HSI Showed Up

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of what happens when Homeland Security Investigations agents appear at your workplace - not the sanitized version you find on government websites, not the procedural fiction most people imagine, but the actual truth about why they came to your job instead of your home and what that choice reveals about where you stand in their investigation.

The agents standing at your desk right now did not pick your workplace by accident. HSI chose to approach you at work precisely because you do not have a lawyer there, you are surrounded by coworkers watching your reaction, and the embarrassment of this moment creates an overwhelming psychological pressure to "just answer a few questions" and make this whole thing go away quickly. That urge to cooperate, to look normal in front of your colleagues, to get back to work - thats exactly what they are counting on. Its a tactical decision, not a convenience.

What HSI Actually Investigates (Its Not Just Immigration)

Most people hear "Homeland Security" and immediately think immigration enforcement. That assumption could destroy your life. HSI - Homeland Security Investigations - is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security with over 7,100 special agents who have jurisdiction over more than 400 categories of federal crime. We are talking about drug trafficking, money laundering, cybercrime, financial fraud, human trafficking, counterfeit goods, intellectual property theft, export violations, child exploitation, and yes, immigration violations too. But immigration is just the tip of what HSI actualy investigates on a daily basis.

Heres the thing. The agent at your workplace might have walked in because of an I-9 audit your employer recieved six months ago that flagged inconsistencies in the workforce. Or perhaps its because of a customs declaration you signed on your last international trip that raised automated alerts. Or maybe someone in your professional network is already under active investigation and federal prosecutors want to know what you know about that person's activities. The question "why would homeland security show up at my work" has about 400 potential answers, and the agent standing in front of you is not going to tell you which category brought them to your desk today.

What practitioners know that regular people do not understand: HSI investigations often take years to fully develop before any target ever sees an agent's face. By the time agents show up at your workplace, they have already built a substantial portion of their case through surveillance, financial records, witness interviews, and database cross-referencing. They are watching how you react to their presence. They are testing whether you will be cooperative or defensive. They are gathering the final peices of evidence they need to complete their puzzle - and your own words, spoken without an attorney present, might be exactly what they came for.

Federal agents dont make social calls. Every workplace visit has strategic purpose behind it that serves the prosecution's larger objectives.

Why They Came to Your WORKPLACE Instead of Your Home

This is the part nobody talks about in those generic "know your rights" articles. If HSI wanted to question you at home, they could have done exactly that. They could have called first to schedule an appointment. They could have sent a formal letter asking you to come in voluntarily for an interview. Instead, they showed up at your job, in front of your coworkers, during business hours when your boss and everyone else in the office can see federal agents standing at your desk.

Think about that for a second. Let that sink in.

At home, you can close the door and tell them to come back with a warrant or when you have counsel present. You can say "I am going to call my lawyer first before we discuss anything." You can take time to think, to calm down, to make rational decisions about your legal exposure. At work, you are surrounded by people watching everything unfold. You are embarrassed about the spectacle this is creating. You are worried about what your employer will think of you now. You are desperatly wanting this awkward situation to end before more colleagues walk by and see federal badges at your workspace.

And that desperation makes you talk when you absolutly should not be talking. Thats the whole point of the workplace visit strategy.

As Todd Spodek has explained to many clients who made this exact mistake: "The workplace visit is designed to catch you psychologicaly vulnerable at the worst possible moment. You are not thinking about your constitutional rights when your boss is watching federal agents question you in the break room. You are thinking about how to make this embarrassing situation disappear before it gets any worse. And that desperation is exactly what leads people to incriminate themselves."

HSI agents are trained interrogators with decades of institutional knowledge about human psychology under pressure. They know the workplace environment creates social pressure that simply does not exist anywhere else. They know you will want to "clear this up quickly" so everyone can get back to work and stop staring. They know you are more likely to answer questions without demanding an attorney because having a lawyer feels like an admission of guilt in front of your professional colleagues. OK so thats the calculated decision they made when they walked into your office lobby instead of ringing your doorbell at home on a Saturday morning.

The embarrassment factor is the weapon. Your desire to maintain professional appearances is what they exploit.

The First 15 Minutes: What You Say Without a Lawyer

Heres were people get dangerously confused about their legal situation. The agents standing in front of you did not read you your Miranda rights. In television shows and movies, that absence of Miranda warnings means you are not really in trouble, right? The investigation must be casual, informal, nothing to worry about? Wrong. Completly and dangerously wrong.

Miranda warnings are only required when you are in custody AND being interrogated simultaneously. At your workplace, you are not technicaly in custody - you could theoretically stand up and walk away at any moment. So everything you say is being recorded in the agent's notes, mentally catalogued, and will be used as evidence against you later, but you do not get the warning that would remind you of your right to remain silent. The absence of Miranda is a feature of workplace interviews, not a bug.

The federal conviction rate is 93%. Once HSI has you in their investigative system, the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you from day one. And that 93% includes people who thought they were just having a casual conversation with friendly agents. It includes people who believed they were simply "helping" the investigation move along faster. It includes people who figured they would explain their side of things and the reasonable agents would realize there was nothing criminal here and leave them alone.

Sound familiar? Thats exactly what every defendant thought before they became defendants.

The irony is brutal and tragic. Being cooperative without an attorney present does not make you look innocent to prosecutors - it makes you an easier target for charges. Every word you say creates evidence that can be twisted and recontextualized. Every "let me explain what happened" opens new lines of inquiry that did not exist before you started talking. Every minor inconsistency between what you remember and what actualy happened becomes the potential basis for an 18 USC 1001 false statement charge that carries its own prison sentence.

You might walk away from that workplace conversation thinking you cleared things up and made a good impression on the agents. Six months later, you receive an indictment on federal charges you created yourself by trying to be helpful. This pattern repeats constantly in federal criminal defense practice.

18 USC 1001: How Talking Becomes a Separate Crime

This is the trap most people do not know exists until they have already stepped directly into it. 18 USC 1001 makes it a federal crime to make any false statement to a federal agent - punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison. Not just false statements about the specific crime they are investigating. Any false statement about anything at all.

If you misremember a date during the conversation, thats potentially a false statement. If you estimate a dollar amount incorrectly because you are nervous, thats potentially a false statement. If you say you "dont recall" something when you actualy do recall it but just do not want to discuss the topic, thats potentially a false statement. If you get flustered and exagerate details to make yourself look better, thats potentially a false statement. The statute is written broadly by design.

Heres the kicker that should terrify you. You can be prosecuted under 18 USC 1001 even if there was never any underlying crime that HSI was investigating. Even if the original investigation they came to discuss finds absolutly nothing criminal. Even if you were completly innocent of whatever suspicious activity initially drew their attention. Your "helpfull" workplace conversation created a brand new federal felony all by itself that did not exist before you started talking.

The Apple iPhone fraud case from 2024 shows exactly how this dynamic destroys people who think they are being smart. An employee thought he was explaining technical details to demonstrate he was not the mastermind of a fraud scheme that other people had orchestrated. Instead, his detailed technical explanations proved he understood exactly how the fraud mechanism worked, establishing the criminal intent element prosecutors needed to convict. His cooperation, provided without counsel present, resulted in 57 months in federal prison. Every "let me clarify this point for you" dug the hole deeper and deeper.

This is what HSI agents are trained to create. Not through threats or intimidation or bright lights in a windowless room, but through friendly workplace conversation that makes you forget you are actualy in an interrogation being recorded in real time.

When Your Employer Makes Things Worse

The pressure to cooperate with federal agents at your workplace is not just coming from the agents themselves. Its coming from inside your own building, from people who should theoretically be on your side but whose interests have suddenly diverged from yours in ways neither of you fully understand yet.

Your employer sees federal agents at your desk and immediately panics about corporate liability and reputational exposure. HR wants to know what is going on so they can document everything for the company's protection. Your manager is worried about the department's reputation and whether this will affect upcoming performance reviews and promotions. And suddenly, people who are suposed to be your professional allies are actively pushing you to "just cooperate and get this resolved quickly" so normal business operations can resume.

Understand this clearly before you make any decisions: your employer's interests and your personal interests are not the same thing. HR's advice is designed to protect the company from liability, not to protect you from federal prosecution. When your boss says "just answer there questions so we can all get back to work," he is thinking about the business's exposure to disruption and negative publicity. He is not thinking about whether your statements could be used to prosecute you personally and send you to federal prison for years.

At Spodek Law Group, we have seen this destructive pattern play out more times then we can count in federal criminal defense practice. Employee feels pressure from employer to cooperate fully. Employee cooperates without legal counsel because they need to keep their job and their paycheck. Employee makes statements that become key evidence in the federal case against them. Employer terminates the employee anyway once formal charges are filed because having an indicted employee is a liability. Now the employee has lost both their freedom and their livlihood - and the employer moved on without a second thought about what happened to that person's life.

The cruel irony is that "lawyering up" in the moment might feel like it threatens your job, but talking without a lawyer present almost guarantees a worse outcome for your life overall. Even if your employer fires you for asserting your constitutional rights during a federal investigation, thats a recoverable situation with potential legal remedies. Federal criminal charges are permanant entries on your record that follow you forever.

What HSI Already Knows Before They Ask Questions

Heres something that changes everything once you truly understand the implications: HSI agents do not ask questions at your workplace to learn new information. They ask questions to test whether you will tell the truth or whether they can catch you in a lie.

Before agents ever walked into your workplace, they already pulled your customs declarations from every international trip you have taken in the past decade. They already have records from any I-9 audits at your employer. They already know your financial patterns from bank records and suspicious activity reports that financial institutions file automatically. They may have already interviewed your colleagues who did not assert their rights and spoke freely about you. They have access to law enforcement databases and cross-referencing systems that most people do not even know exist.

The questions they ask you during that workplace conversation are designed to see if your answers match what they already have in their files. If you lie, even about something seemingly minor and irrelevant, they can prove that lie with documentation. If you tell the truth but add details they did not previously have, you have just given them new investigative leads to pursue against you. If you stay silent and request counsel, you have exercised the only constitutionally protected option that can not be used against you in court.

Todd Spodek puts it this way when advising clients: "When HSI asks you a question at work, they probly already know the answer before the words leave your mouth. You are being tested for honesty and compliance, not interviewed for information they lack. The smart response is no response at all without counsel present - and the agents are certainly not going to tell you that."

Read that again. They already know. They are testing you.

The Only Three Words That Protect You

After everything we have discussed about workplace visits, psychological pressure, 18 USC 1001 exposure, and employer dynamics, what do you actualy say when HSI agents approach you at your workspace? The answer is simpler than you might think, but it requires more courage and composure than most people can summon when federal badges appear at their desk during a normal Tuesday afternoon.

You say: "I want a lawyer."

Not "I think I should probably call my attorney before we continue this conversation." Not "Can we reschedule this for another time when I am more prepared?" Not "Let me just answer a few quick questions first and then we can see if I need legal representation." Three words. I want a lawyer. Then you stop talking completly.

You do not have to explain why you want counsel. You do not have to be rude or confrontational about it. You do not have to know whether you are classified as a target, a subject, or merely a witness in the investigation. The same three words work in every possible situation because they invoke the constitutional protection that pauses everything until you have proper legal counsel present to advise you.

The agents might try to make this request feel awkward or suspicious. They might say "we just have a few quick questions and then we will be out of your way." They might suggest that asking for a lawyer makes you look guilty when an innocent person would just cooperate. They might tell you this whole thing will go much faster and easier if you just help them out right now rather than dragging lawyers into it.

None of that changes the fundamental truth that every federal criminal defense attorney in America will tell you the exact same thing we are telling you right now.

Never speak to federal agents without an attorney present. Never. Not even to explain why you can not talk. Not even to be polite.

What Happens Next

The moment HSI showed up at your workplace, the clock started running on an investigation that will proceed with or without your voluntary cooperation. Whether you are classified as a target, a subject, or merely a witness, the federal machinery is already moving forward. The question is whether you will be part of solving your legal situation strategically or part of being consumed by a system designed to produce convictions.

If you already spoke to the agents - if you are reading this after the fact with that sinking feeling in your stomach - do not assume the worst and panic. What was said, how it was said, what context existed around those statements, and what evidence the government actually has all matters significantly for potential defense strategies. There may be ways to address problematic statements. There may be constitutional issues with how the interview was conducted. There may be mitigating factors that affect how prosecutors view your case.

But the time to get counsel involved is now, not after you receive a target letter in the mail, not after you have been formally indicted, not when you are standing in front of a federal judge entering a plea to charges that could have been avoided or reduced.

The federal system is designed to process people efficiently with a 93% conviction rate as the expected outcome. Once you are in that system, those odds become very real and very personal. The only way to change those statistics in your favor is to have someone fighting for you who understands how federal prosecution actualy works - not the version they show on television dramas, but the reality of federal criminal practice that starts with friendly workplace conversations and ends with years in federal prison.

Spodek Law Group handles federal criminal defense matters across the country. If HSI visited your workplace today or recently, call us at 212-300-5196. Not tomorrow. Not after the weekend when you have had time to think. The investigation is happening right now while you read this article, and every hour that passes without legal counsel is an hour where you remain completly unprotected from a system designed to produce convictions.

Thats the calculation they made when they showed up at your desk instead of calling first. The question now is what calculation you are going to make in response.