The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Office of International Operations is the international division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We protect U.S. borders and U.S. interests from illicit goods, people, and money by conducting multi-faceted, international law enforcement operations and removals and partnering with foreign and domestic counterparts to detect, deter, and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and prevent terrorist activities.
HSI International Operations is DHS’s largest international investigative component, interacting with the international community on behalf of ICE through investigations of immigration and customs violations, management of the Visa Security Program and the International Visitors Program, representation with international organizations, delivery of international training, and guidance on repatriation efforts.
HSI International Operations has a network of approximately 400 personnel, including 230 Special Agents, deployed to 62 Attaché offices and 8 Department of Defense liaisons in 46 countries, who conduct investigations against terrorist and other criminal organizations that threaten our national security. HSI International Operations disrupts and dismantles transnational criminal organizations that seek to exploit America’s legitimate trade, travel and financial systems, and enforces U.S. customs and immigration laws at and beyond our nation’s borders to prevent threats from entering the United States.
HSI International Operations protects America’s borders, national security, and public safety by investigating, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that engage in all types of smuggling, including narcotics, money, weapons, sensitive technologies, as well as the smuggling and trafficking of human beings. HSI International Operations also investigates the criminal threats that TCOs pose to America’s legitimate commercial trade, travel, and financial systems through trade fraud and intellectual property theft; the diversion of military weapons, munitions, and sensitive technologies; international money laundering and financial fraud; immigration fraud; and child sex tourism and the sexual exploitation of children.
HSI Attachés collaborate with host nation law enforcement, customs, and immigration counterparts to further the transnational criminal investigations being conducted by domestic HSI field offices and likewise refer investigative requests from foreign counterparts to domestic HSI field offices. HSI Attachés also build counterpart capacity and develop and maintain critical professional relationships through outreach and training and support repatriation operations between the U.S. and the host country government.
