Claims of rise in assaults against ICE not seen in available data

By Ben Markus and Allison Sherry
Oct. 2, 2025, 3:38 pm

In June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials made an eye-popping claim ...

“Our officers are facing a 413 percent increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murders (sic), rapists and gang members,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said ...

Then, as cities and states began to question the tactics used by ICE agents to conceal their identities with masks and street clothes while conducting rapid smash-and-grab operations to detain immigrants, the number of assaults ICE claimed were being endured by agents nationwide escalated at an astonishing rate.

A week after the 413 percent increase claim, ICE said assaults on agents had now jumped 500 percent, according to Homeland Security. By July 8, it was up 700 percent. A week later, it was 830 percent.

By early August, the head of ICE said in a television interview that the number of assaults on ICE officers had recently gone up more than “1,000” percent. ICE and Homeland Security officials never made clear what they were comparing it to in the past, and released no data to support the big numbers. Just last week, President Donald Trump said in an executive order that the 1,000 percent increase was as compared to the same period a year ago ...

... despite repeated requests from CPR News for data underlying the claims of a massive jump in assaults justifying the use of masks, concealed identities and a surge of federal law enforcement in American cities, ICE and Homeland Security representatives have produced nothing but a handful of anecdotes ...

https://www.cpr.org/2025/10/02/ice-agent-assault-claims-data-lacking/