While federal agents in Ocala, Florida, were busy arresting a middle school employee for possession of child abuse materials, many of their colleagues were standing guard in hallways, essentially serving as doormen for politicians. This isn't what these highly trained Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents signed up for, and it's not what the American public needs them doing.
HSI special agents, who are supposed to be tracking down terrorists, breaking up human trafficking rings, and catching predators, are being pulled off these crucial cases to provide security details for campaign events.
Remember why DHS was created in the first place? After 9/11, we needed an agency laser-focused on preventing terrorist attacks and protecting our homeland. HSI became the primary investigative arm of DHS, targeting the worst of the worst: terrorist cells, international criminal organizations, and child exploitation networks. These same highly trained agents are now directed to abandon their investigative roles and act as Secret Service agents – a completely different job requiring different training, skills, and expertise.
Here's what makes even less sense: we're ignoring other alternatives. Local police departments know their territories inside and out. They know the trouble spots, the escape routes, and the local threats better than any federal agent temporarily assigned from out of town. Why aren't we creating a system to fund and empower these local departments to handle campaign security? Perhaps even private security firms, staffed by experienced and vetted professionals, could also fill this role effectively and perhaps at a lower cost.
Realistically – not every location has enough police personnel to handle large-scale campaign events on top of their regular duties. Instead of forcing events into areas without adequate security resources, campaign planners need to make smarter choices. If a location can't provide sufficient security without compromising local law enforcement or requiring federal agents to abandon their primary duties, guess what? That location shouldn't host a major campaign event. It's that simple.
There's another problem brewing that nobody's talking about. HSI agents, frustrated with being pulled away from their core mission to stand post in hallways, are likely to start looking for other jobs. These aren't entry-level positions we're talking about – these are experienced federal agents with years of specialized training. When they leave, we lose an agent and years of expertise and institutional knowledge crucial for complex investigations.
The recent case in Ocala perfectly illustrates what's at stake. HSI agents tracked down and arrested a suspect who worked at both a middle school and the Boys and Girls Club, where he taught chess and music lessons. This is exactly the kind of investigation that needs immediate attention from experienced agents. How many similar cases are delayed or overlooked while agents are busy with campaign security details?
These investigations aren't just about individual predators. HSI agents are on the front lines fighting some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world. Just this month, in the middle of campaign season, a complex HSI investigation in New York led to charges against seven MS-13 gang members for multiple murders, attempted murder, and drug trafficking. This wasn't a simple arrest – it was the culmination of months, possibly years, of careful investigative work tracking one of the most violent transnational criminal organizations operating in our communities. When HSI agents build these cases, they're dismantling entire criminal networks that terrorize neighborhoods and destroy lives.
Think about what it takes to bring down MS-13 members: months of surveillance, coordinating with multiple law enforcement agencies, developing confidential informants who risk their lives to provide information, and meticulously building evidence that will stand up in federal court. You can't just pull an agent off a case like this to stand guard at a campaign rally. When you do, you risk losing critical intelligence, missing surveillance opportunities, and potentially letting violent criminals slip away.
These aren't the kind of cases you can work on part-time or hand off to a replacement agent at a moment's notice. Each investigation requires building relationships with informants, maintaining careful surveillance logs, coordinating with prosecutors to ensure evidence is properly collected, and often working undercover in dangerous situations. When agents are pulled away for campaign security, active investigations don't just slow down – they can fall apart entirely.
The scope of HSI's work is staggering. On any given day, agents might be coordinating with international law enforcement to break up child exploitation networks, working with cybercrime experts to track cryptocurrency transactions funding terrorist operations, or conducting lengthy surveillance operations to build cases against organized crime syndicates. They investigate intellectual property theft that costs American businesses billions, intercept counterfeit goods that could harm consumers, and track down fugitives who've evaded other law enforcement agencies for years.
Look at the results from just the past few weeks: a middle school employee arrested for exploiting children, a predator caught trying to meet a 13-year-old, and seven MS-13 gang members charged with multiple murders and violent crimes. These are the kinds of cases that make our communities safer. Every time we pull an HSI agent away from these investigations to stand guard at a political event, we're telling criminals they can operate with less fear of getting caught.
I've worked alongside these HSI agents. I've seen firsthand how they build complex cases against the worst criminals in our society - child predators, gang members, human traffickers. Now I'm watching these same skilled investigators being yanked from their crucial cases on a moment's notice, told to pack a bag and fly across the country to stand guard at political events. These aren't temporary reassignments with proper planning. These chaotic, last-minute orders disrupt vital investigations and waste years of specialized training and expertise.
One day, an agent is working to infiltrate a trafficking ring; the next, they're told to drop everything and fly to another state to work security at a campaign rally. Their carefully built cases go cold. Their confidential informants are left hanging. Their surveillance operations fall apart. Months or even years of investigative work can crumble because someone decided these elite federal agents should be used as political security guards.
What we can't afford to do is continue pulling our most skilled federal investigators away from crucial cases. Every day an HSI agent spends watching a hallway instead of investigating crimes is a day we've failed to protect the American public adequately. It's time to stop this security theater and get back to real homeland security. While not every HSI agent has been reassigned to these security details, the number pulled from critical investigations is alarming and growing daily.