ICE consists of three directorates to accomplish the agency’s mission, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Management and Administration (M&A).
ICE's primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.
Catch up on ICE’s most popular news stories from the week ending March 25, 2016
To ensure openness and transparency and to better serve those seeking more information about ICE and its operations, the agency centralized processing of all ICE-related Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in a single office.
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The broad authority of ICE allows for the identification and removal of dangerous, often recidivist, criminals engaged in crimes such as murder, predatory sexual offenses, narcotics trafficking, alien smuggling, and a host of other crimes that have a profoundly negative impact on our society. The Enforcement Division manages the enforcement initiatives and components through which ERO identifies and arrests removable aliens.
ERO's Enforcement Division comprises the following:
Matthew T. Albence has served as the Assistant Director for the Enforcement Division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Washington, D.C., since January 2013. He is responsible for all ERO enforcement programs and initiatives, to include the Criminal Alien Program, the Fugitive Operations Support Center, the National Fugitive Operations Program, the 287(g) Program, and Field Training.
Mr. Albence has over 20 years of federal law enforcement experience. In 1994, he began his career in San Antonio as a Special Agent with the former U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS), where he conducted investigations of criminal aliens and street gangs, visa fraud, alien smuggling organizations, and worksite enforcement. In 1999, he was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent, at which time he supervised both INS San Antonio’s criminal alien and benefit/document groups.
In 2001, he was assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and was attached to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Bridgeport, CT, where he received numerous commendations for his role in the dismantling of several narcotics trafficking organizations involving foreign-born nationals. In 2002, he was promoted to Deputy Assistant District Director for Investigations with INS Chicago. Upon the creation of ICE in 2003, he was named Associate Special Agent in Charge with the ICE Office of Investigations, and was promoted the following year to Deputy Special Agent in Charge in Detroit. In each of these capacities, he was responsible for the management and oversight of investigations related to criminal violations of immigration and customs laws, to include national security investigations, human smuggling/trafficking, child exploitation/pornography, drug and weapons trafficking, and benefit/document fraud.
In 2006, Mr. Albence became the Unit Chief of the ICE Office of Investigations Training Academy in Glynco, GA, where he oversaw the basic and advanced training for more than 1,000 Special Agents annually. The following year, Mr. Albence joined the Transportation Security Administration Office of Investigations as the Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the South Central Regional Field Office, where he maintained operational responsibility for all investigations within a nine-state area of responsibility.
In 2012, he returned to ICE with the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations to serve as the Deputy Assistant Director for the Criminal Alien Division, where he was responsible for strategic planning, policy development, budgetary oversight and the deployment of resources to effectively investigate, identify, arrest and remove incarcerated and at-large criminal aliens – including supervising the nationwide deployment of Secure Communities interoperability.
Mr. Albence received a Bachelor of Science degree in Justice from American University and a Master’s Degree in Administration of Justice from the Center for the Study of Crime, Delinquency, and Corrections at Southern Illinois University. He is a member of the Senior Executive Service.
