The Drug Enforcement Administration has new authority to assist in immigration, part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown and his pressure campaign on Mexico, reports NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer.
As federal agencies nationwide grapple with myriad changes in the transition to President Donald Trump’s administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special agent in charge of the San Diego Field Division said Friday the agency’s mission remains the same, even as the scope of its responsibilities has expanded to include immigration enforcement.
“We are taking a whole government approach right now,” Special Agent in Charge Brian Clark said.
In the effort to stem the flow of drugs into the country, he said the region plays a critical role as it sits on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“As drugs come up and through San Diego, they go up towards Los Angeles area, which is kind of the mecca for drug trafficking. And then from here, the drugs go out to the East Coast,” Clark said.
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He also pointed to the agency’s new responsibilities under what’s known as Title 8 authority to assist in immigration enforcement.
“That is new to DEA. We’ve always only done drugs and narcotics. So with that, we are called upon to do more,” Clark said, adding that the DEA now has the ability to conduct immigration-related arrests and that he has agents embedded in those operations seven days a week.
That authority is part of Trump’s immigration crackdown, as he looks to fulfill his campaign promise of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. The administration has often said they are targeting individuals with criminal convictions, but multiple NBC News analyses of arrests have found thousands without a record have been taken into custody as well.
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“We are focused on drug traffickers and cartels, and also we're shifting our resources to provide additional assistance and manpower to Department of Homeland Security,” Clark said.
When asked about the arrests of individuals without a record, Clark said he couldn’t speak to those figures but reiterated: “Our focus is going after those violent, illegal criminals.”
He also noted that under Trump, eight cartels have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations, allowing for new options to address drug trafficking.
“This now opens up the entire federal government to utilize the intelligence community and the Department of Defense in order to identify and try to impact as much as we can,” Clark said.
The DEA pointed to evidence of that threat — the February seizure of 130,000 pills of carfentanil, a synthetic drug 100 times more powerful than fentanyl.
“That's scary. At 100,000 doses of that, if that hit our streets, potentially there could have been a lot of devastated lives and families,” Clark said.
