Alien: Any person not a citizen of the United States.

Absconder: An alien who has been ordered deported or removed whose whereabouts are unknown to DHS.

Administrative Removals: A means of processing a criminal alien for removal if the alien is not a lawful permanent resident, has been convicted of an aggravated felony, and is not eligible for any relief from removal. A DHS officer issues the final order.

Apprehension: The seizure, taking or arrest of a person on a criminal or administrative charge based on a violation of the immigration laws of the United States.

Border Patrol Agent: A customs and border protection officer who is tasked with detecting and apprehending aliens who violate the borders and immigration laws of the United States. Their primary area of operations is between the ports of entry and to a depth of 100 miles from the international boundaries of the United States.

Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Facilities: Federal prisons, camps, penitentiaries, institutions, or medical centers that detain or incarcerate individuals who have been charged or convicted and sentenced of federal crimes.

C4I: Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence

Contract Facilities: Privately owned or operated detention facilities that have been contracted by the ICE or the Bureau of Prisons of US Marshals for ICE use.

Criminal Alien: An illegal alien who is removable based on a criminal conviction in accordance with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Core Business Function: That very important activity around which a large number of the agency's dollars, key resources, and people are organized to accomplish the agency's mission or a principal portion of the agency's mission.

Custody Management: The act, manner, or practice of managing, caring for, supervising, or controlling the temporary holding of individuals charge with federal crimes or pending immigration hearings and removal proceedings and all applicable resources necessary to complete this function. Such resources include, but are not limited to, staff, facilities, equipment and transportation (ground and air).

Deportable Alien: An alien in and admitted to the United States subject to any grounds of removal specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act. This includes any alien illegally in the U.S., regardless of whether the alien entered the country by fraud or misrepresentation or entered legally but subsequently violated the terms of his or her nonimmigrant classification or status.

Deportable Alien Control System (DACS): ICE database that tracks the movements of detained and non-detained aliens within the immigration hearing and removal process.

Deportation: The formal removal of an alien from the U.S. when the alien has been found removable for violating the immigration laws. An immigration judge orders deportation without any punishment being imposed or contemplated. Prior to April 1997, deportation and exclusion were separate removal procedures. the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 consolidated these procedures. After April 1, 1997, aliens in and admitted to the U.S. may be subject to removal based on deportability.

Deportation Officer (DO): An immigration and customs enforcement officer who enforces immigration laws within the interior of the United States. The DO is responsible for locating, apprehending, and removing illegal aliens after they have been issued a final order of removal, deportation, or exclusion.

Detainers: A legal tool allowing agencies to maintain custody of or ensure the continued detention of an alien for various authorized reasons.

Detention: The temporary holding of individuals charged with federal crimes or pending immigration hearings and removal proceedings.

Detention and Removal Office (DRO): The ICE division responsible for the detention and removal of illegal aliens.

Detention Enforcement Officer (DEO): An immigration and customs enforcement officer who primarily ensures the security, safety, and well being of aliens housed in detention facilities; this includes escort, transportation, facilities management, case management and consular activities.

Docket Control: The ICE mechanism for tracking the case or status of potentially removable aliens.

Escort Policy: A policy that significantly increased the numbers of aliens that DRO must escort aboard commercial vehicles and aircraft. This policy was promulgated as a result of the increasing numbers of criminals with whom DRO deals.

Executive Office of Immigration Review: Department of Justice agency responsible for administering fair immigration hearings and determining the consequences of such hearings.

Expedited Removal: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 authorizes the DHS to quickly remove certain inadmissible aliens from the U.S. The authority covers aliens who are inadmissible because they have no entry documents or because they have used counterfeit, altered, or otherwise fraudulent or improper documents. The authority covers aliens who arrive in, attempt to enter, or have entered the U.S. without having been admitted or paroled by an immigration officer at a port-of-entry. The DHS has the authority to order the removal, and the alien is not referred to an immigration judge except under certain circumstances after an alien makes a claim to legal status in the U.S. or demonstrates a credible fear of persecution if returned to his or her home country.

EOIR Removals: Ordered as a result of the decision of an Immigration Judge. This type an include criminal and non-criminal. Together with Expedited Removals, these account for the majority of removals.

Federal Financial Management System: An integrated, on-line, and real-time financial management system that is certified and approved for use by federal agencies.

Final Order of Deportation or Removal: The order of the Immigration Judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) or other such Administrative Officer to whom the Attorney General has delegated the responsibility for determining whether an alien is removable, concluding that the alien is deportable, removable or excludable or ordering removal.

Fugitive: An alien who has failed to depart the United States or report to a DHS officer after receiving a legal order to do so, or any alien wanted by the DHS for a violation of status, order or law. This includes aliens who have violated an order of supervision, failed to appear for a hearing, or one who has reentered the United States after having been previously removed. An absconder is also a subset of this definition as an alien who has an unexecuted final order of removal and whose whereabouts are unknown.

Fugitive Operations Plan: See National Fugitive Operations Plan.

Goal: A broadly-worded, forward-looking statement that describes a future-state-reflecting accomplishment of a substantial portion of the agency's mission.

Identify: Identification of the case(s) and alien(s) requiring a direct enforcement response or action by D&R staff (e.g., the identification of absconders, aliens who have violated the terms of their conditions or release, etc.)

Immigration Enforcement Agent: An entry-level officer corps position created by combining the immigration enforcement authorities held by Detention Enforcement Officers and Immigration Agents.

Immigration Judge: An attorney appointed by the Attorney General to act as an administrative judge within the Executive Office for Immigration Review. They are qualified to conduct specified classes of proceedings, including removal proceedings.

Immigration Inspector: An immigration officer who determines who is eligible for admission into the U.S. at all ports of entry.

Incarceration: Long-term confinement of individuals convicted of and sentenced for federal crimes.

Institutional Removal Program: The IRP is a cooperative effort between ICE, the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EIOR), and federal, state and local correctional agencies to identify, process and remove criminal aliens while they are still incarcerated. Upon completion of their prison sentences, aliens who have been found removable through the IRP are taken into ICE custody and expeditiously removed.

Intergovernmental Service Agreements (IGSA): Agreements between governmental agencies to support or provide requested services.

Judicial Removals: Ordered as part of the criminal conviction of an alien in a federal district court. The order to remove is handed down by the federal judge as part of the sentence.

Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS): System of air transportation networks and vehicles available to federal law enforcement agencies, most notably DRO and the U.S. Marshals Service, for the movement of federal prisoners and detained aliens.

Key Process: A process has inputs of people, dollars, and other resources that are organized into a series of steps that produce an output. Key processes are those most critical processes that deliver the organization's principal service(s).

Locate: Actions taken to determine the whereabouts of alien(s) for the purpose of apprehension, questioning, or other appropriate responses.

Length of Stay: The number of days in ICE detention. An alien's length of stay in detention is the difference between the date of initial book-in to detention and the date of final release.

National Fugitive Operations Plan: The objective of the NFOP is to eliminate the fugitive population as well as the growth into the same. To accomplish this, DRO will deploy fugitive operations teams sufficient in number to identify, locate and apprehend all aliens currently categorized as immigration fugitives.

Objective: A fairly specific and future-oriented description of accomplishment of a significant portion of the Goal. Accomplishment of all the Objectives in aggregate would represent substantial accomplishment of the Goal.

Partners: Those individuals inside or outside the agency who play a supportive role in achieving the objectives of the agency's core business functions and key processes.

Post Order Custody Review: A process precipitated by legislation mandating detention of certain aliens unless they can show that they are neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk. Under this process, DRO officers review the cases and backgrounds of these aliens, and decision to release or continue detention are made. The process is very similar to parole review in the criminal justice system.

Prisoner Transfer Treaties: Several countries have entered into prisoner transfer treaties with the United States. Under these treaties, the United States may transfer certain prisoners to their home countries to complete the sentences they are serving. The DOJ Office of Enforcement Operations coordinates all treaties concerning the execution of penal sentences.

Process: Management of an alien's case from identification through removal. Will include updating the alien's records in appropriate ICE enforcement databases, determination of appropriate enforcement action, and preparation/request of necessary documentation to initiate enforcement action. Would also include detention (including alternative detention settings) pending removal or if appropriate, release (with or without conditions).

Re-Instatement of Final Orders: Prior orders of removal are re-instated when it is determined that an alien has illegally reentered the U.S. after being removed or having departed voluntarily under an alternate order of removal. If an alien returns to the U.S. and is placed in ICE custody, the final order may be re-activated and the alien removed with relative speed.

Removal: The formal enforcement of the departure of an alien from the United States pursuant to a violation of immigration law.

Service Processing Centers: DRO owned and operated detention facilities.

Stakeholder: An individual, group of individuals, or another organization other than the customer or recipient of the agency's services who has a high interest in the what, why, where, when, who and how of the agency's services, products, and/or activities.

Strategy: The specific approaches or actions expressed in "outcome language" that are planned to accomplish part of the Objective.

Strategic Challenges: Key threats or opportunities -- internal and external -- mostly closely related to the agency's future success in executing its mission and/or to its very survival.

Success Factors: Those qualities or characteristics of the service, product, or activity of the agency that are most closely associated with the agency's success in the minds of key stakeholders and in the minds of the key recipients of the agency's services/products.

Student Exchange and Visitor Program: Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) provides tracking, monitoring, and access to accurate and current information on non-immigrant students (F and M visa) and exchange visitors (J visa). SEVP enables schools and program Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State throughout a student or exchange visitor's stay in the United States.

Temporary Protective Status: Authority granted to the Attorney General to specify certain nationalities that should temporarily be allowed to remain in the United States due to natural or political problems in their home countries.

US-VISIT: Foreign visitors arriving at U.S. international airports and seaports will have their travel documents scanned and their photo and a fingerprint taken. This information will be checked against lists of those who should be denied entry for reasons such as terrorist connections, criminal violations, or past visa violations.

Voluntary Return/Departure: The departure of an alien from the U.S. without an order of removal. The departure may or may not have been preceded by a hearing before an immigration judge. An alien allowed to voluntarily depart concedes removability but does not have a bar to seeing admission at a port-of-entry at any time. Failure to depart within the time granted results in a fine and a ten-year bar to several forms of relief from deportation.

Withdrawal: An arriving alien's voluntary retraction of an application for admission to the U.S. in lieu of a removal hearing before an immigration judge or an expedited removal. Withdrawals are not included in nonimmigrant admission data.