Published February 18, 2012
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The
deadly office shooting in California involving a federal immigrations
supervisor and a special agent is the latest mark against U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the law enforcement agency created
after the 2001 terror attacks.
Its officers and agents have themselves been
arrested for crimes, accused of improper relationships with informants,
convicted in embezzlement cases, and more.
Insiders said ICE, which operates under the Department of
Homeland Security,
struggles to overcome internal friction and competing cultures among
employees who worked at the different federal agencies that were
combined nine years ago to form ICE: the former Customs Service in the
Treasury Department and the Justice Department's Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
"It was more like a hostile takeover and Customs clearly had the upper hand," said T.J. Bonner, a retired
Border Patrol agent who has worked with ICE. He described the agency's formation as "an unfriendly merger."
Investigators were piecing together details
of Thursday's chaotic scene at the ICE office in Long Beach. They said a
supervisory agent, Ezequiel Garcia, shot Kevin Kozak, the agency's
second in command, at least six times. Another agent, whose name was
being withheld, fatally shot Garcia.
A federal official with knowledge of the
investigation told The Associated Press that Kozak had denied a request
for an internal transfer by Garcia. Kozak formerly worked at the Customs
Service; Garcia worked for the now-defunct Immigration and
Naturalization Service and was promoted in 2004 to be a supervisor
within ICE.
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