The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are facing a record surge in violent threats and online bounties as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) condemns the attacks and vows to take full legal action against offenders. Statistics released by DHS on Wednesday show that the number of death threats targeting ICE officers has increased by 8,000% since the start of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the threats come as officers ‘risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst.’ She described the threats as ‘unprecedented’ and emphasized that they include bounties on the officers’ heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online.
In addition to the threats of violence, McLaughlin also accused ‘sanctuary politicians’ of contributing to the rise in attacks against ICE agents through their repeated vilification and demonization, including comparisons to the Nazi Gestapo. She called for an end to such violence against law enforcement. The DHS provided several examples of recent threats against ICE officers and their families, including instances where someone offered money for the murder of an ICE agent and a caller threatened an ICE officer’s spouse with severe consequences if they did not comply with their demands.
One incident involved a man in Dallas, Texas, who was arrested for allegedly soliciting the murder of an ICE agent in a TikTok post. The post, written in Spanish, offered $10,000 for the murder of an ICE agent and urged ’10 dudes in Dallas with determination who aren’t afraid to [two skull emojis],’ according to DHS. In another case, an ICE officer’s spouse was threatened over the phone, with the caller vowing to harm their family. Additional threats included a voicemail left on an ICE employee’s phone that stated, ‘I hope every one of those lawless c—- you call ICE officers gets doxxed one by one.’ The DHS also cited a man in Washington state who allegedly made threats against the ICE office in Ferndale, calling the agents ‘Nazis’ and ‘the Gestapo’ and claiming he would make their lives difficult by observing, tailing, recording, and reporting them.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s message was clear in the face of these threats, emphasizing that ICE will not be stopped or slowed down by the threats. McLaughlin reiterated that anyone who commits violence against a law enforcement officer will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law, underscoring the serious consequences of such actions. As the threat level continues to rise, the situation highlights the growing polarization and tensions surrounding immigration policy in the United States and the potential human and legal repercussions of such rhetoric and actions.