In a move to intensify its crusade against transnational crime in Southeast Texas, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston field office, together with the FBI Houston, have forged a new Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), officially announced today. According to a statement on ICE’s website, the initiative comes in response to a presidential executive order aimed at protecting U.S. citizens from the incursions of transnational criminals—the kind said to evade borders with sinister agility.
The task force is set to target a slew of crimes ranging from drug and weapons trafficking to human and alien smuggling, as well as an array of other transnational offenses—not just with guns and badges, but through a “collaborative, whole-of-government approach,” complexities that demand cooperation from all corners of law enforcement and intelligence. “Foreign terror organizations who profit off violence, drugs and human lives now face a united front unseen before in Houston,” FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams stated, outlining a vision of cross-agency solidarity. It’s an assertion that rings with the promise of tightened nets around criminal entities operating within local communities, as reported by ICE’s website.
Headquartered in Houston and with a satellite office planned for Corpus Christi, the task force will be captained by the lead agents from HSI Houston and FBI Houston, with strategic counsel provided by a regional executive committee. The roll call of participating agencies is a testament to the depth of this initiative—among them the DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, IRS’ Criminal Investigative Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, and a cadre of U.S. attorneys from both the Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas…