File photo: US attorney general Pam Bondi (Picture credit: AP)
US attorney general Pam Bondi announced Friday that justice department agents will be deployed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities to safeguard officers and federal property following a deadly attack at a Dallas ICE field office earlier this week.”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 wrote on X. The deployment follows a Wednesday shooting at the Dallas ICE facility that killed one detainee and left two others critically injured. Images released by FBI director Kash Patel indicated the shooter had written “ANTI-ICE” on one of the rounds.
No federal officers were harmed in the incident (New York Times). The Dallas attack was the latest in a series of assaults targeting ICE officers and facilities in Texas, including July shootings in Alvarado and McAllen.Bondi also directed the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate what she described as acts of “domestic terrorism” against federal agents. “The Department of Justice will seek the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs,” she said. The justice department oversees multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, and ATF, though Bondi did not specify which units will be deployed, as per CBS News. The announcement comes as ICE operations have ramped up under the Trump administration, drawing protests and confrontations at facilities in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere.Recent clashes include Democratic lawmakers confronting ICE officers in Newark, New Jersey, in May, and federal agents using tear gas during a protest outside a California farm in July. Last week, a Democratic mayor in Illinois running for Congress was also teargassed during a protest at a suburban Chicago ICE site, according to CNN.
