However, in the Daily News story, ICE spokesman Dean Boyd contests the vest-shortage figure.

Like Narco News reported two days eariler, Boyd contends ICE has ordered some 700 vests this year, but he tells the Daily News that the agency is only a few hundred vests short -- not thousands.

The ICE company line is as follows, according to the Daily News:

Officials at the agency say the figures are misleading, and that only 200 armed officers lack body armor. ICE spokesman Dean Boyd blamed the higher number on a survey last October, which many supervisors and officers didn't answer, he said.

"The suggestion that thousands of armed officers from ICE do not have body armor and are potentially at risk is completely wrong," Boyd said yesterday. "Every ICE agent engaging in enforcement operations has access to body armor."

You notice Boyd says “access to body armor.” That’s a whole different matter than saying all agents have their own vests – which have to be individually fitted and less than three to five years old to ensure they will stop a bullet, law enforcers say. The fibers in the vests deteriorate over time, just like that favorite pair of jeans.

But even in the Daily News story, law enforcers question the veracity of the “200” figure used by Boyd.

Some agents, in an agency that began its fiscal year $500 million in the red, were skeptical.

"I inherited a half-dozen agents without vests and had to scrounge up used, expired gear," said one ICE supervisory agent. "A couple were women and I had to give them male vests that didn't properly fit."

As far as Boyd claiming that the vest shortage is being exaggerated due to a bad survey response, you have to wonder what prompted the ICE brass to check on the status of its vest stash in October 2004 -- some two years after ICE was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

What got them off the golf course to look into it at that point?

In any event, it is clear law enforcers in the field thought there was more to the problem than a “bad survey,” as one high-level ICE official made clear to Narco News:

This fact (the vest shortage) has been communicated to ICE management in memorandums for several months, yet when FLEOA (the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association) raised it to (ICE) Assistant Secretary (Mike) Garcia and Deputy Assistant Secretary (John) Clark, they made as if "this is the first we've heard of it."

Also interesting is the fact that last week, after Narco News contacted the ICE public affairs office (PAO) about the vest shortage, agency brass sent a memo to ICE field offices asking for yet another accounting of bulletproof vests.

Following are two e-mails Narco News received from DHS sources on the subject – with identifying information redacted:

-- By the way, today I received a copy of an e-mail … requesting (that we) identify all armed personnel who do not currently have bod armor of any type or age.

-- I heard today that HQ was scrambling to determine who in the field did not have ballistic vests. Apparently a frantic call went out to all of the SAC's late yesterday afternoon, giving them until noon TODAY to send in a list of all personnel without vests. I guess your call to the PAO sent up a spark. But it also shows me what they told you was patently false.

Sure sounds like our grand ol' bureaucracy has itself wrapped up in plenty of red tape. For agents in the field, though, none of that red tape will stop a bullet.

Here are some additional e-mails sent to Narco News by current and former law enforcers since our story was published on Saturday.

-- Thanks Bill--My guess is that this will send immediate anger and shock waves thru those morons in charge--in particular, Clark and Garcia.

-- Keep digging on those vests. I remembered where the main bad SW (Southwest) border shooting was with no vests, one of several shootings closely linked in time. (Somehow, the Customs office security camera video was given to a TV station, oops...)

Inside the headhouse office at Calexico, (Calif.), two inspectors (were) shot by a marijuana smuggler [load in car], pulled a gun/.380 during his pat down. He (the smuggler) was killed; the two inspectors shot, one in the chest, one in face/neck and a second round where(?) ...

Both survived. Commissioner flew out overnight in US Customs Service Citation jet, started passing out vests to inspectors within one week, starting with Calexico, San Ysidro, Nogales, etc., after it made TV that SW Customs inspectors were not issued vests, had to buy their own.

This was in 1993/1994?. Got to take care of that "bad press," right? Then, later, the vest supply dried up. Nothing changes........ good luck,

-- Everything you stated is the whole truth; it is sad that the bean counters and the ones that run this organization don't care. Ask them to go to the borders or on a surveillance without a vest, no bullets, no cellular phone and no agent in another vehicle to back you up. ... The truth is they don't care; we are just numbers.