‘Atrocious’ tech hurt ICE investigation branch efforts to counter fentanyl influx

Homeland Security Investigations is failing to provide its agents with the tech toolbelt needed to address fentanyl entering the U.S., according to an inspector general report published last week. 

The watchdog found that HSI, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, spent millions to develop data analysis and information-sharing tools that underperformed and went unused.

The primary technology in question is the HSI-built Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment platform, referred to as RAVEn. The platform was created to host a suite of data-analysis tools that were designed to support criminal investigations. DHS poured more than $150 million into the endeavor and deployed the technology in November 2022. Just three years later, HSI began decommissioning it.  

“One officer described RAVEn as ‘atrocious,’ and another stated the platform hindered drug investigations instead of helping them,” the inspector general office said in the report. 

Users of the platform told the watchdog that the tool couldn’t connect to criminal networks, required substantial manual effort to search, did not generate investigative leads and often crashed. 

“Technical limitations led to low RAVEn usage rates and slowed fentanyl investigations as agents and analysts manually conducted investigative efforts automated in the prior system,” the IG report said. 

While certainly a contributing factor, HSI staff told the auditors that the platform’s failure wasn’t solely due to its evident capability gaps. 

“According to HSI officials, leadership-directed priorities delayed the deployment of certain tools to the field,” the inspector general office said in its report. “Additionally, one ICE official noted the agency’s current operating environment is heavily focused on other programs, and these competing priorities challenged HSI’s ability to deliver RAVEn’s intended tools on schedule.”

Beginning in fiscal 2025, HSI prioritized immigration enforcement over fentanyl-related criminal investigations. The amount of hours dedicated to countering fentanyl entering the U.S. declined by approximately 31%, representing a drop of more than 250,000 hours, from fiscal 2024 to 2025.

“HSI can be an agency that dismantles the cartels moving fentanyl into American communities,” Claire Trickler-McNulty, an immigration policy fellow at nonprofit intermediary Hyphen, said in a LinkedIn post Monday about the report. “Ask it to be an immigration enforcer under quota pressure, and its core public-safety work is what gives. You cannot be everything at once, and the tradeoffs land on the public.”

Before her current role, Trickler-McNulty was a senior counselor to the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She has also served as the assistant director of ICE’s Office of Immigration Program Evaluation and as a deputy assistant director at the agency’s Office of Detention Policy and Planning.  

“I don’t know the specifics of HSI’s current technology, but developing or changing IT systems at ICE and DHS has long been an arduous, slow process,” Trickler-McNulty told FedScoop on Tuesday. “The agencies have received massive influxes of resources that should help address these gaps, but money alone won’t fix them.” 

“Without a focus on good governance and genuine systems improvement, it’s just more spending, and buying new tools that don’t actually meet agents’ and analysts’ needs is a chronic problem,” she added. 

In its report, the inspector general office said HSI estimated ongoing operating costs for RAVEn will surpass $31 million. An additional $39 million is needed for a vendor-built analytics system that is replacing RAVEn.

The watchdog recommended HSI’s executive associate director develop and implement a process that evaluates capabilities of tools prior to deployment to ensure they actually address what agents need. 

The OIG also directed HSI to implement procedures for ensuring timely availability of funds for purchases of information and evidence, improve coordination between HSI and Customs and Border Protection on investigative referrals, and review staffing levels for appropriate coverage of priorities.

ICE concurred with all four recommendations and said it expects to have a tech tool review process in place by June 30, 2027. 

“ICE Homeland Security Investigations remains committed to combating the trafficking and distribution of fentanyl through robust enforcement, information sharing, and collaboration with federal, state, and local partners,” Beth Baden, acting CFO and senior component accountable official at ICE, said in response to the IG’s report.