Attorney General Pam Bondi issued orders Monday to the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies to “defend” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and offices amid a growing wave of anti-ICE violence.
Ms. Bondi also directed her federal prosecutors in Oregon and the Chicago area, where anti-ICE demonstrations are particularly vigorous, to be aggressive in the charges they bring.
“Enough is enough,” Ms. Bondi said, ticking off recent flare-ups including last week’s sniper attack on an ICE office in Dallas that left one migrant dead and two wounded, and weekend demonstrations outside an ICE facility near Chicago that turned nasty with chants of “shoot ICE.”
She told the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service to allocate “all necessary officers and agents” to force protection.
She also asked state and local police departments that have ICE facilities in their areas to join in an ICE Protection Task Force with the federal agencies.
“Our officers will suppress all unlawful rioting and arrest every person suspected of threatening or assaulting a federal law enforcement officer or interfering with federal law enforcement operations,” she said.
ICE is part of Homeland Security.
Anti-ICE protests have raged for months in Portland, Oregon, and have recently ramped up in Chicago, where ICE has begun a deportation operation.
Resistance to ICE has long been part of the immigration landscape, with illegal immigrant targets particularly battling to avoid arrest.
But this last year has seen a marked increase in reports of U.S. citizens attempting to intervene and thwart ICE arrests, cheered on by immigration activists and Trump critics who say ICE has become too aggressive in carrying out its duties under the law.
Ms. Bondi said some anti-ICE protests show a striking degree of planning, coordination and funding.
She vowed to go after those support networks with aiding and abetting or conspiracy charges.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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