Nearly a quarter of FBI agents across the country are currently assigned to immigration enforcement, with the number climbing to upward of 40 percent in the nation’s largest field offices, according to data from the FBI obtained by Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia) and shared with The Washington Post.
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The Trump administration has long said that more of the FBI’s time is going into immigration enforcement, but the figure of almost 25 percent is the first precise recording of how big the shift has been. Warner requested the data in his role as the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Agents have been pulled from duties related to cybercrimes, drug trafficking, terrorism, counterintelligence and more, the statistics show. Agents assigned to immigration enforcement are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to locate and arrest people in the country illegally.
The total amount of FBI resources devoted to immigration is probably higher than even the 25 percent figure. The FBI reassignment data Warner obtained reflects the number of agents working on immigration at least 50 percent of their time. It does not account for scores of other agents who have been detailed to immigration enforcement a lesser portion of their time.
FBI Director Kash Patel has also diverted more FBI agents to focus on combating local violent crime, another priority of the Trump administration. The FBI has for decades assisted with violent crime investigations and immigration, but under Patel, those assignments account for a far greater portion of the workforce’s time. Patel has publicly said that, under his leadership, the FBI has so far made more counterintelligence- and drug-trafficking-related arrests than occurred during the same period last year.
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