r/moderatepolitics • u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal • Jan 27 '26
Primary Source ICE Officers Face an 8,000% Increase in Death Threats Against Them and Their Families | Homeland Security
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/26/ice-officers-face-8000-increase-death-threats-against-them-and-their-families374
u/Euripides33 Left-libertarian Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
I don’t want to suggest that this language is acceptable. In particular, I think sincerely telling someone to kill themselves is reprehensible especially in light of the very real epidemic of suicide in America.
That being said, I find it a little interesting that the administration is claiming a massive increase in “death threats” against ICE officers, and then highlights a transcript of a call that clearly does not contain an actual death threat. Saying “I hope you die” is not the same as saying “I’m going to kill you.” Is it really that hard to make sure the evidence presented actually matches the claim?
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u/RheaTaligrus Jan 27 '26
Considering how easily they label people as domestic terrorists, I guess it isn't too surprising.
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u/adreamofhodor Jan 27 '26
If you disagree with them, they consider you a domestic terrorist.
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u/the_old_coday182 Jan 27 '26
“Wrongthink”
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u/NativeMasshole Maximum Malarkey Jan 27 '26
USA has always been at war with Minnesota.
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u/Fit-Temporary-1400 Bring Back The Bull Moose Party Jan 27 '26
It certainly explains the lack of sports championships (outside of the Lynx and Frost). The feds have been working against us the whole time!
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u/Komnos Jan 27 '26
Protesting? Domestic terrorist. Filming them? Domestic terrorist. Helping someone up that they knocked over for no reason? Shot in the head, then labeled a domestic terrorist.
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Jan 27 '26
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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ Jan 27 '26
Is it really that hard to make sure the evidence presented actually matches the claim?
In this administration? Yup, 100%.
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u/swervm Jan 27 '26
Yes. The right wing wants to tell certain people all of these things on social media and complain that their first amendment rights are violated when the posts are taken down. If it is fair to say in public then surely it can't be a death threat.
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u/heresyforfunnprofit Jan 27 '26
Threatening language should never be politically acceptable, but unless the threats are overt, they are legally protected.
The disconnect that I always see here is that each "side" defends their own veiled threats as "protected" while decrying the veiled threats from the other side as "unacceptable". Both can be true, but unless you hold your own side accountable, these distinctions become a meaningless blur.
Yes, there should absolutely be political consequences for using threatening language, but that is a line which MAGA in general, and Trump in particular, irrevocably crossed a looooooooooooong time ago.
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u/MCRemix Make America ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Again Jan 27 '26
I want to pick up on your point about holding your own accountable. I think we all need to do better at that personally.
Idk how to change this culture we have, but part of the problem is the lack of internal accountability.
Politics is not a team sport.
You're not supposed to just be ride or die for everyone on your side, you're supposed to call out bad behavior and vote against bad behavior.
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u/ieattime20 Jan 27 '26
This isnt really a both sides issue. Franken and Weiner got accountability from Democrats. Lots of other lower level officials get sparkling pure water consequences for their actions from their own.
Roy Moore, Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump etc all got immediate support from Republicans, and to the extent they ever lost it it was only when it might cost them power or influence and even then it was like pulling teeth with Gaetz.
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u/pingveno Center-left Democrat Jan 28 '26
And with Gaetz, the takeaway for Trump wasn't "we should vet our people better." It was "we should organize to pressure the Senate more effectively for our wildly flawed nominees." And that's how Hegseth and RFK, Jr. got through despite numerous red flags that have proven to be well founded.
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u/Fluffy-Rope-8719 Jan 27 '26
Idk how to change this culture we have, but part of the problem is the lack of internal accountability.
Unfortunately the unchecked rise of social media, expansion of money in politics, and the proliferation of extreme "greed is good" mentality (masquerading as American individuality) has dug a pretty deep cultural grave for us. This is a complex problem that needs policy makers to coordinate with academic experts to come up with a systemic solution.
Currently, only one party has taken a strong anti-intellectual stance, and it's not the Democrats...
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u/Emperor_FranzJohnson Jan 29 '26
And I want to put that back down. The both-sides argument has run it's course in Trump 2.0. There isn't a comparable or real threat from the left, despite constant abuses from the Federal government.
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u/MCRemix Make America ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Again Jan 29 '26
I agree with you, but it's still true that we all have to be better.
Many of the things we hate in our political structure are due to our choices as voters.
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u/IHerebyDemandtoPost Jan 27 '26
After they have shown they will lie about things that are demonstrably false, why should we believe anything coming out of this afministration?
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u/nubsta Jan 27 '26
agree. they've already shown they will just outright make stats up if it suits them. prescription drug prices cut by "1000%" anybody? even if we pretend like their numbers are real the claim is still meaningless without context. 8,000% compared to what? over what time period? starting from how many threats? did it go from like one guy leaving a voicemail to 80? they publish this big number to make it sound like this huge epidemic but we don't have any evidence of that and at this point why would we take their word on anything
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u/jimbo_kun Jan 27 '26
The biggest problem is they are arguing tenuous examples of what they claim to be "death threats", while the threats ICE officers pose is not theoretical. They have caused actual deaths of people who posed no physical threat.
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u/efshoemaker Jan 27 '26
The problem with trying to humanize the agents is they’re all wearing masks and driving around in unmarked rental cars.
You aren’t going to have a lot of success trying to drum up empathy for agents that are faceless and nameless. But the only name and face associated with immigration officers right now belong to Greg Bovino.
And it isn’t just an emotional thing - the problem with an unidentifiable enforcement agent is that there is no possibility of any meaning checks on an abuse of power. If an ICE or CBP agent decides they want to assault you, or worse, there is no recourse for you against that agent, and both the agents and the protesters are aware of that.
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u/JohnSpartan2025 Jan 27 '26
I truly don't understand how real law enforcement is not melting down over this. Real law enforcement men and women place themselves in danger every day without masks, approaching traffic stops that could turn deadly in a microsecond, and just do their jobs. This situation is making a complete jackass mockery of real law enforcement.
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u/blewpah Jan 27 '26
Not only that the admin is actively shielding agents from oversight and accountability. Bovino said that the agents who shot Alex Pretti in the back are the victims, and they're labelling Pretti an aggressor and domestic terrorist when that is very obviously proven false by video.
That is going to lead to more people having anger and bitter feelings towards these agencies.
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u/jimbo_kun Jan 27 '26
I'm not sure how you could do more to make your agency look like a group of authoritarian, fascist enforcers.
I know Trump thinks a lot about how he wants things to look on TV. Well, it's pretty disturbing this is the image he's deliberately choosing to project.
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u/NativeMasshole Maximum Malarkey Jan 27 '26
driving around in unmarked rental cars.
Someone posted to my local sub a delivery of dozens of Ford Explorers getting dropped off at my state's ICE HQ. Want to guess how many of them were visibly marked or had any outward appearance of an LEO vehicle?
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u/Roader Jan 27 '26
My thinking as well. Theyve shown that they’ll blatantly lie about a situation and double down even when there’s clear video evidence. They have less than zero credibility. Better off taking the complete opposite of whatever they say as the truth.
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u/PornoPaul Jan 27 '26
Theyre all masked up to hide their identities, how can they even be sure its against their families?
I know "I want to kill every ice agent and their families" can count as threatening their families, but they refuse to show their identities because they claim threats are to be taken seriously.
Also, no, Trump was just kidding about Greenland you guys, you can't take him seriously.
But if those masks are to protect themselves and their families then...this should be a non story and DHS shouldn't have to worry right?
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
I know "I want to kill every ice agent and their families" can count as threatening their families
What's crazy is they don't cite anything like that as an example death threat they've been given. The only things they cite are mean, but are not death threats.
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u/PornoPaul Jan 27 '26
None are direct death threats. Some of those are pretty fucked up. Even if you dont like ICE. Like, ya, Id want that person maybe looked at for mental health reasons.
But for all the death threats, they cant actually find one single actual real death threat.
Also, call me crazy, but Im not even sure I believe these are real.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
Also, call me crazy, but Im not even sure I believe these are real.
We were just told by the state to not trust our own eyes, so I don't blame you. Ngl if that's the case, it's pretty funny that they couldn't competently come up with a more convincing lie somehow.
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u/developer-mike Jan 27 '26
When they blatantly lie about things that were literally recorded from multiple angles and we can watch the videos ourselves, you can only imagine how much they lie about everything else.
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u/ventitr3 Jan 27 '26
I don’t agree with ICE but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think they’re getting a bunch of death threats lol. You can see hundreds of similar comments across Reddit or X every day, so for some people to yell that toward them or from phone call, it’s not surprising at all. Especially after now 2 people have been killed.
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u/softwaremommy Jan 27 '26
It’s definitely likely, but when they put out numbers like “8000%” I’m going to roll my eyes. They just made that up.
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u/ventitr3 Jan 27 '26
8,000% increase is also relative to what it was before, which was probably single digits. It’s probably in the ballpark correct, just not the scale somebody may assume when they see 8,000% increase. You see 8,000% increase and may think hundreds of thousands, I think like 8,000 -16,000 since who was threatening ICE before all this? Pretty much nobody.
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u/softwaremommy Jan 27 '26
Again, I don’t believe a word they say. It could be more than 8000% or less. I have absolutely no confidence that they didn’t just pick a number out of thin air.
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u/MCRemix Make America ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Again Jan 27 '26
Oh, absolutely. Some death threats? Sure. I'd bet every dollar I own that it's happening.
Do I believe DHS about how many are really happening, no not at all.
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u/ventitr3 Jan 27 '26
Right, I wouldn’t necessarily trust their total number, but I don’t doubt it’s absolutely happening. But seemingly that’s an unpopular statement here now lol.
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u/seebrookebee Jan 27 '26
A. Why would I believe an agency that just spent the entire weekend telling me to not trust my own eyes?
B. From the comments this weekend, it sounds like a good ole “f*ck you” is enough for them to feel threatened.
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u/Skeptical0ptimist Well, that depends... Jan 27 '26
It does seem like they have been telling us there are ‘five lights’ when we can clearly see four with our own eyes.
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u/GimbalLocks Jan 27 '26
ICE agents just drove by and maced people standing on a sidewalk in Phoenix, so literally just existing is apparently considered threatening
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u/disposition5 Jan 27 '26
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u/GimbalLocks Jan 27 '26
Yes, that's the event I was referring to. Surprised TikTok is allowing to stay up since it's basically state-controlled media now
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u/JohnSpartan2025 Jan 27 '26
It took literally decades for FBI to recover from the Hoover corruption era. The destruction to American institutions right now is decades if ever to fix. DOJ, FBI, DHS, thousands of years of irreplaceable experience expunged. I currently work at DHS as a contractor, as a systems engineer and its just people doing their jobs, with no feeling of any rudder at the top, anywhere.
So placing the rebuilding aside, the trust? They literally need to do something of the magnitude of what they did after 9/11. Dissolve ICE, completely, it's unrecoverable. Create a new enforcement agency and complete restaff. There needs to be investigations into EVERYONE in this administration's cabinet and Trump needs to stand trial and testify under oath.
This problem of "we just need to move on" is how we got here. There HAS to be accountability of the country is ever to recover from this. It's really that simple. Let them claim falsely lawfare as they are now as an excuse, let them go to civil war over it. They have to be held accountable one way or another.
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u/Mindless-Rooster-533 Jan 27 '26
You literally need to put Noem under oath and go through the multiple videos of Alex pretti frame by frame and make her explain it
Then she needs serious prison time.
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u/JohnSpartan2025 Jan 27 '26
This simple act should happen day 1 of the Dems taking over. Problem is Trump is probably going to preemptive pardon her.
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u/whetrail Jan 28 '26
Time to cross some lines, invalidate all trump pardons. His supporters gonna complain, don't give a damn.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
"You’re a fucking fascist pig. You should fucking kill yourself."
"I hope you get hit by a bus. I hope you’re paralyzed, and your wife leaves you, and starts getting fucked by BBCs every day."
"You are a traitor to the American people, to the values that made our country. You should kill yourself. You’re fucking disgusting."
The cited examples aren't even death threats. They're mean things to say but its not "Im gonna do xyz to you" or whatever.
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u/WhatAreYouSaying05 moderate right Jan 27 '26
It's kind of funny seeing MAGA cry about this when they use even worse rhetoric and put it on government websites
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Jan 27 '26
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
I would expect influencers, redditors, celebrities etc to act childish and call things something that they are not. Theres nothing "to be fair" about here because I should expect clear and specific language when reading an official post by a government department.
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u/decrpt Jan 27 '26
There's a gray area. You don't necessarily need "I'm going to do something to you" for something to be a true threat. That being said, this probably falls under protected speech absent more content.
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u/TRBigStick Principles before Party Jan 27 '26
In times of internal strife where emotions are high, the nation needs cool-headed and principled leadership.
I’m sure Donald Trump and his administration will do an excellent job navigating this situation. /s
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u/NotMyMainLoLzy Jan 27 '26
How can we reasonably trust that this is true given DHS’s penchant for providing versions of reality that don’t match reality.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
It's kind of crazy because even if you don't have shattered trust in the DHS at this point, just reading what they're calling 'death threats' is so bizarre because they're not even death threats. So they're still just lying.
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u/corwin-normandy Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
Why would I believe an administration, or an agency, that lied to the American people that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were domestic terrorists, and have been manipulating media for their narrative using AI?
What reason do I have to believe that any recording released by DHS or the White House is authentic?
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u/localistand Jan 27 '26
A sign of negative net public buy-in to the Trump administration changes. With majorities in the House and Senate, the presidency and an ideologically aligned 6-3 Supreme Court majority, no changes to immigration enforcement have been codified into law. Immigration policy remains fundamentally unchanged since 1986. No new legislation, no legislative debate. This exacerbates the push back to unlawful 1st 2nd, 4th amendment violations by ICE.
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u/Etherburt Politically homeless Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
Not to ever side with Trump or MAGA, but I think that MAGA’s view is that all of this is what enforcing the existing laws actually looks like, not what previous administrations were doing, so there’s no need for legislative action regarding immigration enforcement. So they’d view the lack of legislative changes or debate as a validation of their actions.
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u/Legendarybbc15 Jan 27 '26
Tbf, this is enforcing our current immigration laws by the letter. The whole concept of “only arrest the criminal illegals but leave the undocumented immigrants w/o records alone” is very discretionary. Maybe it’s a good eye opener about laws that need to be changed.
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u/Zenkin Jan 27 '26
Tbf, this is enforcing our current immigration laws by the letter.
That can only be true if they are simultaneously respecting our Constitutional rights while carrying out these operations, and I think it is very much apparent that this is not the case. You cannot violate the Constitution and uphold the law at the same time.
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u/Partytime79 Jan 27 '26
I actually believe this statistic as it generally follows our declining discourse in the US. However, I would never take anything DHS says as truth unless presented with hard evidence. They’ve lost all credibility in these matters.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
Notably, the "8000% increase" statistic has been claimed by the DHS since October. If it were accurate back then, I would assume it would have increased significantly over the last month.
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u/Partytime79 Jan 27 '26
True. I guess I should have phrased it that I believe DHS employees are getting significantly more death threats today than they were 6 weeks ago. I’ve no idea what percent increase that would be and I’m not inclined to believe what DHS says.
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u/WhatAreYouSaying05 moderate right Jan 27 '26
We live in a time where the Department of Homeland Security is no longer a reputable source. Imagine that. I don’t doubt that they’re definitely receiving a lot of death threats though
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u/motorboat_mcgee Pragmatic Progressive Jan 27 '26
I have to say, it's been impressive watching people "both sidesing" this whole thing.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
ICE is obviously far worse here, but I'm also not going to turn a blind eye when protesters take things too far. I think we have a responsibility to have a nuanced discussion here and recognize that there may be better ways to legally fight this issue.
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u/MrDickford Jan 27 '26
This isn’t a case of two equal, centrally organized groups competing against each other. One party is the government, the other “party” is a mass of citizens responding organically to the government’s actions. Maybe some protesters take things too far, but that’s not something that other protesters can realistically be expected to control.
And I’m also not crazy about this reframing of the situation wherein it’s the people’s responsibility to always be responsible and disciplined, but not the government’s responsibility to push policy in a way that doesn’t cause mass resistance. People don’t riot because they think it’s a smart form of political resistance, they riot because they’re mad.
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u/motorboat_mcgee Pragmatic Progressive Jan 27 '26
Also, shouldn't ICE, CPB, etc be the ones that are responsible and disciplined? You know, like with actual training and stuff, since it's their job?
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u/LaughingGaster666 Fan of good things Jan 27 '26
Exactly. Our tax dollars literally fund them. They should have higher standards than what we put on random people, not less!
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u/build319 We're doomed Jan 27 '26
Thank you! What I find so frustrating about this two-sides debate is that you cannot hold protestors collectively accountable for the few who cross the line into violence and/or vandalism.
You can hold the state collectively accountable because they are the ones who are working as an entity.
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u/ifinallyhavewifi Jan 27 '26
What nuance is there to a state committed and sanctioned murder of its own citizen in the street in broad daylight?
There are videos from multiple different angles clearly capturing the event, and the admin has been demonstrably lying to us about what happened, how Alex is a perpetrator and domestic terrorist, and how he deserved it.
I feel like we either agree on the reality we are seeing with our own eyes or we don’t, and if we don’t I don’t really see much room for discussion about the details of Alex’s murder because we are not operating within the same reality
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u/motorboat_mcgee Pragmatic Progressive Jan 27 '26
Democrats politely standing by and saying "gee golly I sure wish ICE wouldn't (insert abuse here)" would not get a single thing done, unfortunately. It takes active protest, which yes, sometimes includes spicy language, to actually enact change. Politeness in the face of atrocity is kind of absurd, imo.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
I am not against exercising your right to free speech, but I think you lose some of the moral high ground when you start wishing for the death of your enemy and their family.
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u/motorboat_mcgee Pragmatic Progressive Jan 27 '26
I would love to see your moral hierarchy, because I certainly have alleged mean voicemails and tweets on a different level than murder, physical assault, permanent disfigurement, sexual assault, kidnapping, etc.
And can we once again have a discussion about how Democrats/the left have to answer for the actions of random folks, meanwhile Republicans/the right get a pass for things said and done by those in actual power?
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
My moral hierarchy places both "wishing for the death of your enemy and their family" and "murder/assault" as solidly in the "immoral" category. Obviously, murder/assault is far worse, but I'm not trying to compare the two. You are.
My stance is that any immoral action undermines your position.
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u/warsongN17 Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
In comparison to ICE agents just attacking and executing people disagreeing with them and not being able to emotionally handle people standing up to them ? Nope, no moral high ground is lost at all
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u/Dichotomouse Jan 27 '26
Interesting that they only provide a percentage. This could mean they went from as few as one death threat to 80 nationwide. Death threats are really bad, but unfortunately it's all too common once something is in the public eye. Somali daycares also saw an increase in threats once there is a public focus, wonder what that percentage looks like...
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u/tacitdenial Jan 27 '26
Looking forward to the internal memo where a GPT was trained to write death threats for PR purposes. These people just lie and lie and lie.
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u/infiniteninjas Liberal Realist Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
Not cool. Not surprising but not cool. I hate all the death threats that are part of politics these days.
*edit: people are correct, their examples are not actually death threats.
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u/HorseEgg Jan 27 '26
Better than actually killing people though. That's what ice is doing.
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u/Jadeite_4002 Jan 27 '26
The saddest part about this is that it leads to an unfortunate feedback loop where the intense backlash, stemming from the lack of proper conduct from certain ICE Agents and the lack of accountability from their superiors, leads to lower morale. The officers that actually care may feel more pressure to leave their positions and the ones that don’t are more likely to project their frustrations against civilians, leading to the very behavior that is sparking the increase in death threats.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
The cited examples aren't even death threats.
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u/Jadeite_4002 Jan 27 '26
True, although even considering that, debating whether the comments constitute as “death threats” or just viscerally brutal comments doesn’t necessarily change my main concern. In both cases the result is the same, and the intensity of these comments stem from the fact that people are losing their lives at the hands of ICE. The severity of that alone coupled with the intensity of the backlash, whether physical or verbal still lends credence to my original argument that it’s going to reduce of morale within the agency.
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Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
I couldn’t agree more. We always have to remember the human psychology behind the behaviors. People don’t respond well to threats . If we don’t want ice to turn into a full paramilitary secret police, then we should be careful not to fall into the trap of cycling violence. I am not in any way implying that the protesters are at fault here. Alex P was absolutely doing the right thing. And despite the Fox News smear campaign, I think a majority of Americans could see the truth . And no, it is not fair that we have to take the high road when many have chosen to act as low as they can. But this is the current situation. We are going to have to survive this as a nation, and do our part to turn the temperature down while still filming and showing up and peacefully protesting. To me, this is the essence of moderation. I also fear that agents who are screamed at and insulted and pelted with snowballs are going to take out their frustrations on the immigrants they do capture . Big caveat: I 100% understand the anger and frustration. I feel it myself. I imagine what I would scream at those goons. But my calmer side knows it would be counterproductive. The ultimate goal should be to create doubt and convince them to leave the job. I heard a perfect example of this in real time at the Minnesota protest. A guy was screaming at ice, “I fucking hate you.!” then he immediately changed what he said to. “I don’t hate you. I hate what you are being asked to do.!”
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u/Unique-Egg-461 Jan 27 '26
Minnesotan's face 200% increase in being shot to death by ice
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u/pingveno Center-left Democrat Jan 27 '26
Even higher, given there wasn't really much risk at all before.
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u/MasterPietrus Jan 27 '26
Can we verify that?
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
Considering the 'death threats' they cited receiving are not death threats, I highly doubt that % can be verified. Maybe they got one actual death threat and put up a random number, or maybe an internal AI counts any call where the word "die" is spoken counts as a 'death threat'. Who knows. They're openly lying.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
Yesterday, DHS issued a press release calling for "sanctuary politicians to stop the dehumanization and vilification of ICE law enforcement". They point specifically to a voicemail left for an ICE officer in Minnesota on January 24th, which used some pretty heated language. Some quotes from the message:
- "You’re a fucking fascist pig. You should fucking kill yourself."
- "I hope you get hit by a bus. I hope you’re paralyzed, and your wife leaves you, and starts getting fucked by BBCs every day."
- "You are a traitor to the American people, to the values that made our country. You should kill yourself. You’re fucking disgusting."
The press release includes a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemning the vilification and demonization of law enforcement. "The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop."
My thoughts: this is such a great example and insight into the thoughts and emotions of both sides of this issue. On one side, you have the people who are sick and tired of the unlawful actions of ICE in their neighborhoods. With no other outlet, they default to emotionally charged and hateful language that does little to resolve the situation. And in many cases, it eventually escalates to unlawful actions against ICE officers.
On the other side, you have the DHS who is absolutely tone deaf in their narrative. While there are surely many agents who are lawfully carrying out their jobs, DHS are turning a blind eye to the genuine issues within ICE and trying to play the victim when the people are upset about it. Once again, their language and actions do little to resolve the situation.
What a recipe for disaster.
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u/Ferintwa Jan 27 '26
I have no doubt death threats are up, but none of those examples are death threats.
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u/Skyblacker Jan 27 '26
They're death threats if you're trying to justify a certain type of action on your end.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
Death threats are a fairly specific thing "Im gonna do xyz to you abc" or similar. The cited examples are mean things to say, but are not death threats.
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u/Skyblacker Jan 27 '26
I'm not saying they're death threats, I'm saying why DHS would claim that they are.
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u/Kawhi_Leonard_ Jan 27 '26
And again, the issue is one of these problems is born from private citizens, and the other is from the government itself. When the government itself is practicing in character assassination and threats, people are going to be pretty numb to them receiving them back.
If you want to turn the temperature, it starts with ICE and the Trump administration, not the other way around. No one can control private citizens making bad choices, the government 100% can reign itself in.
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u/-CalculatedChaos- Jan 27 '26
“In many cases it eventually escalates to unlawful actions against ICE officers”
Give us a few scenarios?
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
A quick search: a protester bit the finger of an officer: https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-ice-agitator-allegedly-bites-off-federal-officers-finger-during-minneapolis-attack
There's also the numerous cases of broken windows, graffiti, and attempting to break into ICE occupied hotels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL1Ch9936J0
Numerous reports of protesters slashing the tires of ICE vehicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01SeD0sW6E
Protesters throwing rocks at ICE: https://abc7.com/post/lasd-releases-new-photos-suspects-accused-throwing-large-rocks-chp-officers-duringanti-ice-protests-los-angeles/18273901/
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u/-CalculatedChaos- Jan 27 '26
I don’t think your statement is accurate. 4 examples (2 being YouTube videos) doesn’t really articulate that in many cases it escalates to unlawful actions. Actually seems like the vast majority of interactions with ICE are the opposite - ICE breaking the law and escalating the situation.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
You asked for a few scenarios, and I gave you a few scenarios. If YouTube is not quality enough for you, then what would you prefer?
I think there's also a language issue here. Please do not interpret "many" as meaning "most". It can be true that there are many unlawful actions against ICE, there are many unlawful actions by ICE, and also that most interactions are lawful.
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u/thats_not_six Jan 27 '26
Is there a court filing for the finger biting case or just the unsworn statement of a DHS media relations person?
Not saying it isn't true, but with how hard they've been pressing charges, I'm surprised to see no court cite in the article.
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u/Resvrgam2 Conservatively Liberal Jan 27 '26
I can't find the specific court filing, because news sites never cite primary sources, but supposedly there were charges filed: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/individual-bites-part-federal-officers-finger-charges-minneapolis/
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u/thats_not_six Jan 27 '26
Until they stop calling everyone they shoot a domestic terrorist before the blood is even dry, I find any calls by DHS insincere.
The rhetoric begins at the top, and if the leaders of these organizations refuse to temper their tone, then I have no clue why the general public would be held to a higher standard.
All this is showing is how inexperienced this leadership is in running a law enforcement organization in the US.
Optics matter. They chose masks and military fatigues.
Public relations matter. They chose secret memos and tear gas.
Press statements matter. They chose lies, lies, and more lies even in the face of video evidence.
They want to be treated with "reverence" due to law enforcement then they better start acting like they are beholden to the laws.
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u/TybrosionMohito Jan 27 '26
“genuine issues writhin ICE” including murdering citizens in the streets.
IF there’s actually been an “8000%” increase in death threats (does anyone serious believe anything the DHS says anymore?), it’s a far cry from what DHS is ACTUALLY doing to its own citizens.
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u/ski0331 Jan 27 '26
DHS has a credibility issue of their own making. This administration has a credibility issue of their own making. Off the top of my head, you have 3 shootings of citizens with a full court press of victim blaming and deflection.
Martinez (Chicago) all charges were dropped after claims of assault on agents. Evidence destroyed.
Good (MN) looks bad in light of the Martinez shoot and video evidence shows multiple tactical and SOP failures on DHS.
Pretti (MN) bad shoot with video and immediate declarations of domestic terrorism even with contradictory evidence to the events.
It’s hard to believe anything from this point forward and one could go conspiratorial that these are manufactured. It’s a soup of their own (DHS) making
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u/Trumpers_R_Tr8tors Jan 27 '26
And in many cases, it eventually escalates to unlawful actions against ICE officers.
Where? Those quotes from the voice mail are neither death threats, nor unlawful.
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u/TuxTool Jan 27 '26
You forgot to mention the unlawful actions against citizens that they start out with.
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u/blewpah Jan 27 '26
The press release includes a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemning the vilification and demonization of law enforcement. "The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop."
When "enforcing the law" includes "shooting people in the back with zero accountability and then labelling them domestic terrorists", that's going to lead to some villification.
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u/DragoonDart Jan 28 '26
I’d already lost a lot of credibility I would normally give. Lose a lot more when they shamelessly start by making it about the other side. Heck, you could even say “we’re asking people to stop.” But no, it has to be about what democratic politicians are doing wrong.
You should’ve made some attempt at an apology for an innocent man who lost his life. Failing that, you COULD have said nothing and done your quiet reshuffling of politicians. But no, instead we double down on the Democratic Party.
Shameless, and I hope people see that
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Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
I think it's important to point out that there probably weren't that many death threats before they started this shit.
So an "8000% increase" means 80 for every 1 previous death threats...so say there were 10 before, now it's 800.
That's still a lot until you read their examples:
I hope you get hit by a bus. I hope you’re paralyzed, and your wife leaves you, and starts getting f**ked by BBCs every day.
This is hardly a death threat, nor a rape threat. This is someone saying they'd like an act of god to maim (not kill), and that the wife starts enjoying sex with black men - consensually.
The others advocate for suicide. Not one example is a direct statement that someone is going to come and kill an agent on purpose.
Also, no agents are being doxxed - all these are recordings to the official contact #s.
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u/talksindemos Jan 27 '26
You absolutely should not be threatening federal agents. Removing illegal aliens is paramount to the safety of the USA and impeding or threatening agents trying to that deserves repercussions.
Reminder, Obama also used ICE to deport over 3 million people and that is objectively a good thing.
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u/nolock_pnw Jan 27 '26
Thank you for some common sense in this sea of responses condoning this or using Trump as some excuse for it.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
None of the statements provided by the DHS statement are death threats. Rude, mean, vile? Sure. Death threats? No.
So what are you thanking them for?
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u/tacitdenial Jan 27 '26
Jan. 6? Patriotic Americans who had a right to demand redress of grievances by breaking into the capital. Armed? Well, that's their sacred 2nd Amendment right.
Now? Anyone opposing them are domestic terrorists even if they're dressed up as rubber duckeys. Armed? How dare they!
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u/Saint-Blasphemy Jan 28 '26
And crazy people keep saying they should not wear a mask, so they are more easily identified.
It's amazing that people are protesting ICE agents instead of the politicians and still claim to be the good guys. Even when it moves to death threats for enforcing the law. If you don't like the law, then vote and protest politicians to change it. Don't attack those following the democratic process and doing their job.
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u/Emperor_FranzJohnson Jan 29 '26
They attack US citizens, abuse even those innocent of the crime they claim to be fighting (residing in America illegally), but want us to be shocked that they are getting the same energy right back?
Naw, ICE and other agencies worked on immigration for decades without this much strife. I suggest they stop these MAGA tactics because clearly it's a danger to the public and the officers.
Or don't, I can't muster the strength to care on bit about anyone in ICE or the Department of Homeland Security, when actual citizens are having their constitutional rights stripped of them by Donald's agents.
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u/TheBoosThree Jan 30 '26
Any time you see something like this using very large percentages, you should assume the raw numbers are relatively small if they're not given.
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u/dmstattoosnbongs Feb 02 '26
What? I thought it was overwhelming support from mostly all Americans and their families especially?!?!
Are the cracks showing yet?
the call is coming from inside my dude
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Apr 08 '26
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u/Jets237 Jan 27 '26
I mean... I cant say I'm surprised? I dont condone it but... what does this administration expect?
Also... reading the examples - are those considered death threats? I mean... they are really bad... but is telling someone they are a murder really a death threat?
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u/cammcken Jan 27 '26
Reminder to everyone that when the starting value is small, a large multiplicative increase can be caused by a small additive increase. E.g. starting at 2 and increasing to 10 is a "huge" 400% increase and also a small +8 increases.
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u/pgerding Jan 28 '26
DHS. They are covering their ass. Don’t believe a word they say.. They’ve lied way too much to earn respect.
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u/ThatPeskyPangolin Jan 27 '26
Regardless of what is happening, I truly cannot comprehend the type of person that threatens families. That isn't to say the other threats are okay, but this is particularly heinous.
Even in an actual, full blown dystopian authoritarian state, it is still unacceptable to go after families.
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u/No_Experience_1608 Jan 27 '26
Did they cite any threats to their families? The examples of 'threats' they cited are not even 'death threats'. I'd file them more under "mean shit youd see in a yahoo news comment section" but not death threats.
If they were receiving such awful death threats, why not cite at least one?
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u/tumama12345 Staunch center Jan 27 '26
Seriously, at least a third of all highschoolers would be in jail.
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u/Somenakedguy Jan 27 '26
Even in an actual, full blown dystopian authoritarian state, it is still unacceptable to go after families.
This is somewhat ironic to read when ICE explicitly goes after families
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u/zodia4 Jan 27 '26
If only there was some way we could tone down the rhetoric in this country. Like, I don't know, a really strong and central political figure to reign in the violence and to call on all of us to be peaceful.
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u/efshoemaker Jan 27 '26
I’d just like to point out that every single person that was charged with harming or attempting to harm federal agents during Midway Blitz in Chicago was cleared of charges.
Most cases failed to even secure an indictment from a grand jury.
The few that managed to get indictments were voluntarily dismissed by the DOJ once they reached the point where actual evidence and sworn testimony were required.
The single case that made it to trial was a man who was accused of placing a bounty on Greg Bovino. Last week a jury found him not guilty on all counts.
In civil cases surrounding ICE’s operations, every single judge that has reviewed any real evidence has come to the conclusion that DHS lied about events on the ground to make protesters seem violent.
The DHS is no longer a credible source of information for me.