Trump Confesses Migrants Aren’t the Criminals He Claimed They Are
There’s a story that largely faded into the non-stop stream of stories about corrupt things DOJ is doing under Pam Bondi (or, as this NYT profile of Bondi admits, Stephen Miller’s watch). Reuters first reported it, but NBC’s story is more comprehensive.
The FBI has ordered field offices to shift a significant number — almost half, in some offices — of agents from hunting crime to hunting migrants.
FBI field offices around the country have been ordered to assign significantly more agents to immigration enforcement, a dramatic shift in federal law enforcement priorities that will likely siphon resources away from counterterrorism, counterintelligence and fraud investigations, multiple current and former bureau officials told NBC News.
[snip]
The shift in resources spans the country, according to two FBI officials. In a major change, 45% of all agents in the 25 largest FBI field offices will be working on immigration full time.
The bureau’s Atlanta field office will assign 67 agents to work on immigration “enforcement and removal operations” full time, seven days a week, the officials said. That is around half of all the agents assigned to the Atlanta field office headquarters
In Los Angeles, the field office is creating nine squads to address enforcement and removal operations full time. They will pursue noncitizens who have overstayed their visas, even if they have no criminal history.
And the FBI’s Boston field office was ordered to assign an additional 33 special agents to immigration enforcement.
[snip]
Given that FBI resources are finite, current and former officials say, a significant increase in immigration enforcement will draw agents away from what have long been top FBI priorities, including counterterrorism, counterespionage, fraud and violent crime. [my emphasis]
The story appeared amid a parallel story that DHS has asked DOD for 20,000 National Guard members to deploy to American neighborhoods.
Regarding the FBI shift, NBC focuses on how this will require the FBI to pull agents from investigating crimes, including terrorism and violent crime: the opportunity cost of doing this, and implicitly, the likelihood that FBI will miss terrorists or spies.
But consider what this says. FBI says they aren’t finding enough migrants to deport by looking for criminals, even by looking for the kinds of crimes that Trump and Stephen Miller have been claiming, for years, migrants commit.
FBI is not finding migrants by looking for terrorists.
FBI is not finding migrants by looking for rapists.
FBI is not finding migrants by looking for murderers.
As a POGO column yesterday noted, CBP is also not finding drug dealers when finding migrants.
Of the over 5.8 million migrants stopped by Border Patrol between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, drugs were seized from only 249 people, CBP migrant encounter data showed.
Marijuana accounted for more than half of those 249 drug seizures; just 1 in 53,965 migrants were caught with drugs other than marijuana. To put that into perspective, the odds of dying from a bee sting are 1 in 41,076.
You can’t find migrants by looking for criminals.
And so you have to move FBI agents from looking for criminals and make them search for migrants another way, for migrants as migrants, rather than for criminals.
By demanding that the FBI take agents who are currently looking for criminals and instead assign them to look for migrants, Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are confessing that migrants aren’t the criminals that Trump’s entire political career has been built on claiming they are.
“By demanding that the FBI take agents who are currently looking for criminals and instead assign them to look for migrants, Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are confessing that migrants aren’t the criminals that Trump’s entire political career has been built on claiming they are.”
Agreed, but also:
– The DOJ is failing to uphold the law and therefore letting criminals off the hook; and
– The DOJ is diverting Congressionally approved funding for the FBI away from investigating crimes (i.e. what the FBI is fucking there to do!) to “hunt the migrants”.
In their repeated assertions, being here illegally is itself a crime. However, the examples of legally compliant aliens (Abrego Garcia being one admitted by court filings, but there are many others) being rounded up to meet quotas is also telling.
Don’t expect Noem or Bondi to honestly share any crime data as the rates go up because the FBI isn’t looking. For them, never is heard the discouraging word.
I would also like to see ads running about the J6ers pardoned who went on subsequent crime sprees including some pretty disgusting charges. I bet that list is a lot longer than Noem’s she’s been hawking on her ads.
re ads, during ABC 6:30 evening news they showed a Trump ad followed by a Franklin Graham prayer ad. Good thing I hadn’t eaten dinner yet.
Why does prayer need to be advertised? And what do Frankie’s prayers have that say, my local pastor’s, do not? Are Frankie’s teflon coated? Do they come with a rebate of 10% and a set of small spoons for eating your soft-boiled eggs? Inquiring minds would like to know.
I prefer the Freedom From Religion Foundation ad by Ron Reagan. MAGAs need regular reminders about religious freedom.
No matter how much Trump and Miller lie and whinge, being in the US without permission is a civil offense, not a crime.
That’s why they’re working so hard to attach other crimes to it. It’s why they’re trying to redefine the 60′ wide buffer zone on the US-Mexican border, from El Paso to the Pacific, as being attached to a military base, so that they can call being on it criminal trespass. And why they are reaching down to the lowest level traffic crimes to justify deporting an immigrant.
Trump and Miller could go to Congress and demand that it make being in the US without permission a crime. Perhaps they know how unpopular and unworkable that would be. Maybe it would illustrate that even with a prostrate GOP in the House and Senate, they can’t get things done.
Noem on the range?
Curious what the impact on the Miami FBA is. Cursory searches find cooperation with ICE, DHS, HSI by FBI in Miami and other connected FBI satellite offices like Ft. Pierce.
Here’s hoping the Miami Herald does another good investigative reporting job.
As an aside, several cities that are very Hispanic oriented – looking at you Hialeah – as well as Florida Highway Patrol among others have formally joined forces if not outright been deputized to carry out joint and solo immigration enforcement activities.
Add in an allotment of the 20,000 requested National Guard and it will be not so fun times in (Southern) Florida.
I just find this incredibly “interesting” as Miami-Dade County ‘s (in particular) Cuban population made Rubio. Which is not to discount the Venezuelan, Columbian, and Caribbean Hispanic writ large populations that have made Southern Florida what it is today – mostly good.
Curious when desantis, noem, trump crow about everyone being deported from fl, who’s going to do construction, harvest the crops and all the other things americans won’t do?
Probably try to use prison labor (chain gangs) because it was one of the things tried the last time an immigrant purge was done (IIRC during Convict-1 / Krasnov’s first WH). The howling from the business community was impressive.
I also note that Stephen Smith, a big MAGA guy, had staffing problems at his Nashville restaurants (including Kid Rock one) because his managers told his undocumented staff to stay home due to ICE enforcement raids. Normally, the pressure from the rich folk would potentially move Convict-1 / Krasnov to ease off, but the latest rounds of deals from the Gulf means the supporters can be ignored.
And, now Noem wants to do a reality TV show to get immigrants to compete for citizenship fast tracking. Initial reporting doesn’t show that Convict-1 / Krasnov is getting a cut on the deal.
I haven’t checked but my gut tells me Noem’s proposed reality TV show is a human rights violation if the undocumented persons are refugees. There must be something in one of the UN conventions to which the US is a signatory that prohibits this disgusting behavior, monetizing at-risk persons’ desperation.
From Noem’s perspective, if TV worked for Trump, why not for her too?
Similar to gladiators in the ring? Do the losers get deported to El Salvador?
She killed a puppy, and that’s all I have to know about her to form an opinion.
“…won’t do for the money being offered.”
Children. That’s what nullifying child labor laws and turning public education into a commodity is about.
Elect a felon, get a felon.
I can’t find a link right now, but was listening to a news broadcast while in the car, and they talked about the HSI folks joining in these raids. The problem with that is two-fold. First, HSI officers are largely desk investigators, not field operatives. They aren’t as trained on making arrests, dealing with bystanders, and use of force as regular ICE officers and FBI agents. Second, and to the point of this post, to the extent that HSI is doing field work, that takes them away from their ordinary duties. Here’s how they describe those duties on their website:
This makes me wonder how many global conversations aren’t taking place, because Trump wants arrest numbers to rise? How many phone calls from offices in foreign countries aren’t getting answered in a timely manner, because the US based folks their are trying to reach are out trying to round up non-violent undocumented people here. How many crimes are happening (or will happen), because HSI has curtailed its work to identify and stop crime before it reaches the US?
All these “agents” are going to be vying for all the bonuses and bounties certain to be in the works.
Seems so quaint but for decades Americans said we could never become like nazi germany.
I don’t know about that.
HSI folks have a difficult desk job, requiring a skill set that involves persuading law enforcement folks in other countries to work with US people to stop international crime. Imagine how they would feel when the boss comes along, saying, “Never mind all that. Here’s gun and a protective vest. Get down to the range, listen to the instructor, practice what they tell you to do, and then tomorrow you’re going out on patrol to enforce some ICE warrants.”
All the bonuses and bounties aren’t going to keep you from needing to clean your undies when you’re facing a door behind which your ICE friends tell you are some really bad hombres, probably with guns. And God forbid you pull your gun, shoot someone, and then realize it was a six year old kid with a teddy bear in his hand.
This isn’t the job HSI folks signed up for.
Trump pretended a crisis is happening; it’s not actually happening; he’s trying to make it happen. What could possibly go wrong? Apart from everything that’s going wrong.
“This isn’t the job HSI folks signed up for.” I wonder how many reassigned FBI agents feel the same way?
“a dramatic shift in federal law enforcement priorities that will likely siphon resources away from counterterrorism, counterintelligence and fraud investigations, multiple current and former bureau officials told NBC News.”.
This sounds like a big parlay win for the Trump crime organization. He gets the thrill of destroying innocent people’s lives, sending many to foreign prisons. His rubes get to revel in the spectacle and cruelty to “the other”.
And finally, the big one, taking a large percentage of the police off the beat where he and his administration thrive. The constant fraud, the stealing and dispersing of national security documents, etc…
In effect it is actually an open invitation to anyone from anywhere to partake in any crime in the US that they can imagine. The United States of America is now open for business by criminals for criminals.
Prepare for another melt down on the order of 2007-08. For most of my career I investigated financial crimes. After 9-11, the Feds redirected all of their assets away from financial crimes to chase international terrorists and drug dealers with Uzi’s. Except for Enron and a few other spectacular frauds, the Feds were uninterested in prosecuting most bank, wire and investment frauds. State investigators and prosecutors tried, but couldn’t cope with the onslaught.
Meanwhile the housing bubble and the rising mortgage fraud trend were easy to discern in the early 200’s. With a correction overdue, the upcoming apocalypse of the 07/08 financial collapse was just a matter of time. The extraordinary number of Ponzi schemes that were unearthed in 2007-2009 [it wasn’t just Bernie Madoff!], I blame on the neglect of the Feds while they were chasing OBL. While the ordinary fraudsters may not have been the ultimate cause of the collapse, they certainly added to the losses and misery.
The federal government, particularly the White House, were warned. Eliot Spitzer’s Feb 2008 op-ed “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime” about the impending sub-prime crisis wasn’t based on his opinion or expertise alone but 48 other states’ AGs. Of course we know how closely that warning was heeded instead of the scandal that broke loose shortly after about his extramarital extracurriculars.
(Side note: It’s funny but the op-ed doesn’t come up as readily using Google Search as the rebuttals of the two comptrollers of Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OOC) who held the office from 1998 through 2010. It’s as if the op-ed was suppressed in search results.)
I can see echoes at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Project 2025’s Russell Vought. He’s undermining financial protections the way Congress and the OOC did ahead of the 2008 crash. I can’t help wonder how badly the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been damaged during Trump 2.0.
And now I’m wondering that, when this panic passes, Trump will have proven to the MAGA that there isn’t any more that can be done about illegal immigration. Other than the suggestions that I, among so many other have been making: Things like doubling the number of immigration courts/judges, and so on.
Also, one wonders when people will realize that all this fuss and bother and drama has not resulted in a country in which they are materially better off.
A related FYI — Ads are running on a major San Francisco Bay Area AM radio station (KCBS, an Audacy-owned station) I listen to. I think the ads are from Homeland Security (or DOJ?). They make accusations against illegal aliens, warning them to leave or face severe consequences, and accusing them of being the source of rape and other major criminal activities. I was shocked first time I heard one of the ads.
Marcy, et al,
Thank you emptywheel.net for your continued reporting truth to power with evidence honesty and compassion.
“…The FBI has ordered field offices to shift a significant number — almost half, in some offices — of agents from hunting crime to hunting migrants.”
When people follow reassignment orders, instead of asking questions of those in authority. Unintended consequences arise. Counting the days till FBI by line, ” …armed, uninformed, following orders, perform extra-departmental duties, with unrealistically high expectations”. Catastrophe at scale will write itself.
SCOTUS won’t allow trump to restart deportations using AEA!
Already posted—and supported with links—by harpie in the Miller’s Gulag thread.
Didn’t Florida just expand children’s work hours? And don’t forget the private prisons that will be paid big bucks — and their stocks are soaring — for incarcerating people seized and held before they are shipped off to god-knows-where … They were considering Libya (!!!) and Rwanda as sites to fly people who cannot be ‘returned’ to their home countries. Why aren’t they prosecuting employers who rely on cheap labor that they can exploit? This is just horrible….
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Trump and company are showing us the ball in his left hand; the question is what is he doing with the ball in his right hand hidden behind his back? I doubt Trump cares about immigration. What he wants is less real law enforcement and a less secure United States.
What major crimes does Trump hope all these enforcement agencies will be unable to pursue?
All of them. Pick one he or members of his circle aren’t engaged in and that’ll will be the one pursued.