Bondi Dropped Thousands of Criminal Probes to Investigate Immigrants

Source: The New Republic · Bias: Left

Summary

The Justice Department dropped thousands of criminal cases last year in an attempt to reorient its efforts—almost singularly—toward winning convictions in cases involving immigrants.Altogether, America’s top law enforcement agency closed some 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of Donald Trump’s term, which involved investigations into terrorism, white-collar crimes, and drugs, while prosecuting 32,000 new immigration cases, ProPublica reported Tuesday.The bulk of the shuttered files were closed without prosecution, and had been referred to the DOJ by different law enforcement agencies under different presidential administrations. Some were the result of yearslong investigations helmed by the FBI or the DEA.The process began immediately after Attorney General Pam Bondi was confirmed by the Senate in February 2025. That month alone, the DOJ declined nearly 11,000 cases, marking the most it had done so at once since at least 2004, and nearly doubling the previous high, when more than 6,500 cases were dismissed in September 2019 (during Trump’s first administration).The shift in priorities is an indication that “making America safe again” is not necessarily as much of a goal for the current administration as Trump has promised. At the president’s direction, federal authorities have arrested thousands of noncriminal immigrants across the country. The administration has claimed that the subjects of its deportation purge are the “worst of the worst”—including “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists.”But demanding the DOJ hyperfixate on immigration (a civil issue that has historically been handled by the courts) has come at a cost to investigating and prosecuting actual crime. Over the last year, the DOJ has declined more than 1,000 terrorism cases, more than other administrations, per ProPublica.The result has been a crushing blow to agency morale, according to DOJ officials. Federal prosecutor Joseph Gerbasi spent years working on the agency’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section to challenge fentanyl suppliers in India and China before Bondi ordered him to abandon his work.“All of the building blocks of what would become successful prosecutions were pulled out,” Gerbasi told ProPublica. The career prosecutor retired as the section’s acting deputy chief in March 2025, just weeks into Bondi’s tenure. Gerbasi had worked for the DOJ for 28 years.He’s not alone: Thousands of lawyers have quit the agency, or been forced out, as Bondi carries out the Trumpian overhaul.Bondi’s decision to halt the work had an “overwhelming deflating effect on morale,” Gerbasi said.

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Bondi Dropped Thousands of Criminal Probes to Investigate Immigrants
The New Republic

Bondi Dropped Thousands of Criminal Probes to Investigate Immigrants

Left

The Justice Department dropped thousands of criminal cases last year in an attempt to reorient its efforts—almost singularly—toward winning convictions in cases involving immigrants.Altogether, America’s top law enforcement agency closed some 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of Donald Trump’s term, which involved investigations into terrorism, white-collar crimes, and drugs, while prosecuting 32,000 new immigration cases, ProPublica reported Tuesday.The bulk of the shuttered files were closed without prosecution, and had been referred to the DOJ by different law enforcement agencies under different presidential administrations. Some were the result of yearslong investigations helmed by the FBI or the DEA.The process began immediately after Attorney General Pam Bondi was confirmed by the Senate in February 2025. That month alone, the DOJ declined nearly 11,000 cases, marking the most it had done so at once since at least 2004, and nearly doubling the previous high, when more than 6,500 cases were dismissed in September 2019 (during Trump’s first administration).The shift in priorities is an indication that “making America safe again” is not necessarily as much of a goal for the current administration as Trump has promised. At the president’s direction, federal authorities have arrested thousands of noncriminal immigrants across the country. The administration has claimed that the subjects of its deportation purge are the “worst of the worst”—including “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists.”But demanding the DOJ hyperfixate on immigration (a civil issue that has historically been handled by the courts) has come at a cost to investigating and prosecuting actual crime. Over the last year, the DOJ has declined more than 1,000 terrorism cases, more than other administrations, per ProPublica.The result has been a crushing blow to agency morale, according to DOJ officials. Federal prosecutor Joseph Gerbasi spent years working on the agency’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section to challenge fentanyl suppliers in India and China before Bondi ordered him to abandon his work.“All of the building blocks of what would become successful prosecutions were pulled out,” Gerbasi told ProPublica. The career prosecutor retired as the section’s acting deputy chief in March 2025, just weeks into Bondi’s tenure. Gerbasi had worked for the DOJ for 28 years.He’s not alone: Thousands of lawyers have quit the agency, or been forced out, as Bondi carries out the Trumpian overhaul.Bondi’s decision to halt the work had an “overwhelming deflating effect on morale,” Gerbasi said.

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