--- category: "U.S. Government" aliases: - "HSI" - "ICE Homeland Security Investigations" tags: - Organization - USGovernment - LawEnforcement - HomelandSecurity - ChildExploitation - FederalCase summary: "Investigative directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, formed in 2010, which works through regional field offices and led the 2025 CVLT child exploitation prosecution." start: 2010-06 location: "Washington, D.C." relations: - type: reported_to with: "[[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]]" role: "directorate" start: 2010-06 fn: 1 - type: investigated with: "[[CVLT]]" role: "HSI Los Angeles, Cherry Hill and Honolulu" start: 2025 fn: 3 - type: investigated with: "[[Collin Walker]]" role: "arrested by HSI Cherry Hill" start: 2025-02 fn: 3 - type: investigated with: "[[Clint Borge]]" role: "arrested by HSI Honolulu" start: 2025-02 fn: 4 - type: investigated with: "[[R. Seth Williams]]" role: "with the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation" start: 2017 fn: 6 created: 2026-09-24 updated: 2026-09-24 --- Homeland Security Investigations is the investigative directorate of [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]] (ICE), a component of the [[Department of Homeland Security]]. ICE describes it as "the principal investigative component of DHS," responsible for "investigating, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and terrorist networks that threaten or seek to exploit the customs and immigration laws of the [[United States]]."[^1] ### Formation According to ICE, the directorate's lineage runs to 1789, when Congress established the [[U.S. Customs|United States Customs Service]], and its investigative elements descend from "the investigative functions of the former United States Customs Service and the former [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]]," which were merged into ICE when it began operations on March 1, 2003, under the [[Homeland Security Act of 2002]]. ICE states that in June 2010 it "underwent a structural realignment," set out in a memorandum of June 9, 2010, from [[John Morton]], then the Assistant Secretary in charge of ICE, which combined its Offices of Investigations, Intelligence and International Affairs into a directorate "known as Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI." The reorganization was internal and not made by statute.[^1] ICE gives the directorate's size as "more than 8,700 employees, including special agents, criminal analysts, mission support personnel and contract staff," assigned to more than 237 offices in the United States and more than 93 abroad.[^1] In testimony in September 2024, HSI's [[Katrina W. Berger]] gave its fiscal 2023 output as "approximately 29,500 criminal investigations producing more than 33,000 criminal arrests, 16,500 indictments, and 11,250 convictions."[^2] ### CVLT prosecution HSI [[Los Angeles]], HSI Cherry Hill in [[New Jersey]] and HSI Honolulu conducted the federal investigation of [[CVLT]], an online network charged with operating a child exploitation enterprise, with the [[Los Angeles Police Department]], the [[San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office]], the [[Henry County Sheriff's Office]] in Virginia, the [[Iowa State University Police Department]] and the French [[Police Nationale]].[^3] A federal grand jury in the [[Central District of California]] returned the indictment in [[United States v. Rane et al. (2-25-cr-00040)|United States v. Rane et al.]] on January 17, 2025. When it was unsealed in early February 2025, HSI Cherry Hill arrested [[Collin Walker]] in New Jersey, and HSI Honolulu arrested [[Clint Borge]] in [[Pahoa, Hawaii|Pahoa]]; a federal magistrate in Los Angeles denied Borge bail on February 6, 2025.[^3][^4] HSI had identified three of the four core leaders before Borge's identity was established through the inquiry of Iowa State University police officer [[Kami Feld]].[^5] ### Other investigations and data systems In March 2017 HSI, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Philadelphia Division and [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] Criminal Investigation were the investigating agencies in the bribery and extortion indictment of Philadelphia District Attorney [[R. Seth Williams|Rufus Seth Williams]], brought by the [[United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey|United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey]].[^6] ICE's [[FALCON]] analytical platform, built by [[Palantir Technologies]] and in use from 2013, integrates data from federal and state sources, including HSI and state motor vehicle records. In 2014 ICE awarded Palantir the [[Investigative Case Management]] contract, worth more than 41 million dollars, which the [[Electronic Privacy Information Center]] documented through [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] litigation.[^7] ### Footnotes [^1]: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "Who We Are," Homeland Security Investigations, and "History." https://www.ice.gov/hsi/who-we-are ; https://www.ice.gov/history [^2]: Statement of Katrina W. Berger, Homeland Security Investigations, September 18, 2024. https://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/speeches/240918berger.pdf [^3]: HSI. "HSI Los Angeles, Cherry Hill, and Honolulu special agents arrest members of online neo-Nazi group on child exploitation enterprise charges." ICE.gov, February 2025. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsi-los-angeles-cherry-hill-and-honolulu-special-agents-arrest-members-online-neo ; U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Four Members of Online Neo-Nazi Group that Exploited Minors Charged with Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material." February 2025. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-members-online-neo-nazi-group-exploited-minors-charged-producing-child-sexual-abuse [^4]: Hawaii Tribune-Herald. "Judge: No bail for alleged CVLT member from Pahoa." February 6, 2025. https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2025/02/06/hawaii-news/judge-no-bail-for-alleged-cvlt-member-from-pahoa/ [^5]: Iowa State Daily. "How ISUPD uncovered a Neo-Nazi sexual predator ring." 2025. https://iowastatedaily.com/335620/news/how-the-isupd-uncovered-a-neo-nazi-sexual-predator-ring/ ; Iowa State University News Service. "A call for help leads ISU Police to sexual predator, international investigation." February 12, 2025. https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2025/02/12/isu-police-exploitation [^6]: United States Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey, "Philadelphia District Attorney Rufus Seth Williams Indicted On Bribery And Extortion Charges," press release, March 21, 2017, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20260524023339/https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/philadelphia-district-attorney-rufus-seth-williams-indicted-bribery-and-extortion-charges [^7]: EPIC v. ICE FOIA litigation, https://epic.org/documents/epic-v-ice-palantir-databases/ ; ICE contract HSCETC-15-C-00001, https://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/contracts/palantirTechHSCETC15C00001.pdf