Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the deployment of Department of Justice agents to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities amid a surge in violence.
Several ICE facilities have been attacked over the past few months, the most severe of which involved a gunman firing at a facility on Wednesday, killing a detainee and himself. Bondi announced on Friday night the first major preventive measure by the federal government to prevent further attacks, deploying agents to protect the facilities and devoting more resources to helping ICE’s efforts.
“I have witnessed the continued onslaught of violence perpetrated against ICE officers across our country. The Department of Justice will not stand idly by in the face of such lawlessness. At my direction, I am deploying DOJ agents to ICE facilities—and wherever ICE comes under siege—to safeguard federal agents, protect federal property, and immediately arrest all individuals engaged in any federal crime,” Bondi said in a post on X.
She also announced efforts connected to President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle left-wing terrorist networks, instructing the DOJ to investigate individuals and entities connected to violence and obstruction against federal agents.
“The Department of Justice will seek the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs, including conspiracy offenses, assault offenses, civil disorder offenses, and terrorism offenses. While these never-ending attacks are designed to break our will, they only strengthen our resolve to complete the work begun,” Bondi continued.
She also said she instructed the FBI, DEA, ATF, and USMS to increase cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport “all illegal aliens present in our country.”
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Violence and threats against ICE personnel and facilities spurred outrage on the Right, already angered by the murder of Iryna Zarutska and the assassination of Charlie Kirk earlier this month. Some rage was directed at Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, over the perception that not enough was being done to disrupt and counter left-wing activists and militants.
Bondi’s comment that individuals “obstructing” law enforcement will be treated as domestic terrorism could disrupt protests at several ICE facilities, such as one in Chicago, which has been mobbed by protesters for days. A congressional candidate, Kat Abugazaleh, has posted footage of her and other protesters engaged in what Bondi may be referring to: blocking the entry and exit of ICE vehicles from the facility.
