Criminal referrals by FBI plummet

The FBI is submitting nearly 40% fewer criminal investigations to the Justice Department for prosecution than it did two decades ago, a study indicated Thursday.

The bureau has focused on terrorism investigations in recent years.

Other federal agencies also heavily engaged in white-collar criminal investigations are showing similar changes, said the study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private group at Syracuse University.

A top FBI official said the agency’s new anti-terrorism emphasis was necessary and effective.

“To say the FBI is a shadow of its former self is to ask the question: What do you get for shifting FBI agents to the national security mission?” said John Miller, an assistant FBI director. “If the answer is going 6 1/2 years without a successful attack by terrorists on U.S. soil, then I think it’s a win.”

Meanwhile, federal immigration investigations have soared, now accounting for more than a quarter of all criminal referrals to the Justice Department, according to TRAC.

Last year, 41,600 immigration cases went to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, more than double the figure from 2001. The latest figure is four times the number of cases two decades ago.

The FBI accounts for 16% of cases referred to the Justice Department for prosecution; 20 years ago the bureau accounted for 36%, TRAC said.

TRAC’s findings are based on government data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Miller said the FBI was “doing fewer low-end fraud and drug cases, the easy layups.”

“At the same time hundreds of agents worked on Enron, HealthSouth, Qwest. Another priority, complex public corruption cases, may take two years, but the result is an achievement that transcends arrest numbers.”

Last year, the FBI made 2,300 referrals to the Justice Department in white-collar investigations, an 82% decline from 2001. White-collar referrals peaked at 20,900 in 1993.

Other federal law enforcement agencies seeing dramatic declines in criminal referrals include the Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Postal Inspection Service.