Spy Questions!

A bombing? No way would we deport them, unless its to a country with laxer laws about torture. (few and far between these days, it seems)

The CIA is for external intelligence. They are not permitted to operate inside the USA (yeah right) but would show interest in anyone linked to international terrorism. The CIA focuses on matters of national security.

The FBI is our primary internal security bureau, they are frequently involved in criminal investigations that cross state lines, drug trafficing, terrorism, etc. The FBI is analogous to the French Surete. The FBI mostly deals with crime, but also terrorism. They rarely operate abroad, however, they do maintain our 'most wanted' lists, including international terrorists. If I were to call someone about terrorism, I'd call the FBI before I'd call the CIA.

Mata Hari said:

I need some American help...

If a young person (under 18) from another country commits a crime in the US, what happens to them? Are they just deported, or are they imprisoned? The crime I had in mind is fairly severe... involvement in a bombing that only resulted in property damage.

Also, if someone were to be arrested for thievery or for something that had to do with relations between country (maybe conspiracy leading towards terrorism), who would deal with this? CIA? FBI? What are the differences between these two organizations?

Thanks!!!

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A lot depends on who gets jurisdiction: the local police; the FBI; another federal branch. A bombing could involve local police or the FBI - but crimes that jeopardize US security or foreign relations would go directly to the FBI.

A lot depends on the kid's nationality and family circumstances: Is he the son of a diplomat? Does he have family in the US to help him? Is his family close to a Senator or other politician? Is he from a country like the UK, or a country like Saudi Arabia, or a country like Lebanon? What is his immigration status: citizen, legal resident, illegal alien?

Try this for research: Read newspaper accounts of arrests that come closest to the crimes you're considering for your story, and then see how they were handled by the law-enforcement agencies involved. For instance, recently an Afghani national who was a legal resident of the US was arrested by the FBI for possession of bomb-making materials. But local police departments like the New York Police Department (NYPD) maintain their own counterterrorism units.

US law enforcement is divided into three tiers: local, state, and federal.
"Local" refers to city and county police departments.
"Federal" means the national departments of the FBI, ATF and others.
In general, American city and state law-enforcement agencies have more autonomy from the national law-enforcement agencies than do their European counterparts.
So what your character does, where he does it, and who he knows will all be very important to how he he is treated.

We now have a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is an umbrella agency controlling the FBI, ATF, CIA, TSA, ICE, FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, various intelligence agencies, and several others.
DHS was formed to coordinate the information gathering and enforcement efforts of all these agencies. Thus far, the results have been mixed.
To answer your question - the foreign national would be prosecuted just like any citizen or legal resident. He/she would be imprisoned if found guilty. Upon completion of their prison term, they MAY be deported.

RJK said:

We now have a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is an umbrella agency controlling the FBI, ATF, CIA, TSA, ICE, FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, various intelligence agencies, and several others.

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The DOJ may take issue with this list, given that the FBI and ATF are under the Justice umbrella. And CIA is independent of any umbrella agency. If anything, they could maybe be said to be under the DNI.

RJK said:

To answer your question - the foreign national would be prosecuted just like any citizen or legal resident. He/she would be imprisoned if found guilty. Upon completion of their prison term, they MAY be deported.

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Yup.

And if it's a bombing with ANY nexus to terrorism, the FBI will get involved. The extent would largely be determined by factors such as the size and resources of the local department, the circumstances of the bombing, who took credit, what the target was, the publicity the bombing received, etc. Other agencies may also get involved. Multi-agency task forces are very common these days, especially with high profile crimes.