Maribel Hastings
Posted October 2, 2025
The current administration’s obsession with mass deportations has not only militarized cities and spread terror among immigrants and American families. Public safety suffers when funds and agents from various law enforcement agencies are diverted to immigration tasks.
Now, not only do we have to deal with open attacks on the Constitution, due process, the economy, and freedom of speech, but the current government is also reassigning staff from agencies responsible for our security to immigration assignments instead of combating drug trafficking, terrorism, white-collar crime, or arresting sexual predators and tax evaders.
President Trump claims he wants to remove “the worst of the worst,” “criminals,” from the country. However, according to press reports, his border czar, Tom Homan, was recorded receiving $50,000 from two FBI agents posing as businessmen whom Homan allegedly promised would help obtain government contracts during Trump’s second term. The Justice Department closed the case. The White House denies everything.
Eighty percent of the 2,500 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have been reassigned from investigating arms trafficking, bombings, and arson to immigration assignments.
On the other hand, 71% of the nearly 59,000 immigrants currently detained by ICE are not criminals.
If they were genuinely concerned about crime, the wrongly named Big Beautiful Bill budget law would not eliminate funding for programs that seek to reduce crime. According to The Marshall Project “the new law also rewrites what Byrne-JAG funding can be used for, making community violence prevention programs ineligible.”
According to the Vera Institute, the cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contemplated in the law destabilize communities and contribute to increased crime. “Research has shown time and again that Medicaid expansion is linked to drops in crime. States that expanded Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act rollout saw a decrease in violent crime of more than five percent.”
In a recent report, the Niskanen Center analyzed the diversion of agents from various agencies to perform immigration duties: “The diversion of 6,700 federal workers to immigration comes at the expense of the enforcement of white-collar crime, national security, drug and firearms trafficking, tax compliance, and protecting children from exploitation.”
Eighty percent of the 2,500 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) have been reassigned from investigating arms trafficking, bombings, and arson to immigration assignments.
Add to this the potential lack of adequate preparation to deal with natural disasters because even FEMA personnel have been reassigned to support immigration efforts.
For example, Trump claims to be fighting drug trafficking, hence the spectacle of bombing boats (and their occupants) in the Caribbean Sea in his media battle with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, whom he accuses of trafficking drugs to the United States.
But according to the Niskanen Center, “the DEA has reportedly redirected about a quarter of its workload to immigration, pulling resources away from its traditional mission of combating drug cartels.”
The same is true of the FBI. According to the Niskanen Center’s analysis, “the focus on immigration draws resources and attention from other top FBI issues, such as counterterrorism, cyber crimes, and white collar crimes.”
And the IRS is now also targeting immigrants. “At the request of DHS Director Kristi Noem, at least 250 IRS agents—who typically focus on tax and financial crimes—have been tasked with investigating employers, seizing assets, and even apprehending and detaining individuals,” according to the Niskanen Center.
As David Bier of the Cato Institute wrote, the diversion of agents “has significantly curtailed the government’s capacity to address criminal activity in the United States.”
Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor to América’s Voice.
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- Immigration Extremism That Undermines Public Safety - October 3, 2025
