FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces Deputize Local Police, Prompting City Withdrawals

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) contract state and local officers as federal agents, granting them the same policing powers as FBI personnel and shielding them from local litigation and oversight. Participants receive federal funding and equipment, and the federal standards applied to them can override municipal sanctuary policies. Nationwide, roughly 200 JTTFs involve hundreds of local agencies, and similar programs exist through ICE’s Border Enforcement Security Task Force and fusion centers.

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Under the second Trump administration, National Security Presidential Memo 7 (NSPM-7) and the 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy direct the Justice Department, FBI, and other agencies to target “violent secular political groups” whose ideology is described as anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist. Civil-rights groups argue the memo broadens the definition of terrorism to include political dissent, increasing the risk that local officers in JTTFs will enforce these expanded directives. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, a major contributor to JTTFs, can repurpose information gathered for gun or drug investigations to identify undocumented residents, green-card holders, TPS recipients, and asylum seekers.

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Progressive organizers have pressured municipalities to sever ties with JTTFs. The San Francisco Police Department declined renewal in 2017 after allegations of Muslim profiling. Portland’s City Council voted to withdraw in 2019, citing a lack of civilian oversight. Oakland’s City Council unanimously ended its partnership in 2020 after a campaign exposing violations of sanctuary laws and use-of-force policies during 2020 protests. In Boston, activists are campaigning to defund the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a fusion center that shares surveillance data with ICE.

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Advocacy director Tracy Rosenberg (Oakland Privacy) emphasizes growing public anger as a catalyst for change. Senior policy counsel Sumayyah Waheed (Muslim Advocates) warns that federal standards nullify local privacy protections. Fatema Ahmad, executive director of Muslim Justice League, describes BRIC as a “spy center” that has surveilled Occupy Boston and the Palestine movement, linking its data to deportations during the first Trump administration.

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• “We have an opportunity for more allies because more people are upset, more people feel that they are impacted, more people see their neighbor being dragged away, and they don’t like it, and so the body of people that feel like something should be done is larger,” — Tracy Rosenberg, Advocacy Director, Oakland Privacy

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• “The laws that apply to [local and state law enforcement agents in JTTFs] are the federal standards,” — Sumayyah Waheed, Senior Policy Counsel, Muslim Advocates

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• “But when it goes into monitoring people as a way of quote-unquote ‘preventing crime,’ that’s where it gets really dangerous.” — Sumayyah Waheed

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• “Now that we have the Trump 2.0 administration and [NSPM-7], which essentially declares that any groups that disagree with Trump policies are potential terrorists, that kind of targeting based on politics or political opinion becomes much more broad and much more harmful,” — Sumayyah Waheed

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• “BRIC surveilled Occupy Boston really blatantly; it’s been surveilling the Palestine movement; [and] during Trump’s first administration there were a bunch of deportations because of BRIC’s gang database and student information being shared through BRIC ties,” — Fatema Ahmad, Executive Director, Muslim Justice League

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