The Justice Department’s newly confirmed second-in-command said US Attorney’s offices near the nation’s borders are allowed to hire more prosecutors for criminal cases related to immigration, trafficking, and cartels, despite a federal hiring freeze.
The department will provide funding for new hires at offices along the northern, southwest, and southern maritime borders, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Thursday memo sent to agency employees, and viewed by Bloomberg Law.
Prosecutors “must commit to investigations and prosecutions targeting all of the insidious results of the four-year invasion of illegal immigration that we are now working to repel,” Blanche wrote.
The memo comes one day after Blanche was confirmed by the US Senate, and amid a broader shakeup across the department as career officials are pushed out. Justice Department leadership has said it plans to prioritize immigration enforcement over other missions.
The exemption to President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze would apply to prosecutors at districts in Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, as well as the Southern District of California, Northern and Western Districts of New York, and the District of Vermont, according to the memo.
Blanche encouraged employees throughout the department to volunteer to be transferred, either permanently or for a temporary detail, to US Attorney’s offices in border districts. Such transfers are also shielded from the hiring freeze, and the relevant DOJ offices “are directed to effectuate them as soon as is practicable,” Blanche said in the memo.
Reassignment Possible
If not enough lawyers volunteer for these details, “the ongoing national emergency may require that attorneys be detailed or reassigned from their current duties at Main Justice to support these efforts,” Blanche said.
Emil Bove, previously the acting deputy attorney general, previewed plans to send prosecutors to the border on a call in January with US attorneys, Bloomberg Law reported.
Offices that send prosecutors to one of the Trump administration’s task forces to crack down on cartels, human smuggling, and antisemitic acts of terrorism will also be approved to backfill the position, Blanche said.
The memo is the latest move by the Trump administration to redirect resources toward border enforcement. FBI joint terrorism task forces have also been told to help with immigration initiatives, and US marshals, Drug Enforcement Administration and tax enforcement agents were given the power to make immigration arrests.
Blanche reiterated the department’s commitments to bring more criminal charges against migrants who illegally enter the country or possess firearms, and against so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit cooperation between local officers and federal immigration authorities.
He also called on border districts to bring terrorism and sanctions charges against migrants who provide material support to cartels and transnational criminal organizations designated as terrorist groups.
“Prosecutors operating in Border Districts must evaluate use of these charges, now unfettered by approval obligations at Main Justice, in connection with all aspects of illegal immigration,” Blanche wrote.
For other offices not referenced in the memo, the Justice Department will evaluate hiring requests on a “case-by-case basis,” he said.
Trump announced a hiring freeze in an executive order after taking office. His administration has since cut thousands of federal jobs as part of its cost-cutting initiative.
Ben Penn in Washington contributed to this story.
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