The Trump administration has accomplished an amazing job of staffing its brutal crackdown on immigrants. However it seems that reassigning everybody to that effort implies that the Division of Homeland Safety is giving quick shrift to preventing precise crime. However hey, a minimum of the federal government is maintaining us secure from tamale distributors and day laborers, proper?
The New York Instances obtained an inner report from Homeland Safety Investigations, the division of DHS that’s alleged to be targeted on conducting federal prison investigations. Right here’s HSI itself explaining its mission:
HSI conducts federal prison investigations into the unlawful motion of individuals, items, cash, contraband, weapons and delicate know-how into, out of and thru the US. HSI’s investigations are broad ranging – our circumstances embrace drug and weapons smuggling, cyber and monetary crime, unlawful know-how exports and mental property crime. We additionally play an important position in investigating crimes of exploitation. This consists of combating baby exploitation, human trafficking, monetary fraud and scams and different crimes in opposition to susceptible populations.
All these issues sound like issues you prefer to your federal authorities to guard you from! Too dangerous they’re busy doing different issues.
“Deporting dangeous criminals” by Mike Luckovich
The HSI report confirmed that, when evaluating the interval from Oct. 1, 2024-Sept. 30, 2025, to the identical time within the earlier 12 months, narcotics arrests have fallen by 11%. Oh, and in addition, HSI brokers have opened 15% fewer new narcotics investigations.
Okay, so we’re extra awash in medicine than earlier than, due to 90% of HSI workers—over 6,000 brokers—being reassigned to ICE. However that’s not all. We’re additionally extra awash in weapons, with weapons seizures dropping from 41,400 to 11,200. Should you’re doing the maths at dwelling, that’s a staggering 73% lower.
This report follows final week’s New York Instances story about how the monomaniacal concentrate on harming immigrants has pulled hundreds of federal brokers from their common duties investigating baby exploitation, sexual crimes in opposition to kids, human trafficking, and terrorism. When evaluating February by April 2025 to averages from earlier years, HIS personnel labored roughly 33% fewer hours investigating baby exploitation circumstances.
The administration’s spin on that is genuinely unhinged. Per DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, by focusing solely on immigration, they’re truly preventing each different kind of crime:
Youngster exploitation, human trafficking, terrorism, monetary scams and smuggling all have a nexus to unlawful immigration. DHS is mobilizing federal and state legislation enforcement to seek out, arrest and deport unlawful aliens. We’re prioritizing the worst of the worst and aliens with remaining elimination orders. Almost daily we’re arresting pedophiles, identified or suspected terrorists, kidnappers, baby smugglers and intercourse traffickers, together with those that entered our nation illegally.
Come on, are we actually nonetheless doing the “worst of the worst” factor? The biggest share of individuals languishing in ICE amenities don’t have any prison file in any respect. For these with prison information, the most typical prison costs are immigration violations and site visitors offenses. Thank god we’re being saved secure from immigrants who didn’t sign a proper flip or one thing equally malevolent.
The administration’s fixation on preventing fentanyl suppliers has additionally had silly penalties. Trump can brag about disrupting Mexico’s greatest fentanyl trafficker, the Sinaloa Cartel, however all that did was clear the best way for a cocaine kingpin to consolidate energy. Properly, a minimum of cocaine is mad low-cost now! Loopy that bombing random boats has not someway magically saved us all from illicit medicine.
In the meantime, ICE is busy arresting tamale distributors and capturing pastors within the head with pepper balls, which additionally someway has not magically saved us from something. As a substitute, we’re dealing with extra medicine, extra weapons, and extra crimes in opposition to kids. Nice job, everybody.
