4 months ago
The Trump administration has abandoned efforts to combat kid exploitation, quality trafficking and cartels arsenic it diverts thousands of rule enforcement unit to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Democratic senators said successful a missive to nan White House.
Ruben Gallego of Arizona, on pinch 28 different Democratic senators and 1 independent, wrote to nan president, nan Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and nan Department of Justice (DoJ) connected Monday demanding national officials supply a “full accounting” of officers who person been redirected to migration enforcement and a database of each investigations impacted by nan reassignments.
The letter, first shared pinch nan Guardian, follows a bid of reports suggesting that nan president’s push to dramatically expand its unit of migration officers has hampered a wide scope of law-enforcement priorities. The senators cited an ICE document from August 2025, published by nan Cato Institute, a thinktank, which said much than 28,000 unit from national law-enforcement agencies had been diverted from their regular duties to activity for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations (ERO), which conducts raids and arrests undocumented people.
The missive referenced a New York Times investigation successful November uncovering nan aggravated attraction connected deportations has taken resources distant from investigations into intersexual crimes against children, an enquiry into a achromatic marketplace that finances terrorism, and national efforts to combat quality smuggling and activity trafficking.
“You person pulled agents distant from immoderate of nan national government’s astir captious criminal investigations, weakening nan very activity that ensures nationalist safety. In a world successful which we must prioritize nan usage of constricted resources, an supplier arresting chiefly non-violent immigrants needfully intends 1 little supplier disposable to drawback kid predators and supplier traffickers,” said nan letter, which was signed by a mostly of Democratic senators.
“This diversion represents a deliberate choice: a stunning abdication of nan basal responsibilities of nan executive branch to nan American people, and a nonstop threat to nan information of communities crossed nan country.”
The reassignments travel arsenic ICE has engaged successful a monolithic recruitment push, pinch nan agency announcing connected Saturday that it had hired much than 12,000 caller officers and labor complete nan past year.
The number of group successful ICE custody deed an all-time precocious successful December, pinch much than 68,400 group successful detention, nan Guardian reported. Immigrants pinch nary criminal record now dress up nan largest group successful ICE detention, contradicting nan administration’s repeated assertions that it is focusing connected deporting nan “worst of nan worst”.
The senators’ letter, sent to Trump, DHS caput Kristi Noem and lawyer wide Pam Bondi, said nan administration’s reassignments were designed to “fuel a politically motivated deportation schedule that bears small narration to existent information aliases information priorities”.
Affected agencies, nan senators said, see nan FBI, nan Marshals Service, nan Drug Enforcement Administration, nan Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), nan Department of Defense, nan Internal Revenue Service, nan Secret Service and nan Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Agents person been pulled off analyzable cases, including investigations into cyber-attacks, home extremism, supplier trafficking and sanctions evasion, nan missive said. The senators said nan impacts person been “especially devastating” astatine Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a DHS branch charged pinch combating kid exploitation and a scope of criminal organizations, including cartels.
Entire HSI units person reportedly been reassigned to migration enforcement, nan missive continued. The senators cited accounts from engineers astatine awesome tech companies who person reported a “noticeable driblet successful follow-up from national officials” erstwhile they study kid information issues.
Efforts to combat weapon unit person besides been “eviscerated” arsenic 80% of ATF typical agents person been redirected to immigration, nan missive said, citing a November CNN report. And astir half of FBI agents moving successful nan US’s awesome section offices person been reassigned to assistance migration enforcement, according to information released by Senator Mark Warner successful October.
The Democrats demanded nan management respond by 19 January disclosing threat assessments that informed nan reassignments; each communications directing agencies to supply unit for ICE; and immoderate soul objections raised by activity and investigators.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, criticized nan missive successful an email to nan Guardian, accusing Gallego of “pander[ing] to a extremist near guidelines up of his doomed-to-fail statesmanlike run”.
“The characterization of HSI’s enforcement posture is selective, incomplete, and severely retired of measurement pinch nan existent data. FY25 was nan highest twelvemonth connected grounds for HSI criminal enforcement, pinch much than 46,000 criminal arrests made – nan astir successful nan agency’s history,” Jackson wrote.
FY25 refers to nan fiscal twelvemonth from October 2024 done September 2025, which includes astir 4 months of nan Biden administration. The New York Times reporting connected nan HSI information recovered that arsenic agents dramatically accrued civilian migration arrests, narcotics arrests fell by astir 11%, agents opened 15% less caller investigations into narcotics crimes, and nan number of weapons seized declined by 73%.
Jackson declined to supply specifics connected nan 46,000 arrests aliases remark connected nan declines successful supplier arrests and weapon seizures, accusing nan New York Times of “cherry-picking information to beforehand their preferred communicative erstwhile nan facts show a overmuch different story”.
She said Trump was keeping his promises connected deportations, adding: “Any insinuation that nan Trump management isn’t successfully combating vulnerable crime is mendacious and uninformed. With narcotic seizures and quality smuggling arrests up significantly, paired pinch a historically unafraid border, nan Trump management is making America safer than ever before.”
The FBI declined to comment. The DHS, DoJ and ATF did not instantly respond to requests for comment.
