Homeland Security Must Also Protect America's Economic Border

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is essential to trade-fraud enforcement: tracing import networks, securing evidence and building cases with DOJ. Reuters reported (opens in a new tab) extensive reassignment of federal investigators toward immigration operations, and a January congressional letter (opens in a new tab) sought an accounting of the impact on complex investigations. The specific loss of HSI trade-fraud capacity has not been quantified publicly.

Immigration enforcement and trade enforcement are not competing definitions of national security. Illegal goods also cross the border, depriving lawful companies of business, weakening industrial capacity and, where deliberate fraud is established, denying the government duties owed.

Border security must include economic security. DOJ cannot prosecute major customs cases without capable investigators, continuous case development and specialized expertise at HSI. Congress and the administration should ensure trade-crime investigations receive the sustained resources they require.