Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ leadership, the Department of Justice is looking to beef up its prosecutorial power.
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The department released its budget proposal on Tuesday and proposed adding 300 prosecutors to its staff.
Of those 300 new prosecutors, worth $26 million, 230 will be assistant U.S. attorneys who will focus on violent crime. The remaining 70 will focus on immigration law offenses.
Assistant Attorney General for Administration Lee Lofthus told reporters Tuesday that the prosecutors will be sent to cities and counties nationwide that need extra help combating violence.
“While they have not picked specific cities yet, the idea is that these [attorneys] are not going to be isolated to the border,” Lofthus said.
He added the new prosecutors “truly are meant to be distributed across the country in the areas that evidence the greatest need for those prosecutors.”
Some of the prosecutors will be located in cities that have experienced an uptick in violent crime and gang activity that are unrelated to border cities, Lofthus said.
The Justice Department’s $27.7 billion budget request is a 3 percent decrease — approximately $1.1 billion — from fiscal 2017.
In addition to hiring new U.S. attorneys, the Justice Department would hire new immigration judges. The department is requesting $75 million for 75 new immigration judges and a support staff known as an “IJ team.”
On the support staff team, in addition to an immigration judge, will be a judicial law clerk, a legal assistance and three administration staff that could include an interpreter.
