As a result, some #guard posts have gone empty & others have been staffed with teachers & nurses [!] pulled from their regular positions, one #prison official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
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The section responsible for #EnvironmentalLaw lost about a third of its staff. And the department’s #CivilRights Division lost more than half. And the Bureau of #Prisons – which the DOJ’s internal watchdog has said is in a “staffing crisis” – shed more than 2,200 employees, about 6% of its workforce. The number of inmates in federal custody has remained largely unchanged.
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The records Reuters obtained show the number of filled & unfilled positions in each section of the #DOJ as of early April. All told, they show that the department employs around 107,000 people, about 11,200 fewer people than it did during the fiscal year that ended 3 months before #Trump began his second term.
The #Trump admin has made deep cuts across the federal govt, beginning last year in the first months of his presidency. One of the few exceptions was the arm of the govt that handles #immigration enforcement, which secured billions of dollars in additional funding as the admin pressed to deport more people.
That contraction, combined with an increased focus on #immigration, has caused authorities to pull back from some of their typical work, interviews & agency records show. Last year, for example, federal prosecutions for #DrugTrafficking dropped to their lowest level in more than two decades.
The govt is bringing even fewer such cases this year, Reuters found after reviewing millions of federal court dockets from Westlaw….
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“The administration talks a big game when it comes to #crime & #terrorism, but the fact that it’s hollowing out agencies tasked with addressing them shows that they don’t stand behind their words,” said Stacey Young, a former #DOJ lawyer who leads #Justice Connection, a group that supports staff leaving the department.
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Those agencies have traditionally handled the government’s highest-profile #criminal investigations, including efforts to combat #terrorism, deter #drug traffickers & keep #guns away from criminals.
Other records, including detailed information about people who left government jobs, show an increasing pace of departures from #LawEnforcement agencies after #Trump began his second term in January 2025.
"It’s the difference between being proactive & entrepreneurial or purely reactive to the most obvious imperative of the day," Adam Hickey, a fmr snr ofcl in the #NationalSecurity Division, said of the loss of staff.
Those records, which Reuters obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, offer the most detailed accounting to date of the extent to which the #Trump admin has downsized some of the nation’s premier #LawEnforcement agencies.
Other parts of the #DOJ shrank even more rapidly. Its #NationalSecurity Division, which handles #intelligence & #terrorism matters, lost nearly 38%!! of its staff, the department’s records show. The division’s most recent budget request to #Congress noted “unprecedented personnel constraints” in the unit that handles cases involving #espionage & the export of sensitive #military #technology.
The records, from the #US #Justice Department’s management unit, show that the total number of employees at the #FBI has dropped more than 7% since the government’s 2024 fiscal year, a loss of about 2,600 people. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s [#DEA] staff has dropped by about 6%, & the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives [#ATF] lost about 14%! of its workers.
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