ICE Warms Up

New partnership nets major bust for immigration and customs agents.

Two years ago, investigators with the old Immigration and Naturalization Service in Albany, N.Y., began looking into reports that several Chinese restaurants in upstate New York were harboring illegal immigrants who were allegedly working in the kitchens. It hardly seemed an unusual case-the restaurant industry long has been known for its reliance on and exploitation of undocumented immigrant labor.

Then the case took an unexpected turn. INS was abolished. The agency's investigators were partnered with Customs Service investigators in the bureaucratic equivalent of a shotgun marriage, one of many organizational twists that occurred when the Homeland Security Department was established in March 2003. The unholy union of immigration and customs investigators resulted in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, which is part of Homeland Security's sprawling Border and Transportation Security bureau. In an agency where consensus can be hard to find, all parties seem to agree that the ICE merger was no love match. The divide ran deep, ranging from differences in cultures and investigation methods to training, databases, and contacts with state and local law enforcement organizations. Not surprisingly, the move into a new organization caused plenty of heartburn for everyone.

Nonetheless, the New York immigration investigation continued, but, like the new agency, with a twist. Jack McQuade, the resident agent in charge of the ICE office in Albany, says agents continued to pursue the case. But under orders from Peter Smith, the ICE agent in charge of the Buffalo regional office-which oversees the Albany office-the inquiry was expanded to include money-laundering.

McQuade, formerly a Customs agent, says it made sense to draw on the expertise of both agencies. "I told a [former] Customs agent, 'You're going to work an immigration case, but you're going to work it from a money-laundering perspective. We are going to go after these individuals' assets.' This would definitely not have occurred if this had remained strictly an immigration issue."

The ICE agents conducted surveillance in New York City, where they discovered that restaurant owners upstate were operating a tour bus to pick up illegal immigrants in Chinatown, Brooklyn and Queens, and transport them to the Albany area. For months, investigators followed a trail that eventually led to a human smuggling ring holding at least several dozen illegal immigrants essentially enslaved as indentured servants and more than 40 illicit bank accounts. Along the way the Internal Revenue Service joined in, to pursue tax evasion charges, with investigators from the Labor Department, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of New York, the New York State Police and a number of local police departments.

Last November, ICE executed search warrants on several restaurants and homes, arrested ringleaders, and seized 11 vehicles and nearly $4 million in cash, real estate and other assets. The probe remains open as investigators continue to pore through cartons of seized documents.

"This is a perfect example showing how you can really hurt a criminal organization when you draw on expertise from both former Customs and former INS," says Smith. "The legacy immigration people knew exactly what to look for, what documents to get, what surveillance to do, what we needed to charge these people with, with regard to human trafficking. Then you come in with the legacy Customs powers. The legacy Customs people see that not only do we have a great immigration case, but we can now go after this group and their assets."

Adds McQuade: "This would not have happened had the decision not been made to work it from both angles. It's a good example of what you can do if you work together, and if you elicit the assistance of local police agencies."