FBI ordered to prioritise immigration, as DOJ scales back white collar cases

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - 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. — Reuters pic

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