Posted on 02/19/2012 7:34:57 AM PST by KeyLargo
ICE Long Beach shootout: As immigration cauldron boils, ICE agents buckle
The Long Beach, Calif., shooting that left one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent dead and another wounded comes as the Obama administration has moved to improve morale among embattled ICE agents.
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / February 18, 2012
ATLANTA
The internecine shootout that ended with one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent dead and another critically wounded in Long Beach, Calif., on Thursday comes on the heels of an Obama administration effort to relieve dysfunction and morale problems within a frontline agency tasked with enforcing the nation's border laws.
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Border Control and Customs Immigration Illegal Immigration and Deportation
The shootings came during an apparent counseling session between ICE supervisor Kevin Kozak and a lower-ranking supervisor, Agent Esequiel “Zeke” Garcia, where a third agent was in the room as a witness. During the hearing, Mr. Garcia allegedly drew his service weapon and shot Mr. Kozak six times. The third agent drew his weapon and killed Garcia.
ICE Director John Morton flew to Long Beach Friday to meet with the wounded ICE supervisor and the agent who killed Garcia.
"Both of these men came to work yesterday never imagining if they would literally be fighting for their lives, but that is exactly what in fact happened, and they were tested in a very dangerous way and showed incredible fortitude," Mr. Morton said.
Morton's response to the deadly, puzzling drama is the latest attempt to confront problems rooted in the agency's creation in 2003, when it was formed as a merger between U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
As early as 2005, the Office of the Inspector General began noting troubling operational dysfunction within the nation's immigration enforcement ranks.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Being good at enforcing immigration law and damaging the bad guys, often means ruining your personal life on top of recieving nothing but derision and contempt from ICE management.
Your post fits my experience with ICE as I noted in post 22. The assistant RAC I worked for had a banner in his office that stated “I’m not Hispanic, I’m Mexican”.
It can’t be easy pretending to be law enforcement officers tasked with securing the border against the invasion of illegal alien hordes and then being told to turn a blind eye and instead help the illegals find the local hospitals and welfare offices, and direct them to local Democrat party campaign offices where they can register to vote. It must be very confusing for these agents.
If you look at what happened in the Phoenix ATF office, you can see they were trying to push Agent Dodson to do things that were illegal so he wouldn't be able to blow the whistle.
One of the problems in federal law enforcement seems to be an environment where you can't fire people for completely incompetent leadership. If a bad egg gets promoted, then it seems practically impossible to get rid of him, no matter how much damage he is doing.
A perfect example is the interim head of CBP, Aguilar. When he was head of the Tucson sector for Border Patrol he screamed to have more agents sent down TDY to help with the obvious problems down there. Then he insisted that those agents be housed in a set of rental properties, that were owned by him. Thanks to some shell games he managed to dodge a negative finding with the subsequent internal affairs investigation and still got promoted to head USBP. Gross misuse of government vehicles (towing your boat with your government vehicle), awarding contracts to have your office remodeled by your buddy, leaving your office short of agents because your agents get tired of the nonsense and quit. All those activities get a pass. Illegal activities seem, at worst, to get you a transfer but no demotion.
This isn't a problem with the average line agents, it is a problem in how they pick leadership and the complete lack of accountability in the leadership ranks.
I would tend to agree, after 4 shots it became excessive.
The more I read about this Hands, Knee, Arm makes me think that, with six rounds, Garcia’s intent was to maim Kozak not kill him outright.
February 19, 2012, - 2:17 pm
Muslim Capitol Bomb Plotter Was Illegal Alien Bush/Obama Wouldn’t Deport
By Debbie Schlussel
Amine El Khalifi a/k/a Sidi Mohamed Amine El Khalifi, the Moroccan national who plotted to blow up the U.S. Capitol Building as a suicide bomber, is exactly the kind of illegal alien the Bush and Obama Administrations told ICE agents NOT to deport, not to round up. Hands off. You see, until the plot in which FBI agents set up El-Khalifi, he was an illegal alien who’d been here for over a decade without a criminal record. And beginning with Bush–but made doubly official under Obama–ICE agents were ordered not to arrest or deport illegal aliens without a criminal record...
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