Assaults On ICE Officers Increased 1,600% Since January 2025: DHS
Assaults against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have increased significantly in recent months as the Trump administration has cracked down on illegal immigration across the country.
Under the Trump administration, there were 647 assaults against ICE officials from Jan. 20, 2025, to Sept. 20, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a press release on Thursday. The number of assaults represents an increase of 1,649 percent from the 37 assaults on ICE officials from Jan. 20, 2021, to Sept. 20, 2022, under the Biden administration.
ICE has been heavily criticized by many U.S. lawmakers during President Donald Trump's second term, as the administration has expanded detention and deportation operations throughout the United States. In the press release, the Department of Homeland Security called for politicians to end the use of "hateful and violent rhetoric" targeting ICE.
"The brave men and women of ICE, who are simply enforcing the laws mandated by Congress and protecting the American people, are under attack every single day. Since President Trump unleashed ICE to do their jobs, assaults against them have risen by more than 1,600% in the first year and a half of the administration," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, according to the statement.
As Timothy Frudd reports further for The Epoch Times, Thursday's press release listed numerous examples of violent acts committed against ICE officials. Examples included a Minneapolis rioter biting off an ICE agent's finger; an illegal immigrant hammering an ICE officer in the face with a metal coffee cup in Houston; and a group of individuals shooting at ICE officers at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, which resulted in a police officer being shot.
Other examples included a sniper killing two ICE detainees and injuring a third detainee at an ICE facility in Dallas, an illegal immigrant allegedly soliciting the murder of ICE agents in a video on social media, and Los Angeles rioters throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks and launching fireworks at ICE authorities and Border Patrol officers.
Mullin said the increase in assaults on ICE officials has been caused by the lies spread by "sanctuary politicians and their foot soldiers who are involved in anti-ICE riots and other acts of violence."
In addition to providing examples of violent actions targeting ICE, DHS also shared examples of lawmakers engaging in what the department called "hateful rhetoric."
The examples included Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, comparing ICE to a "modern-day Gestapo" and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) accusing ICE of "turning us into Nazi Germany."
"DHS is calling on these sanctuary politicians to stop attacking federal law enforcement, stop putting the needs of illegal aliens ahead of the safety of American citizens, and to start working with us to make America safe again," Mullin said.
In addition to increased assaults on ICE officers, agents are also facing a more than 6,000 percent increase in threats, White House border czar Tom Homan told Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek in an interview airing on Sept. 26. Homan also said ICE vehicle assaults have increased by 1,300 percent.
"I blame a lot of that on the misinformation being fed by some media to the American people," Homan said. "It's constant lies."
The border czar noted that ICE is not perfect and that agents will make mistakes. However, he said the agents are held accountable in those cases.
In addition to misinformation, Homan blamed hateful rhetoric, which he said was being pushed by local, state, and federal lawmakers. Some people have been emboldened to "take action" against ICE officials after hearing agents be compared to Nazis, he said.
"If the hateful rhetoric was stopped, the masks would come off. If the hateful rhetoric was stopped, there'd be less tragedy," he said.
"I truly believe that because now people are emboldened because they hear 'ICE isn't a real law enforcement agency. ICE are Nazis. They're not really cops.' So now people are not complying with them."
The Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, including sweeping community raids and mass deportations, has received pushback from the Democratic Party, which has called for ICE to be reformed or abolished. In August, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said that there "has to be a better way" to handle the issue of immigration than the way the Trump administration has handled it.