Temple Black is the senior spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been serving in that position since November 2001. The District he serves covers a five-state area including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.
In November 2000, Mr. Black joined the Headquarters of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Washington where he served as a senior public affairs officer.
Mr. Black has worked a number of high profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement stories including the arrest and deportation of 119 illegal aliens from Arkadelphia, Arkansas in 2005, the story of Randolph Hobson Guthrie who was sentenced for conspiracy to import more than 2,000 counterfeit DVDs containing unauthorized copies of motion pictures; the story of George Hoey Morris, aka Johnny Ray Fortune, of Eclectic, Alabama, who was sentenced to prison for transporting children for illegal sexual activity, visa fraud, and possessing a firearm. Additionally, he was selected by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs to lead the Joint Information Bureau (JIB) that was established immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005.
Prior to joining ICE, Mr. Black served at the Pentagon as Chief of Special Events for the United States Air Force. His follow-on assignment was as Director of Public Affairs at Andrews Air Force Base, the home of Air Force One, where he orchestrated numerous national and international press-events, including many with former presidents Bush ‘41 and Clinton. In 1996, Mr. Black was selected to serve as senior spokesman in Vukovar, Croatia to U.N. Transitional Administrator Jacques Paul Klein.
During his Air Force career, he devised public affairs strategies for the United Nations; created a process to airlift the Department of Defense media-pool to worldwide crises on short notice; and helped to open NATO’s public information program in Turkey.
Soon after he retired from the Air Force, he joined The Ehrhardt Group, a New Orleans Public Relations firm, where he led national and international press activities associated with the opening ceremonies of The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans.
Lieutenant Colonel Black retired from active duty with the U. S. Air Force in December 1999. He is married to the former Jeanne Gaspard of New Orleans. They have two daughters, Melissa and Vanessa.
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