WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is directing more FBI, drug and gun agents toward immigration enforcement as it ramps up a crackdown across more than two dozen U.S. cities in the coming days, according to five people familiar with the directive.

Justice Department officials have decided that about 2,000 of their federal agents — from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service — will be enlisted to help the Department of Homeland Security find and arrest immigrants in the country without legal permission for the remainder of the year, these people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity. The move would signal a sharp escalation in the administration’s effort to enact a crucial element of President Donald Trump’s agenda and would be a noticeable shift in the typical work of the Justice Department, particularly the FBI. Diverting Justice Department resources to focus solely on immigration also raises questions about whether such a change would affect other priorities.

— The New York Times