Editorial: Changing priorities

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Under the Bush administration, the Justice Department has shifted its focus away from investigating civil rights offenses and white-collar, environmental and organized crime, and instead has chosen to more aggressively pursue immigration and terrorism-related crimes.

According to a story by The Washington Post on Wednesday, the Justice Department's immigration prosecutions rose by 36 percent from 2000 to 2006, and the amount of money it spends on counterterrorism programs has tripled since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, the number of crimes traditionally investigated by the department has declined since 2006, including drug trafficking and fraud.

Department officials told the Post that the Bush administration's emphasis on national security and on thwarting future terrorist attacks on the United States has forced investigators to change their focus. Still, only a small fraction of such cases had anything to do with actual terrorist plots or plans.

And although the Justice Department has been focused on terrorism, FBI officials say murders and other violent crimes have increased significantly. In a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in New Orleans on Monday, FBI Director Robert Mueller III said , "National security is as much about reducing the number of homicides on our streets as it is about reducing the threat of terrorism."

Obviously, federal officials cannot be lax about protecting the nation from terrorism. But it should not come at the expense of protecting citizens from the violence and crimes that affect their daily lives. Without aggressive investigation and prosecution, it's as if laws against these domestic offenses don't even exist. Prosecutors shouldn't be selectively deciding which laws they will enforce nor, for that matter, should they be put in that position because of a lack of resources.

If the Justice Department lacks the staff to adequately investigate crimes related to drug trafficking or to protect citizens from environmental offenses, civil rights violations , and banking scams and other white-collar crimes, then it must be given the money and resources to do so.