Homeland Security Increasingly Means Putting Agents Outside the Homeland
Mr. Ndusyepo did not respond to requests for comment but told a local newspaper in Dar es Salaam
that his client had "not committed any offence in USA." Operations like the South African drug smuggling case have led the Department of Homeland Security to push to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents and analysts in embassy attaché offices in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — countries that serve as transit points for drugs and illegal migrants.
Lawmakers have asked Homeland Security officials to evaluate the costs
and benefits of deploying thousands of employees overseas while the department is looking to hire 15,000 new ICE and border patrol agents in the United States as part of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Kevin Martinson, the Customs and Border Protection attaché at the United States Embassy in Nairobi, said a training program for Kenyan customs officials
and its Rural Border Patrol has led to record seizures of narcotics and other smuggled goods.
In South Africa, Homeland Security Investigations special agents who are stationed at the United States
Embassy in Pretoria have targeted drug smugglers, wildlife traffickers and Nigerian scammers.
According to court documents and interviews with Homeland Security agents in Pretoria, Mr. Hassan ran a global drug smuggling organization
that obtained large quantities of heroin from sources in Pakistan and Iran, and cocaine from South American suppliers.
But Andrej Hunko, a member of the Germany’s Left Party, said the actions amount to an extrajudicial travel ban
and accused the United States of moving its "immigration controls to European countries." Canadians flooded their prime minister’s office in August with letters and emails protesting legislation to allow American customs officers stationed at Canadian airports and train stations to question, search and detain Canadian citizens.
In Germany, some lawmakers have questioned the department’s counterterrorism Immigration Advisory Program, where travelers at foreign airports are investigated
and sometimes interviewed by plainclothes Customs and Border Protection officers before they are allowed to board flights to the United States.