Ambassador
Ambassador's Speech
REMARKS AT THE WELCOME RECEPTION FOR ICE ATTACHÉ STEPHEN KLEPPPE
August 26, 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you all for joining me here this evening. Tonight I have the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Stephen Kleppe - the newly designated Immigration and Customs Enforcement Attaché from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the Southern Cone of the Americas.
As many of you know, prior to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the United States Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Services operated as separate and distinct entities under independent federal agencies. To address this shortcoming, the Department of Homeland Security was officially created in 2003. Furthermore, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the primary investigative arm of the Department, was created by combining the law enforcement arms of the former Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Services in order to more effectively enforce our immigration and customs laws and protect the United States against terrorist attacks.
The mission of ICE is to protect America and uphold public safety by identifying criminal activities and eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation’s borders. By protecting our national and border security, ICE seeks to eliminate the potential threat of terrorist acts against the United States. ICE does this by deterring, interdicting, and investigating threats arising from the movement of people and goods into and out of the United States - by targeting the organizations, financial networks, criminal infrastructures and other installations utilized to support terrorism and other criminal activities.
To combat these transnational criminal networks that operate without borders, ICE has established itself in numerous U.S. embassies abroad. This is not only to support domestic investigations, but to work directly with our foreign partners, including our friends in Argentina, to assist in their own investigations.
Stephen will engage in that cooperation with all of you, our guests this evening. So since you'll all be working with him, let me tell you something about him.
Steve has extensive experience living and working throughout Central and South America - primarily in the Republic of Panama, where he spent 7 years. Steve began his federal law enforcement career with the United States Customs Service at the busiest land-border in the world – the San Ysidro, California, Port of Entry, located just south of San Diego. There, Steve investigated cross-border narcotics smuggling and related financial crimes. Steve also served as a National Program Manager to the ICE Special Operations Unit in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated complex, multi-jurisdictional investigations of large-scale narcotics trafficking and money laundering organizations originating primarily from Central/South America and the Caribbean. Steve also served as a senior advisor to the Homeland Security Operations Center in Washington, D.C.
Steve is accompanied by his wife, Janina, this evening. While it is their first time living in Argentina, I can tell you they absolutely thrilled that they can share this opportunity – and your magnificent country - with their children.
With this brief summary, allow me to now introduce the new Immigration and Customs Attaché for the Southern Cone of the Americas, Mr. Stephen Kleppe.
