President Donald Trump’s promise to carry out the “largest deportation program in American history” has reshaped federal law enforcement priorities and diminished efforts to fight domestic terrorism — including extremists who target children, according to sources and newly released federal data.
Roughly 20% of FBI agents — 2,840 out of around 13,800 — have been diverted to work on immigration enforcement, according to data obtained by the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute. That represents a significantly larger shift in FBI priorities than what happened after the 9/11 terrorism attacks, when 1,234 FBI criminal investigators were reassigned to counterterrorism efforts.
It’s one of the many consequences of FBI Director Kash Patel’s push to require agents to help round up undocumented immigrants, a mission not normally undertaken by the FBI.
The impacts have been significant. Nearly every agent on Baltimore’s domestic terrorism squad was reassigned this year to work full time on immigration enforcement, forcing them to walk away from investigations of a network of violent predators that targets and exploits children online, according to two former FBI officials directly familiar with the matter.
This is a preview of Ken Dilanian's latest article. Read the full article here.
