Washington, DC — A collection of new resources from America’s Voice underscores how this administration’s mass deportation obsession harms public safety – including diverting money and manpower away from disaster preparedness and active federal investigations and toward low-level immigration enforcement.
- New AV Fact Sheet: “Trump’s Immigration Enforcement Dragnet Is Undermining Public Safety Across America” notes that Trump’s deportation agenda is pulling agents off the frontlines of public safety, including:
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF): 80% of the agency’s 2,500 agents have been reassigned from investigating gun trafficking, bombings, and arson to immigration enforcement.
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA): Roughly 25% of operations have shifted from targeting drug cartels and fentanyl traffickers to carrying out immigration raids.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Agents now spend one-third of their time on immigration cases, while white-collar crime and violent crime investigations take a backseat.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): 20% of staff eliminated and first responder training halted while employees are reassigned to support ICE operations
- Federal Prosecutors: U.S. Attorneys in all 93 districts are being ordered to shift staff to border enforcement.
- Homeland Security Investigations (HSI): All 6,000 agents have been pulled from missions focused on terrorism, child exploitation, and human trafficking to support mass deportation instead.
- A Substack and blog from Gabe Ortiz of America’s Voice, “Mass Deportations Do Not Make Us Safer,” notes, “Local communities are also being forced into the fray. The expanded collusion between ICE and local law enforcement combined with efforts by the mass deportation agency to poach local police officers diverts already-stretched departments from tackling local crime. Plus, the administration’s cuts to federal safety grants for cities pulled funds for 50 police officers in Chicago The Big, Ugly budget funding mass deportation may be Miller’s dream come true, but for our immigrant neighbors and other everyday Americans, it’s a public safety nightmare.”
- The latest column from America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings, “Immigration extremism that undermines public safety,” (Spanish version here and English here) notes: “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.”
- Yesterday’s America’s Voice virtual press event featured law enforcement experts and former federal officials discussing the public safety harms of the administration’s mass deportation agenda and intent to keep Americans divided at a time of heightened political violence. During the event, speakers included:
- Rafael Lemaitre, former Director of Public Affairs at FEMA, who stated: “These draconian cuts to FEMA are putting us on track to painfully relearn the tragic lessons of Hurricane Katrina. Every dollar DHS diverts away from FEMA and towards mass deportations is a dollar taken away from disaster survivors and vulnerable communities.”
- Officer Harry Dunn, former U.S. Capitol Police officer, who stated: “Under no circumstances should we allow political violence, nor should we normalize it. No matter who it happens to or who it’s directed against. There is no place for it. I say that as someone who personally endured political violence at its highest form on January 6, 2021, when me and hundreds of my coworkers were attacked and beaten by a mob that believed the election was stolen.”
- Joanna Kuebler, Chief of Programs of America’s Voice and moderator of the event, who referenced the shooting at the ICE facility in Dallas in her introductory remarks, condemning political violence and noting: “America needs national leaders who will work to bridge the divide, calm fears and focus on keeping all our communities safe. Unfortunately, this administration is pursuing a different track, pledging retribution, stoking division, scapegoating immigrants and pursuing a mass deportation agenda – all of which are at odds with public safety.” Access a recording of the virtual event HERE
