How can I travel to ICE or DHS headquarters?

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You can try contacting either the ICE or the DHS public affairs officials.

For example, for the DHS :

" The Office of Public Affairs is the primary point of contact for news media, organizations and the general public seeking information about Department of Homeland Security's programs, policies, procedures, statistics, and services. The Office assists the Secretary on all public affairs, as well as strategic and internal communications matters."

State your case, tell them that for your school project you'd like to visit them and ask them some questions. Most US department will gladly accept to that as an outreach program.

Be forthcoming, tell them your name, school, if possible your teacher name or your school principal name so they can check that your request is valid.

Upvote:2

Most offices dealing with national security or intelligence are closed to the public, and you are only admitted if you have an appointment with someone who works there and undergo a level of screening appropriate to the facility you are visiting. You may not make it past the front lobby, and in some cases past the front gate.

That said, government offices, like private ones, are workplaces, and if even members of the public could enter the office buildings unhindered, I am not exactly sure what you would get out of the trip. Consider that "headquarters" is not necessarily where the most representative or most important work takes place, especially for an agency like ICE where most activity is at field locations and administered from field offices. Most of the Pentagon, and CIA headquarters, and so on is filled with cubicles and conference rooms no different from any corporate office or academic administration building.

That said, education of the public regarding an agency's mission is a legitimate interest in the eyes of most offices, or at least in the eyes of their public affairs officers. Some, like NASA or the Drug Enforcement Agency or the Department of Agriculture, have museums or visitors centers specifically devoted to that purpose. In other cases, tours can be arranged for groups of visitors if requested in advance, as for the Pentagon.

My recommendation therefore would be to contact the appropriate public affairs office to see how they might accommodate someone doing research for a school project. Agency contact information is linked from the DHS website. If you know someone who works for one of the offices within DHS, you can also inquire with them about rules regarding visitors. It's possible that there are low-security offices where you would be able to visit a friend, but you might still require screening beforehand.

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