US shifts crime-fighting agents to immigration clampdown under Trump: Report

Federal agents who usually hunt down child abusers are now cracking down on immigrants who live in the US illegally. As US President Donald Trump pledges to deport “millions and millions” of “criminal aliens,” thousands of federal law enforcement officials from multiple agencies are being enlisted to take on new work as immigration enforcers, pulling crime-fighting resources away on other areas -- from drug trafficking and terrorism to sexual abuse and fraud. In response to questions from Reuters, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the US government is “mobilising federal and state law enforcement to find, arrest, and deport illegal aliens.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to respond to questions about its staffing. But since Trump’s inauguration, about 80% of its roughly 2,500 agents have been ordered to take on at least some immigration enforcement tasks, two officials familiar with ATF's operations said. At Homeland Security Investigations, the top investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, scores of agents who specialize in child sexual exploitation have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, said Matthew Allen, a former senior HSI official who now leads the Association of Customs and HSI Special Agents, whose members include about 1,000 current and former agents.