When Priorities Shift: Why Loaning FBI Agents in such large amounts to ICE Threatens National Security
Why Reassigning FBI Agents to Immigration Duties Puts National Security at Risk
Daniel Brunner | Chief Operating Officer | Brunner Sierra Group
An Alarming Shift in Federal Priorities
Across federal law enforcement circles, a troubling trend is gaining traction—FBI agents (along with DEA and ATF Agents) are increasingly being loaned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to assist with immigration enforcement. While ICE and the Department of Homeland Security play crucial roles in protecting U.S. borders, diverting FBI personnel—highly trained investigators whose mission spans terrorism, cyber threats, public corruption, and complex criminal enterprises—is raising alarms within national security and law enforcement communities. This shift is not just a bureaucratic decision—it’s a fundamental change in how the federal government allocates its most specialized law enforcement assets.
The Growing Drain: Not Just a Few Agents
This is not a matter of loaning out a few agents here and there. Recent moves by the Department of Justice reveal that entire divisions of DOJ/FBI have been disbanded or drastically downsized:
Civil rights enforcement divisions
“Scaling back” white collar crime investigations across the board
Most recently, the dismantling of an elite Public corruption squad whose main purpose was to investigate Congress and root out fraud across government agencies.
These are not ancillary units; they are essential components of our national security and public safety framework. When FBI Agents assigned to investigate these crimes do not have support from the DOJ, they are reassigned to immigration-related tasks, the DOJ is effectively allowing key components of the FBI’s core mission to go dark. In addition, some Divisions have 25-30 Agents on 2-week rotations, while some reports indicate up to 45% of Agents assigned to a Division have been allocated to immigration enforcement.
The Opportunity Cost: What Isn’t Being Investigated
The American public may not immediately feel the absence of a shuttered cyber squad or a reassigned terrorism analyst, but the consequences are real. Every FBI agent loaned to ICE is one less federal investigator working a public corruption lead. One less intelligence analyst evaluating chatter from international terrorist groups. One less cyber expert detecting foreign intrusion attempts into critical infrastructure. One less civil rights agent protecting Americans from hate crimes and police abuses. These are not optional missions—they are core functions of national safety, and they are being diluted.
Terrorism Doesn’t Pause for Staffing Shortages
The most sobering aspect of this trend is the risk to national security. While political battles rage over immigration, adversaries—from lone wolves to foreign intelligence services—do not take a break. A decrease in FBI focus on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber defense leaves the nation vulnerable.
The next terrorist attack or state-sponsored cyber breach won’t be blamed on lack of funding or political in-fighting—it will fall squarely on the shoulders of the FBI. And the irony? Those very agents who could have detected and prevented it were instead diverted to work a different mission altogether.
Who Bears the Blame?
If a terrorist attack occurs while hundreds of FBI agents are on loan to ICE, the blame will inevitably fall on the FBI—not on the policymakers who diverted its resources. The public won’t see the internal memos or political pressure that led to elite agents being reassigned from counterterrorism and intelligence roles to handle immigration enforcement.
They’ll only see that the FBI failed to detect, disrupt, or prevent the threat. In the aftermath, congressional hearings and media headlines won’t ask why agents were pulled from cyber or counterterrorism units—they’ll ask why the FBI dropped the ball. And the answer will be chillingly simple: the agents who were supposed to be on that case were doing a different job entirely, one they weren’t hired or trained for.
Realigning Priorities Before It’s Too Late
Now, as Federal law enforcement officers, the President has every right to shift Agents around to cover other priorities and those Agents and agencies cannot argue. But, this trend needs urgent reevaluation. If national security truly is a priority, then the FBI must be empowered—not cannibalized. The United States cannot afford to compromise its counterterrorism, civil rights, and cyber capabilities for short-term immigration surges. Additionally, who will want to join the FBI if they know that the job which they are signing up for is just going to be immigration enforcement, but they didn’t want to join ICE? I unfortunately see recruiting numbers may plummet.
Reassigning agents from vital DOJ (FBI/ATF/DEA) divisions to ICE does not make America safer—it creates critical vulnerabilities. It’s time to demand a realignment of priorities before the cost of this strategic misstep becomes irreversible.