Understanding U.S. Immigration History: From INS to ICE- Elementary School

Have you ever heard adults talking about a group called ICE? It stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and it is a group that people have very strong feelings about, whether those feelings are good or bad.

To understand why ICE exists right now, we have to travel back in time to look at the group that came before it, called the INS (which stood for Immigration and Naturalization Service).

The INS

For a long time, there was only one big group that handled immigration in America: the INS.

The INS was having trouble because the government gave it two completely opposite jobs to do at the same time:

1. They were supposed to help people from other countries get their paperwork done, take their citizenship tests, and welcome them as new Americans.

2. They were also supposed to find people who broke immigration rules and tell them they had to leave the country.

Because of these two jobs, the INS was often very slow and had a lot of trouble doing either job well.

September 11th, 2001

In the year 2001, a very sad and scary event happened on September 11th when terrorists attacked the United States. You might have heard it called 9/11.

After that day, the government decided it needed to completely change how it protected the country. They realized that having one group do both the "helper" job and the "police" job wasn't working.

So, the government closed down the INS. In its place, they created three brand-new, separate groups to split up the work:

• USCIS: This group got the "Helper" job. They help with Green Cards and citizenship tests.

• CBP: This group got the "Border Guard" job. They work at borders and airports to make sure people entering the country are safe.

• ICE: This group got the "Interior Police" job. They are in charge of finding and deporting people who broke immigration rules inside the country.

Why Does This History Matter Today?

The way the government split up the INS is the exact reason people argue about immigration on the news today.

• Because ICE was created after a scary event, it was built to act like a very tough police force. Many people argue that ICE is too harsh and makes families feel scared. Today, there are videos going around online that show ICE agents treating people with violence. Other people argue that ICE is necessary to keep the country safe from dangerous crimes.

• Even though the "helper" group (USCIS) and the "police" group (ICE) are separate now, they are still part of the same big government family. Because of this, some immigrants are still afraid to ask USCIS for help, worrying that ICE might get involved. This means that people are too scared of ICE to talk to USCIS, which stops them from gaining U.S. citizenship.