'ICE pig,' 'kill them all': Violence against immigration agents continues to escalate

"We are seeing open season against our law enforcement." That’s what Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said during an interview last week. By the numbers: “There’s been a 700% increase in assaults against our ICE enforcement officers—they’re simply doing their jobs.”

The agency provided journalist Bill Melugin with a breakdown: from Trump’s inauguration through June (inclusive), there were 79 assaults—compared to just 10 during the same period last year. That’s an increase of 690%.

The first weeks of July will only add to these numbers, with reports of flat tires, death threats, and gunshot wounds.

"Just moments ago in Van Nuys during federal immigration law enforcement operations, 3 subjects attempted to impede & obstruct our efforts, using improvised devices aimed at disabling our vehicles," wrote Gregory K. Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol.

The following day, he confirmed that four adults had been arrested and would face charges for “placing homemade spikes” in the tires of patrol cars:

Also in recent days, authorities in Buffalo, New York, arrested a 45-year-old man accused of posting threats against agents on social media, including messages like: “Kill them all, ICE is the new-age Gestapo, stop them.” He also wrote, “I can’t wait to put a bullet in this guy’s brain, but first his children.”

In McAllen, Texas, a 27-year-old man opened fire at a Border Patrol building at the airport, injuring three people: a local police officer shot in the leg, an agent and a patrol employee. While the FBI is investigating the motive, officials suggest the attack was an ambush.

Also during the week in Texas, the Department of Justice filed charges against ten people for an assault on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado. The defendants allegedly fired fireworks at the DHS facility, with one even aimed at the neck of a local police officer.

"This was an ambush on federal and local law enforcement officers," said U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson. "This increasing trend of violence against law enforcement will not be tolerated in the Northern District of Texas," she said.

According to the court filing, the assailants were dressed in military-style gear. In addition to firing 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers, they spray-painted graffiti including messages like "fight ICE terror with class warfare!", "ICE pig" and "F— you pigs."

"An insurrectionist movement in the Democratic Party"

“These extremists who want to take things beyond protests and into criminal activity are being fueled by rhetoric from some members of Congress,” said Gov. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, referring to the Prairieland attack. “These fringe groups feel emboldened… If a member of Congress can attack ICE, why can’t we?”

GOP leaders and members united in blaming Democrats. “There’s an insurrectionist movement within the Democratic Party that’s inspiring domestic terrorism against ICE,” said Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff, in a television interview.

Specifically, Miller targeted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who this week confronted an ICE raid in a public park in the city. Bass called the raid by armed agents—held in a park where she said dozens of children were present—“outrageous and un-American.” Miller, meanwhile, accused her of “mobilizing the mob against ICE” and insisted, “Federal law is the supreme law of the land; you cannot nullify it, and you cannot secede from it.”

Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin also lashed out at Bass: "I want to ask Karen Bass, who is she protecting? Is it the MS-13 members we are going after? Is it the child rapists? Is it the drug traffickers? Which of the violent criminals who are terrorizing Los Angeles streets is she trying to protect?"

A video of a Patrol chief responding to the Democrat’s refusal to leave the city quickly went viral:

Hours later, Los Angeles joined a class-action lawsuit challenging what they call the administration’s “illegal” tactics in its mass immigration raids. “We are concerned about how immigration enforcement is being carried out. We are not interfering with immigration enforcement,” said City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto.

In a statement about the attack in McAllen, Texas, DHS cited a Democratic lawmaker—speaking anonymously to Axios—as an example of politicians who “continue to vilify and attack law enforcement.” The lawmaker said, “Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough… [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.”

In the same statement, another anonymous lawmaker recalled that during a meeting, when he said his first instinct when faced with a fire was to reach for a fire extinguisher, someone in the room asked, “Have you tried gasoline?”

Still another lawmaker said he has observed a growing trend of public officials volunteering to become victims of violence or to get arrested—like New York Comptroller Brad Lander and Senator Alex Padilla. He added that this demand “often comes from economically secure white people.”

The White House even published a list of "unhinged Democrats inciting rhetoric and lies."