DOJ agents will be deployed to ICE facilities to protect federal agents, Bondi says

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday she is deploying agents from the Justice Department to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and facilities.

“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.

“I am also instructing the Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country to disrupt and investigate all entities and individuals engaged in acts of domestic terrorism, including the repeated acts of violence and obstruction against federal agents,” Bondi said. “The Department of Justice will seek the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs.”

Federal agents with the DOJ have been deployed to assist ICE since the Trump administration began ramping up immigration enforcement operations earlier this year, but this latest move comes just days after a shooting at a Dallas ICE field office, which killed one detainee and left two others in critical condition. The incident was among at least four attacks or threats on ICE or Border Patrol locations in Texas this year.

There have been several protests at ICE facilities as the Trump administration moved to aggressively crack down on immigration.

In May, Democratic lawmakers faced off with Department of Homeland Security officers at an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey, pushing and shouting at one another.

Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during the incident and detained for several hours. Two months later, Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging that she impeded and interfered with immigration officers. McIver has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In July, federal agents deployed tear gas into a crowd of protesters outside a California farm after an intense standoff.

Last week, a Democratic mayor running for Congress in Illinois was teargassed during a small protest outside an ICE facility in the suburbs of Chicago.

Friday’s move is not the first time the Trump administration has diverted personnel to assist ICE efforts. This summer, the administration mobilized National Guard troops to assist at ICE facilities.

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