Tom Homan condemns attacks on ICE: ‘The rhetoric has to stop’
Fox News’ Jonathan Hunt provides updates on the attack on a police officer in Alvarado, Texas, and the attack on an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon. Border czar Tom Homan discusses the Trump administration’s investment in immigration enforcement.
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The White House is calling on Democrats in Congress to ramp down heated language toward U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and agents for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), after a gunman opened fire upon Border Patrol agents at an annex facility in McAllen, Texas, Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security reported earlier in July that assaults against ICE officers and other federal immigration agents have risen nearly 700% in comparison to 2024.
Specifically, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., should set up a meeting with ICE and CBP agents.
ICE DIRECTOR SAYS PROGRESSIVE DEM SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO VOTERS AFTER CALLING AGENCY ‘TERRORIST FORCE’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Washington.
“We certainly call on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric against ICE and Border Patrol agents, who, again, are everyday men and women. I would encourage AOC and other Democrats to actually meet with the United States Border Patrol,” Leavitt told reporters on Monday. “These are honorable Americans who are just simply trying to do their job to enforce the law. They go home to their families every night, just like we all do, and they deserve respect and dignity for trying to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to remove public safety threats from our communities.”
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
DHS: ASSAULTS ON ICE NOW UP NEARLY 700% OVER SAME TIME LAST YEAR
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks at the NYCLU’s May Day rally for workers’ and immigrants’ rights at Foley Square, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Agents and local police shot and killed the gunman who opened fire on Border Patrol agents in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Monday and shot a local police officer, according to Department of Homeland Security officials.
“Both Border Patrol agents and local police helped neutralize the shooter,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email to Fox News Digital Monday. “Two officers and a Border Patrol employee were injured, including one shot in the knee. All three have gone to the hospital. This is an ongoing investigation led by the FBI.”
The attack comes on the heels of another shooting near ICE’s Prairieland Detention Facility Friday, where a Texas police officer was shot in the neck.
ICE AGENT SHARES FEARS ABOUT FAMILY SAFETY AS ASSAULTS ON OFFICIALS SURGE
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., accused ICE of acting “like a terrorist force” in June. Jayapal defended her comments in an interview with CNN Wednesday, after the White House demanded an apology from the lawmaker.
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“What is deranged and cruel and outrageous is that, literally, we are seeing ICE agents, I assume they‘re ICE agents,” Jayapal said in an interview with CNN. “They say they are. They don‘t have any identification. They‘re wearing masks. They‘re in plain clothes. They are coming and kidnapping and disappearing people on the streets of the United States.”
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
