U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
The 2023 NDAA, among other things, enables ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and Transnational Criminal Investigative Units to carry out "the agency’s critical homeland security missions," ICE said in a Dec. 23 news release.
"I am pleased by the overwhelming support demonstrated by lawmakers to improve our ability as an agency to support our global mission," ICE Acting Director Tae D. Johnson said in the news release. "TCIUs perform an essential role to promote HSI's investigations and aids in the disruption and dismantlement of the transnational criminal organizations that pose a direct threat to national and border security."
The latest NDAA also provides ICE with help carrying out its mission beyond the U.S. border, Johnson said, according to the release.
"This authorization will enhance the effectiveness of our international efforts by helping incentivize the talent we have, while recruiting the force we need," he said in the release.
For ICE, the NDAA includes "key measures" intended to "enable the agency’s critical homeland security missions," the news release said. The NDAA carved out funds for HSI "to pay international vetted units" and gave TCIU "a salary stipend on top of the basic pay earned for duties performed similar to the capabilities of the Drug Enforcement Administration."
"TCIUs are a vital element of HSI's strategy to combat transnational crime," HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Steve Francis said in the news release. "Through the TCIU program, HSI special agents and their foreign law enforcement partners jointly investigate human smuggling and trafficking, narcotics smuggling, weapons trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering and other public safety and national security threats to both the United States and partner countries. This authority underscores the value of the work HSI accomplishes with its international partners."
