While the United States currently plays host to anywhere from 12-20 million illegal aliens, and states and cities are being forced to handle the problem themselves, it seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is playing games instead of focusing on more pressing matters. According to an August 1 press release (hat tip to GamePolitics):

… agents from 22 offices assisted by representatives of the electronic industry today executed 32 federal search warrants in 16 states as part of an investigation into the alleged sale and distribution of illegal modification chips and disc copyright circumvention devices. This investigation represents the largest national enforcement action of its kind targeting this type of illegal activity.

Having researched the immigration issue far more than most people would ever care to, I hate to say that this doesn’t surprise me. While ICE has upped its enforcement action this year, I’ve felt it’s largely due to political reasons. With President Bush having tried to pass “comprehensive immigration reform,” he needed it to look like ICE was doing all it could to arrest and deport those here. He’s been trying to change his image so it appears he’s tough on border security, while allowing him to slip in the call for amnesty as a way to fix the problem the “comprehensively.” Considering that the Secretary of Homeland Security was Bush’s personal lobbyist on the issue, I’m most likely correct in my assumptions.

However, since ICE was created in 2002 and assumed some of the former INS’s functions in 2003, it hasn’t exactly had a successful track record of strong enforcement. In fact, in 2004, only three employers were fined for hiring illegal aliens. Now, ICE appears to be diverting resources to going after people with mod chips instead of dealing with the illegal alien influx that’s actively encouraged by the Mexican Government and aided by the Mexican drug cartels. How wonderful. It’s great to know our government is looking out for us. Next time I hear someone complain about illegal aliens in their town, I’ll just remind them that ICE has more important things to do. They’ll understand.

There have already been some stories showing up online from people who have been targeted by ICE. According to GamePolitics, an Ohio man was raided this week and is now living out of his car. Xbox Scene posted his account of what happened:

When ICE hit me, they had a warrant for my grandma’s house where I had all my packages sent. They had a picture of the house, and a description of it, meaning they were ready to come find me. When they were there, they didn’t find much, since I hadn’t had my computer and most modding stuff there for a while, but I continued to have the orders sent there for security of the packages. They went in the house and woke everyone up and watched them get dressed and started going though everything that was in my old room, and the stuff I had in the garage. They took anything that was related to gaming. They opened all the mail I had waiting for me there (which included someone’s Xbox and $150 for a mod and 400gb), and took all the consoles and all console parts that I had stored there they even took my original xbox1 games, that were in retail cases. They took my 360, power brick and video cable, while its modded with xtreme 5.1b, it has never had 1 single burned game booted on it. They also felt it necessary to take all my old Xbox parts, mostly dead, my controllers for the 360 and Wii (?) and packed it in a box, and left.

They got my phone number from my grandma and they called me, but I was sleeping, just like everyone else in Ohio. They eventually figured out where I was, and came to find me at my girlfriends’ house. They asked me about modding and what I did, and how I did it. They showed me the list of modchips that they collected, and asked me if I ever imported modchips from Canada. I told them I did, but I didn’t know it was a Canadian site until after I made the order. They asked me how much money I made, and how many mods I’ve done, and how many chips I still had, and where they were and where my computers were.

I wasn’t forced to turn over my stuff since they didn’t have a warrant for where it all was, but they told me that if I volunteered it, it would look better when the case is reviewed. They also said that I would have a better chance of getting it back (at first, they promised that I would get it back in 10 days, but once we got to the location, that was changed to “better chance” and “looks better in the eyes of XX”. I did the only thing I felt I could do, I let them take what they wanted. We went to where I had my workshop area. They took my laptop, and desktop, and the soldering iron (which was one of their main things to find for some reason). All the chips and relative parts were taken on the recommendation of the computer forensics guy who was to be doing the analysis on my things.

Needless to say, the online response to ICE’s actions has generally not been in their favor. MAXCONSOLE wonders if modders are really on par with child exploiters and cocaine traffickers:

On August 1st 2007, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed a great victory over so called gaming pirates. Websites across the world picked up on a press release which indicated that ICE had conducted 32 search warrants across sixteen U.S. states in a bid to clamp down on the distribution of modchips and disc copyright circumvention devices. Glorified headlines rang in such as ‘US storms homes to snag gaming pirates’ (MSNBC) and ‘Homeland Security Makes US Safer From Gaming Pirates’ (TechNewsWorld) providing an even bigger tangent on the alleged illegal activity. Throw in some irrelevant ballpark figures about how counterfeiting and piracy costs the U.S. economy between $200 billion and $250 billion and the issue rockets into new territories. Beyond all the sensationalism, one must ask whether the sole activity of those in the U.S. distributing modchips itself warranted such an operation…

Over at Gearlong, reader Matt S comments:

Sigh. This is really what ICE chooses to do with its limited resources? Like there isn’t enough child pornography and other, actually dangerous people and things crossing the border to keep them busy.

Rob R gives his 2 cents worth at Dvorak Uncensored:

Julie Myers, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security? You know, defending copyright protection isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about “Homeland Security”. So, we can’t keep 12M Mexicans from coming here illegally, but we’ll make sure Sony is taken care of…..

Julie needs to get a real assignment over at Homeland Security, like working on actual security.

According a CyberNet News reader:

You should have the right to mod your system. Technically, you paid the system manufacturer before you modded it. Editing your Hardware in the system is also not only be to play pirated games! You could add several features to your expense and your convenience! it is your decision. Not all system modders are bad.

Overall, this whole thing just makes one wonder what really goes on at ICE. With problems like mass illegal immigration and drug trafficking, both of which are encouraged by our southern neighbor and its drug cartels, why ICE is all of a sudden convinced that resources must be diverted to go after mod chips is beyond me. It seems that our government needs to stop playing games and start focusing on more important things.