from the fun-with-numbers dept
The DHS finally decided to provide the underlying stats for its exponentially increasing claims of sky-high numbers of assaults on ICE officers.
Earlier this year, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin insisted assaults were up 413%, which was parroted by acting ICE direction Todd Lyons in his whiny response to Washington Post columnist Philip Bump’s questioning of ICE officer tactics: namely, the unmarked vehicles, the refusal to identify themselves, and the fact that pretty much every person on a deportation task force seems incapable of doing the job without being dressed in camo and covering everything but their eyes with a mask.
According to Lyons and McLaughlin, the masks and lack of identification were essential to protecting ICE officers from the public, what with this massive spike in assaults on officers. Lyons’ response to Philip Bump cited McLaughlin’s public statements. The DHS’s public statements cited… absolutely nothing.
Since ICE refuses to release stats on assaults on officers, Philip Bump went digging into CBP stats to see if they were also increasing. They weren’t. In fact, assaults on CBP officers have been trending downward since 2022 and, if the rate remains consistent, there will be fewer assaults this year than last year.
ICE and the DHS doubled down when questioned, claiming a few days later the increase in the number of assaults was now 500%. To support this claim, the DHS’s official government website linked to… an article on right-wing rag Breitbart, I shit you not. And this article didn’t contain any stats. All it contained was a direct quote from DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin about the 500% increase.
So far, all the DHS has given the public is statements that are closed loops. DHS says assaults are up 500%! Here’s a link to the DHS saying assaults are up 500%.
Maybe the DHS should have just continued doing that. At least that would have looked slightly less stupid than the actual truth. Bill Melugin (of all people), a Fox News correspondent, managed to secure the official stats from the DHS. And, as Jessice Pishko noted on Bluesky, the total number of assaults is laughably low.
If you can’t read/see the post, this is what Pishko said about the assault claims:
That 700% number — from 10 to 79. Considering there have been thousands more encounters this is uniquely unimpressive. (Also, I would like to see each of these 79 reports bc I have a guess who started it.)
The screenshot of Melugin’s tweet has the receipts:
I asked DHS for the underlying raw data:
1/21/2024 – 6/30/24 10 assaults
1/21/2025 – 6/30/2025 79 assaults
That’s it. Less than 70 more assaults year-over-year. And that’s an insanely small increase, given the massive increase in ICE activity, which includes daily raids of large businesses and densely populated areas.
More than 97,000 people have been detained over Mr. Trump’s first five months in office, CBS News’ analysis found, while ICE arrests, which do not always result in detentions, topped 100,000 earlier this month.
A record 59,000 people were currently being held in ICE detention as of June 23 — nearly half of them with no criminal record, CBS News reported last week.
Even if you choose to believe every assault reported here is actually an “assault” (rather than someone inadvertently bumping an officer, standing too close to an officer, “contempt of cop,” swearing at an officer, throwing a snowball at an officer, etc.), the government action far outpaces the corresponding increase in assaults. Those are rookie numbers, what with the number of officers involved in domestic terrorism mass deportation efforts.
So, now that we know the truth, we’re back where we started: DHS and ICE look absolutely ridiculous claiming immigration enforcement work is so dangerous every officer needs to hide their face and drive around in unmarked vehicles like the kidnappers they are. The next time administration officials claim there’s been another spike in assaults, remember it only takes ten assault allegations from officers to add another 100% to the total.
Filed Under: bullshit, dhs, ice, mass deportations, tricia mclaughlin
