Faculty Profile: Catherine Chargualaf

Catherine began her career as a federal law enforcement officer in October of 1988 as an Immigration Inspector (II) at Los Angeles International airport with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).  In October of 1997, she transferred to the Detention, Deportation and Parole (D, D, & P) branch of INS where she became a Deportation Officer in Baltimore, MD.  In March of 2000, the Department of Homeland Security was established and the agency was renamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  The department, DDP, became Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). In October of 2006, Catherine transferred to the Washington, D.C. ERO Headquarters office where she was a Detention and Deportation Officer (DDO) until October of 2008.  Catherine took a position as a Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer (SDDO) in Baltimore, MD where she remained until December of 2011.  Catherine was promoted to Assistant Field Office Director (AFOD) in December of 2011 and transferred to Nashville, TN. 

Catherine is assigned to the Nashville Sub-office which is a sub-office of the New Orleans Field office.  She has jurisdiction over three sub-offices assigned to the New Orleans Field Office.  The three sub-offices include the Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) offices.  These three offices are Criminal Alien Program offices and the employees participate in the criminal alien program wherein they review numerous local, county, state and federal jails to identify criminal aliens who meet the current Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities.  The Nashville sub-office also has a Fugitive Operations Team.  The team is responsible for targeting subjects who have a final order of removal.  Due to limited resources, the majority of the subjects are high priorities including convicted criminals and subjects who present a threat to public safety and national security.