HSI Field Offices: Locations, Tip Reporting, and Impersonation Scams

Homeland Security Investigations runs its domestic work out of 30 Special Agent in Charge (SAC) offices, which together anchor roughly 235 HSI field offices and sub-offices across the United States, plus more than 90 attaché offices in over 50 countries.¹² The ICE website publishes a directory of the 30 SAC offices with physical addresses and administrative phone numbers, and that directory is the starting point whether you need to find the office covering your region or reach one abroad.³

How the Domestic Field Office Network Is Organized

Each of the 30 SAC offices is the regional headquarters for a large territory. Beneath every SAC sit smaller sub-offices and Resident Agent Offices, which is how HSI arrives at roughly 235 domestic locations in total. Most of HSI’s more than 6,000 special agents work out of one of these locations.¹

The layered structure means HSI can keep agents in midsize cities and smaller communities, not only in the largest metro areas. A regional port, a fraud ring in a smaller city, or a trafficking operation in a rural county can all be reached by a nearby HSI team rather than by agents dispatched from a distant SAC.

International Attaché Offices

HSI has the largest international investigative footprint of any DHS component, with over 90 offices in more than 50 countries.² These attaché offices are typically located inside U.S. embassies and consulates, which places HSI agents alongside U.S. diplomats and foreign law enforcement partners.

The overseas offices share intelligence, run collateral investigations for domestic field offices, and build cases jointly with host-country authorities. Because the crimes HSI targets rarely stop at a border, agents posted abroad give the agency a way to disrupt smuggling routes, financial pipelines, and criminal networks closer to their source.²

Finding Your Local Field Office

To locate the office that covers your area, use the ICE field office directory at ice.gov/contact/field-offices. The directory lists each of the 30 SAC offices with a street address and a main phone number.³

The numbers published in that directory are administrative lines. They are the right contact for press inquiries, general information, and other non-emergency business with the office. They are not tip hotlines, and calling them to report a suspected crime will usually send you back to the national channels described below.

Before going to an HSI office in person, call first. Federal law enforcement facilities generally have restricted public access, and walking in unannounced often means you will not get past the lobby. A quick call to the SAC office covering your region will confirm hours and visitor procedures.

Reporting a Tip to HSI

Tips go through national channels rather than through the administrative number for a local field office. Reports can be submitted anonymously.⁴

From the United States and Canada, call the toll-free HSI Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423, staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.⁵
From outside the U.S. and Canada, call 1-802-872-6199.⁴
Online, submit the ICE Tip Form at ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form.⁶

Useful tips carry specific detail: names, dates, physical descriptions, locations, vehicle information, and a clear account of the suspected activity. Small facts you assume are unimportant can be exactly what an agent needs. The tip line and online form are for reporting suspected crimes, not for emergencies. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local police first.

HSI does not publicly explain how it prioritizes tips, and tipsters should not expect a callback confirming that a case has been opened. Silence is not the same as inaction. A tip may be folded into an existing investigation or held as one piece of a larger intelligence picture without any contact back to the source.

When HSI Is Not the Right Contact

HSI is the criminal investigative arm of ICE. It works federal criminal cases with a cross-border element: smuggling, trafficking, financial fraud, cybercrime, child exploitation, illegal exports, and similar offenses.⁷ Civil immigration enforcement, meaning arrests, detention, custody decisions, and removals under the Immigration and Nationality Act, is handled by ICE’s other operational branch, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).⁸

The distinction matters when you pick up the phone. Information about a transnational criminal operation belongs with HSI. Questions or reports that are only about someone’s immigration status fall under ERO’s scope. When a workplace operation makes the news, HSI typically leads the criminal side while ERO handles any civil immigration arrests that come out of the same action.⁸

Watch for HSI Impersonation Calls

Scammers regularly spoof HSI and DHS phone numbers, which is one reason it is worth knowing what a real contact from HSI looks like. In a common version of the scam, the caller claims to be an HSI agent or DHS employee, tells you that you are the victim of identity theft or under investigation, and demands immediate payment to clear the matter up.⁹

HSI will not call and demand money or ask for personal identifying information over the phone. If you get a suspicious call, hang up, look up the official number yourself through the ICE website, and call back to verify.⁹ If someone approaches you in person claiming to be an HSI agent, you can ask to see a badge and credentials. A refusal is a warning sign.

To report a suspected impersonation scam, contact the DHS Office of Inspector General hotline at 1-800-323-8603 or file a complaint at oig.dhs.gov. Identity theft can also be reported to the Federal Trade Commission.⁹

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Our Offices
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Field Offices
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USAGov. How To Report an Immigration Violation
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Tip Line
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Tip Form
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What We Investigate
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Scammers Spoofing HSI Telephone Numbers To Target Victims