WASHINGTON (TNND) — Assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents recently increased to at least 1,000%.
That’s up from 830%, according to ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons.
The sad truth to that is we’re over 1,000 (%) now,” Todd Lyons told The National News Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat during a one-on-one interview Tuesday afternoon. “We broke 1,000 last week and it’s very sad because the men and women of ICE do great, brave work every day.”
Lyons said he attributes the rise to a lot of rhetoric from the far left. He said he doesn’t appreciate it when ICE agents — and their families — are harassed or compared to Gestapos.
“It’s frustrating in the fact that a lot of people don’t truly take the time to understand the law enforcement mission that we do and see the significant public safety threats that are out there,” he said. “That’s one of the things that keeps me up at night. These threats are real and they are getting worse as they are going on.”
Still, he said, the agents are “very happy” to do their work “actually following the law” under President Donald Trump. He said that wasn’t always the case with other administrations.
Previously, the men and women of ICE have been used as a political football,” he told Jeffcoat. “Anytime you are forced to do immigration law enforcement based on executive order, where it can change every four to eight years, it’s extremely frustrating. President Trump and (Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem have given us the operability to open up that full immigration portfolio and enforce the law the way it was written — exactly how Congress did it back in the 1950s. And we are enforcing that every day. And I think you can see that with the public safety threats we are removing.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Jeffcoat also asked Lyons about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who immigration officials said plan to deport to Uganda. Abrego Garcia was back in ICE custody Monday, which was just a few days after he was released from a Tennessee jail.
Right now, there is a temporary restraining order, but ICE is ready to effectuate his lawful final order of removal and we are prepared to do that once we’re able to,” he told Jeffcoat.
Abrego Garcia had been mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration said he was a member of MS-13 and described him as dangerous.
Noem condemned his release, saying he is a human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator.
D.C. Crime Crackdown
So, far Lyons said, Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. has resulted in the arrests of more than 475 people. Lyons said all of them identified as illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes.
“Just yesterday, there was a child sex offender,” Lyons told Jeffcoat, adding that ICE and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia have tracked down MS-13 gang members, as well as members of Tren de Aragua in recent weeks. “We’ve seen some significant public safety threats that we were able to remove and we’re grateful for the cooperation we have now.”
