Congress creates ICE by dissolving INS and merging customs and immigration enforcement into DHS

The Department of Homeland Security officially opened on March 1, 2003, following the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Congress dissolved the Immigration and Naturalization Service, transferring most of its functions to three new entities within DHS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ICE inherited responsibility for immigration detention, creating a new agency that would rapidly expand its use of privately contracted detention facilities to meet surging capacity demands.