ICE vs BP

[Gov06]

I was wondering what is the difference between ICE Agents and Border Patrol Agents?
A quick job description/daily routines of each would be helpful.
Thanks!

[SHU]

ICE agents do jail interviews and paper work in the office and sometimes make arrests. There offices are usually in cities. Border patrol agents work in the desert, alone for the most part, make alot of arrests and find alot of dope.They are stationed mostly in remote places on the southwest border. It is a dangerous job. If you want a office type job go with ICE. If you want action and live in the southwest desert, go with the BP.

[Squader01]

Think of ICE as the FBI of immigration.

Think of the Border Patrol, as the State Troopers of immigration.

The aforemention was good too. ICE is office type stuff, investigations. BP is pretty much law enforcement along the southern borders. Make arrests, find drugs and illegals, ect.

[foreman212]

ICE is also an automatic GS-13 and BP is an automatic GS-11. As long as you do the job well it is a little easier to move up in BP. It all depends on whether you want office work or field work

[MLegasp2]

Ice is Special Agents (GS-1811) while BP is not

[SoCalFed]

Alot of people responding to what ICE are and what they do, yet some do not appear to be Special Agents or even work for ICE.

SHU said "ICE agents do jail interviews and paper work in the office and sometimes make arrests" and "If you want a office type job go with ICE"

Almost all of the jail interviews you are speaking of are done by Immigration Enforcement Agents or Deportation Officers, not Special Agents.

Special Agents make more than just "some arrests". They (1811's) do a full range of criminal investigations including drug smuggling, money laundering, IPR (intellectual property rights), and countless others.

ICE is not an "office job" as SHU (who is not a Special Agent or employed by ICE) stated. ALL 1811 positions, whether it be FBI, DEA, ATF, an OIG, have to deal with large amounts of paperwork. Yes, even ATF and SS SA's spend time in the office. ICE SA's are out in the field more than MANY other 1811's from other agencies.

If you are interested in ICE please contact your nearest RAC or SAC office:
http://www.ice.gov/about/investigations/contact.htm

They can give you the most accurate and up to date information on hiring, types of investigations, etc.

[DOAcop38]

SoCalfed- after 17 yrs ,I still get confused on the Alphabety soup of fed agencies,so I just appreciate any help thats offered- had a ped stop on some local Lennox 13 clowns -sniffing around the LAX I.C.C. cargo area -jumped 'em too soon for a decent burg ,and the trespass was just not worth the paper;interesting enough as soon as I pounced and requested add'l units ,several clean shaven guys in what they thought was their "Best" plain clothes "look" ( the khaki FED pants with the utlity pockets gave them away) popped out and badged themselves ,seems they were ICE Agents- they were cool,helped me F.I. some of these clowns- one went into custody on a pootbutt warrant-even took some info down.I posted this because,post 9/11 ,every fed agency ( 'cept Postal PD) has gone very proactive ,and its nice to have back up from anybody who carries a badge and can make a hook! Around my patch we see more uniformed inspectors stopping folks, and we are often asked to standby when the S/As are on surveillance or often respond to their requests when they have some clown thats wanted locally;many times they help us or they handle their own without much fanfare.Just like my job, people have a bad( and misinformed) opinion about what the ICE actually does because they are Not always on the front page like the DEA or FBI, one thing I liked was when we (LAXPD) did a veh stop on a stolen veh; the driver was Korean and had a trunk full of fake or stolen designer tags for "sean John" clothing;we called FBI ( got a "uhhhh,okay-send us a copy of the rpt"),then ICE- they sent an S/A over right away and he told us, "if it tries to come into the Country our hands will be all over it".The outcome of the incident? suspect plead funky "No contest" to driving without owners consent- basically got misd 10851 VC treatment and summary probation(36)mos- the counterfeiting issue? 1yr in fed custody and revoked resident alien status/deportation -plus I got a Mint $$$ of on call Fed court time!!! ICE agents hit the field quite often and work various cases ,from fed level to backing locals in task forces,or area surveillance details- the paper work is just part of the game.....

[SoCalFed]

I know the number of federal agencies seems like a huge alphabet soup. I'll try to condense it a tad...

ICE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Comprised of the investigative, detention, and deportation arm of Department of Homeland Security. When people speak of "ICE Agents" they generally mean Special Agents, however there are other LE folks in ICE such as Deportation Officers and Immigration Enforcement Agents. The Special Agents are a mix of new folks (post Customs/INS merger), and legacy U.S. Customs and INS. As such, some of the seasoned agents, have a large amount of experience in Customs areas (drug smuggling, child porn, financial crimes) while others have a wealth of experience with immigration issues, which are VERY complex. After the merger, ICE moved people around and so you have some people who formerly did narcotics investigations doing human smuggling investigations. In your neck of the woods (LAX), a vast majority of the non-uniformed folks you interact with from ICE are Special Agents. You will also run into a Deportation Officer or Immigration Enforcement Agent escorting someone back to their country of origin, however generally they will probably be just passing through at LAX.

CBP - U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Generally encompass the "uniformed" divisions including inspections, air/marine, and border patrol. The Inspectors (now called CBP Officers) at LAX are cross trained to handle immigration/customs/agriculture issues. CBP Officers also inspect cargo at planeside and at warehouses, so you will see them outside of the airport working. You also have some folks that look exactly like the CBP Officers, but have no gun. They are called Agriculture Specialists and are not law enforcement, rather are experts in agriculture issues, such as bugs and plants. CBP Officers generally do not handle criminal investigations (with the exception of certain immigration cases at the POE's handled by CBP Enforcement Officers), rather they turn them over to ICE Special Agents. Outside of the port of entry (the airport is considered a "POE"), the Border Patrol detects and apprehends individuals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally (some of whom are carrying more than just the clothes on their back). The Border Partol folks work in extreme conditions and get some of the largest drug seizures. Unfortunately they also have some of the highest rates of being assaulted and being involved in OIS's within DHS. They are assisted by CBP Air/Marine operations who operate the Blackhawk helicopters and various other air/marine assets.

[DOAcop38]

got a long time friend who is a"Lt" with the Deportation Unit at the Fed Detention center in dwntwn L.A.( they recently changed from Grn uniforms to Blue) funny ,but when they'd show up on weekends at the Internat'l bldg to drop off, alot of folks with "questionable" ctznship status would get scared, and would walk away from their cars,cross the street,etc,thinking they were Border Patrol.Now that they wear Blue,folks are now flagging them down to rpt crimes,disturbances,etc -sad but folks only see uniforms ,but never read the patches...