Attacks on ICE agents increase as city leaders denounce federal immigration operations

A surge in vehicular attacks and other assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during targeted operations in California, Illinois and North Carolina has coincided with sharp criticism of federal agents from local and state leaders.

Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security reported a 1,300% increase in vehicle attacks against ICE since President Donald Trump took office, and a 58% increase against CBP officers during the same period.

There were only two vehicular assaults against ICE agents – specifically – during the final year of former President Joe Biden’s term. Nor has his administration conducted fervent, targeted anti-immigration raids on the same scale and frequency, according to reports.

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In comments to Fox News Digital on Friday, DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said:

“Since January 20, there have been 99 vehicle attacks against DHS law enforcement, a 1,000% increase in assaults against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against ICE agents. Make no mistake: the surge in these types of attacks is fueled by the continued demonization of ICE and CBP agents by Democratic politicians. They need to put an end to this before they kill one of our officers. »

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose city was targeted after Los Angeles, has repeatedly called Trump a racist and called ICE agents terrorists.

Just this week, Johnson said on a podcast – in a report broadcast by Sky News – that the “attacks” on illegal immigrants and targets of the Trump administration had the same characteristics as the pre-war freedmen’s priorities.

“We know that the intentional attacks coming from the Trump administration and the far right in this country constitute what I call an attempt to restart the civil war,” Johnson said.

“They did not accept the results that the North actually won.”

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents clashed with protesters in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, July 8. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement via X)

Johnson said Trump is also politically targeting education, housing, transportation, jobs and health care — which he said are “literally the five demands of the descendants of slaves.”

During the Civil War, however, the Confederacy was led largely by Democrats of that era, including President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander Stephens, and officers like General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who later became the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

At the height of Chicago’s immigration enforcement operations, Johnson railed against the missions, describing street scenes as “what terrorism looks like.”

Johnson also implemented what he called “ice-free zones” and, in one case, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was refused use of the bathroom at City Hall in Broadview, Illinois, just outside Chicago proper.

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Noem blamed Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for the conditions that led to the incident, saying it is an example of how the Democrat “and his cronies treat our law enforcement – absolutely disgraceful.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also spoke out about ICE operations in her city, saying, “These tactics are spreading terror in our communities.”

Sen. Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was filmed asking Noem questions during a news conference.

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Noem later claimed that Padilla “lunged” at her, leading to various analyzes of the video of the confrontation.

Padilla was quickly taken into custody by Noem’s security detail, and later commented on the incident, saying that while his treatment matches how the Trump administration treats a “senator with a question…you can only imagine what they do to farm workers” on the immigration front.

California Attorney General Robert Bonta publicly called the actions of ICE and CBP during its operations in Los Angeles “part of a cruel and familiar pattern of attacks on our immigrant communities by an administration that thrives on fear and division.”

“We will not remain silent. We will not back down. We will continue to hold the federal government accountable when it violates the Constitution and federal law,” Bonta said in a July 7 statement.

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DHS announced another arrest of a car crash suspect on Friday, with officials alleging that Mexican national Roberto Galeana-Guatemala struck and seriously injured a police officer with his vehicle as ICE attempted to arrest him in National City, California.

Galeana-Guatemala was charged Friday with the assault as well as one count of being a deported alien who again entered the United States illegally.

McLaughlin said the incident marked roughly the 100th vehicle attack on ICE personnel since Trump took office.

After a recent case in which critics claimed DHS “kidnapped” a teenager, McLaughlin said the boy was part of a group throwing rocks at police officers who were themselves the target of another car-ramming attack.

She suggested that the rhetoric of critics over the incident was just another fuel to the political fire provoking such attacks:

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“An American teenager was arrested for assaulting law enforcement in Chicago. Any claim that CBP ‘kidnapped’ a U.S. citizen and detained him in a warehouse is bizarre and categorically false,” she said.

“This is even more disgusting smear being peddled by the media and law firms. This attack is not an isolated incident, and it reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest, and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement agencies.”