Department of Justice

Justice Department Drops 23,000 Cases To Make Room for Trump's Immigration Crackdown

The agency refused to prosecute alleged national security, labor, and white-collar crime while increasing immigration cases, a new report finds.

Autumn Billings | 4.2.2026 2:32 PM

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In the first six months of President Donald Trump's second term, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed over 23,000 criminal cases while shifting resources to immigration, according to a new ProPublica analysis. The majority of these cases, the analysis found, were closed without prosecution, further calling into question the Trump administration's commitment to the rule of law.

In February 2025, within weeks of Attorney General Pam Bondi being sworn in, the DOJ declined to prosecute nearly 11,000 cases, ProPublica found. The number of declined prosecutions is higher than any other month as far back as 2004 and is nearly double the previous high of around 6,500 declined cases during Trump's first term in September 2019.

When compared to the........

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