¶ … agency/organization in which you worked. Include information on the size of the organization (number of personnel, of what kinds) and the division of labor into units or departments. Obtain an organizational chart, or prepare one yourself, showing the formal structure of the organization. The organization where I worked from April 24, 2012 to June 29, 2012 was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Created in 2003, it is the main investigative body of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation. It is a federal law enforcement agency whose main responsibility includes executing the immigration and custom laws of the United States to protect the country and to ensure the public security.

The detailed chart of the structure of the organization is attached in the Appendix A. ICE has a divisional organizational structure. It is headed by the Director who is appointed by the President of U.S. And approved by the Senate. The Director directly reports to the Secretary of Homeland Security. There are six leadership offices that are located within the office of the Director. These offices are headed by Assistant Directors and include Office of Public Affairs, Office of Congressional Relations, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Office of Professional Responsibility, Office of Detention Policy and Planning and Office of State, Local and Tribal Coordination. ("ICE Leadership Offices")

ICE is further divided into three law enforcement divisions. Executive Associate Directors who supervise these divisions (headed by Assistant Directors) reports to the Deputy Director. The three main divisions are as following:

Enforcement and Removal Operations

Enforcement and Removal Operations oversees that the immigration laws are enforced in a productive manner. The main responsibility of the ERO is to identify the illegal individuals and remove them from the United States. Hence, this unit conducts the arrest and removal of criminals who present a threat to the security of the nation and cripples the integrity of the immigrations laws.

Homeland Security Investigations

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is in charge for investigating the national and international activities that result from illicit flow of people and goods into the U.S. "HSI investigates illegal crimes, abuse of human rights, human trafficking, weapons and drugs smuggling and cybercrimes." ("Homeland Security Investigations") HSI also conducts investigations to protect the important buildings that are sensitive to attacks by the enemies of the states. It comprises of more than 10,000 employees and is divided into many divisions such as Domestic Operations, Intelligence, International Affairs, Mission Support, National Security Investigation Division and National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. ("Homeland Security Investigations")

Management & Administration

Management & Administration is responsible for managing the budget, expenditures, recruitment, information technology systems, property and office equipments needs, finance, human resource management and workforce recruitment. Hence, it keeps track of the organization's performance measurements.

Therefore, the different divisions of ICE provide the services of investigation and security to the public and other federal agencies. ICE has an estimated 20,000 employees working in 400 offices in domestic and international offices. ("ICE Overview") Hence, the security mission of ICE has been carried out by a wide variety of law enforcement and intelligence professionals motivated by the spirit of contributing towards the safety and security of their country.

Identify the major goals of the organization. There are likely to be many. You may find it useful to break them down into primary and secondary goals. You may also find it useful to talk about formal and informal goals. If your agency provides services to a clientele, describe the clientele and describe the services that your agency provides for them.

The primary goal of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is to ensure the public safety and to promote the national security "through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration." ("ICE Strategic Plan" 2) In June 2010, the agency laid out its strategic plan for the Fiscal Year 2010-2014. This plan comprehensively highlights how ICE will meet its responsibilities by fulfilling the following three primary homeland security missions:

Preventing terrorism and ensuring the security

Protecting the borders against illegal trade and immigrations

Protecting the borders through enforcement of the immigration laws

These three goals are the priorities in the agenda of ICE. Moreover, ICE has also secondary goals such as taking steps to improve the management structure of the agency so that it can work efficiently in fulfilling its objectives.

What sort of information does your agency gather regarding its operations and productivity? How does it measure progress toward goals? Do you think these measures are adequate (i.e., are they valid measures of progress...

Hence, ICE identifies and apprehends terrorists and criminal organizations that exploit the borders of the nation. The information regarding the agency's operations and productivity are incorporated in the Annual Performance Report of the Homeland Security. The performance measures regarding the operations are reported on a quarterly basis to provide an indication of the progress in meeting the annual targets of the agency. ("Annual Performance Report" 6) At the end of each fiscal year, the program managers submit the year end results to the HIS along with their analyses and corrective action plan for those performance measures that did not meet the required targets. These results are evaluated on the basis of the feedback thought surveys and other data collection methodologies. These performance reviews are then included into the ICE's annual budget and financial reports. "These performances monitoring and reporting are work of the Department's Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution process." ("Annual Performance Report" 6)
The progress of ICE is also evaluated by the successful operations it carries out in accordance with its goals of promoting the national security. In Fiscal Year 2011, ICE "removed nearly 400,000 individuals, of whom 55% or over 216,000 were convicted criminal aliens." (Morton 1) Launched in 2003, ICE's "Operation Predator" focused on the criminals who sexually exploited the children through pornography and illegal trafficking. "Operation Predator" has resulted in "over 24,500 criminal cases initiated, over 7,600 criminal arrests, and over 5,900 criminal convictions" (Morton 1) since its launch. Similarly, in 2010, ICE launched its "Project Global Shield" which focused on combating the trafficking of chemicals used by the terrorists and criminals to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IED). "Project Global Shield has led to the seizure of 61.12 metric tons of IED precursor chemicals and 31 arrests." (Morton 1) Similarly, Sting operation in Chicago led to the arrests of "44 egregious immigration law violators." (Herald 1)

Such operations measure the success of the agency as most of the time the arrested individuals had criminal convictions ranging from drugs possessions to illegal possession of weapons. Some of the crimes also include arson or battery to an officer, armed robbery, drunken driving, and vehicle theft, damage to some property and mob action. Hence, ICE in this way fulfills the promise of making the communities safer by arresting and removing the criminals. Such efforts not only improves the public safety which is the top priority of ICE but also prevent the terrorists groups from acquiring the weapons of mass destruction which is harmful for the whole world.

Now describe the particular unit in which you worked. What was its size and composition? What is the function of your unit, and how does it contribute to the organization's operation and goals? How would you describe the "culture" of the unit within which you work? What values seem important to the people you work with and how do these values differ from those of other units within the agency, or the agency itself?

I worked in the ICE's Cyber Crimes Center which delivers the computer-based technical services to ICE to conduct the national and the international investigations of the cross border crime. Cyber Crimes Section is divided into four sections i.e. The Cyber Crimes Section (CCS), the Child Exploitation Section (CES), the Computer Forensic Section (DFS) and the Cyber Administrative Section (CAS). Cyber Crime Center is involved in combating the internet-related crimes. The center comprises of intelligence agents, research specialists and special agents. There are various program managers assigned to each section. These program managers provide guidance and training to the field agents and are responsible for backing the ICE cyber investigations. Within Cyber Section, I worked in the Cyber Crimes Section and the Child Exploitation Section. The functions of the two sections are as following:

Cyber Crimes Section

Cyber Crimes Section is responsible for managing the cyber component of the immigration and customs investigations. It supervises the development and coordination of the investigations involving immigration and customs violations where internet is utilized to aid the criminal activities. The investigative responsibilities of CCS include:

Money laundering

Illegal export of goods

Drug trafficking

Illegal arms trafficking

Identify and benefit document fraud

Human smuggling

Financial Fraud

Commercial Fraud

Illegal trade of art, intellectual or cultural property

Hence, Cyber Crimes Section develops laws and regulations that strengthen the U.S. Cyber Security and carries out covert investigations through undercover law enforcement methodologies.

Child Exploitation Section

Child Exploitation Section is responsible for fighting the…