Homeland Security Act creates DHS and ICE, inheriting 287(g) authority

President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act on November 25, 2002, consolidating 22 federal agencies into the new Department of Homeland Security. The law abolished the Immigration and Naturalization Service and split its functions among three new bureaus: Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE opened in March 2003, inheriting the 287(g) program authority that the INS had never fully deployed, just months after the first 287(g) agreement was signed in the post-9/11 environment.