EXCLUSIVE: FBI special agents in charge of the country’s 55 field offices are proactively teaming up with Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies around the country, from major cities like New York and Chicago to the American heartland, offering up intelligence services and tactical assistance as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on criminal aliens, according to the bureau’s top leadership.
Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll told Fox News Digital he’s been in touch with the special agents in charge of all the FBI’s divisions regarding their support for the president’s initiative.
“Following the issuance of the acting AG’s memo, all of our special agents in charge have been reaching out to their counterparts over there at [the Department of Homeland Security] to proactively offer assistance,” he said. “And we’ve been working really hard over here to get our folks trained up on Title 8 authorities that we’re operating under for these particular operations. So we are and will remain postured to support DHS the best that we can over here at the FBI.”
Title 8 refers to the section of the U.S. Code governing “Aliens and Nationality,” lawful immigration, apprehension of criminal aliens, deportation, visas and related matters. The memo also served as a reminder to state and local authorities that federal law is the supreme law of the land.
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In any criminal investigation, it’s significant when the bureau joins and brings its vast resources to bear. In this case, the FBI is teaming up with federal offices around the country, not just local departments, to round up illegal immigrants with known or suspected criminal backgrounds.
From SWAT operators in tactical gear to intelligence gathering and legal experts stationed in command posts around the country, the FBI has assisted in arresting known suspects who had been moving freely just a few weeks ago.
“Our intelligence support is as strong as our tactical support. I want to make that clear,” Driscoll said. “So, for example, in New York, about gathering and sharing what we know with DHS, we were able to prioritize the worst of the worst. And we now have dozens of subjects in custody.”
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Other resources include the FBI’s expertise in crisis management coordination, which is now supporting the crackdown.
“There is no national security threat that DHS works without the FBI,” he said. “Additionally, there are very few threats the FBI works without a DHS nexus, so it’s always part of our approach to look at all the tools in our toolkit.”
Collaboration between agencies, which are part of separate departments under the executive branch, is not strictly new. He pointed to a case last year in which the FBI uncovered evidence of an ISIS travel network involving eight Tajik nationals with suspected ties to the terror group.
“We moved really fast in that case to get that information over to DHS, so [Customs and Border Protection] could use that intel to inform interviews down at the border or up at the border,” he said. “And in turn, they can make a better determination over there regarding who needed to be referred for things like mandatory detention. And ICE could initiate deportation proceedings and stop those subjects from attacking American citizens.”
Similar investigative powers are part of the crackdown on dangerous migrant criminals across the country.
The bureau is heavily involved in assisting federal counterparts within the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, taking down known criminal aliens around the country, according to authorities.
Fox News Digital reported Thursday that agents on the ground in El Paso, Texas, assisted with the capture of a man suspected of running a human smuggling “stash house.” The Venezuelan national denied having a connection to any criminal gangs, but the investigation is ongoing.
Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, warned ahead of the new administration’s arrival at the White House that federal authorities would conduct targeted sweeps for known criminal aliens.
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In cities around the country, immigration and law enforcement task forces have picked up thousands of suspected illegal immigrant criminals since Trump’s inauguration. Nationwide, immigration arrests numbered roughly 5,500 since last Thursday, according to ICE.
Detained migrants include alleged child predators, gang members, suspected terrorists and other violent criminals. Another suspected Tren de Aragua gang member, linked to a violent incident in Colorado, made his way across the country only to find himself handcuffed at an apartment building across the street from a school in New York City this week.
Trump said on Wednesday he plans to send up to 30,000 illegal aliens who pose a threat to American public safety to Guantánamo Bay.
“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust their countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” Trump said. “We’re going to send them to Guantánamo.”
The president’s first major piece of new legislation, the Laken Riley Act, is named for a young nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant in a broad daylight attack at a park near the University of Georgia in Athens. It mandates the detention and deportation of illegal alien criminals and allows states to sue if immigration laws are ignored.
While the FBI has been assisting in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegals, officials tell Fox News Digital that the bureau’s other important duties, such as protecting the public from terror threats, are not being neglected.
Trump named Driscoll, a former Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent who joined the FBI in 2007 and later joined its SWAT and hostage rescue teams, as acting director last week ahead of the confirmation hearing for his official nominee, Kash Patel, which kicked off Thursday on Capitol Hill.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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