New Direction for ICE

John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Homeland Security Department, has announced a reorganization of his bureau, the Washington Post reports. The agency will now have three directorates, covering investigations, immigration and management.

The idea, Morton said, is to show the agency's "true face." The public perception is that ICE focuses solely on civil immigration enforcement, when that's only about half its job, he said.

Katherine McIntire Peters profiled Morton in in the June issue of Government Executive. She noted that one of his big challenges in the current highly charged climate regarding immigration is increasing the agency's credibility when it comes to enforcing existing laws, to help convince lawmakers it can manage proposed immigration reforms. Morton said he would do that by focusing ICE's resources on criminal investigations:

The bureau's highest enforcement priority is going after those who pose a national security threat or are criminal offenders. "Whether or not everybody has the same view of how many immigrants should come into the country lawfully or not, most people agree that if you come here unlawfully and you start committing crimes, you're not the kind of person we want," Morton says.