“To enhance the effectiveness of the Shadow Wolves Program, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a new section 448 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 codifying the Shadow Wolves Program—a specialized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit of Native American trackers, primarily from the Tohono O'odham Nation, that combats cross-border smuggling and trafficking on tribal lands—and directs the ICE Director, in coordination with partnering Tribal governments including the Tohono O'odham Nation, to (1) specify the program's mission and goals; (2) determine national staffing needs for special agents and their required knowledge, skills, and abilities; (3) within 180 days of enactment, update the program's strategy under sec. 3 of the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act (Public Law 117-113) to include measurable objectives, timelines, and milestones for officer retention, recruitment, and expansion; (4) provide current GS-1801 Tactical Officers employed as Shadow Wolves with written information on reclassifying as special agents, including pay impacts (e.g., overtime and retirement), required steps (e.g., training, with exemptions and overtime eligibility), and other relevant details; (5) develop a succession plan to recruit for vacancies from anticipated retirements; and (6) develop criteria for selecting additional tribal lands for new Shadow Wolves units, including funding needs and sources and proximity to federal law enforcement training facilities. This section also makes a clerical amendment to the Act's table of contents.
This section directs the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit to specified congressional committees (i.e., Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Judiciary; House Committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary), not later than one year after enactment of this Act, a report describing progress toward full implementation of (1) section 448 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as added by section 2(a) (specifying the mission and goals of the Shadow Wolves Program—i.e., an ICE unit of Native American trackers specializing in border interdiction, investigation, and signcutting on Tohono O’odham Nation lands—including required coordination with the Tohono O’odham Nation and partnering Tribal governments); and (2) section 2(4) of the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act, as added by section 4.
This section authorizes the noncompetitive conversion of Shadow Wolves—specialized Native American trackers in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol—from the excepted service to career or career-conditional appointments in the competitive service after successful completion of three years as Shadow Wolves, regardless of assigned location.