10) ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
EST: 2003
Employees: 20,000
Budget: 6 Billion USD
What they do: Immigration enforcement, investigating the illegal trade of drugs, guns and humans, and preventing terrorism. One specialization is human and sex trafficking, and returning cultural treasures to their rightful homes.
Why: While they are a relatively young agency, dealing with human and sex trafficking is quite important, although gruesome. I found that that responsibility warranted a spot on the list. ICE is like the young rookie that is full of potential for the years ahead of them.
Source: ICE
9) USSS (United States Secret Service)
EST: 1865
Employees: 7,000
Budget: 1.8 Billion USD
What they do: Physical protection of the nations highest leaders, foreign dignitaries, and other VIPs at public events. They also investigate counterfeiting to protect from fraud and other money crimes.
Why: As a kid, the guys protecting the POTUS in cool sunglasses and ear pieces were the coolest people ever. However, they do much more than that, having its own police service and desk jobs would be naming a few.
Source: Secret Service
8) BOP (Bureau of Prisons)
EST: 1930
Employees: 39,951
Budget: 8.5 Billion USD
What they do: Responsible for maintaining federal criminals by keeping them in a variety of secure facilities while they serve their sentence (prison)
Why: While a lesser known agency, the BOP plays a huge part in the organization of these federal facilities. As a community we seem to identify each prison as independent, however the BOP has to keep track of all these places and is responsible for the safety of both prisoners and citizens.
Source: BOP
7) ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives)
EST: 1789
Employees: 4,803
Budget:1.18 Billion USD
What they do: They help regulate firearms and explosives for the general public and investigate crime involving interstate commerce of alcohol and tobacco.
Why: One of the oldest federal agencies, they have roots back to the revolutionary war. This was the collection service for one of the oldest federal taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. If I was a betting man I'd guess thats where they got their name.
Source: ATF
6) USMS (United States Marshall Service)
EST: 1789
Employees: 5,410
Budget: 1.2 Billion USD
What they do: Tracking down fugitives, protection for members of the U.S. court system, asset forfeiture, prisoner operations and transport, and operation of the Witness Security Program.
Why: While getting extra points for being the nations oldest federal agency, the wide variety of tasks they perform are essential to federal law enforcement. I see the USMS as the utility player on a baseball team. He can play outfield, third base, and even to pitch if you need him to. A very interesting agency.
Source: U.S. Marshalls
That concludes the first part of the list. You might be able to see that some big agencies have not yet been mentioned (stay tuned for part two). However the purpose of this blog is to educate the American people about these federal agencies and what they do. They are all small cogs in a wheel that is the Federal Government which cannot work without all these agencies doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Feel free to comment with any questions or predictions on the top five.
Allegedly the CIA and NSA are the only two agencies that have a higher annual budget than the BOP. Does that speak to our countries grossly high incarceration rates of minor crimes? Where does the justification for that allocation of tax dollars come from?
ReplyDeleteAmong all industrialized nations (I.E. Great Britain, France, Ect...) The USA has the most incarcerations per person by a lot. And there is a lot of money to be made out of it. Things like private prisons are huge for outsourcing inmates for cheap. The justification these days is the war on drugs. People want drug dealers and users off the streets, leading to very harsh penalties. Great question.
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