INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The new leader of the FBI Indianapolis office on Wednesday said his agents will be involved in immigration enforcement actions in Indiana.
Timothy O’Malley became the special agent in charge of the FBI Indianapolis field office on May 20. A Notre Dame graduate, O’Malley joined the FBI in March 2001 and has worked in a variety of roles. His resume includes stints on the Honolulu FBI SWAT Team; the white-collar crime squad in Columbia, S.C.; and overseas assignments in Romania and Australia. His most recent assignment was as assistant special agent in charge of the Cincinnati field office, overseeing cybercrime and intelligence programs.
In an interview with News 8, O’Malley said the top public safety threat in central Indiana is violent gangs and the crimes they bring, such as trafficking in drugs and weapons, or human smuggling. He said efforts to combat transnational organized crime play a role in that. As a result, he said the FBI will play a larger role in enforcing immigration laws than it has in the past.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its predecessor agencies historically have handled most enforcement of the country’s immigration laws. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, typically leads those efforts through its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) divisions. O’Malley said the FBI will assist with intelligence-gathering ahead of enforcement actions.
“When we go out (on removal operations), we spend a lot of time, a lot of hours, prior to going out and attempting to locate and arrest someone, running intelligence reports, doing verifications, trying to identify exactly who they are and where they are,” he said. “When we go out and do an immigration enforcement operation, there’s been a great deal of effort put into making sure that we are addressing the people that deserve to be deported from the country.”
In addition to intelligence gathering and surveillance, O’Malley said, FBI agents will interview people as part of investigations. If necessary, FBI SWAT teams will be involved in cases involving violent offenders. Each FBI field office, including the Indianapolis office, has a SWAT team composed of special agents assigned to it, primarily from other divisions within that office. FBI SWAT teams are separate from the agency’s elite Hostage Rescue Team.
Since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has tracked a massive increase in incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault. The organization’s most recent report, released one month ago, indicated a 344% increase in such incidents over the past five years. For the first time, the ADL reported a majority of such incidents contained elements related to Israel or Zionism. O’Malley said the FBI takes antisemitic threats seriously. He said the bureau has been in close contact with Jewish organizations in central Indiana and will continue to do so.
“We are very conscious of this threat and it’s something that we address on a regular basis,” he said, “so we will continue to maintain very strong and close relationships with our Jewish community.”
News 8’s interview with O’Malley came just after the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has dismantled many of the police accountability measures his predecessor put in place, including moving to cancel consent decrees with the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments. O’Malley said the bureau will continue to investigate corruption and civil rights violations as it has before. He said those types of crime will continue to be a high priority.
