A group representing FBI agents says the partial government shutdown has delayed criminal, counterterrorism, and counter-intelligence operations, and it has also intruded on investigations related to child trafficking.
“It is truly sad that we must resort to this because we are being let down by our elected officials,” Thomas O’Connor, the president of the FBI Agents Association, told reporters in Washington Tuesday.
O’Connor’s group released a report Tuesday that explained some of the hardships that agents are going through because of the shutdown, which is now in its fifth week. It included anonymous quotes from FBI workers who explained the agency’s limitations in the face of having 5,000 support personnel furloughed, and the realities of having 13,000 active-duty agents work without a paycheck.
An official from the southeast region of the country said in the report, “On the child exploitation side, as an [undercover employee], I have had to put pervs on standby … this just puts children in jeopardy.”
“The shutdown has eliminated any ability to operate,” said one agent working in the western region. “It’s bad enough to work without pay, but we can only conduct administration functions while doing it. The fear is our enemies know they can run freely.”
According to the report, the agent works on both overt and undercover counter-intelligence matters against “a top threat to national security.”
“I am already starting to see a negative impact of the shutdown on the pace of our operations and investigations,” said an agent in counterterrorism in the central region. “Particularly, the the United States Attorney’s Office is unable to issue grad jury subpoenas for financial institutions … Most of our [counter-terrorism] cases have a strong financial angle and our ability to fully utilize all available investigative tools slows down the pace of the investigation in critical [counterterrorism] matters.”
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Another agent said that there are no funds for grand jury subpoenas, which means “affected investigations” are put on hold.
Another added that they have not had a Spanish speaker since the shutdown and cannot speak to any of the division’s Spanish-speaking informants. The agent has been working on a long-term MS-13 investigation for over three years, which has lead to the indictment of 23 members.
The report also said the shutdown could make it harder for FBI agents to renew their security clearances if their missed paychecks cause them to fall behind on their regular monthly payments. It said the shutdown will also make it harder to recruit FBI agents.
On Friday, FBI agents will lose their supplemental health insurance, specifically vision and dental. This happens when the shutdown extends past two pay periods.
As a result, some FBI field offices have opened food banks to help support their workers struggling without pay. Some of those areas include Dallas, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.
Negotiations between President Trump and congressional leaders have stalled, as leadership cannot agree on legislation that would give the White House what it wants: more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump often cites the fight against transnational gangs, specifically MS-13, as a reason why the border wall is so important.
CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, the Washington Examiner erroneously referred to the FBIAA as a union. The FBI Agents Association is not a union. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
