Trump administration grants special immigration powers to DEA, ATF and Marshals Service for mass deportation plans

In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration has granted special immigration enforcement powers to several Department of Justice agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, an internal memo sent by Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman revealed that the Trump administration is seeking to have as many federal law enforcement officers as possible legally trained to perform the same duties as immigration agents.

This is the latest move by the Trump administration to enforce its plans for mass deportations to control the immigration crisis.

In fact, the deportation plan has already officially begun, having cities like Chicago as the main target for raids to search for illegal immigrants with criminal records. However, there are still reports of large-scale operations.

According to the WSJ, the memo emphasizes that FBI agents already possess powers to detain immigrants, known as Title 8 authority.

The problem, a priori, is that both FBI agents and officials from the aforementioned federal agencies generally stay out of immigration operations unless the operations are related to their priority mission, which in the case of the DEA is drug enforcement.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration intends for DEA, ATF or Marshals Service agents to focus on their core missions and extra immigration work.

According to the WSJ, the memo did not directly assign agents from these offices to help with Trump's promised deportation campaign; however, Republican administration officials are indeed considering having the Department of Justice cooperate with immigration plans by loaning some agents for the massive operations ahead.