What official ICE documents list authorized firearms for ERO and how do they compare to the HSI SRT list?

1. What official ICE documents exist that name authorized weapons for HSI

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) publishes a document explicitly titled "Authorized Firearms for Homeland Security Investigations," which lists HSI-authorized firearms, references an Approved Purchase Program and an OFTP-managed personally owned firearms list, and even specifies that ICE may amend that list at any time ^[1]. That HSI document is the most direct, weapon-by-weapon public statement discovered in the reporting, and it is framed as HSI-specific policy rather than a general ICE directive ^[1].

2. Where ERO firearms policy is documented and what that implies

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) are covered under the broader ICE Firearms and Use of Force Directive and Handbook, a 2021 ICE-wide handbook that organizes firearms policy across components and names ERO among the groups subject to the directive ^[2]. The OFTP on ICE’s official site is the organizational owner of firearms policy and programs for the agency, which implies that ERO’s authorized weapons policy is administered under the same centralized machinery even if a separate ERO-branded “authorized firearms” list is not publicly posted in the supplied sources ^{[3] [2]}. The reporting does not produce a discrete, public ERO-only weapons list to cite.

3. How the HSI SRT list and posture compare to regular HSI and ERO policy

HSI’s Special Response Teams (SRTs) operate as a highly specialized subset of HSI and the public materials stress intensified, prolonged training and specialized tactical skills for those teams, which correlates with access to more specialized arsenals and tactics ^[4]. Reporting also notes that SRTs have benefited from interagency transfers of military-grade assets—such as MRAPs and other gear—from the Department of Defense, and that SRTs maintain a higher tactical threshold than line components ^[5]. Those facts suggest HSI SRT authorized equipment can include items and platforms beyond standard patrol firearms, though the specific SRT weapons roster is not reproduced in the supplied HSI "Authorized Firearms" file excerpts ^{[1] [5]}.

4. Practical differences and policy consequences

The practical difference emerging from the documents is institutional: HSI publishes a dedicated authorized-weapons document and explicitly manages a personally owned firearms program for its agents, signaling a component-specific approach to what agents can carry ^[1]. ERO, by contrast, appears regulated through the centralized ICE firearms handbook and OFTP governance, meaning ERO personnel likely follow the same baseline weapon-authorizations but without a separate public list in the sources provided here ^{[2] [3]}. This organizational split helps explain why SRTs—HSI’s tactical cadres—have both specialized training requirements and access to equipment above the standard ERO or HSI line-agent baseline ^{[4] [5]}.

5. Limits of the public record and where reporting stops

The supplied reporting does not include a publicly posted, component-specific ERO "authorized firearms" roster to cite, nor does it reproduce the complete weapon-by-weapon contents of the HSI document beyond noting shoulder‑fired and personally owned programs ^{[1] [2]}. Therefore, definitive claims about model-by-model differences between ERO and HSI SRT authorized weapon lists cannot be fully documented from the provided sources; the available evidence supports that HSI has its own published list and SRTs have access to specialized gear, while ERO falls under the agency-wide firearms handbook administered by OFTP ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}.