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Comment by jonlucc | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain why this falls under DHS and not the FBI?

There seems to be a big overlap between the FBI and ICE-HSI. Both agencies have legal authority to investigate the same types of crimes, and they have similar man power (both have ~35k employees, but the FBI has twice as many special agents [0][1]). Perhaps more interestingly, the DHS reports directly to the president, while the FBI is under the Department of Justice. Though the DOJ is under the attorney general, who is also under the president, so maybe this difference isn't interesting at all.

To me it looks like the US government wanted to double the FBI's size without saying that's what they were doing.

[0] https://www.ice.gov/about/offices/homeland-security-investig...

[1] http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/faqs

That's a relatively large jump to conclusion you made. I doubt there's anyone in the US government (where, exactly, in the hierarchy do you suppose) that would have the skill to get that past congress (congress sets the budget for all of DHS btw).

As for the missions, from both your links:

"The mission of the FBI is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners. It performs these responsibilities in a way that is responsive to the needs of the public and faithful to the Constitution of the United States."

"HSI conducts criminal investigations against terrorist and other criminal organizations who threaten national security. HSI combats worldwide criminal enterprises who seek to exploit America's legitimate trade, travel and financial systems and enforces America's customs and immigration laws at and beyond our nation's borders."

Yes there's quite a bit of overlap there. Maybe the key difference is that ICE's mission talks about customs and immigration laws specifically.

>I doubt there's anyone in the US government (where, exactly, in the hierarchy do you suppose) that would have the skill to get that past congress (congress sets the budget for all of DHS btw).

What do you mean? The Homeland Security Act of 2002 did pass congress.

I' m guessing DHS (specifically the USPIS) had jurisdiction because the original offending material was found in the mail according to the press release. The arrest of the suspect led to the website stuff, but USPIS / DHS would still likely handle the case as primary.

Good question. The article clearly states it was an ICE investigation. ICE is under the DHS umbrella.

Would the NSA be involved in something like this?

Mission creep.

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