Nearly half of FBI agents in major offices reassigned to immigration enforcement
almost half FBI Agents working in major U.S. field offices have been reassigned to assist with immigration enforcement, according to newly released data; This has led to a dramatic shift in law enforcement priorities that will heighten public safety concerns.
Personnel data obtained by Democratic senator Mark Warner and shared with the Guardian shows that the Trump administration has mobilized 45 percent of FBI agents in the country’s 25 largest field offices to support the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown. Of the nearly 13,000 agents across all FBI offices, 23% currently work on immigration, according to Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.
Warner’s office said FBI agents are now deployed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) suspended from dealing with spy business cyber crimesdrug trafficking, terrorism, espionage, violent crime, counterintelligence, and other efforts that are part of the bureau’s mission; Here are some areas that Trump claims are White House priorities.
The data is first The Washington Post reportedSuggests FBI significantly changed targets to support Trump’s plans Increasingly aggressive immigration raidswith the management’s goal 3,000 arrests per day and seeks to expand detention capacity More than 100,000 immigrants.
According to Warner, the data understates the scale of the restructuring because the FBI only provides counts of agents who now spend more than half of their work on immigration enforcement. More than a quarter of FBI agents’ total work hours are immigration-related, and in some field offices more than half of agents are directed to DHS, the senator’s office said.
“If you remove a quarter of the FBI’s top agents from the front lines of fighting terrorists, spies, drug traffickers and violent criminals, the consequences are clear: critical national security work is sidelined and our country is put at greater risk,” Warner said in a statement.
The FBI’s transformation has raised alarms about the potential consequences for communities targeted by immigration raids and the impact on the jobs the bureau is abandoning, experts said.
Mike German is a former FBI agent and civil liberties advocateHe said it was unprecedented for the bureau to direct so many agents to an assignment outside the FBI’s purview. While some agents may be eager to support the president’s immigration agenda, others are likely to oppose the direction, he said: “One reason why FBI leadership is doing this on such a scale is to separate the two; to determine who is loyal and who is a potential obstacle to the administration’s goals.”
German said the move is in line with FBI Director Kash Patel’s efforts to purge the bureau of agents deemed disloyal to Trump. reports Dismissal of personnel involved in the January 6 investigation.
He said FBI agents are often trained as investigators who can conduct targeted arrests, a job that differs significantly from that of many immigration enforcement officers and can cause problems in the field during immigration raids. “Getting in an SUV with a bunch of armed men and driving around the streets until they see someone running away is inherently a more dangerous type of activity that they’re not very well trained for,” German said.
There was extensive documentation about it. Violent and indiscriminate nature of ice raidsIt is mostly performed by masked men and occasionally Detention of US citizensAdding FBI personnel to the mix could further increase the chaos and potential for abuse, the former agent said.
The exact duties and responsibilities of the FBI agents currently working with Ice are unclear. Spokespeople for DHS, Ice, the FBI and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
FBI informant German made statements on this issue. civil rights violations Responsible for the bureau’s intelligence work, he said he was most concerned about the agency move away from public corruption And white collar crimecrimes that state and local agencies do not have the capacity to handle: “That’s where the real damage will come.”
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Current and former FBI agents he told the Washington Post There were growing concerns that morale within the agency was low and agents were weak, which could disrupt national security investigations and complex cases.
Kenneth Gray, a former FBI agent and professor of practice in the criminal justice department at the University of New Haven, said the shift in priorities is similar to the post-9/11 restructuring of the FBI, when counterterrorism became a central focus.
Gray, who worked at the bureau for 24 years before leaving in 2012, said: “The bureau can survive a temporary shift in priorities, but in the long run it could hurt us greatly if agents continue to work on immigration issues rather than counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence or cybercrime.”
But Gray said he’s not worried about a temporary change while DHS continues. embarks on rapid hiring of new Ice officers
U.S. attorney Pam Bondi defended diverting FBI resources to immigration enforcement during a tense Senate hearing earlier this week when Democrats impeached her. arming the justice department. FBI agents, he in questionThey worked with DHS every day to “keep Americans safe and remove illegal aliens from our country.”
