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Concluding
Observations

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In closing, it is important to understand the expectations and limitations of
various proposals to address management challenges at ICE and CBP that
we and others have identified. With respect to potential restructuring,
reorganizing an agency or function to better align it with the mission and
strategic planning process is desirable, whereas reorganizing mainly to
address underlying weaknesses in supporting systems and processes, such
as a lack of coordination and cooperation among units or a lack of
guidance relating to operational activities, might not be productive. As we
have seen to date, reorganizing immigration and customs functions,
without fixing existing problems with underlying systems and processes,
has not resolved long-standing management issues. In addition, ICE and
CBP may not be able to resolve some of these challenges alone if they are
affected by DHS department wide management initiatives and
developments. To assist the Congress in its oversight and in ensuring
accountability in homeland security programs, we will continue to monitor
and evaluate ICE and CBP programs as they meet, and hopefully
overcome, their management challenges.

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Mr. HOSTETTLER. At this point the two of us may engage in a rather lengthy set of questions.

First of all, Mr. Stana, your final point begs the question, when you talk about management versus structure and ask us to go slowly with regard to restructuring these organizations-which is not exactly something we are talking about this time, merely investigating the problems that we have as a result of these two structures but when you say management versus structure, and you talk about management, is that a diplomatic way of talking about policy with regard to policy and the aggressive nature or lack of aggressive nature in enforcing our immigration laws? Because it seems like if your mission was to enforce the immigration laws, then your management policy would be such that you would structure an organization to meet that mission. And I guess it's a question of is it the chicken or the egg. So is it an issue of policy and our desire or lack of desire to enforce the immigration laws?

Mr. STANA. I would put it this way: I think it is more of a matter of what is the mission of ICE and CBP. Being in DHS, whose mission is to enhance national security and to fight terrorism, they are taking their cues from the broader organization. So when we talk about ICE not doing some things now in the interior enforcement of immigration policies, it's understandable. The ICE mission is now national security and antiterrorism. So what's happening is, at ICE and CBP, they are fulfilling that mission by, for example, in work site enforcement, by targeting their efforts to trophy targets, whether they be nuclear power plants, airplane tarmacs and so on. They are not going to the food processing plants like they used to because the mission of DHS is national security and antiterrorism. If we wanted a fundamental shift to bring the mission back to what it was in INS, and that is to enforce immigration law and to provide benefits to eligible aliens, then that would require a fundamental shift of structure. But that is not what the DHS mission is right now. That is number one.

Number two, when I talk about management challenges, I guess a shorthand way of looking at it is problem areas, problem areas that are not directly linked to how the organization is structured. Whether or not, for example, the Air Marine Unit that was in ICE was transferred over to CBP to line up the mission and the structure to better accomplish that mission.

It's an open question whether putting ICE and CBP togetheror the interior enforcement people together with the Border Patrol is going to fix the bed space problem, because ICE can't even get bed space. That is a whole different issue. What we are talking about with management is the organizational crosswalks so that when ICE calls Border Patrol and says, I need bed space, is there someone who answers the phone who understands what their role is in helping out in the total mission of the agency? Is it clearly communicated who is supposed to do what, what their particular mission is down in the working levels? Is it understood that when you pick up a report that's generated by a financial system or a human capital system that says, I spent this many hours on this function, that it is accurate and reliable and can be used to spot problem areas? Those are management functions and management challenges.

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