Federal law enforcement officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have experienced a significant rise in assaults and threats, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The agency reports that incidents against ICE personnel have increased by more than 1000%, with officers and their families facing harassment both online and at their homes.
In one case from September, three women were indicted by a federal grand jury after livestreaming themselves following an ICE agent to his residence and posting the officer’s address on Instagram. Upon arrival, they shouted phrases such as “neighbor is ICE,” “la migra lives here,” and “ICE lives on your street and you should know.”
DHS also described direct threats made against the families of agents. In Texas, an ICE officer’s spouse received a threatening phone call stating: “I don’t know how you let your husband work for ICE, and you sleep at night. F*** you, f*** your family. I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F*** you. Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.” Another incident involved a Facebook message sent by Robert Buckley of Lakeville, Massachusetts: “Your husband, the ICE man is a f*** and retribution will come your way eventually.”
Online doxxing has also targeted officers. An investigation led by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility in San Diego resulted in the arrest of Gregory John Curcio, who allegedly posted personal information about an ICE attorney online while urging others to harass her. Court documents indicate that Curcio began a campaign of harassment using multiple accounts starting in January 2024, including urging others to make false emergency calls targeting her home.
There have been public displays aimed at intimidating officers as well. In Houston, effigies resembling ICE agents were hung from makeshift gallows surrounded by coffins, barbed wire, and marked with a Mexican flag.
The DHS urges anyone aware of doxxing or harassment against ICE officers to report these incidents through its hotline or online tip form.
“These type of threats against our brave ICE law enforcement officers and their families are disgusting. These officers risk their lives every day to arrest murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our communities. Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
