WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a sweeping overhaul of federal law enforcement priorities, the Trump administration has begun redirecting thousands of federal agents — including those who typically investigate terrorism, child exploitation, drug trafficking, and financial crimes — to enforce immigration laws and pursue undocumented migrants.
The unprecedented shift comes as President Donald Trump doubles down on his campaign promise to deport “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants, which he now frames as a response to what he calls an “invasion” at the U.S. southern border. Federal agents from multiple departments, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS, and State Department, are now being reassigned to identify, detain, and deport migrants living in the U.S. without legal status.
This redeployment of resources has significantly altered the operations of key federal agencies, many of which had not previously been involved in day-to-day immigration enforcement. According to more than 20 current and former government officials — many of whom spoke anonymously to Reuters — this is one of the most extensive reorganizations of federal enforcement priorities since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when homeland security became the nation’s top concern.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, said she could not recall “ever seeing this wide a spectrum of federal government resources all being turned toward immigration enforcement.” She added that when agencies are told to change priorities, “whatever else they were doing takes a back seat.”
The administration has not released a full accounting of how many agents have been reassigned. Still, evidence of the shift has surfaced in various departments. Roughly 80 percent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents — who typically investigate firearms trafficking, arson, and bombings — are now involved in immigration enforcement, according to two officials familiar with the agency’s operations.
Similarly, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which leads the country’s efforts against drug cartels, has reportedly redirected up to 25 percent of its work toward immigration operations. Agents from the State Department’s security force, typically tasked with protecting diplomats and handling passport fraud cases, have been instructed to help identify and locate undocumented individuals for detention.
Homeland Security’s elite investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which usually targets crimes like terrorism, human trafficking, child exploitation, and intellectual property theft, has also seen a major reassignment of duties. According to internal DHS communications reviewed by Reuters, HSI agents have been instructed to “protect the American people against invasion,” a phrase that now defines their mission.
HSI agents, many of whom lack immigration law training, are receiving crash courses on how to conduct warrantless arrests, stop-and-frisk operations, and “knock and talk” interrogations. Internal training materials also guide agents on tactics to lure undocumented migrants out of their homes and use surveillance to build deportation cases.
According to former HSI official Matthew Allen, now head of the Association of Customs and HSI Special Agents, the reassignments have pulled agents away from critical work involving child exploitation cases. “There’s a good argument that these changes will lead to some child victims continuing to be exploited,” Allen said, citing DHS data that shows HSI agents helped more than 3,000 child victims in recent years.
IRS criminal investigators, who normally track financial crimes and major tax fraud, are also being reassigned to immigration duties. The redirection has prompted concerns from policy experts like Elaine Maag of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, who said, “There are direct and indirect costs to pulling IRS criminal investigators out of the field.”
The surge in immigration prosecutions is already impacting federal court systems. In San Diego, the number of felony immigration charges filed in February more than quadrupled compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile, felony drug prosecutions in the region saw a slight decline. In Detroit, where immigration-related charges were previously rare, federal prosecutors filed 19 such cases in February — up from just two a year earlier.
Justice Department officials have also increased pressure on prosecutors. In a memo sent shortly after Trump returned to office in January, a top official directed U.S. attorneys to take “all steps necessary” to prosecute undocumented immigrants. Prosecutors are now being required to report every declined immigration case directly to the Justice Department.
Some DEA agents have even been asked to revisit old cases — including ones where charges were declined due to lack of evidence — to determine if suspects were undocumented at the time of the arrest. If so, those individuals are now being targeted for arrest and possible deportation.
The White House has not commented directly on the reassignment of agents but has defended the crackdown. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche rejected concerns that the immigration focus was undermining other law enforcement priorities. “I completely reject the idea that because we’re prioritizing immigration we are not simultaneously full-force going after violent crime,” he said.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin echoed the administration’s commitment to immigration enforcement, stating that the federal government is “mobilizing federal and state law enforcement to find, arrest, and deport illegal aliens.”
The changes have drawn sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin called the mass reassignment of agents “a wasteful, misguided diversion of resources,” warning that it could weaken efforts to combat terrorism, corporate fraud, and child exploitation.
Civil liberties groups have also raised concerns over the legality and constitutionality of some of the administration’s tactics. Lawsuits have already been filed in response to actions such as the deportation of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang under an obscure 18th-century wartime powers act and the detention of a Columbia University student with legal permanent resident status over his role in political protests.
Despite the backlash, immigration enforcement remains a top priority of the Trump administration. Even as the administration works with billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy, enforcement positions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are being protected. A January 31 email to ICE staff confirmed that they would not be eligible for the buyout offers extended to other federal workers.
Though the full impact of these sweeping changes remains to be seen, early indicators show that border apprehensions are down and immigration-related detentions are up. Deportations, however, have not yet seen a major increase, but experts expect that to change in the coming months as more agents and prosecutors are funneled into immigration cases.
As the Trump administration continues to reshape the federal law enforcement landscape, critics warn that the consequences may be felt far beyond immigration. With agents pulled from complex investigations into drug networks, tax evasion, and child abuse, many fear that public safety and justice may be compromised in pursuit of a politically driven immigration agenda.
