The scholars of the TRAC center at Syracuse have discovered a 20-year shift in federal policing priorities, as the FBI and other “white collar” crime enforcers have been displaced by ICE and other “homeland security” sentinels, including investigative branches of the Pentagon itself. Here’s an excerpt from the full text:
The data show, for example, that of all the major federal investigative agencies the organization that had the most dramatic surge when it came to recommending prosecutions was the one responsible for the regulation of immigration. In 1987 that agency — then situated in the Justice Department — was credited with making 8.6% of all federal referrals.
Ten years later, this proportion had grown to 9.9%. In the most recent fiscal year, however, now under the Department of Homeland Security, those offices were credited with making 27% of referrals overall. This growth is particularly dramatic when examined by the raw numbers: the annual count jumped from 9,883 in 1987 to 41,645 in 2007.
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