America is staring down a hard truth: the “peaceful” veneer of some protests is wearing thin as violent rhetoric and explicit threats against federal officers become routine. Patriots who love this country and respect the rule of law are watching with alarm as once-respectable institutions and movements normalize talk of killing law-enforcement and federal agents. This is not mere political theater — it is a direct threat to public safety that demands clarity from leaders on both sides of the aisle.
In New York, law enforcement arrested a man who allegedly boasted he intended to show up to a Manhattan No Kings protest with firebombs to “fight ICE agents,” a reminder that these demonstrations can provide cover for violent intentions and that officials must be ruthless in pursuing real threats. Citizens who report suspicious behavior did their duty; now prosecutors must do theirs and ensure anyone who traffics in terroristic threats faces the full weight of the law. Americans should never be told to shrug and accept threats as part of protest culture.
Worse still, federal investigators recently uncovered an online post promising bounties for the murder of ICE officers — a bounty scheme openly promoted on social media that led to an arrest. When killers are incentivized with money and social approval, we do not live in a civil society; we live in a public square where violence is bankrolled and celebrated by some on the left. Tech platforms and law enforcement must work together to remove these violent calls to action and prosecute the people who make them.
That threat environment is not hypothetical. The deadly sniper attack on a Dallas ICE facility was investigated as an ideologically motivated assault, with the FBI finding physical evidence suggesting the attack was aimed at immigration enforcement. This is the predictable fruit of months of dehumanizing rhetoric and the refusal of some elites to denounce violent language when it’s convenient for their politics. We owe it to the victims and to the brave agents who serve our country to call this what it is: political violence, and we must treat it as a national-security problem.
Federal prosecutors have even moved to use terrorism statutes in some cases tied to left-wing militants who allegedly attacked immigration facilities, signaling that these are not isolated incidents but part of a pattern of organized, ideologically driven violence. If the justice system is serious about deterring politically motivated attacks, charging and convicting those who plan and execute these plots is a step we cannot skip. Our prosecutors and judges must stop treating political violence with kid gloves when the ideologies behind it are fashionable in certain media circles.
We are also seeing troubling allegations — including official warnings — that criminal cartels and gangs have placed bounties on ICE and CBP officers, an escalation that crosses into transnational criminality and endangers communities beyond any political debate. When foreign criminal networks and U.S. street gangs conspire to target law enforcement, every American is at risk; this is not a partisan talking point, it is an existential security issue that demands a unified, muscular response. The federal government must prioritize protecting personnel and dismantling those networks.
Mainstream media and left-leaning politicians who shrug or rationalize this violence share responsibility. There is a pattern of selective outrage: the same voices that decry violence when it comes from the right turn a blind eye when the targets are federal law-enforcement officers. Conservatives should call that out loudly and demand consistent enforcement of the law, because hypocrisy only fuels more danger and corrodes public trust.
Patriotic Americans must stand with the brave men and women who enforce our immigration laws and keep our communities safe while still reforming a broken system through the ballot box and legitimate debate. We can defend our borders, support lawful order, and still safeguard civil liberties — but we will not tolerate a culture that rewards or excuses calls to murder federal agents. The time for clear leadership, prosecutions, and a return to lawful, peaceful protest is now.
