Federal agents who usually track down child abusers are now targeting immigrants living in the US illegally.

Homeland Security investigators specialising in money laundering are raiding restaurants and other small businesses looking for immigrants who are not authorised to work.

Agents who pursue drug traffickers and tax fraud are being reassigned to enforce immigration law.

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 roles as immigration enforcers, diverting crime-fighting resources from other areas, including drug trafficking, terrorism, sexual abuse, and fraud.

This account of Trump’s push to reorganise federal law enforcement—the most significant since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks—is based on interviews with more than 20 current and former federal agents, attorneys, and other federal officials. Most had first-hand knowledge of the changes. Nearly all spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss their work.

“I do not recall ever seeing such a wide spectrum of federal government resources all being turned towards immigration enforcement,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former Homeland Security official who has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations. “When you’re telling agencies to stop what they’ve been doing and do this now, whatever else they were doing takes a back seat.”

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. In a statement, the FBI said it is “protecting the US from many threats.” The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration has provided no comprehensive account of the restructuring. However, it echoes the post-2001 attacks response when Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, consolidating 169,000 federal employees from other agencies and refocusing the FBI on counterterrorism.

Trump’s hardline approach to deporting immigrants has deepened America’s already stark partisan divide. The US Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, described the crackdown as a “wasteful, misguided diversion of resources.” In a statement to Reuters, he said it was “making America less safe” by diverting agents from tackling corporate fraud, terrorism, child sexual exploitation, and other crimes.

US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with Reuters, denied that the shift in federal law enforcement priorities was undermining other critical investigations. “I completely reject the idea that because we’re prioritising immigration, we are not simultaneously going after violent crime with full force.”

He said the crackdown was justified. “President Trump views what has happened over the last couple of years truly as an invasion, so that’s how we’re trying to remedy that.”

On 20 January, his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to collaborate in combating what he called “an invasion” of illegal immigrants. He portrayed the estimated 11 million unauthorised immigrants in the US as the driving force behind crime, gang violence, and drug trafficking—claims not supported by government statistics—and accused them of draining US resources and depriving citizens of jobs.

Almost immediately, federal law enforcement began posting photos of the crackdown on social media: agents wore body armour and jackets emblazoned with the names of multiple agencies—including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—while carrying out raids on undocumented immigrants.

Before this year, ATF had played almost no role in immigration enforcement, focusing instead on firearms offences, bombings, arson, and illicit shipments of alcohol and tobacco.

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. One of the officials described their role primarily as “fugitive hunters” tracking down undocumented migrants.

The DEA, which has roughly 10,000 staff and leads US efforts against drug cartels, has shifted about a quarter of its work to immigration operations, according to a former official briefed by DEA leadership. Two other former officials described the reallocation as “substantial” but did not specify the exact extent.

Many of the reassigned federal officials have had little training or experience in immigration law, sources said. The State Department’s 2,500 Security Service agents, who typically protect diplomats and investigate visa and passport fraud, have now been authorised to assist in “investigating, determining the location of, and apprehending any alien” in the US unlawfully, according to a 18 February memo from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to the US Secretary of State.

The ATF and the State Department acknowledged their involvement in immigration enforcement but declined to elaborate on staffing decisions.

The shift comes alongside extraordinary immigration measures that have prompted lawsuits accusing Trump’s administration of exceeding constitutional and legal limits. These include deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under an 18th-century wartime powers act and detaining a Columbia University student activist with legal residency over his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.

The White House has defended its actions as being within constitutional limits and aimed at protecting American citizens' safety and jobs.

The results so far are mixed: the number of migrants attempting to cross the southern US border in February was the lowest in decades, while detentions for immigration violations have surged. However, deportations have not yet significantly increased, though experts predict a rise in the coming months.

“Stop and Frisk”

The heightened focus on immigration enforcement is drawing resources away from other crime-fighting areas, according to multiple sources who spoke to Reuters.

Until January, immigration enforcement was primarily handled by two agencies—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection—with a combined staff of 80,000. Other agencies played little role in deportations.

That has now changed.

At Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a top investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, dozens of agents who specialise in child sexual exploitation have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, said Matthew Allen, a former senior HSI official now leading the Association of Customs and HSI Special Agents, which includes about 1,000 current and former agents.

Over the past two years, those HSI agents have assisted over 3,000 child victims, often through complex investigations, DHS data shows. “There’s a good argument that these changes will lead to some child victims continuing to be exploited,” Allen said.

While HSI falls under ICE, its 7,100 special agents typically focus on national security threats, terrorism, drug smuggling, human trafficking, illegal arms exports, financial crimes, child sex offences, and intellectual property theft. Immigration enforcement has traditionally been handled by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit.

However, on 31 January, HSI staff received an internal email instructing them to adopt a new mission: “protecting the American people against invasion.”

The memo stated that HSI agents and employees should be prepared to take on a growing role in detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants or barring their entry at US borders.

Recently, HSI has been offering training for employees unfamiliar with immigration enforcement, including tactics such as “knock and talk” visits to lure immigrants out of their homes, stop-and-frisk operations, and warrantless arrests, according to internal documents seen by Reuters.

HSI’s new role also includes scrutinising companies for hiring unauthorised immigrants, conducting surveillance outside immigrant workers’ homes, tracking license plates, and distributing photos of “target” immigrants, according to an employee and images of the operations shared with Reuters.

At the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), criminal investigation agents—who typically handle tax and financial crimes—have also been reassigned to immigration enforcement, Reuters previously reported.

Prosecution Work Piling Up

On 21 January, a senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove, instructed federal prosecutors in a memo to “take all steps necessary” to prosecute undocumented immigrants.

This has resulted in a surge of immigration-related cases. In San Diego, the number of people charged with felony immigration offences in February more than quadrupled compared to last year, Reuters found. Meanwhile, felony drug prosecutions slightly declined.

Despite Trump and billionaire Elon Musk slashing federal bureaucracy, immigration enforcement roles appear to be expanding. In a 31 January email to ICE employees, a human resources official confirmed they would not be eligible for early retirement buyouts offered to 2.3 million federal workers: “All ICE positions are excluded.”