Washington — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was seriously injured Monday after being struck in the face with a metal coffee cup during an arrest operation in Houston, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The officer sustained a deep laceration requiring 13 stitches, plus several burns to his face.
Authorities say the suspect, Walter Leonel Perez Rodriguez, a previously deported Salvadoran national with convictions for sexual assault of a minor, child fondling and multiple DUIs, attacked the officer while agents attempted to take him into custody.
Perez, who had been deported from the United States twice — first in June 2013 and again in February 2020 — allegedly reentered the country illegally at an unknown time and location, according to DHS. He’s now in ICE custody.
DHS Assistant Secretary for External Affairs Tricia McLaughlin condemned the assault and said, “Anyone who lays a hand on our ICE officer will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Death threats targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have increased 8,000%, DHS announced in October, pointing to a wave of online harassment and violent rhetoric aimed at agents and their families. DHS Officials have not yet provided further data about the explosion in death threats, however.
Last month, federal agents arrested Eduardo Aguilar, a Mexican national in Dallas accused of offering money on TikTok for the murder of ICE agents. According to DHS, investigators have tracked a series of threatening phone calls and social media posts targeting officers in Texas and Washington state.
In Texas, an ICE officer’s spouse received a threatening call, according to a release by DHS. “I don’t know how you let your husband work for ICE, and you sleep at night. F*** you, f*** your family. I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F*** you,” the caller said, according to DHS. “Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.”
A separate voicemail left on an ICE employee’s phone was also discovered, according to DHS, in which a caller says, “I hope every one of those lawless c**** you call ICE officers gets doxxed one by one.”
Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Gregory Bovino told CBS News in an interview last month that such incidents reflect a broader surge in violence against federal agents nationwide.
“What we’re seeing here in Chicago are oftentimes United States citizens attacking Border Patrol agents, ICE agents, and allied law enforcement,” Bovino said. “When that happens, if you attack us, we’re going to arrest you and take you to jail. That shouldn’t be normal, and we don’t want it to be normal — but that’s what’s happening now.”
Bovino said transnational criminal groups have gone so far as to place bounties on the heads of federal officers.
“The Latin Kings here in Chicago put a bounty out on the heads of federal law enforcement,” he said. “You bet we’re going to go where those Latin Kings are. Don’t put a bounty on our heads — we’re going to come after yours.”
This week, a federal judge in Chicago is considering a preliminary injunction over the tactics used by federal agents during Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” including claims that Bovino oversaw use of tear gas and other riot control measures used against protesters, journalists, and clergy. The case highlights growing scrutiny over how federal agencies deploy riot control weapons and less than lethal tactics in urban settings and how frontline threats to agents compound already aggressive operations.
At a press conference in Gary, Indiana, last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the recent wave of attacks against immigration officers “unacceptable,” adding, “Every single ICE officer has someone who loves them — a family member, someone who cares that they come home at night.”
On Oct. 1, the FBI and DHS issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning that “domestic violent extremists” have escalated attacks against ICE facilities and personnel. Since June, the bulletin said, extremists in at least three states have carried out pre-planned violent strikes, including an October rooftop shooting into ICE transport vehicles in Dallas that wounded several detainees. The bulletin cautioned such attacks reflect “an evolution in tactics and an escalation in violence” and urged state and local law enforcement to be especially vigilant.
In September, a gunman fired from a rooftop into a secure sally port at a Dallas ICE facility, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others before taking his own life. Authorities recovered an unused shell casing inscribed with “ANTI-ICE” and said the shooting was likely ideologically motivated. The same facility had been the target of a bomb threat in August, when a man claiming to carry explosives was arrested.
Noem warned that any assault on federal officers will be met with “the fullest extent of the law.” The department has set up a tip line (866-DHS-2-ICE) and an online portal for reporting harassment, threats or doxes.
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