President Donald Trump on Monday addressed a wave of violent attacks targeting federal immigration agents, pledging “very severe” consequences for anyone behind what officials describe as organized ambushes on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
During remarks at the White House, Trump took questions from NTD reporter Iris Tao about assaults on ICE officers and teams, including a shooting in Dallas and a Chicago incident over the weekend in which a convoy of cars boxed in ICE vehicles before one rammed into a government truck. Tao cited Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s comments that the attacks appear coordinated.
“Very severe,” Trump said when asked about the consequences. “We’re going to find out who’s going after our federal agents.”
Trump described Chicago and other major cities as war zones plagued by violent crime.
“They’ve had probably 50 murders in the last six or seven months, many, many people shot,” he said. “It’s like a war zone. And then I listen to the governor and the mayor get up and say how they have it under control. They don't,” Trump said.
“We have a safe city in Washington. Memphis will very soon have a safe city. Chicago can be very, very safe,” Trump added. “We’re going to make Chicago really great again, and we’re going to stop this crime. Then we’re going to go to another one, and we’re going to go city by city. We’re going to have safe cities.”
Trump also suggested he would invoke the Insurrection Act if governors or courts blocked federal efforts to restore order. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that. I want to make sure that people aren't killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe,” he said.
“We’re going to have a country that you can be proud of, not a country you read about every day where somebody gets mugged from behind or hit over the head with a baseball bat,” Trump said.
Democratic officials have frequently criticized ICE operations, limited cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and often frame the agency as overreaching its authority or likening it to “secret police.” In September, Newsom signed the ‘No Secret Police Act,’ which restricts ICE agents from wearing face masks in California.
Another suspect, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, was also apprehended. Violence escalated as crowds threw smoke, gas, rocks, and bottles, prompting the arrest of additional suspected domestic terrorists. An ICE vehicle was rammed into, and several officers were hospitalized. Federal officials stated attacks on law enforcement would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, according to Homeland Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.