FBI ordered to prioritise immigration, as DOJ scales back white collar cases
WASHINGTON, May 13 — The FBI ordered agents on Monday to devote more time to immigration enforcement and scale back investigating white-collar crime, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the Justice Department issued new guidance on what white-collar cases will be prioritised.
In a series of meetings, FBI agents were told by their field offices they would need to start devoting about one third of their time to helping the Trump administration crack down on illegal immigration.
Pursuing white-collar cases, they were told, will be deprioritised for at least the remainder of 2025, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Reuters could not immediately determine how many field offices were informed of the change, or whether it would apply to agents across the country.
An FBI spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
The orders came on the same day that Matthew Galeotti, the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, issued new guidance to prosecutors that scales back the scope of white-collar cases historically pursued by the department and orders prosecutors to 'minimise the length and collateral impact' of such investigations.
Immigration enforcement has largely not been the purview of the Justice Department's law enforcement agencies in the past.
But as President Donald Trump has stepped up an immigration crackdown, thousands of federal law enforcement officials from multiple agencies have been enlisted to take on new work as immigration enforcers, pulling crime-fighting resources away from other areas.
Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have also previously announced they will scale back efforts to prosecute certain kinds of white-collar offences, including public corruption, foreign bribery, kleptocracy and foreign influence.
As part of those efforts, the Criminal Division has also been reviewing corporate monitorships that companies were required to install as a condition of settling criminal cases. Several of them have since been ended early, while others have continued.
In Monday's memo, Galeotti laid out the categories of cases that will be prioritized to include health care fraud, trade and customs fraud, elder securities fraud, complex money laundering including 'Chinese Money Laundering Organisations,' and cases against financial gatekeepers who enable terrorists, transnational criminal organisations and cartels, among others.
He said the department will also update its whistleblower award pilot programme to encourage tips on cases that lead to forfeiture, such as those involving cartels and transnational criminal organisations, violations of federal immigration law, corporate sanctions offenses, procurement fraud, trade, tariff and customs fraud, and providing material support to terrorists.
The memo also instructs prosecutors to carefully consider whether corporate misconduct 'warrants federal criminal prosecution.'
'Prosecution of individuals, as well as civil and administrative remedies directed at corporations, are often appropriate to address low-level corporate misconduct and vindicate US interests,' the memo says.
It also orders prosecutors to only require companies to hire independent monitors if they cannot be expected to implement a corporate compliance programme 'without such heavy-handed intervention.' — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
23 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
US-China trade talks continue despite early departure of US Treasury chief
LONDON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday described closely watched trade talks with Chinese officials as productive, as scheduling conflicts prompted his departure from London with negotiations ongoing. Top officials from the world's two biggest economies held a second day of trade talks Tuesday at the UK's historic Lancaster House, with meetings stretching into the night. All eyes are on the outcomes as both sides try to overcome an impasse over export restrictions, with US officials earlier accusing Beijing of slow-walking approvals for shipments of rare earths. Bessent left the meetings early to return to Washington for testimony before Congress, a US official told AFP. But US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade envoy Jamieson Greer, who were also part of the delegation, would further talks as needed with Chinese counterparts, the offical said. Earlier Tuesday, Lutnick told Bloomberg Television that the negotiations were "going well." Global stock markets were on edge, although Wall Street's major indexes climbed on hopes for progress. With meetings dragging on, "the lack of positive headlines weighed on stocks," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading platform. US President Donald Trump told reporters Monday: "We are doing well with China. China's not easy." The London negotiations follow talks in Geneva last month, which saw a temporary agreement to lower tariffs. This time, China's exports of rare earth minerals – used in a range of things including smartphones, electric vehicle batteries and green technology – are expected to dominate the agenda. "In Geneva, we had agreed to lower tariffs on them, and they had agreed to release the magnets and rare earths that we need throughout the economy," Trump's top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, told CNBC on Monday. Even though Beijing was releasing some supplies, "it was going a lot slower than some companies believed was optimal", he added. "Our expectation is that after the handshake, any export controls from the US will be eased, and the rare earths will be released in volume," Hassett said. Both countries "have developed almost a mirror arsenal of trade and investment weapons that they can aim at each other," said Emily Benson, head of strategy at Minerva Technology Futures. As they tap economic tools to try and shift global power structures, she told AFP, it may not be reasonable to expect a typical trade and investment deal from talks. But both sides could find ways to level off a downward spiral. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have heightened since Trump took office in January, with the countries engaging in a tariffs war. The Geneva pact temporarily brought new US tariffs on Chinese goods down from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, and Chinese countermeasures from 125 per cent to 10 per cent. But Trump later said China had "totally violated" the deal. A dialing-down of temperatures could involve Chinese efforts to shore up some export control licenses caught in their system, Benson said. She noted Beijing appeared understaffed given the volume of requests. On the US side, this could look like a relaxation of certain export curbs in the high-tech domain, she added. But observers remain cautious. "We doubt that the US will back off completely. That's likely to restrain any relief rally," said Thomas Mathews, head analyst of Asia Pacific markets for Capital Economics. Since returning to office, Trump has slapped a 10 per cent levy on friend and foe, threatening steeper rates on dozens of economies. His tariffs have dented trade, with Beijing data showing Chinese exports to the United States plunged in May. The World Bank on Tuesday joined other international organizations to slash its 2025 global growth forecast amid trade uncertainty. Meanwhile, China is in talks with partners including Japan and South Korea to try to build a united front countering Trump's tariffs. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng is heading the team in London, which includes Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and China International Trade Representative Li Chenggang.
The Star
32 minutes ago
- The Star
ICE's tactics draw criticism as it triples daily arrest targets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Migrant workers picked up at a well-known Italian restaurant in San Diego. A high school volleyball player detained and held for deportation after a traffic stop in Massachusetts. Courthouse arrests of people who entered the U.S. legally and were not hiding. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to deliver on Republican President Donald Trump's promise of record-level deportations. The White House has demanded the agency sharply increase arrests of migrants in the U.S. illegally, sources have told Reuters. That has meant changing tactics to achieve higher quotas of 3,000 arrests per day, far above the earlier target of 1,000 per day. Community members and Democrats have pushed back, arguing that ICE is targeting people indiscriminately and stoking fear. Tensions boiled over in Los Angeles over the weekend when protesters took to the streets after ICE arrested migrants at Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse, according to migrant advocates. 'It seems like they're just arresting people they think might be in the country without status and amenable to deportation,' said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The apparent shift further undercuts the Trump administration message that they are focused on the "worst of the worst" criminal offenders, and suggests they are pursuing more people solely on the basis of immigration violations. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told Reuters in late May that the administration had deported around 200,000 people over four months. The total lags deportations during a similar period under former President Joe Biden, who faced higher levels of illegal immigration and quickly deported many recent crossers. ICE's operations appeared to intensify after Stephen Miller, a top White House official and the architect of Trump's immigration agenda, excoriated senior ICE officials in a late May meeting over what he said were insufficient arrests. During the meeting, Miller said ICE should pick up any immigration offenders and not worry about targeted operations that focus on criminals or other priorities for deportation, three people familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to share the details. Miller said ICE should target stores where migrant workers often congregate, such as the home improvement retailer Home Depot and 7-Eleven convenience stores, two of the people said. The message was 'all about the numbers, not the level of criminality,' one of the people said. Miller did not seem to be taking into account the complexities of immigration enforcement, one former ICE official said. In Los Angeles, for example, a 2024 court decision limits ICE's ability to knock on doors to make immigration arrests and local law enforcement does not cooperate fully with federal immigration authorities. "The numbers they want are just not possible in a place like L.A. unless you go to day laborer sites and arrest every illegal alien," the former ICE official said. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended Trump's enforcement push. 'If you are present in the United States illegally, you will be deported,' she said in a statement to Reuters. 'This is the promise President Trump made to the American people and the administration is committed to keeping it.' A DHS spokesperson said ICE officers executed criminal search warrants at the restaurant in San Diego; that the high school volleyball player in Massachusetts was subject to deportation; and that courthouse arrests were aimed at speeding up removals of migrants who entered under Biden. ARRESTED AT CHECK-INS On Sunday, more than a hundred people gathered outside the jail in Butler County, Ohio, to protest the detention of Emerson Colindres, 19, a standout soccer playerfrom Honduras who graduated from high school in May. Colindres, who has been in the U.S. since he was 8 years old, was being monitored via an ICE 'alternatives to detention' program that uses cell phone calls, ankle bracelets and other devices to track people. He received a text message to come in for an appointment last week and was taken into custody on arrival. Colindres was ordered deported after his family's asylum claim was denied, but he had been appearing for regular check-ins and had a pending visa application, his mother, Ada Baquedano, said in an interview. "They want to deport him, but he knows nothing about our country,' she said. 'He's been here since he was very little.' The DHS spokesperson said Colindres had a final deportation order and that too many people with such orders had previously been placed on alternatives to detention. 'If you are in the country illegally and a judge has ordered you to be removed, that is precisely what will happen,' the spokesperson said. The Migration Policy Institute's Gelatt said detaining people at ICE check-ins will help the agency boost arrest numbers. But these are often people who are already cooperating with ICE and could cost more to detain. (Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Ross Colvin and Stephen Coates)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
With Marines, Guard deployment up, protests against U.S. ICE spread to other cities
NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The standoff between the White House and California Governor Gavin Newsom seemed to escalate on Tuesday, even as protests in downtown Los Angeles appeared to quiet overnight. Newsom responded to the Trump administration's order to deploy 700 active-duty Marines and 2,000 additional National Guard troops by pledging to file a second lawsuit and "surging" 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to the region. President Donald Trump ordered the mobilization of 2,000 more California National Guard troops on Monday night, in addition to the 2,100 already activated over the weekend. Hours earlier, the Pentagon mobilized 700 active-duty Marines for deployment to the Los Angeles area. Newsom said Monday he would challenge the legality of the Marines' deployment, criticizing it on social media as a "blatant abuse of power." Trump on Tuesday continued to defend his decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles, reviving attacks on Democratic leaders in California and invoking the wildfires that devastated the city earlier this year. "If I didn't 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. As the federal response to the protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles escalates, demonstrators in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Austin and other cities across the United States are also rallying against immigration raids. In San Francisco, police said they detained "multiple" people around midnight after two small groups of demonstrators splintered off from "overwhelmingly peaceful" protests and committed acts of vandalism, said The Washington Post. Thousands of people marched for miles Monday night before police declared an unlawful assembly around 10 p.m. A contingent that refused to disperse appeared to resist arrest, and were met with force by San Francisco police. Meanwhile, people gathered near the Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Monday to protest the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles and the detainment of union leader David Huerta. In New York City, an anti-ICE protest was staged outside the Ted Weiss Federal Building with police officers maintaining their presence at the scene on Monday. A protest took place at the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin on Monday, with organizers saying this was in solidarity with the protests taking place in Los Angeles. "Activists are calling for an end to the Trump administration's crackdowns on illegal immigration," reported FOX7 about the developments. "The protests against the Trump administration's immigration policies that started in Los Angeles have spread to at least two dozen cities, including San Francisco, Dallas, Austin and New York City," said The New York Times. These solidarity demonstrations on Monday were largely contained and peaceful, although some skirmishes broke out between protesters and law enforcement officers as night fell, it noted. In Dallas, about 400 protesters gathered on the edge of downtown. The demonstration began peacefully but brief skirmishes later occurred between protesters and the police, it added.
