WASHINGTON: 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 prioritized.
\nIn 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.
\nPursuing white-collar cases, they were told, will be deprioritized for at least the remainder of 2025, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
\nReuters could not immediately determine how many field offices were informed of the change, or whether it would apply to agents across the country.
\nAn FBI spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
\nThe orders came on the same day that Matthew Galeotti, the head of the Justice Department\u2019s 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 \u201cminimize the length and collateral impact\u201d of such investigations.
\nImmigration enforcement has largely not been the purview of the Justice Department\u2019s law enforcement agencies in the past.
\nBut 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.
\nTrump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have also previously announced they will scale back efforts to prosecute certain kinds of white-collar offenses, including public corruption, foreign bribery, kleptocracy and foreign influence.
\nAs 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.
\nIn Monday\u2019s 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 \u201cChinese Money Laundering Organizations,\u201d and cases against financial gatekeepers who enable terrorists, transnational criminal organizations and cartels, among others.
\nHe said the department will also update its whistleblower award pilot program to encourage tips on cases that lead to forfeiture, such as those involving cartels and transnational criminal organizations, violations of federal immigration law, corporate sanctions offenses, procurement fraud, trade, tariff and customs fraud, and providing material support to terrorists.
\nThe memo also instructs prosecutors to carefully consider whether corporate misconduct \u201cwarrants federal criminal prosecution.\u201d
\n\u201cProsecution 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,\u201d the memo says.
\nIt also orders prosecutors to only require companies to hire independent monitors if they cannot be expected to implement a corporate compliance program \u201cwithout such heavy-handed intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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