DHS Reports More Than 180 Vehicle Attacks On Law Enforcement

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Immigration officers have faced 182 vehicular attacks since President Donald Trump took office last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Feb. 3 statement.

Out of the 182 attacks between Jan. 21, 2025, and Jan. 24, 2026, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers faced 114, up by 124 percent from the 51 attacks during the same time period the previous year. The remaining 68 attacks were faced by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Attacks on ICE are up by 3,300 percent from two assaults previously, according to the DHS.

In an attack in September, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala hit and injured an ICE officer with his car while trying to evade arrest. The incident happened during a traffic stop when the man put his car in reverse and hit the officer in the leg, nearly crushing the officer. The foreign national was eventually arrested.

In another attack earlier last month, two suspected associates of the Tren de Aragua gang weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol. One agent took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting the illegal immigrants. No law enforcement personnel suffered injuries, while the illegal immigrants were hospitalized.

In its recent statement, DHS listed out several other similar vehicular attacks against immigration officers. The department cited DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s warning that anyone who “lay a hand on a law enforcement officer” would be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Sanctuary politicians with their rhetoric comparing ICE to the Nazi Gestapo, slave patrols, and the secret police and encouraging illegal aliens to evade arrest have incited violence against law enforcement,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in the Feb. 3 press release.

Democratic lawmakers have criticized the actions of immigration officers under the Trump administration.

In a Jan. 27 statement, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz characterized the immigration enforcement crackdown in the state as a “campaign of organized brutality” against people.

He criticized immigration agents for shooting to death two individuals in the state, and accused them of attacking “countless” protesters and bystanders.

One of the individuals was protestor Renee Good, whom an ICE officer shot on Jan. 7. Federal authorities say the officer acted in self-defense as Good allegedly attempted to hit the person with her vehicle during an enforcement operation.

The second individual, Alex Pretti, 37, was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. Pretti allegedly carried a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and was shot during an attempt to disarm him.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who voted against a bill to fund DHS, justified his voting decision by alleging “cruelty” committed by ICE and CBP, according to a Jan. 29 statement from the lawmaker’s office.

ICE and CBP “have terrorized American cities, killed U.S. citizens, and detained innocent children. They continue to go after people with no criminal backgrounds, including arresting U.S. citizens exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a Jan. 26 statement, DHS said there has been an 8,000 percent increase in death threats and a more than 1,300 percent surge in assaults against law enforcement officers.

DHS published the transcript of a voicemail received by an ICE officer in Minnesota last month, in which the caller asks the officer to “kill yourself,” wishing that his wife and both parents die. The caller characterizes the officer as a “murderer” and a “traitor to the American people.”

McLaughlin said the “unprecedented” violence against law enforcement officers was the result of “repeated vilification and demonization” of the personnel by lawmakers.

The officers “get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, we just want to go home to our families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop,” she said.

Multiple incidents of assault on immigration officers have occurred over the past month.

On Jan. 14, DHS said in an X post that an ICE agent was hospitalized after being ambushed and attacked with a shovel by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant.

A couple of weeks later, on Jan. 28, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that 16 protesters in Minneapolis were arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers.