INS Now Has Most Armed U.S. Agents

Thanks to the growing national concern over immigration, the nation now has more immigration officers authorized to carry a gun and make arrests than it has FBI agents. Led by a 31% increase at the Immigration and Naturalization Service over the last three years, the number of armed federal agents with arrest power rose to 74,500 by mid-1996, the Justice Department reported. The INS has 12,403 armed agents; the Bureau of Prisons is the second-largest with 11,329. The FBI’s agent force increased by 3% to 10,389.