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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event: InterV~,":,of Burea,! Of!jigration and Customs Enforcement (BI CE)
Investlgato~ .

Type of event: Interview

Date: July 29, 2003

Special Access Issues: None

Prepared by: Barbara A. Grewe

Team Number: 6

Location: FBI Washington Field Office (WFO)

Participants - Non-Commission: Robert Sinton, Assistant General Counsel, FBI

Participants - Commission: Senior Counsel Barbara A. Grewe, Consultant Lance Cole

Background

., Igrew up in Chicago and joined the Marine Corps when he turned 24. He joined a
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reconnaissance battalion where he had hostage rescue duties. He was there from 1984
through 1988. He then attended Illinois State University where he earned an associate's
degree in criminal justice. He then came to Washington, D.C. where he was an intern for
the Public Defender Service (PDS) from January to May 1993. He became a mechanic
for eight months and then was hired full-time by PDS as an investigator. In 1996 he was
hired by the Immigration and Naturalization service (INS). He spent 21 weeks at the
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glyncoe, Georgia, to become an
INS investigator. During that time he worked on security for the Atlanta Olympics.
After the Academy, he returned to Washington where he was assigned to the
Apprehension of Criminal Aliens Program (ACAP). He then became a fraud investigator
for INS and became part of a U.S. Secret Service (USSS) fraud task force.

\ WFO Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)

'I Isaid he was committed to working in Washington, D.C. and was working on the
USSS task force when he heard about the position on the FBI's WFO JTTF. He liked
working in a task force environment and the JITF position would involve a pay increase
to a OS-13. He said he had three children and another one on the way so he was very
interested in the position. He applied for the opening in July 2001. He said the decision
of who received the position was solely up to INS because its National Security Unit

tit (NSU) is paying the salary of the INS people on the JTTF. He said NSU actually
provides the billet to the JTIF. The position was for three years initially with the

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f\'·;><:~.::.: possibilityofll~me-year extension. At the time he applied there were three INS
\ •...... \ ...... \. -....employees on theJ'Ff'F. One of these people left to become an Air Marshal. Now there
:. :.: \:< , "at:e seven BleE line agents and one supervisor. All of the BleE representatives on the
\ \\ -;.: ""·)TrF are former INS investigators. [note: BrCE also includes former Customs
\ \\ ....\ \\'>'''' .empleyees. None of the BICE people -,?n the JTTF were previously Customs officials.]
\ ~\,·\'.'::I·· .. '\ ~i1s an INS investigator when h~·j~ined·tlle JTTF. He explained the .
\ :""\" \.. transformation of INS personnel when the Departmentof Homeland Security (DHS) was
\ '\\~'" ·\..~\.~e said INS was divided into programs. For example, Investigations, where
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\\ L-:Jwas assigned, was such a program. When DHS was created it took over all of
. \\': INS...and divided itinto three different bureaus: BCIS - this is the former services and
"<\': benefits '~o~p; BICE·~.this is the enforcement group; and Border Securi·ty:·1 h
'\ now a'BICI;:~:;s;radye on the JTTF. [note: Due to his longstanding role as an INS
\ \'" investigator, \. epeatedly referred throughout the interview to INS when he actual1y
:..\': meant the 01 iinctions 'that have been subsumed into BICE. The reader should
\.\::....view these-terms interchangeably.]

\~oted"~hat DT-l'W:~S the original JTTF squad at WFO. [note: "DT" indicates that
\~ad handles domestic terronsm matters as opposed to "IT" WhICh relates to
\. international terrorism.] This ..squad handled everything that needed an immediate
\.response. He said, WFO was trying to keepeverything requiring an immediate response

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\p~ the domestic terrorism side. 'B;e said immediately after 9/11 everything was
immediate response'. When Wf'O'realized that some of the matters handled by DT-1
needed somewhat longer term investigation, it created DT..;5 to handle such
iliv~~tigations. \He sai4 ~t the ~ignifi~antl'y longer'ln'jestilla;of that rel~te to foreign
terrorists are assigned tc.international terrorism squads. s now assigned to squad
Di\-5\. He performs a number of jobs now -, In accordance WIt t e Memorandum of
'. Understanding (MOU) between the FBI and)NSIBICE, he is assigned regular leads on
\ the rrrrby the FBI squad supervisor. He said, for example, if there is a visa related
\ case on'his JITF squad, he would probably be assigned the case. He also performs
\INS~IGE records checks for members of the rrrr. He has fought against just being a
"record,s checker because the MOV says he win be more than that. He also receives
~sigr$e~ts from the J1TF BICE"'~upervisor and his\INS supervisor at the INS

supervisor,
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Washingto..n District office. Thus, he cannot be at the J1TF "24/7.". He maintains two
oftices.+ at the ,TTF and one a.t·~ICE. His l~ng term cases come ~ro?I his BICE
ays the MOU IS currently being "retooled." He said If he has
managerneni issues on the JTTF, he goes to the JITF BlCE 'supervisor first. He noted
that all seven BrCE employees are not on. the same squad on thy JTTF.

Fo~\aw.hile\l: :UpriSOry Special Agen;(~SA) John Perren wa~TTTF

supervisor. hinks John Perren was re.~ll . [note: Pe~ squad to .
become AS or omestic terrorism WFOJ~ommented that Brian Bostick,
who fas
filled in for Perren on the squad, is a "good character."

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Wherrlis assigned an FBI lead he works with FBI agents to determine how to
proce~he case. They will discuss whether to proceed criminally, move to deport
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the subject, or establish surveillance to learn more. If the decision is to use surveillance,
the case will probably be transferred to an IT squad because the investigation tends to be
longer term.

Administratively one of the issues is the fact that INSIBICE will only certify his security
clearances to the FBI for one year at a time. This creates problems because if the
clearance is not renewed on time, he cannot come into the WFO unescorted and he
cannot park in the building. This makes it very difficult to work.

\..... "'1 Isaid when he first came to the JTTF there was a program in place to initiate and
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, train new members on the JTTF but 9/11 happened and that went by the wayside. He
\\, said it is being set up again now.

r-I.~ays he has used FBI drug informants and FBI analysts in his work. He uses FBI
'aiiarysfs rather than the BICE analysts because, in his opinion, the BICE analysts "suck."
There is FBI one analyst on his squad. This individual does ceH phone link analysis,
ACS searches, and produces flow charts. Analyst assignments are arranged through the
supervisor, not agent to analyst. There is supposed to be a BICE analyst coming on board
to the JTTF but he does not know what role that person is supposed to play. He has some
confidential informants but he carries them throu h BICE not the FBI. He has worked
with FBI language specialist 9/11 Classified Information He said he has

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received nothing but good support from them .

Information sharing

'1 ~as access to the old INS computer databases through a dial-up system when he is
at the FBI WFO. He said through this he can access the majority of the INS computer
systems. He can access the "NAILS" system which is a non-U.S. citizen, non-immigrant
computer system. The information in this system is fed into the Treasury Enforcement
database (TEeS). [note: TECS has historically been a Customs database.]

He does not yet have access to the FBI's Automated Case Support (ACS) system
although he expects he will have access in the near future. He believes part of the delay
is how busy everything has been post-9ft 1. He says he has not pushed to have ACS
access because he can use FBI agents and analysts to get whatever he needs on ACS.
When he writes up his work he does this electronically and then the FBI copies his work
into the FBI system. He does not have access to Intelink. I

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[difficult to get the CIA to provide him information. I

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On the other hand, he believes he has a good information sharing relationship with the
local law enforcement representatives and the State Department's representatives on the
JTTF. He said JTTF members will pass him information they have received "on the
street" that they believe he may be interested in. He said if the issue is real1y an INS
issue as opposed to a JITF issue, he will forward the information to his INS supervisor.

He said that information sharing within the JTTF is good. There are squad meetings for
DT-l and DT-5 every Monday morning at 9:00 am. He said that all the JTTF members
chat with their home agencies regarding the particular issues that arise. He said there are
20 different agencies on the JTTF. He said that they are thinking about once a quarter
having the agency chiefs attend these meetings and raise issues of concern. He believes
the chiefs may all speak with each other in any event.

He has reporting requirements to his own agency such as the Significant Incident Reports
and monthly reports. The monthly reports deal with the opening and closing of cases.
He said these requirements are set out in BICE directives. He said the directives identify

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types of information that must be prompt~y reported .

Recommendations

I 'argued that his major recommendation is that there should be more INS agents
and more money for the investigations program. He claimed that the INS budget is
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! "raped" every year. He argued that it was 17 percent less than what it needs to be. He
f noted that there needs to be more resources for the interior protection of the U.S., not just
! the border. [note: INS investigators handle interior investigations as opposed to border
! investigations.] He pointed out that much of the terrorism related cases have an
/ immigration aspect to them and so INS agents are very important in the fight against

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