The Washington Times reports that approximately 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement criminal investigators that once worked exclusively in immigration work site enforcement will now be moved to focus on general customs investigations.  The reduction will consist of 20% percent of ICE’s manpower, whose numbers are now approximately 4,000.   

This decision has left the federal organizations that work with ICE scrambling to perform adequately with even fewer resources and manpower.  "They’re just not there," said Jim Brown, a spokesman for American Federation of Government Employees.  "Again, the bottom line is our folks are going to work this to the best of their ability, but the agency is leaving us short by not providing staff and resources.  Eventually, something is going to give."  

With the removal of the criminal investigative agents from internal enforcement, "ICE will be left with 4,000 agents nationwide to handle the estimate 12 million people here illegally, and that’s just not enough," said Brown.   

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Last week, USCIS agents raided a Raleigh-NC area pork processing plant, arresting 29 undocumented immigrants.  According to the Associated Press, all but four of the 29 immigrants arrested were using stolen identities of American citizens.  Federal prosecutors said that two victims lost more than $10,000 because of the identity thefts, and one person nearly lost subsidized housing because of increased income reported on a Social Security number.   

U.S. Attorney George Holding said the group may have purchased or stolen the identities through a number of ways – including computer hacking, fraudulent e-mails, and dumpster diving – and didn’t acquire the information from a single location.   

Each of the 29 immigrants arrested were employed by Smithfield Foods Inc.  All 29 are accused of immigration violations; the 25 charged with identity theft face minimum two-year prison sentences if convicted.  

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