Puerto Rico community leaders to form third nationwide ICE-sponsored Citizens Academy
Third Cohort of HSI-sponsored Citizens Academy launched in San Juan, Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A group of 14 community leaders representing government and the bank, security and media industries formed Thursday the third cohort of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-sponsored Citizens Academy. The participants join a group of 21 citizens who have graduated and become the first graduates of an HSI Academy in the nation.
The HSI San Juan Citizens Academy was developed by HSI San Juan special agents to provide members of the general public with an inside look at HSI and how the agency enforces immigration and customs laws.
The Academy provides selected participants with a unique opportunity to learn about the mission of HSI, a premier federal law enforcement agency, while bolstering a relationship that will enhance agency and community relations. Through this academy HSI will identify the agency with the community it serves and protects while allowing the community to interact and learn from actual special agents. This will brand the agency with the community while serving as a force multiplier by creating awareness of HSI’s mission and developing an information network.
The 14 selected participants will undergo a 10-week academy, meeting once a week for three hours from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The selectees will be given a unique opportunity to experience and learn about the agency through classroom and field training exercises.
The proposed curriculum provides for hands-on and interactive activities to keep participants engaged and make the experience memorable. They will have the opportunity to visit the HSI San Juan Computer Forensics Laboratory, the only laboratory of its kind in the Caribbean, and learn how HSI special agents retrieve information and evidence from electronic/digital devices and conduct child exploitation investigations and spend time at a firing range, honing their marksmanship skills. Participants will also learn how HSI special agents conduct a variety of investigations ranging from drug trafficking to human smuggling and trafficking to financial crimes and fraud cases. All that while hitting the books learning firsthand about HSI from some of the agency's special agents and leaders.
The selectees were nominated by HSI San Juan employees and the final selection was made by the HSI San Juan Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricardo Mayoral.
“As with the prior two cohorts of the HSI San Juan Citizens Academy, I am very proud to welcome these group of men and women to the HSI San Juan family,” said Ricardo Mayoral, acting special agent in charge of HSI San Juan. “I am honored to have among our ranks this distinguished group of professionals who, as with the past two academies, are now part of the HSI legacy.”
The following community leaders compose the third cohort of HSI San Juan Citizens Academy:
- Aida Nieves-Figueroa
- Carlos Candelaria-Sanchez
- Carlos H. Martino
- Elba Gorbea
- Francisco J. Diaz-Lozada
- Jose Diaz-Sanchez
- Jose E. Pico Del Rosario
- Juan Agosto-Perez
- Luis A. Bermudez
- Luis A. Ocasio-Perez
- Nuria G. Sebazco
- Sarai Irizarry
- Sylvia Martir
- Wallace R. Ocasio
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