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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are facing a surge in death threats and violent attacks as they carry out the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday show that ICE officers are experiencing an 8,000% increase in death threats targeting ICE officers.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the threats come as officers “risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst.”
“From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence,” she said, in part.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers face a record surge in violent threats and online bounties as the Department of Homeland Security condemns the attacks and vows full legal action against offenders. (Getty Images)
McLaughlin also said “sanctuary politicians” have contributed to the surge “through their repeated vilification and demonization tactics, including gross comparisons to the Nazi Gestapo.” She added that “this violence against law enforcement must end.”
DHS cited several recent instances of threats against ICE officers and their families — including some that offered money for their killings.
Eduardo Aguilar, a Mexican national living in the U.S. illegally in Dallas, Texas, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly soliciting the murder of ICE agents in a TikTok post.
The post, written in Spanish, allegedly offered $10,000 for the murder of an ICE agent and called for “10 dudes in Dallas with determination who aren’t afraid to [two skull emojis],” DHS said.
Also in Texas, an ICE officer’s spouse was threatened over the phone when a caller said, “I don’t know how you let your husband work for ICE, and you sleep at night. F— you, f— your family. I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F— you. Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.”
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said “sanctuary politicians” contribute to this surge of violence through “their repeated vilification and demonization tactics.” (ICE)
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Another voicemail left on an ICE employee’s phone this month allegedly said, “I hope every one of those lawless c—- you call ICE officers gets doxxed one by one.”
Fox News Digital reported Tuesday that a man identified as James Adrian Warren allegedly threatened the ICE office in Ferndale, Washington, calling the officers “Nazis” and “the Gestapo.”
Warren also allegedly said he plans on making “life harder for ICE here in Whatcom County” by observing, tailing, recording and reporting employees.
“They need to be told they are Nazis every day they come to work, they need to be reminded that they are Nazis every day when they go home. I start on my next day off, you should too,” the Facebook post read.
A Facebook post allegedly made by James Warren threatening U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) employees in Washington state. (Department of Homeland Security)
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DHS said Secretary Kristi Noem’s “message is clear” and ICE will not be stopped or slowed down by the threats.
“ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” DHS said, citing Noem.