there. I went from a G-ride, no income tax, low cost of living state to the DC metro area, with no G-ride, high taxes and a high cost of living … such a deal, no?

So, let me give you a day in the life of one of us “imcompetents”, as you like to call us …

Wake-up is at 0515. After dragging my sorry, tired ass out of bed, I shower, shave and dress for my day’s work. I kiss my wife and son, whom I will not see again for almost 13 hours on a typical workday.

I leave the house at 0615; I commute with a colleague and drive into DC, spending our own money on gas and wear and tear on our respective vehicles (we alternate weekly); we try to keep the conversation light and keep a positive attitude, arriving at the PCN at 0715. Now that it is coming up on winter, a chill saturates the air, a far cry from where I was at prior, when I could walk out in a button down polo, a pair of khakis and boat shoes-what was I thinking ???!!!

After getting a cup of coffee, I spend a good part of my morning reviewing e-mails and reports/intel related to my particular AOR. Regarding the e-mails, many of them have to do with requests for funding or logistic support for various cases being worked; it is my job to make sure YOU, the field agent, get the support you need for your cases; some of the requests are for intel/information – again, it is MY job to get YOU the answers you need.

In between all that, there are always the emergency bullshit taskings I have to deal with – not YOU, ME: The FBI is trying to steal some of our authorities; some prissy Congressional staffer wants a FULL accounting of stats within my AOR; some field agent screwed something up and the fire needs to be put out. Well, YOU are not responsible for that, I AM, and I can’t put it on the back burner and say I’ll get to it later – no, it nees to be done, and it needs to be done RIGHT NOW, because everyone’s shit is important to them, and to hell with others or their priorities, nevermind my issues.

So, it is now 1230. Another day of eating lunch at my desk, because I can’t afford to be too far behind, as the e-mails and taskings keep rolling in. Then, after I woof down some food and wash it down with some water (to the shigrin of my poor stomach), it’s off to meetings and what not both in house and outside the PCN. Are these for MY benefit? HELL NO !!! They are for YOUR benefit, because the connections and relationships I cultivate today may get YOU the answers YOU need tomorrow, or bail your happy ass out if YOU screw up, and I really don’t wish to throw a fellow agent under the bus.

Gee, it’s 1600, let’s see … I have investigative referrals to issue, stats to assemble for the 11th floor, other assorted reports and what not; it’s already getting dark outside with winter fast approaching. Hmmm, imagine that: left the house in the drk, and I’ll be going home in the dark – how nice !!! Then, before my day ends, another round of e-mails, topped off with other phone calls requesting my help regarding various issues.

Finally, 1815, it’s cold, dark and I can finally leave to fight traffic home. Another hour-long commute, and it’s 1915; my wife and son are waiting for me to eat dinner, because they haven’t had a chance to interact with me all day, and it’s the only thing we do together during the week. Then, after helping my son with homework, reviewing his school folder and other assorted fatherly duties, MAYBE, just MAYBE, my wife and I have an hour of sacred time to connect before I have to turn in by 2200 in order to do it all again the next day.

So, that said, to all of you who think us HQ “empty suiters” are a bunch of “whiners” who never did a day’s worth of honest work, and that we don’t deserve chnces for promotions to a 15 for our sacrifice, I say KISS MY ASS, because I’ve been there AND done that. Therefore, again, since you are all such the “agent’s agents”, I think a nice refreshing 18 month TDY for all of y’all is in order, and I am working VIGOROUSLY on a DAILY basis to see that happen. After you walk out of DC shellshocked from your experience here, maybe you’l appreciate what we “empty suiters” do on a daily basis, because I sure know I appreciate what field agents do, having been there myself.

Go back to work, and have a nice day …

StillShakingMyHead on November 11, 2009 at 10:06 am

StillShakingMyHead,

No one fingered you in particular as part of the 75% of GS-14’s who don’t have a stomach for the street, hid out in the office doing admin work and made it to GS-14 by ass kissing and/or EEO complaints.

I think most started off on the right foot but “the system” wore them down. They got discouraged seeing all the ass kissers above them rewarding all the perks/bennies and promotions to thier ass kissing peers, while all the workers in the trenches were getting the shaft.

BTW have you ever processed an alien using the new “system?” How about a police call with whole drop house full of them, like 150 smuggled aliens that takes 3 days? Meanwhile the case agent is so busy with HQ reporting (so that the empty suits can score some media limelight), that he can’t focus on the criminal aspects of the case.

Or, are you one of the L-Customs agents who, instead, gets to go home because they don’t have an ENFORCE p-word (or other lame excuse), and turns their backs on their alien enoforcement duties practicing a “Don’t ask/Don’t tell” approach? Was that you? Or are you that braniac in HQ dreamed up the 5 “Questions?”

Anyway, “If the shoe fits…”

There are actually GS-14’s who have served on the streets, and despite the HQ BS, attempted to work criminal cases their whole careers.

These are the ones who should be at the helm precisely because they have had to contend with the frustrations of dealing with out-of-control HQ “taskings,” and teh mind numbing, man hours sapping (CYA) Virtual University classes?

These are ones who would be at HQ cutting the red tape instead of justifying their existence by introducing even more redundancy and “harvesting” even more stats.

But, unlike the professional ass kissers, they have never refined the ass kissing/compulsive snipe/cheap shot artist backstabbing skills needed to get ahead at HQ…

They don’t have much patience for the other 75%, above. Their interest is putting bad guys in jail, (read: THE MISSION), not adding another line/job descriptor to their resumes.

Been There on November 11, 2009 at 12:43 pm

Been Around …

I am not sure where you are getting your 75% stat from, but, I assure you, if HQ was running on 75% turd power, we’d be in a REAL world of hurt, not the hurt you THINK we’re in.

Yes, I care, and so do MANY other GOOD and DECENT people at HQ: We gave up a LOT to try to support YOUR field work, and we still do so DAILY, despite all the bullshit taskings we get up here (and, believe you me, we insulate the FIELD from a LOT of bullshit by taking the hits – that’s what we get paid to do, although it isn’t much more than a field 13 makes).

Never been excused from ANY assignment-had all my passwords and accesses, and I struggled with ENFORCE just like everyone else. I didn’t dream up the system, and there are plans afoot to integrate everything into a single, consolidated intranet that will be the successor to TECS. Regarding the reporting, I am sorry it is so cumbersome – believe you me, I don’t like it either. But, as they say, the shit rolls downhill, from Congress, to Napolitano, to Morton, to Dinkins, etc. ad nauseum; if they are not informed and get caught short with an inquiry from on high, it’s THEIR ass that’s going to fry, and MINE not too far behind, because, as an HQ “suit” it’s MY job to ensure the 11th floor remains informed and not looking stupid when the FBI idiots or some other alphabet do-nothings try to upstage us at every twist and turn.

BTW: What exactly are the “5 Questions”? Be damned if I know. Don’t ask, don’t tell? Well, I have some very strong opinions on that, but the whole immigration enforfcement strategy is something that is going tohave to be dealt with, because ICE stands for Immigration AND Customs Enforcement, the latter including drugs, weapons, money laundering, kiddie porn, commercial fraud (which rapes the government of BILLIONS of dollars in revenue per year), etc. Immigration enforcement is an important mission, but it is not the ONLY mission. There needs to be a deliniation between administrative enforcement and criminal enforcement, which is what OI should be doing (and DRO performing the former). That said, these are policy issues discussed at grades WAY higher than mine at the moment. When and if I make DAD or higher, I can give my attention to TRYING to help and resolve these matters, but, until then, I have my warning order and the field has its mission.

I bid you safe and well wishes in your work; I NEVER denigrated the field the way we here at HQ are being trashed. The lack of respect is stunning at a minimum, and it saddens me and MANY other GOOD people who have to hear it from the field and through this site on an almost HOURLY basis (just look at iShare on the ICE intranet; it’s almost embarrassing). If y’all are so concerned about how HQ is being run, and you want to make a contribution, there are PLENTY of cubicles here for the occupying; I suggest people come up and fill them …

StillShakingMyHead on November 11, 2009 at 2:04 pm

10/4, it is all important work. It will be a great thing when all the DB’s are integrated. Agents need a GB of computer space just to store for their various p-words. That is if they aren’t geniuses and can memorize them all.

True story: About 2004 a agent went off to do his HQ 14 time promising to work towards DB integration. About a year later he came back TDY and addressed our Group with these exact words: “The gtood news is that we are working towards integrating all the alien processing into one system. BUT, the bad news is starting now we have to enter all those we process into (still another system).” So that is my pet peeve.

Well before this gets into a circular p-ing contest, good luck making progress up there in HQ.

Sooner or later the details of this Schoch and Silliman thing will surface. From personal experience I think they are nice/fair people and have not intentionally done anything crooked.

Outa here!

Been Around on November 11, 2009 at 2:50 pm

Re. Database Integration: The problem is that ICE and CBP are parallel enginerring systems concurrently; then, any differences between the two systems that would prevent interface would have to be worked out (big sigh and eye roll here …)

SSO protocols are being worked on – they really do need to bring more applications on-line regarding single sign-on, but I know many of the IT people here at HQ, and there seems to be slow, but steady progress on a number of fronts.

Again, be safe in your work and we will do our best to continue supporting you from where we’re at. It’snot easy, but it’s necessary, and hopefully, appreciated.

StillShakingMyHead on November 11, 2009 at 4:12 pm

Bobby and jen-jen were nice enough and pleasant to all ranks but just like the legacy agencies there was an insider club for the “new Turks” whom they favored. Capability and experience not with standing….these new turks began their ascent. As far as being crooked, the DC/IA folks dont come down to LA and lock people out of their offices and execute search warrants unless there is tremendous PC…
For PR reasons, I am sure Boba-Louie and Jen will not get filed on but their upwardly mobile careers are done, finito, kaput, hara!!!!

Mata Hari on November 11, 2009 at 11:19 pm

Maybe the Schoch and Silliman were “nice”. but the LA office needs someone who knows what they are doing. Silliman got promoted way out of her league. Could it be because of her personal relationship with Schoch going back to INS/HQ in 2002? If they couldn’t cut it then out with them. At least Mike Unzueta knows how to manage money.

ICE has become the most incompetent agency in government thanks to the 2003 merger. USCS-OI was a threat to the FBI in the late 1990’s. It no longer is. Cui bono?

Cool Blue on November 12, 2009 at 2:43 am

The DEA gutted the USCS and usurped any of the USCS’s claim to LE pre-dominance in the drug arena a long time ago. In those pre-political correctness days, the DEA/USCS animus was 10x open/uglier and and worse than the L-INS/L-Customs stuff now.

However, with it’s self-funding, the gutted USCS could still afford the best perks and spoil/retain it’s agents in a nice cozy/clubby atmosphere. Many L-Customs folks abhor the INS invasion of their exclusive cozy club.

Although Cornerstone may have done of better job of fiancial analysis thasn the FBI, the USCS lacked the scope of LE counter-terror, counter-espionage capability and experience of the FBI to put it all together.

The AUSA’s learn quickly who are the workers – who delivers the bacon – and who does not. I’ve been on lots of joint FBI projects and have won control of joint cases, and subsequent top billing recognition for my agency, simply by working circles around the FBI’s.

ICE has statutory authorities that surpass the FBI in many areas. So in the final analysis, there is no excuse. In the end, no matter how much smoke and mirrors and Congressional liaison an agency has, it’s results that count.

Customs and INS are reilcs of the past. Now ICE needs leaders with less hand-wringing dwelling in the past, and more scope of vision and command authority to exploit ICE’s broad statutory authority, and to deliver the bacon.

Time to cut the good old boy (and girl) dinosaurs lose and get moving.

Bored on November 12, 2009 at 1:38 pm

It wouldn’t be the first time that IA got it wrong. An LA ASAC got a nice juicy $$$$ settlement for an OIG case that went sideways – allegations and counter-allegations galore – using IA (staffed by x-INS agents) as their personal p-ing contest agency.

USCS challenged the FBI? In what respect? Asset Seizures?

In 2002 INS had over twice the criminal convictions as the USCS.

Been There on November 12, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Correction to my 1:38 pm msg, this date: “Cornerstone” should be ” Green Quest.”

Bored on November 12, 2009 at 3:35 pm

Old School,

Don’t give the kids any ideas. Almost got me a KMA tattoo…

mr x dhs on November 13, 2009 at 4:50 am

Does anyone have an update on Schoch?

Curious on November 25, 2009 at 12:56 am

Theres a rumour that Jenny will be back in LA as acting SAC at the end of january, could be deliberate mis-information.

Mata-Hairy on December 4, 2009 at 10:49 pm

@Been There,

You keep bringing up stats, INS to Customs. When you bring up stats you have to add context. What sort of crim cases are you talking about? I’ve seen plenty of INS/L-INS agents with a boat load of crim stats, for 1326 cases. Very few had anything a whole lot more complex.

Not a slam on the INS folks, or saying the USCS agents had all gloriously complex cases, but you can’t compare numbers alone. So what’s the break down here?

??? on December 12, 2009 at 10:00 am

Do you folks ever stop measuring [censored by DS]? And how big they used to be? Its whats happening now that matters. I haven’t done a case since I retired and my [censored by DS] has not shrunk in five years. But have I gone out and used it? The who what where of that is what matters if you want to see who d man

W: Can you please try to keep it semi-clean? I’m no prude, but I really don’t need this kind of filth on my site, and it gets my site stuck in various netfilters that employers use. If you’re truly retired, please comment like an adult. This is fine for the bar and your buddies, but not for my site. You could have made the same comment using different words. PLEASE. DS

Wladimir on December 15, 2009 at 12:01 pm

What an incredibly disingenuous claim of offense Ms. S. I am actually schocked.

Anyone can figure the words you deleted and even a high school student understands that is the Freudian reference not a literal discussion of some activity. Yet you are not offended by such statements as “Kiss my Ass” , or everybodys shit , chickenshit, bullshit, turd power and bitch? I am of questionable intellect and couldn’t possibly be a retired agent and these guys are rocket scientists? And I don’t miss out on the drunk Russian snipe either.

So please tell me whats the real issue?

Wladimir on December 16, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Both will be going back to work soon according to my ‘snitches’ in DC – gotta love this outfit!

Peter Principle on December 17, 2009 at 9:32 pm

I have yet to see anything to support anything they did, or any action that was taken against them, or that their absence was anything more than some regular detail. No story in LA Times as someone promised, no indictments for anybody as someone else said, nothing. In the past this is typical Los Angeles stuff, vilification by rumor, some of the folks still there in LA are masters at this stuff.

ElJefe on December 20, 2009 at 11:55 am

Dear ???,

INS officers dealing with illegal people vs Customs dealing with illegal things is, by definition, infinitely more complex and sensitive.

For example, which is more complex? A) a shipping container full of both live and dead Chinese, or, B) a shipping container full of bogus Pokemon cards?

It was my experience that Legacy Customs did all in their power to avoid undocumeted alien work. I even attended DHS/ICE Human Trafficking and other seminars and training conferences where a Senior Legacy Customs Agent offered ways to avoid aliens, ie, “Don’t ask/don’t tell.”

He said he’d rather be sitting at a bar enjoying Happy Hour rather than processing aliens. Not very funny except when the country is screaming for tougher immigration enforcement. But as far as I could see many of the Legacy Customs agents just did not have the stomach for INS work.

Moreover, you do not hear a similar public outcry for tougher Customs enfrecement.

Legacy INS had far more administrative worload processing aliens and handling worksite cases, and still managed to do twice the criminal cases with less officers.

Been There on December 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm

The Pokemon cards and widget investigation cracks are getting old after 7 years now. Yeah ur right, a container or car full of illegal immigrants is more complex and critical than weapons or technology smuggling to China,Iran, Isreal or France. Obviously, you never visited the basement in the old days and saw the unparalleled talent in the two ACAP groups.
We on both sides should just stick to the facts and try and make this abomination work for the good of the nation.

Gunga-Din on December 28, 2009 at 7:42 pm

Old School,

I have been asking the same question aloud since it happened…. why is Napolitano being questioned? how bout grilling hillary as to why the Lagos Embassy (political)didnt move on this info. Word is that no visa was issued, then why didnt the airline counter folks and the immigration people in Nigeria and/or Netherlands kick this nut off the flight?
Last I heard, we’re not an intell gathering agency so get off DHS’ back and go after the responsible agency(s)that were supposed to corroborate and desseminate. Cant kick the Dutch too much since it was a “Dutch Master” who had the guts and timing to take this Bastard down.

Gunga-Din on December 29, 2009 at 10:34 pm

The Dept of State issued the visa, just as it did to the 9/11 terrorists.

Stick with the facts???

Is it a fact that Legacy Customs prevented Iran, China, Israel and France from getting our nuclear and weapons technology? Is it a fact that DHS/ICE is not an Intel gathering agency?

Anyway, the question was which agency completed more criminal cases. And the fact is that Legacy INS still put as many felony violators away on federal criminal charges than Legacy Customs And it did so with less agents, despite being burdened with far more admin type work, including ACAP and Worksite work.

The fact is that DHS/ICE has far more statutory power to promote “Homeland Security” and to generally protect American quality of life, but it’s potential has been been squandered.

Sadly, you are mistaken Old School. The LA Sheriff Office is 1,000x more successful in conducting law enforcement than the SAC/LA.

But not if you include supervisory hall monitoring ops…

Been There on December 30, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Been There, you actually tried to claim that legacy INS criminal prosecutions rivaled those at Customs? It’s a sad day when non-investigative re-entry prosecutions are lumped in with the always-investigative and often-complex weapons, drugs and money trafficking / smuggling prosecutions. And let us never forget the low standards in place at INS under which tbose who couldn’t get hired elsewhere went there, those who were there always tried to leave for other agencies, but no one from other agencies ever left to go to INS (well, with the possible exception of BOP). And let us not forget that many legacy INS folks who went to ICE had tried to get hired with Customs earlier and were rejected and/or were only able to get under the same umbrella with Customs folks because of the creation of ICE. The truth is what it is.

Truth Matters on September 17, 2010 at 8:36 am

Has anyone any news about Robert and Jennifer? Are they still employed? The last I heard was Robert was served with a Letter of Removal from Service.

And another thing, anyone working near Little Tokyo knew about Frank’s wife never showing up to work and Marissa’s misappropriation of funds. SAC/LA OPR needs to look within it’s ranks, because some of it’s agents knew Frank’s wife never showed up to work and received pay. Every Legacy Customs and Legacy Immigration Supervisory Special Agent working in the Little Tokyo area knew Frank’s wife stayed at home and received pay.

Best Served Cold on September 27, 2010 at 1:52 am

What’s the latest of ASAC Los Angeles “JG” admin leave and credential and gun taken away?

JOE on December 27, 2010 at 12:45 am

Bob is in Houston as a Program Manager as of a few weeks ago. Jen is in Tampa as a 13. You gotta love it; no street cred, rise almost to the top of the agency, get caught funneling money so you can go do your underling and keep your job. He fired people for far less than that. What is ICE coming to?

Kiddin'me on April 17, 2011 at 12:06 am

As usual, lots of cheap shot artistry, but no real substance in this thread. If things were half as bad as the cheap shots in here Silliman, Schoch and JG would be behind bars, but they all still have their jobs. Makes you wonder just how much of the allegatians against were similar, unsupported, snipes.

Been There on April 25, 2011 at 4:41 am

“Truth Matters” in view of your misleading comments comparing INS/Customs casework, even your moniker is deceptive.

The last available Dept of Justice annual case prosecution statistics from 2002 of the U.S. Customs Service and the INS prior to the merger of these agencies indicate the following:

In 2002 INS Office of Investigations had 2,255 agents, Customs had 2,779 agents, about 220 more than INS., However, according to the facts, below, INS agents accomplished more – put far more bad guys in jail and presented higher quality work as indicated by far less rates of cases declined for prosecution.

In fact, in 2002, only 690 INS cases compared to 918 Customs cases were declined for prosecution.

In 2002 INS filed 17,814 cases with the US Attorney’s Office that were “concluded” by Federal Prosecutors; Customs had only 8,650 cases – less than ½ the production of INS but 220 more agents.

And the INS focused on the worst of the worst criminal aliens –not only cases that could produce the biggest asset seizures or the most ROI’s per day.

You describe Customs work as more complicated, but a load of smuggled aliens speaking foreign languages along with their smugglers is far more difficult to handle, develop as prosecution witnesses and protect to win a prosecution than a container of fake Pokémon cards, T-shirts or even dope, particularly if the aliens are slaves.

Every prior INS agent that I knew who went to Customs had been a failure in INS and had never completed a criminal case. It’s a joke to say that they left to pursue more cerebral work.

In fact, they did not have the stomach for the comparatively tough INS street work and the complexities of dealing with foreigners to make criminal cases.

“Truth Matters” cute….

Been There on April 25, 2011 at 5:22 am