The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week said that immigration agents now face a triple-digit percent increase in assaults while enforcing federal laws. A top agency official blamed the rhetoric used by Democratic politicians for the increase.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released the data on Thursday, revealing a 500 percent increase in assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during enforcement operations.
The data was released shortly after McLaughlin said an agent was “dragged 50 yards by a car while arresting an illegal alien sex offender,” in Minnesota, where Governor Tim Walz has recently compared ICE agents to the “Gestapo,” the secret police employed by genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust.
“Make no mistake, Democrat politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor Wu of Boston, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Bass of Los Angeles are contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE,” said McLAughlin.
She added, “From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is despicable. This violence against ICE must end.”
Though her condemnation of Democratic officials did not include Nashville’s mayor, it also comes as U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) leads a congressional probe into the actions taken by Mayor Freddie O’Connell in response to the federal immigration enforcement that saw nearly 200 illegal immigrants detained last month.
After the enforcement operation began, O’Connell modified an executive order requiring all Metro employees to report interactions with federal immigration agents to the mayor and his Office of New Americans. Later, he was accused of doxxing when the names of agents were released through a public portal tied to the order.
The mayor on Wednesday denied this amounted to doxxing, the criminal release of private information, and asserted that “masked” ICE agents posed a greater threat.
Acknowledging the public portal was “something new,” O’Connell acknowledged, “We’ve obviously had some concerns from DHS about the release of those names.”
Challenged by a reporter about whether he acknowledged the concern by DHS about the publicly listed names posing a threat to agents, O’Connell replied that the enforcement by masked agents was a greater concern to his administration.
“I wouldn’t say it was an endangerment process, I would say they may have some concerns,” said O’Connell. “I’m far more concerned about the overall dynamic we have about unmarked, unidentifiable, masked people whisking people into vehicles. I think that’s a bigger concern.”
In response to the enforcement operation in May, O’Connell also announced the start of a “Belonging Fund” as a partnership between the city and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT), which received seed money from two nonprofits that received millions in Biden-era stimulus money from Metro Nashville.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
If middle Tennessee wasn’t invaded by illegal terrorists dating back to the terrorist loving regime of Obama then there wouldn’t be a need for ICE agents to do the work failed by State of TN.
Don’t let the economic development woke corruption clan fool you. They dragged in the undesirables and now those undesirables are fully funded terrorists gangsters planted in every community.
This is embarrassing, liberal mayors defund law enforcement, they obstruct federal assistance and generally disrespect the law of the land. Then, when problems occur, they whine to the federal government requesting assistance. the streets of Nashville are becoming unsafe. This mayor needs to be voted out of office. He is an embarrassment.
“Office of New Americans”? People like Freddie need to be eliminated by any means necessary.
Mayor Freddie is a much bigger embarrassment to Tennessee than Megan Berry was. For him to say that our ICE agents are a bigger threat that violent illegals are is absurd!
Fast Freddie your nose grows longer everyday. I’m more concerned about the safety of our ICE agents. You let our downtown streets be overtaken by soccer fan’s shooting fireworks into the crowd. Hope your removal happens quickly.