Almost a quarter of the nation’s FBI agents have been reassigned from investigations and national security work to immigration enforcement duties, according to new data released by Senator Mark Warner.
The Democrat shared his findings with The Washington Post, which reported that current and former FBI officials have noted lowered morale as agents are pulled from the complex investigations they joined the agency to conduct in order to execute President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
While the Trump administration has made it no secret that it is using the FBI to carry out immigration enforcement this is the first time the scope of the agency’s mission drift has been quantified.
Agents formerly working to thwart cybercrimes, drug trafficking, terrorism, counterintelligence, and other criminal matters have been reassigned to assist with the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown.
According to Warner, the actual number of reassigned FBI agents is likely even higher, as the data he obtained only includes agents who are spending at least half their working hours on immigration enforcement.
The FBI’s workforce has also seen an increase in the amount of time agents are spending investigating local violent crime. While the agency has always played a role in investigating violent felonies wherever they occur, under FBI Director Kash Patel, those assignments have increased, according to the report.
According to Patel’s office, the reassignments have not stymied the agency’s ability to conduct its other duties, claiming it has made more counterintelligence- and drug trafficking-related arrests under his tenure than during the same period last year.
Even still, sources who spoke to The Washington Post said that agents are stretched thin trying to balance their usual responsibilities with their new immigration-focused duties.
“We are weakening ourselves day by day,” Chris O’Leary, a former FBI senior executive and special agent, told the paper. “Having agents walk the beat and conduct immigration arrests is really a misuse of exquisite ability.”
Agents are also reportedly afraid of retaliation from Trump and other lawmakers who may take issue with them conducting the duties required by their positions.
Patel has fired three agents who allegedly obtained phone records for nine Republican lawmakers during the Biden administration as part of an investigation into Trump’s alleged attempt to illegally overturn the outcome of the 2024 election.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley demanded consequences for those involved, saying that “if heads don’t roll in this town, nothing changes,” and described the investigation as a “violation of personal property and people’s rights and the law and their constitutional rights.”
Patel had no qualms about firing the agents.
“You’re darn right I fired those agents,” Patel told Fox News on Tuesday. “We’re just warming up. We are running our investigations to the ground. We’re finding every single person involved.”
While Patel’s hunt continues, sources reportedly told The Washington Post that agents in the Washington, D.C. field office have been forced to work overnight shifts multiple times a week to keep up with their work while also assisting D.C. Metro Police in criminal investigations.
The sources said the increased workload has led to a slowdown in agents’ work on more complicated cases, but a spokesperson for the Washington, D.C. field office insisted that was not the case.
“As the FBI Washington Field Office participates in the federal law enforcement surge to crush violent crime in Washington, D.C., WFO agents, analysts, and other personnel continue to maintain the office’s high operational tempo to protect the National Capital Region from national security and criminal threats,” a spokesperson said in a statement last month.
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