Antifa Is Threatening Families Of Law Enforcement: Homeland Security

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Family members of law enforcement officers are facing threats from individuals affiliated with the far-left extremist group Antifa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an Oct. 10 X post.

“Antifa terrorists are threatening the families of our law enforcement. We will hunt these sickos down and put them behind bars,” the post said. “In Texas, the spouse of an ICE officer received a voicemail filled with violent threats.”

The agency uploaded an audio clip of the threat received by the spouse, in which a woman can be heard using expletives against the wife of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, comparing them to Nazis.

“Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because that’s what’s going to happen to your family,” the caller said in the expletive-filled message.

In an Oct. 10 X post, the White House said Antifa is a radical terror group explicitly calling for the overthrow of the American government.

“Under the Trump Administration, Antifa’s days are over,” it said.

The post included a video of several officials and personalities detailing threats posed by the group.

For instance, conservative influencer Cam Higby reported he was “brutally attacked and almost killed” by Antifa in Seattle and that all of his colleagues have faced violence.

In the video, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Antifa attacked police stations, attacked court houses, and doxxed law enforcement officers. “They are a terrorist group and we are coming after them,” she said.

Antifa is a far-left extremist group originating in the Soviet Union and is known for committing politically motivated violence against their opponents, whom the group typically labels as fascists.

President Donald Trump designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization in a Sept. 22 executive order, calling the group a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses campaigns of violence and terrorism to accomplish its goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and the system of law.

“Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity,” said the order.

The group then employs “elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members.”

During a roundtable discussion at the White House on Oct. 7, several journalists assaulted by Antifa shared their experiences. One journalist, Andy Ngo, senior editor at The Post Millennial, recounted being attacked by members of the group in 2019 and 2021.

Talking about an assault in Portland, Ngo said, “That was my only near-death experience in my life, and I’m quite shaken when I think about it now.”

At the event, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Antifa members do not just want to threaten law enforcement officers but also want to kill them.

FBI Director Kash Patel said disrupting Antifa’s funding was a priority and the agency will not rest until it finds every single donor and funding mechanism used by the terror outfit.

Trump vowed to take strong action against the group. “We’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us,” he said. “And that includes the people that fund them.”

Cracking Down on Antifa

In a Sept. 26 statement, the DHS said it was fighting back against Antifa violence and arrested dozens of “left-wing violent extremists” aligned to the group that have attacked law enforcement officials, killed civilians, and triggered riots across the country.

Such arrests include a 36-year-old citizen suspected of making a bomb threat on the ICE Dallas Field Office; extremists who ambushed and shot officers at the ICE facility in Prairieland, Texas; and an extremist who attempted to run over a Border Patrol agent with their car, DHS said.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal law enforcement personnel have seen a 1,000 percent increase in assaults against them. However, this hasn’t stopped officers from upholding the rule of law, she said.

“Antifa and their friends haven’t stopped us. They’re not even slowing us down,” McLaughlin said.

Trump’s designation of Antifa as a domestic terror outfit has also drawn criticism.

In a Sept. 22 statement, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said the U.S. government has never named a domestic terrorist organization in the history of the United States. Designating Antifa as such, which he said has no defined organizational structure or leadership, is “incorrect,” he said.

“It serves no purpose other than an excuse for the Trump administration to stifle dissent, investigate anyone—or any group—they don’t like, punish their enemies, and potentially label any American they want as a terrorist,” Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Stop ANTIFA Act last month, aiming to codify Trump’s executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terror group, the lawmaker’s office said in a Sept. 30 statement.

The bill instructs the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to treat the group as domestic terrorists and put a stop to the outfit’s violent suppression of political speech and its destruction of the rule of law.

“Antifa has gotten away with its evils and terrorized cities across our country for far too long,” Scott said.

“President Trump was right to fearlessly call them out as the domestic terrorists they are and to take action to stop their evils around the nation and uncover the funding behind it. I am proud to codify the president’s actions.”