The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is positioned within the Department of Homeland Security and is charged with "enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to securing the border and combating criminal smuggling" (ICE 1). Immigration control is approached through several different measures including a partnership between ICE and a variety of federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement organizations to create the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) initiative, "a series of multi-agency teams developed as a comprehensive approach to identifying, disrupting, and dismantling criminal organizations posing significant threats to border security" (ICE 1).
BEST is a part of a broad strategy for preventing illegal immigration that includes such elements as the Secure Border Initiative (SBI). The Homeland Security Department (1) identified preventive elements of SBI as including more agents patrolling borders and securing ports, expanded and more efficient detention and removal capabilities to eliminate the "catch and release" effort, increase investment in infrastructure improvements at the border, upgrading of technology used in controlling the border, and heightened enforcement of immigration laws such as more robust worksite enforcement. The goal of each of these elements of SBI is to first prevent as many illegal aliens from entering the country as possible and secondly, to identify and deport such individuals once they have entered the United States. By using a combination of expanded human resources and new technologies, the Homeland Security Department (2) anticipates that it will be better able to reduce the flow of illegal aliens into the country while simultaneously eliminating many of the criminal incursions that also take place. A combination of SBI and the BEST program is seen as enhancing the capacity of the American government to respond to the multiple threats...