The federal prosecutor confronted the jury, brandishing the merchandise he mentioned had been “used as a sword” to assault a federal officer throughout a July protest in downtown Los Angeles.
The item that Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Kibbe mentioned was wielded as a weapon: An umbrella that an investigator wanted a particular scale to weigh as a result of it was lower than one pound.
For months, Trump administration officers have cited violence towards federal regulation enforcement officers finishing up the president’s deportation marketing campaign as justification for aggressive ways, together with threats to deploy the Nationwide Guard and U.S. Marines. The Division of Homeland Safety has touted a staggering determine, claiming a 1,000% improve in assaults towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers.
However a Instances evaluation of courtroom data associated to assaults on federal regulation enforcement in Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Ore., Chicago and Washington, D.C., reveals nearly all of the alleged assaults resulted in no harm to an agent. In roughly 42% of the instances The Instances reviewed, federal regulation enforcement officers had been both shoved, spat on or flailed at, or had water bottles thrown at them, based on courtroom affidavits.
Throughout the umbrella assault trial in October, prosecutors offered no proof of any accidents. In L.A. and throughout the nation, defendants accused of assaulting federal officers have gained acquittals or had fees dropped. Greater than a 3rd of the instances The Instances analyzed led to dismissals or acquittals, in some cases as a result of the defendants had been deported. No instances have led to a conviction at trial.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety, responded to questions from The Instances in regards to the assault numbers with an announcement that mentioned “our officers are going through terrorist assaults, being shot at, having vehicles getting used as weapons towards them, bomb threats, assaults, doxxing.”
McLaughlin highlighted a case through which she mentioned an ICE officer wanted 13 stitches and suffered burns after he was crushed with a metallic espresso cup by an undocumented immigrant in Houston final month. In one other that she flagged, an alleged gang member in Nebraska brutally beat an ICE agent in June, leaving them hospitalized with critical head accidents.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, responded to questions from The Instances with an announcement that mentioned “our officers are going through terrorist assaults, being shot at, having vehicles getting used as weapons towards them, bomb threats, assaults, doxxing.”
(Jose Luis Magana / Related Press)
President Trump invoked the 1,000% improve determine in a memo directing federal regulation enforcement teams to analyze “home terrorism,” and federal officers have cited the quantity repeatedly to justify aggressive ways towards protesters and the necessity for brokers to put on masks to keep away from being recognized.
Homeland Safety officers ignored a number of requests to launch a whole listing of alleged assaults. In late November, the company introduced a 1,153% improve in assaults on ICE brokers from Jan. 21 to Nov. 21, with 238 reported assaults this 12 months in comparison with 19 in the identical timeframe in 2024.
The 5 jurisdictions The Instances analyzed had been the federal districts the place the Trump administration has performed large-scale regulation enforcement and immigration operations or threatened to deploy the army due to the supposed hazard confronted by federal brokers. In these areas, 163 instances of assault of a federal officer had been filed between Jan. 21 and Nov. 21. That’s up from 129 in the identical areas and timeframe in 2024, a rise of 26%. An NPR evaluation got here up with an identical determine earlier this 12 months.
The 2024 knowledge can also be inflated by the submitting of assault fees by prosecutors in Washington towards rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has pardoned all of these defendants.
The Instances evaluation captured assaults towards all varieties of federal officers. ICE or Border Patrol brokers had been described as victims in about 60% of these instances.
David Bier, director of immigration research on the Cato Institute, a libertarian assume tank, mentioned the federal government is counting on the surprising percentages, with out correct context, to advance a story.
“They’re justifying why they should use excessive drive towards the folks they’re arresting and the general public as they work together with people on the road,” he mentioned. “I believe that’s the first function, to say: ‘We’re below assault. We’re being assaulted every day and due to this fact we’d like to have the ability to use excessive drive together with army help.’”
In simply over half of the instances scrutinized by The Instances, courtroom data present the officer who was allegedly assaulted suffered no bodily harm. In roughly 30% of the instances, officers sustained minor accidents equivalent to bruising following a punch, kick or chew.
Twenty-six incidents resulted in a critical harm or required an agent to hunt medical consideration. A Portland ICE agent was smashed within the head with a rock, federal brokers suffered dislocated or fractured fingers in Los Angeles and a few brokers mentioned they had been attacked with their very own batons or stun weapons whereas attempting to detain folks.
Protesters at an anti-ICE demonstration at Los Angeles Metropolis Corridor on June 15.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Instances)
The Instances’ evaluation doesn’t seize critical incidents in different jurisdictions, or assaults the place no fees had been filed. Assailants have opened fireplace twice this 12 months on ICE amenities in Texas, although the folks struck by bullets had been immigrant detainees and an area police officer.
The one documented incident through which a federal regulation enforcement officer was shot throughout an immigration enforcement motion this 12 months occurred in Los Angeles in October — when a bullet from an ICE agent’s gun ricocheted right into a deputy marshal’s hand throughout a automobile cease.
One Nationwide Guard member was killed and one other was severely wounded in a capturing in Washington final week. Each had been a part of Trump’s anti-crime deployment. Officers have mentioned the gunman is from Afghanistan and was admitted to the U.S. in 2021 as a part of a Biden administration program to assist folks fleeing the Taliban, and his asylum software was accredited below Trump.
An undocumented immigrant from Mexico was additionally arrested after allegedly capturing at Border Patrol brokers in Chicago on Nov. 8, based on the Division of Homeland Safety. A neighborhood Fox Information affiliate recognized the suspect as Hector Gomez, however a legal criticism makes no point out of capturing at brokers. DHS didn’t reply to inquiries from the Fox affiliate.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is amongst these questioning the administration’s claims. Throughout a Nov. 19 subcommittee listening to titled “ICE Beneath Hearth: The Radical Left’s Campaign In opposition to Immigration Enforcement,” Padilla requested why there have been no authorities witnesses “offering info and knowledge behind the numbers that the Division of Homeland Safety so usually cites to assert a rise in assaults on its officers and brokers.”
“At present’s listening to will not be a critical try to guard regulation enforcement,” Padilla mentioned. “It’s designed to gasoline the propaganda machine and encourage much more brutal immigration enforcement operations.”
The purported weapons utilized in a number of the instances have solely fueled skepticism: A District of Columbia man was charged for throwing a Subway sandwich. In Portland, a girl was charged with assault through tambourine. In L.A., federal brokers have claimed assaults involving a hat, a piece bag, a flag — and the umbrella.
On June 7 — within the early days of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in California — Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino stood in Paramount, sounding like he was making ready his officers for battle.
Bovino, addressing brokers decked out in tactical gear as protesters gathered close by, instructed the brokers to “arrest as many individuals that contact you as you wish to, these are the overall orders all the best way to the highest.”
“All people f— will get it in the event that they contact you,” Bovino mentioned. “That is our f— metropolis.”
The Nationwide Guard was deployed the following day, with Trump publicly claiming Los Angeles was below siege.
The clip of Bovino was performed in the course of the trial of Brayan Ramos-Brito, who was accused of pushing a Border Patrol agent that day in Paramount. Video proof reveals an agent shove Ramos-Brito, however doesn’t clearly seize him shoving the agent again.
Bovino testified that merely touching an agent “may very well be assault relying on the state of affairs. Spitting on somebody may very well be assault.”
After about an hour of deliberations — and regardless of Bovino testifying that he witnessed Ramos-Brito push an agent — the jury got here again with a not responsible verdict.
In Los Angeles, courtroom data present federal prosecutors have charged 71 folks with assault on a federal officer this 12 months, with 21 of these instances ending in dismissals or acquittals. Solely 9 such instances had been filed in 2024.
Invoice Essayli, who’s functioning as L.A.’s high federal prosecutor, mentioned he wouldn’t “learn an excessive amount of” into dismissal figures.
(Damian Dovarganes / Related Press)
Throughout an October information convention, Invoice Essayli, who’s functioning as L.A.’s high federal prosecutor, mentioned he wouldn’t “learn an excessive amount of” into the dismissal figures.
“After we cost a criticism we’re on the clock, so if the brokers want extra time to gather proof typically we are going to dismiss a case with out prejudice which permits us to deliver it again at our selecting,” he mentioned.
A former ICE official, who requested to not be named out of worry of retaliation, mentioned that in prior years the U.S. legal professional’s workplace “didn’t prosecute hardly anyone” for assault — except the interplay turned violent.
“We’d get guys who would spit on us and all types of different stuff and it was like, ‘Hey, it’s a part of the job,’” the official mentioned.
Regulation enforcement specialists famous that a rise in assaults is to be anticipated, since interactions by immigration brokers with the general public have elevated dramatically in Trump’s second time period.
John Sandweg, who headed ICE below President Obama, mentioned he believes new ways are serving to drive the rise. Beneath earlier administrations, ICE targeted on focused operations.
“While you shift these ways and have brokers on the market in broad daylight, in House Depot parking tons, when you might have these cities on edge … it’s simply going to extend the variety of incidents the place some kind of an assault occurs,” he mentioned.
In plenty of instances examined by The Instances, defendants had been arrested and charged with assault after Border Patrol or ICE brokers initiated bodily contact.
Andrea Velez, a 4-foot 11-inch U.S. citizen, was accused of standing within the path of an ICE officer in downtown L.A. together with her arms prolonged, hanging his head and chest after they collided in June. Her protection legal professional beforehand mentioned masked males ran at Velez and one shoved her to the bottom. Velez, fearing she was being kidnapped, held up her work bag to protect herself.
Velez’s lawyer requested body-worn digicam video and witness statements cited within the criticism. Quickly after, prosecutors dropped the case.
In Chicago, 4 assault instances had been filed towards protesters who ignored a dispersal order exterior an immigration detention facility and flailed in response to being shoved or struck by Border Patrol brokers. One of many defendants was a 70-year-old army veteran. All fees have been dropped, data present.
Courtesy of legal professional Kacey McBroom
In one other L.A. case, a person was accused of assault for smacking an agent with a hat. Video footage from the scene in August confirmed the person, Jonathon Redondo-Rosales, swung after he was struck by a authorities automobile, as officers had been transferring to sort out him to the bottom.
In October, Marimar Martinez was shot 5 occasions by a Border Patrol agent who alleged she was following him in a automobile and interfering with a Chicago operation. Martinez allegedly collided with a CBP automobile, inflicting minor injury, based on images included in a legal criticism.
However in a sudden turnabout a month later, prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment towards Martinez. A spokesperson for the U.S. legal professional’s workplace in Illinois mentioned in an announcement that prosecutors are “consistently evaluating new info and data referring to instances and investigations.”
Martinez’s legal professional, Damon Cheronis, thanked prosecutors for doing the suitable factor after reviewing what he known as Border Patrol’s hyperbolic claims towards Martinez.
“The legal criticism made a whole lot of allegations that our consumer rammed them. There have been all these reviews that our consumer had an assault weapon or was a home terrorist,” he mentioned. “None of that was true.”
Homeland Safety officers have additionally claimed a 1,300% improve in automobile assaults towards ICE brokers; the 28 alleged assaults this 12 months since Jan. 20 marked a soar from two in 2024.
Protesters rally in entrance of Metropolis Corridor in downtown L.A. for immigrant rights, to cease mass deportations and decrying what they see as threats to democracy.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Of the 26 alleged automobile assaults captured by The Instances evaluation, 5 resulted in critical accidents. A member of a Homeland Safety job drive was hospitalized with a “potential sternum fracture” after being hit by a automobile in November in Nationwide Metropolis, simply exterior of San Diego, based on DHS.
A handful of different L.A. instances resulted in officers in search of medical analysis. One ICE agent wanted medical consideration after they had been hit with a skateboard whereas attempting to make an arrest in downtown L.A. in September, data present.
The month earlier than, Oscar Magana Reyes, who was allegedly attempting to flee an immigration arrest in San Bernardino, stole an ICE agent’s Taser and briefly incapacitated them with a shock to the groin. Reyes was indicted in October and is awaiting trial.
Though extra incidents are being reported, out there knowledge nonetheless reveals native regulation enforcement officers are way more prone to be attacked within the line of obligation than immigration brokers. L.A. County sheriff’s deputies confronted roughly 600 assaults from January to October of this 12 months, greater than double the variety of alleged on-duty assaults ICE brokers suffered nationwide from Jan. 21 to Nov. 21, based on sheriff’s division data.
Charis Kubrin, a professor of regulation, criminology and sociology at UC Irvine, mentioned the administration’s trumpeting of a greater than 1,000% improve is deceptive when the soar is coming from a baseline of virtually zero assaults towards brokers.
“That is what we name in sociology an ethical panic,” she mentioned. “An ethical panic is created when statistics and different issues are used to type of create or socially assemble an issue that’s greater than it’s.”
Alexandria Augustine sits for a portrait at her dwelling in West Hollywood. Augustine lately gained her courtroom case after being arrested whereas protesting ICE exterior of the Metropolitan Detention Middle for allegedly assaulting a federal officer.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
The trial of Alexandria Augustine, the 25-year-old lady accused of assaulting a federal officer together with her umbrella, performed out over the course of a number of days in October.
Augustine instructed The Instances she was provided totally different plea offers in the middle of just a few months, however determined to take her possibilities earlier than a jury.
“Your complete function of a whole lot of that is to maintain folks off the streets and maintain them up within the courts,” she mentioned. “They don’t anticipate us to battle again as a result of they’ve far more assets and energy than we do.”
Throughout the trial, Kibbe, the prosecutor, held up the metallic skeleton of the umbrella and instructed jurors that Augustine had hit a Federal Protecting Service inspector with it within the arm and chest.
Deputy federal public defender Aden Kahssai mentioned Augustine opened the umbrella to guard fellow protesters. It was the federal officer, she mentioned, who grabbed the umbrella, yanking the material off.
“What occurred right here was not an assault,” Kahssai instructed jurors.
When Inspector Alexandro Gutierrez took the stand, he testified that he had grabbed the umbrella as a result of it obstructed his view. He testified that Augustine then instructed him “when you f—ing need it, right here,” after which threw it at him in an overhand movement.
“These items might doubtlessly trigger critical hurt,” he instructed jurors. He testified that he wasn’t carrying a face protect and the metallic ribs of the umbrella might have poked him within the eye.
Amongst those that turned out for Augustine’s trial was Margaret Ortiz, an Military fight veteran who had been charged with assault after the material of a black flag she was holding hit a federal officer within the chin, nostril and eyes. The case towards her was later dismissed.
“I type of wished it to go to trial,” Ortiz mentioned exterior the courtroom. “It was going to be silly, identical to this.”
Throughout closing arguments, Supervising Deputy Federal Public Defender Rebecca Abel mentioned Augustine had thrown the umbrella up and it dropped down and linked with Gutierrez. The umbrella, she mentioned, “couldn’t harm a fly, not to mention a 260-pound man” in a Kevlar vest.
“It barely touched him. He was not injured,” Abel mentioned. “This case started with a protest … it ought to by no means have ended right here, in a federal courtroom.”
Inside hours, the jury got here again with its verdict: Not responsible.
Instances researcher Cary Schneider and Information and Graphics reporter Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee contributed to this report.
