Federal Agencies Co-opted for Anti-Immigration Agenda: Internal Accounts from IRS, HUD, and Others

WIRED conducted interviews with employees across seven U.S. federal government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These workers detailed how the normal functions and missions of their respective agencies were systematically distorted and redirected to support the immigration enforcement efforts led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other related initiatives during the Trump administration. The accounts describe a widespread repurposing of government resources and personnel, contorting standard operational procedures away from their intended public service roles to align with a broader political crusade against immigration. This repurposing affected agencies whose core missions are unrelated to border security or immigration law, indicating a significant, top-down pressure to prioritize immigration enforcement over other statutory duties. The report provides a ground-level view of how policy directives can pervasively reshape the daily work of the federal bureaucracy.