President Donald Trump's administration had the FBI focused on rounding up immigrants, leaving things like counter-terrorism on the back burner. After Iran threatened to tap "sleeper cells" inside the United States, the FBI is now scrambling to refocus efforts on national security.
According to NBC News, four sources said, "the FBI is reassigning some agents who focus on national security — and who had been pulled from their duties to work on immigration cases — back to their old jobs, out of concern for potential Iran-related threats."
The FBI doesn't handle immigration matters; that is typically left up to the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaking to MSNBC on Tuesday, Ken Dilanian noted that the crisis comes amid significant budget cuts to the national security apparatus within the U.S. government. The cuts originated from the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative Trump created and tasked tech billionaire Elon Musk with overseeing. The goal was to reduce the budget by $2 trillion.
The current 2026 budget, what Trump refers to as the "big, beautiful bill," zeros out the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, known as CP3
"I've been getting a lot of complaints from my FBI sources that this is not what they should be doing, that it's taking away resources from the really important threats that, after 9/11, the FBI was directed to go after," said Dilanian. "And now there is some redeployment. And that's, in a sense, an acknowledgment that perhaps this was not the best use of resources, because after all, there is a threat from Iran now, but there's also been a threat from ISIS. There's been a threat from domestic terrorism that wasn't enough to cause this redeployment. But the Iran threat is acute enough that they are making these changes."
Meanwhile, critics have blasted Trump's 22-year-old, recent college grad, to run a critical terrorism-prevention role.
"He has no relevant experience and he's 22," said Dilanian. "And that speaks for itself, but what's even more consequential is that the Trump administration's budget zeroes out this program. It's a small program. It's $18 million in grants to state and local government designed to prevent violence."
He investigated and found that those who are involved in the program believe it has succeeded in preventing mass shootings.
The FBI agents have been moved to handle cyber issues along with counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
All of the sources acknowledged that the reason for the reassignment was related to Trump's bombing of Iran.
See the clip below or at the link here.