00:00Thank you for being here and thank you for your public service. I greatly appreciate it.
00:04I served for almost six years in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, worked very closely with the DEA when I did.
00:10In fact, worked on bringing to justice one of the people involved in the kidnap, torture, murder of Enrique Camarena.
00:19So I was interested to see the video at the outset of this hearing and thrilled when I learned of Cara Contaro's extradition to the United States.
00:30Mr. Allen, I want to ask you a couple questions about your work in L.A.
00:35I'm grateful for all the efforts to stop the scourge of fentanyl and the smuggling in this country, which has killed so many Americans.
00:42My questions go to the fact that I want to see that focus continue, and I don't want these questions to be perceived as a criticism of you.
00:50You're following the instructions you're getting from headquarters.
00:52But I am concerned, and for the reason that Senator Padilla alluded to, that to the degree that your resources are diverted to immigration operations against nonviolent immigrants,
01:06against farm workers or garment workers or restaurant workers, I am worried about diverting the focus away from interdicting fentanyl and going after these cartels.
01:15So let me ask you, how many field agents do you have in L.A.?
01:22Approximately 200.
01:24And of the 200 field agents in L.A., how many of them have, in the last 150 days, worked on immigration enforcement?
01:33That's a tough question to answer, sir, just because it's such an ebb and flow.
01:39It's not like we have people permanently assigned to just work immigration enforcement.
01:43Because, as I said before, we're really primarily focused on continuing our work in drug enforcement.
01:49And the crossovers that, you know, fall into place with illegal immigration, I mean, that's where we go.
01:54Give us your best ballpark.
01:55Have a third of them been assigned, at least temporarily, or half of them, or more?
02:01Is everyone participating to some degree?
02:03I would say at any one time, that's a decent estimate.
02:07But, again,
02:08Sorry, which estimate?
02:09About 30 percent?
02:12At any one time.
02:13Not necessarily at one time, but at any given time.
02:16There could be 5 percent.
02:17There could be 2 percent.
02:18There could be 30.
02:19It just depends on what's going on that day and what type of support, you know, we can offer.
02:24But give us some sense.
02:26I want to know what kind of call on your resources this is.
02:31Well, I can actually give you a couple of good examples of things we've done recently.
02:34I'm really not looking for examples.
02:36I'm looking for how much your workforce is being diverted to immigration enforcement and away from things that they were doing previously.
02:43Well, specifically immigration enforcement only?
02:47That's not what we're focused on.
02:48It's just not, sir.
02:49Okay.
02:49So how many of the 200 agents have worked in immigration enforcement?
02:52At any given time, anybody could have.
02:55No, no.
02:55Just overall, have all 200 been called away at some point to work on immigration enforcement?
03:01No, sir.
03:02Okay.
03:02So how many have?
03:06I really would have a hard time giving you an answer on that, sir.
03:09You're running the office.
03:12I am, yes.
03:12And you're having to make decisions about allocating resources.
03:15Yes, sir.
03:15And you've got investigations to pursue that were ongoing at the time of the administration.
03:21And you're having to take agents off of one thing to put them on another.
03:24I know how strapped the resources were even before this administration.
03:28So you may not want to be precise here, but we need some sense of what kind of resources are being diverted here.
03:38So what percentage of your agents would you say, what's your best estimate, what percentage have been called to do immigration enforcement?
03:47What percentage of the 200 have at some point in the last 150 days been called away to work on an immigration enforcement action?
03:57Sir, the reason I'm having a hard time answering the question is because we work immigration enforcement as it relates to narcotics enforcement.
04:04So the two are intimately combined.
04:07And that's what our agents are doing.
04:10Well, you know what I'm asking you.
04:13With all due respect, you know what I'm asking you.
04:14So what percentage of your agents have been called away to work on immigration rates that is a departure from what you were doing before 150 days ago?
04:26Sir, my people do not do strictly immigration rates.
04:29What percentage of your agents have worked on immigration enforcement in the last 150 days?
04:34Can you give me an estimate?
04:36Again, it's not just immigration enforcement, sir.
04:38You clearly don't want to answer the question, Mr. Allen.
04:42And this is part of the problem.
04:43And that is we are devoting, by some estimates in the FBI, 45% of our agents in major cities.
04:52It's a public report.
04:54To immigration enforcement actions.
04:58That are 90% of which going after nonviolent offenders.
05:01You're taking them away from somewhere.
05:04You're taking them away from somewhere.
05:06And you clearly don't want to tell us how much you're taking them away or how much work they're doing on this and what other enforcement actions, what other interdiction they might be pulled away from.
05:16But we need answers.
05:19Mr. Perez, are the estimates accurate that 45% of agents in major cities are being called on to work on immigration now?
05:27Is that accurate?
05:28No, sir.
05:29I would say that's not entirely accurate.
05:30I think that maybe comes from some data that looked at the way.
05:33So what is the accurate percentage?
05:34So nationally, sir, I don't have an exact percentage.
05:37I would say it's probably, it ebbs and flows.
05:39It could be between 5% to 10%.
05:40But we're, again, that's been a temporary surge.
05:44We're realigning.
05:45We're surging now towards potential terrorism.
05:48And the 5% to 10% that have been called away to work on immigration, what were they working on previously?
05:54It varies, sir, by office.
05:55It depends.
05:55But we have a history in the FBI, sir, of surging resources towards terrorism or cyber attacks or cartels.
06:02So those are decisions made by our field offices to potentially pull someone off of an assignment.
06:06But I would say that's common, sir.
06:07In the 100-plus years in the FBI, we surge resources.
06:11We realign resources for potential threats.
06:12I don't think there's anything common about the scope of what you're being called upon to do with these immigration enforcement actions.
06:20But I know my time has expired, and I yield the mic to Senator Britt.
06:25Thank you very much.
06:27On the note that we were just talking about, the stuff that I have read is that actually the seizures of drugs have...
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