from the just-making-shit-up dept
Using statistics to lie is so commonplace, it’s hardly worth noting. But the DHS can’t even be bothered to use statistics to lie. Instead, it just repeats the lie and uses this lie to engage in circular reasoning.
Washington Post columnist Philip Bump angered ICE by asking a simple question: why are so many ICE agents wearing masks when engaging in raids? The only answer is the truth: they’re trying to dodge accountability for their actions. If they can’t be seen, they can’t be named, shamed, or sued.
Acting ICE director Todd Lyons was granted space in the Washington Post to print a rebuttal to Bump’s column. He claimed ICE agents were covering up to protect themselves against threats to them and their families. To support his claim, he offered this startling stat from the DHS:
Since President Donald Trump returned to office, ICE officers have seen a staggering 413 percent increase in assaults against them.
Lyons was kind enough to link the source of this statistic. But that didn’t help anything, because the link led to nothing more than current DHS frontmouth Tricia McLaughlin saying this exact same thing without offering any statistical support for her claim:
“Even during National Police Week, the media, members of Congress, and sanctuary politicians have demonized ICE and CBP officers who bravely serve their country,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Attacks and smears against ICE have resulted in officers facing a 413% increase in assaults. We are setting the facts straight and reassuring America that President Trump and Secretary Noem will continue to support ICE and CBP in their efforts to make America safe again.
The statistic is presented without support or context. Even given the expansive definition of the word “assault,” which can mean anything from actual physical assault to simply bumping into an officer to making the mistake of receiving a beating from an ICE agent, the stat is meaningless. There’s no starting point and no previous number to compare it to.
Philip Bump decided to dig into this mysterious figure after Lyons’ response in the op-ed pages, hoping to find an origin for this “413% increase in assaults” claim. What he found out using the government’s own statistics is that this figure is completely made up.
Here I will point out that Customs and Border Protection offers monthly data on the number of assaults on its officers. The year-to-date total is 20 percent lower than it was in 2024.
In fact, the data shows assaults on CBP officers have been steadily dropping since 2022. If the current trend in assaults remains steady, 2025 will end with fewer assaults than in 2024 (438 vs 457).
Granted, CBP isn’t ICE. But since ICE won’t actually release assault numbers, it will do for a rough comparison. (In fact, its whole stats section — even the stuff it wants the public to know — is littered with 502 errors.)
Information on assaults on ICE officers is nearly nonexistent, as Bump discovered:
I was able to find Justice Department and DHS news releases documenting a number of assaults against ICE officers since January — assaults targeting 12 individuals. Five of them were targeted at ICE facilities in California and Texas. An ICE news release also mentioned assaults during a sweep in Nebraska, though the announcement blurred accusations of “threatening to assault” and “assaulting.” It also didn’t include a total number of officers targeted.
For context, ICE announced in April that it had conducted 66,463 arrests since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
ICE refused to respond to Bump’s requests for data supporting the 413% increase in assaults claim. Then it decided to double-down, mere hours after Bump’s second column went live.
A DHS press release, sent out on June 20, makes an even more incredible claim about assaults on ICE officers:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released new statistics on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facing a 500% increase in assaults against them while carrying out immigration enforcement operations.
Oh, wow! There’s a link in that statement! Let’s just click on it and continue on to the statistical source of this new claim… oh wait:
Jesus Fucking Christ.
I’ll just quote the pop-up directly so you can perform your spit-take at your leisure:
You are now leaving the Department of Homeland Security’s website and headed towards:
Are you sure you want to proceed?
That’s right. The official government site is directing readers to view this “statistic” at far-right “news” outlet Breitbart. If you dare to click through, you still won’t find any actual statistics. You’ll just find the same claim repeated by the DHS spokesperson, this time surrounded by Breitbart branding.
“Today, the Department of Homeland Security released new data revealing that ICE law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Breitbart News.
But there is no “new data.” There’s only a new number — one still disconnected from anything that resembles “data.” There’s no link to data in the Breitbart article. And there’s no link to any data contained anywhere on either the DHS or ICE websites that would support this completely fabricated claim the DHS continues to pretend is based in reality.
This is a post-truth administration. It can’t even be bothered to manipulate data to make it appear as though its bullshit has a factual basis. Instead, it just says stuff and when anyone asks questions, it refuses to answer them, choosing instead to speak to pro-Trump publications that will print any stupid bullshit that happens to fall out of administration officials’ mouths.
ICE is now operating in a way it never has before. It’s performing broad daylight raids utilizing officers dressed like armed kidnappers. If there’s an increase in assaults, it might roughly track with the increase in raids. But there’s absolutely no factual basis for these absolute lies being told by DHS and ICE officials. And there’s still no justification for ICE’s rebranding as a Gestapo-esque force completely devoid of identification or accountability.
Filed Under: bullshit, dhs, ice, mass deportation, tricia mclaughlin
