A quarter of FBI agents are assigned to immigration enforcement, per FBI data

[In It to Win It]

WaPo - Gift Link

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.

The large number of reassignments reflect a vast reshaping of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, which has focused on national security threats since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The intense focus on immigration has raised alarm among current and former FBI agents who say morale is low across the bureau as agents have less time to dedicate to the often complex cases they were hired to work on.

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.