Justice Department employees were told to support Donald Trump’s immigration agenda by sharing data collected on people in the country illegally with federal immigration enforcers.

Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, sent a memo to department staff Tuesday night outlining an aggressive stance on enforcement that he said is necessary to implement executive orders issued on the first day of Trump’s new administration. Under the policy, DOJ staff must comb through files for information and biometric data identifying non-citizens in the U.S. illegally and turn it over to the Department of Homeland Security.

In the memo, a copy of which was reviewed by Bloomberg News, Bove sketched out a framework for using the department’s powers to fulfill Trump’s immigration agenda, targeting people in the country illegally, drug traffickers and gangs. Bove told agency staff that state and local authorities are required by the U.S. Constitution and other laws to comply with federal immigration enforcement.

A Justice Department representative declined to comment on the policy memo.

Since taking office on Monday, Trump has made immigration and boosting security on the U.S. border with Mexico a primary focus. Within hours of being sworn in, Trump signed executive orders seeking to rescind birthright citizenship and limit immigration. Meanwhile, migrants across the country are bracing for a wave of deportations promised by his administration.

With more than 100,000 employees, the Justice Department plays an integral role in enforcing immigration laws and administration policy. It also doles out billions of dollars in grant funding to local authorities related to policing and law enforcement.

Bove is serving temporarily as the No. 2 DOJ official under acting Attorney General James McHenry, who was also put in office Monday to oversee the Justice Department until Trump nominee Pam Bondi is confirmed.

‘Threaten public safety’

Bove said in the memo that the Justice Department will investigate, and consider prosecuting, incidents of “resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing” to comply with lawful immigration-related orders and requests coming from the administration. Any decision not to prosecute such conduct will have to reported to top Justice Department officials.

Laws impeding immigration efforts by U.S. agencies, including those that prohibit state and local officials from disclosing information to federal immigration officials, “threaten public safety and national security” and may be challenged by the department.

Justice Department units including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons are among the agencies that were directed to look through files for information and biometric data identifying non-citizens in the U.S. illegally.

The memo also directs other DOJ programs to prioritize immigration-related enforcement, including regional “strike forces” that are part of the department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

A federal prosecutor who is involved in that work and wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about it expressed concern that the memo appeared to shift their focus away from tackling transnational drug shipments, since it states that they should “devote significant time and attention to the investigation and prosecution” of “immigration offenses.”

In a separate action Tuesday, the Trump administration moved to eliminate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, from conducting operations at schools, places of worship, hospitals, and events such as weddings and funerals.

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(With assistance from Chris Strohm and Zoe Tillman.)

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