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Appointee Directory View:   Michael J. Garcia -- Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Bureau Immigration and Customs Enforcement With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, President George W. Bush appointed Michael J. Garcia to serve as the Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative arm of the Department. With Mr. Garcia at its helm, ICE was formally established on March 1, 2003, comprised of six integrated law enforcement component organizations: Air and Marine Operations, Detention and Removal, the Federal Protective Service, Investigations, Intelligence and the Federal Air Marshal Service. More than 20,000 ICE employees are engaged in a wide variety of border security, air security and financial security operations within the United States and around the world. As a career federal prosecutor with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mr. Garcia participated in some of the nation’s highest-profile terrorism cases prior to September 11, 2001. Some of these cases include: • The prosecution of four defendants for conspiring with Osama bin Laden and 17 others to kill American nationals abroad in the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The four defendants were convicted on all counts in May 2001. • The successful prosecution of four defendants in the first World Trade Center bombing trial. • The successful prosecution of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and two others on charges of planning 48 hours of "terror in the sky" in a conspiracy to plant bombs aboard 12 American passenger aircraft in the Far East. • In recognition of his work, Mr. Garcia received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the Department of Justice's highest award, in both 1994 and 1997, as well as the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service for his work on the embassy bombing case in 2002. Mr. Garcia joined the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1992. Previously, he was a law clerk for New York State Court of Appeals Judge Judith S. Kaye from 1990 to 1992 and was associated with the Manhattan law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel from 1989 to 1990. Prior to his nomination to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mr. Garcia served as Acting Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service during its transition from December 2002 to February 2003, and, prior to that position, as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement from August 2001 to November 2002. Mr. Garcia, a New York native, is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton. He received his Master's Degree from the College of William and Mary in English, and his Juris Doctorate from the Albany Law School of Union University where he was valedictorian. 202-514-1900

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