US Senator Urges DHS to Probe Whether Agents Were Moved From Criminal Cases to Deportations

Since February, Multiple reports have allegedly alleged that a significant number of agents at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – The Investigation Wing of the Ministry of Internal Security which focuses on transnational crimes such as children’s exploitation, human trafficking and drug cartels – have been removed from children’s exploitation affairs and reassigned to the application of immigration and arrests.

American senator Ron Wyden urged the DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari on Tuesday to “quickly” launch an investigation into the veracity and extent of these reports on HSI, in a letter exclusively shared with Wired. Inspector General Cuffari has the power to conduct audits or surveys on any activity or operation at DHS.

“Instead of locking up rapists, children’s predators and other violent criminals, [US president Donald] Trump seems to divert the investigators to target cooks, agricultural workers and students, “said Wyden in the letter.” The Congress and the American people will not tolerate the Trump administration ignoring the current sexual abuse of vulnerable children. Consequently, we urge you to quickly investigate these disturbing reports. »»

Wyden told Wired in a written statement that there was “no excuse to ward off investigators from the most odious cases involving the exploitation of children”, adding that “nothing should be a higher priority than to protect children in danger”.

Wired has contacted several children’s and defense protection organizations of the United States to provide a comment for this article, but they did not respond or refused to comment on the file. An official of one of these organizations, who asked for anonymity, said that their organization could not provide a comment for this story due to the fear of the Trump administration.

In February, USA Today reported that HSI’s “whole division of entire surveys” would mainly move on the arrests and deportations of immigration, as opposed to its typical range of works. Then Reuters, in March, said that HSI agents had been actively “reassigned” in cases on which they worked on the exploitation of children, money laundering, drug trafficking and tax fraud. They were then responsible for the application of immigration. At the time, the Democratic Senator, Dick Durbin, told the point of sale that this change was “a waste and a misappropriation of resources” which “made America less safe”.

The Atlantic reported in July that an HSI veteran agent said that division put on hold of major criminal investigations and sometimes chose not to take new cases – including drug cases, human trafficking cases and children’s exploitation – in order to make agents available for routine raids for the application of immigration.

The change reported by HSI in priorities comes after the National Center for missing and exploited children said that it had received 20.5 million alleged sexual exploitation councils in 2024.

The risk for children involving abuse equipment generated by AI – which is also the field of HSI – could also reach crisis levels. In 2024, the NCMEC received around 67,000 advice on the abuse equipment generated by AI-AI, an increase of 1,325% compared to 2023, when it received 4,700 of these advice.