ICE has warned of serious consequences for anyone who assaults its officers.
“WARNING: Assaulting an ICE officer is a serious federal crime!” read a Tuesday post on X from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The post features a photo of a fist with the bold text “THINK BEFORE YOU RESIST” and a smaller caption “Assaulting a federal officer may cost you your freedom” at the top.
“Anyone — regardless of immigration status — who assaults an ICE officer WILL face federal felony assault charges and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law,” the caption said.
The content of Tuesday’s post does not explain what constitutes “assault.”
Some have raised concerns about the implications of the post. The Guardian notes that “the broad language could allow prosecutors to pursue federal assault charges for actions that would traditionally be considered resisting arrest or even protest activity.”
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that “Violence is anything that threatens them [federal immigration officers] and their safety, so it is doxing them, it’s videotaping them where they’re at when they’re out on operations, encouraging other people to come and to throw things, rocks, bottles.”
According to The American Prospect, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin echoed these words, telling the Center for Media and Democracy that “videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxing our agents.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation—a nonprofit that defends free speech on the internet— argued that recording law enforcement is a “First Amendment right … which federal courts and the Justice Department have recognized and affirmed.”
In June, an Atlanta-based Spanish-speaking journalist, Mario Guevara, was detained while covering a “No Kings” protest in Georgia and taken into ICE custody. Guerva’s attorneys said that he was “legally authorized to live and work in the country.”
In a press release, Scarlet Kim, a senior American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney representing Guevara, said, “Mario Guevara is being detained solely because of his journalism— specifically his livestreaming of immigration and other law enforcement officials.” An attorney for the federal government told a judge in August that ICE had discretion to detain Guevara because he did not have a U.S. visa.
Tuesday’s message from ICE comes after Noem claimed there has been a “1,000% increase in assaults” on federal immigration officers.
“These acts of violence are fueled by sanctuary politicians rhetoric vilifying our law enforcement,” Noem said on X.
On Friday, ICE agents and demonstrators clashed outside the Broadview U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Chicago following the Department of Homeland Security’s launch of “Operation Midway Blitz.” That same day, an ICE agent shot and killed a man who resisted arrest.
The agency’s warning follows a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that removed restrictions on ICE agents conducting stops in Los Angeles without “reasonable suspicion.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the decision could give the government the power to “seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job.”
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which passed in July, made ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency.
The Daily Beast reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.
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