U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently named Steve Francis as head of its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit based in Detroit, Michigan.
“As a native of this region, I’m honored to serve my community in this new capacity,” Francis said. “I look forward to building on the foundation in place and collaborating with key stakeholders to positively impact the quality of life here.”
In his new role, Francis will supervise a number of special agents located throughout Michigan and Ohio. Each special agent works to enforce immigrations and customs laws through criminal investigations in mission areas including crimes against children, drug smuggling, illegally exporting munitions and high-tech items, money laundering, intellectual property rights, financial crimes, human smuggling, and crimes from transnational gangs.
A 20-year veteran of law enforcement, Francis most recently served as ICE’s Detroit-based deputy special agent in charge, which he began in February 2015. Since that time, Francis worked in operational and oversight capacities for five different investigative divisions that encompassed 20 groups, six remote sub-offices, and various mission support staff.
ICE’s HSI mission areas include facilitating legitimate trade and commerce, maintaining financial markets and industrial parity, interdicting contraband, and enforcing immigration and border security.