FBI Deputy Director Says Illegal Immigrant Criminals, Child Predators Are Top Priority

The FBI is prioritizing removing illegal immigrants with criminal records and child predators, the deputy director said on May 10.

“If you came here illegally to prey on our citizens, your days here are numbered,” he said.

Such efforts are likely to ramp up in the coming weeks, Bongino said in the post, which he described as an operational update. He also said the agency is increasing enforcement against individuals who prey on children.

“Crimes against children are a priority for the workforce. Operation ‘Restoring Justice,’ where we locked up child predators and 764 subjects, in every part of the country, is just the beginning,” he said, referring to a recent operation announced this past week by the FBI.

“We are going to take your freedom if you take away a child’s innocence.”

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Elsewhere in his post, Bongino said that the bureau would provide regular updates to Congress and is responding to high-profile cases in recent years. This includes the shooting at a congressional baseball game that left Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) gravely injured in 2017, the 2023 Nashville Christian school shooting, Crossfire Hurricane, the origins of COVID-19, and the release of files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“There are voluminous amounts of downloaded child sexual abuse material that we are dealing with,” Bongino wrote. “There are also victims’ statements that are entitled to specific protections. We need to do this correctly, but I do understand the public’s desire to get the information out there.”

He also said that the FBI is doing its “best in the current budgetary environment to prioritize the mission, act as good fiscal stewards, find waste and inefficiencies, and to enact reforms while moving the FBI forward.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress this past week that he would make the bureau’s mission “work on whatever budget we’re given,” a day after he said that he was seeking more funds than what the Trump administration had proposed.

The 2026 budget proposal released in early May calls for a funding cut of about $545 million for the FBI as part of what the White House said was a desire to “reform and streamline” the bureau and reduce “non-law enforcement missions that do not align” with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

“My view is that we agree with this budget as it stands and (will) make it work for the operational necessity of the FBI, and as the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” Patel said in a Senate hearing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.