FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted what he calls “the most prolific run of crime reduction in American history” during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Patel recapped historic numbers for the agency under President Donald Trump, despite fielding personal attacks and concerns over changes in FBI hiring policies.
Patel pointed to violent crime rates dropping to a 20-year low during his tenure, along with the largest year-to-year reduction in violent crime in American history.
The U.S. murder rate plummeted by roughly 18% in 2025, marking the largest single-year drop in modern recorded history.
Other violent crime also fell, including robbery by 18.5%, rape by 7.6% and aggravated assault by 7.2%, according to FBI data.
Patel noted that all 10 individuals on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list have been apprehended under his watch.
The hours-long hearing at times turned heated, with Patel firing back at Democratic lawmakers who refused to give Patel any credit for a historic drop in crime.
Following his testimony, the FBI chief took to social media to share some of the agency’s successes:
- 53,969 violent crime arrests — UP 90%
- 31,016 violent criminals and gang members arrested — UP 30%
- 3,258+ kilos of fentanyl seized
- 11,081 child victims located and identified
- 5,072 child predators and human traffickers arrested
- 4,260+ FTO-related arrests — UP 38%
- 157 extraditions — UP 65%
- Largest year-to-year reduction in violent crime in American history.
“This FBI is hunting down the worst of the worst — anywhere in the world — and bringing them to justice,” Patel shared on X.
HISTORIC NUMBERS.
Under President Trump’s leadership, this FBI has delivered the most prolific run of crime reduction in American history.
🔺 53,969 violent crime arrests — UP 90%
🔺 31,016 violent criminals and gang members arrested — UP 30%
🔺 3,258+ kilos of fentanyl seized… pic.twitter.com/fbNTBMiqsh— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 15, 2026
On the terrorism front, Patel said the FBI and other federal partners stopped several terror plots. In June, the agency arrested eight extremists who wanted to kill elected officials, civilians and military members at the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.
“We saw great threats to our nation,” Patel said. “We, and this FBI, led the effort to disrupt many plots.”
Among those arrested, Mexican national Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez was identified as the ringleader of the failed terrorist plot.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Alvarez entered the United States on a B-2 visitor visa that expired in December 2001, and he was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2014.
Patel’s update follows DHS’s announcement that federal agents have deported more than 2,000 known terrorists during Trump’s second term.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists in the United States since Jan. 20, 2025, DHS officials said.
In a recent case, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court was used for the first time to deport Naziri Haji Zada, an ISIS-inspired Afghan terrorist, according to a DHS news release.
Zada, 47, an Afghan national, previously resided in Fort Worth, Texas, and was removed from the United States after conceding that she is an alien terrorist.
Zada supported a plot to commit an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024. Her son-in-law and son were arrested and convicted for their role in the plot.
In October 2025, FBI agents and other law enforcement thwarted another alleged ISIS-inspired terror plot, known as the Pumpkin Day plot.
FBI agents arrested five individuals “who wanted to blow up people in last year in Michigan,” Patel said during the hearing. Investigators believe they were planning the attack around Halloween.
In December, the FBI stopped four terrorist attacks in California, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
As recent as last weekend, the FBI stopped another ISIS-inspired attack in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arresting an individual before he was able to go out and kill innocent civilians in the name of ISIS, Patel said.
Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, a resident of Valencia, Pennsylvania, now faces federal charges for receiving a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit terrorism on behalf of ISIS, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
FBI agents interdicted Kramer on Sept. 12 as he returned to a hotel in possession of three 30-round capacity rifle magazines and five boxes of rifle ammunition, according to a DOJ news release.
“These attacks did not happen because the FBI and our partners worked around the clock, found the threats and stopped them,” Patel said.
Patel also faced his share of scrutiny while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democrats opted to criticize Patel’s qualifications and his firing of agents who participated in investigations of President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.
Rather than focus on a drop in crime, the AP ran the headline “FBI chief Kash Patel defends hiring policy changes on prostitution, bestiality at fiery hearing.”
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Patel an “incompetent lackey,” adding “What a mockery you are.”
Patel shot back, “You are the biggest mockery in the United States Senate, and you’re sitting next to Schiff.” He was referring to Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and outspoken Patel critic.
