The Brief

Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officials have claimed since June that assaults on their own officers have climbed sharply, with the White House insisting in a September executive order that attacks are up "more than 1,000 percent."

While the number of assaults on ICE agents have increased, there is no public evidence that they have spiked as dramatically as the federal government has claimed.

An analysis of court records shows about a 25% rise in charges for assault against federal officers through mid-September, compared with the same period a year ago.

Undisputably, ICE agents have at times faced increasingly dangerous work conditions and assaults around the nation, including some that could have turned deadly.

The agency promises that every person who assaults an ICE agent "will face the full extent of the law," according to an executive order signed by President Trump.

But Colorado Public Radio's search of federal court records for charges of assault on a federal officer over the past five years found that while the number of assaults on federal officers has risen, there was no evidence for a rise in assaults on the scale the White House claims.

Despite repeated requests for data to back up their eye-popping statistics, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly declined to provide any justification to CPR or NPR for continuing to make its assertions.

ICE is under pressure to find and remove millions of people from the country who are here without legal status. As operations and protests have increased, it's not surprising that the number of charges for assault against federal agents have climbed at least 25% this year — with increased confrontations between them and protesters in Los Angeles and Chicago. It can take weeks for charges to be filed, so the latest number may not reflect the total number of assaults that have occurred recently.

Recent alleged assaults on ICE agents

Fifteen people were charged this summer after what authorities called a July 4 plot to lure ICE agents out of an Alvarado, Texas detention center, where they were then fired upon. A civilian police officer was wounded. In other cases, criminal affidavits show that Customs and Border Protection officers have been punched on patrol. Another ICE agent in California said he was dragged by a car. In Omaha, an ICE agent was slammed to the ground during an arrest and had to be hospitalized. Last month, a sniper opened fire on an ICE detention center in Texas, killing two detainees, though federal officials believe immigration agents were his target.

But even taking into account those serious incidents, together they still don't come anywhere close to the administration's claim of a 1,000% increase in assaults over just a few months.

Former FBI agent and leader Bob Pence said that when law enforcement officers engage in hype or make outright misleading statements, it jeopardizes trust in the criminal justice system.

Pence, a 30-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation wrote a book published in 2020, "My Non-Political FBI: From Hoover to a Violent America."

To Pence, exaggerating claims of assault on ICE officers has a cost.

"There are a number of ramifications, if the public can't believe what law enforcement is saying then law enforcement probably can't depend on the cooperation of citizens to report information to them accurately," he said.

Nationwide, charges of assault on all federal officers across all agencies didn't start to rise until recently.

In the last three months, case filings of assaults on all police officers nationwide jumped 74% from the previous quarter, CPR's analysis shows. Most of that increase can be attributed to clashes in Los Angeles, where ICE has engaged in large-scale enforcement operations since June. 

Those incidents have led to protests throughout that city. But those, and others nationally, have also provided indications that the public broadly is beginning to question the credibility of some of the federal government's claims.

A man in Washington, D.C., in August threw a ham sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent and was charged with assaulting a federal officer. But prosecutors, a couple of weeks later, failed to get a grand jury to indict him.

In Los Angeles, federal prosecutors attempted to get felony indictments against at least 38 people involved in those protests and civil unrest or near immigration raids. They persuaded citizens to indict their neighbors just seven times, according to local reporting. Other charges were dismissed, reduced to misdemeanors or resolved by plea deals.

For Homeland Security and ICE claims of a 1,000% increase in assaults to be true, there would also have to be thousands of other assaults that did not result in criminal charges. This despite the government's claim that all assaults on federal agents will be prosecuted.

But requests for any data kept by that agency were denied, with a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declining to cite the source of that data or the methodology used to arrive at the increase it announced in August.

They did send one email with six links to previously issued press releases, again citing a 1,000% increase in assaults without explanation. Later, DHS sent an email with press releases for 12 cases of assault on agents.

Even in cases where video does clearly show an assault — though perhaps not as dramatically as ICE says — it is no guarantee that the case will result in a conviction.

Take the case of Venezuelan Abraham Gonzalez-Romero.

Gonzalez-Romero's initial Colorado criminal cases were shaky. State prosecutors charged him with attempted murder with little evidence except that he was in possession of a firearm at a scene where shots were fired. The only witnesses to the case were also in the country without authorization and had credibility problems.

The local charges were eventually dismissed.

On Feb. 28, ICE agents were waiting for him as he left the Denver County jail, having been notified of his pending release by the Denver Sheriff after ICE asked about him. They flashed their badges and began walking towards him, he ran and was captured on jail video knocking an immigration agent to the ground.

It was a minor skirmish with no injuries. But that didn't stop his case from entering the national immigration debate.

Just a week later, House Republicans hosted a panel of big-city mayors, including from Denver, Chicago and Boston, to talk about so-called sanctuary policies.

Colorado Republican Rep. Jeff Crank told the story about Gonzalez-Romero, but he went far beyond the ICE agent's account.

"In Denver, you require that the Denver Police Department release Tren de Aragua gang members into the streets, uncuffed," Crank said, animated as he addressed Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in the House hearing. "Just last week, it resulted in an illegal Tren de Aragua member assaulting and biting — and biting! — an ICE agent … You're putting police officers at risk to score political points and it's outrageous."

But in court, federal prosecutors made no effort to prove Gonzalez-Romero bit, or even attempted to bite, an agent and his attorney said it never happened. Federal public defender Kelly Christl also said in court "there's no evidence to support that" he was a Tren de Aragua gang member. Crank's office did not respond to questions about where he got his information about the bite.

Then, despite the promise that all assaults on ICE agents would be prosecuted to the fullest extent, the government dropped the charge of assault on an officer in a plea deal. Gonzalez-Romero was sentenced to time served on a gun charge, but he remains in ICE custody in Denver.

A former ICE agent's perspective

Scott Mechkowski, a former Deputy Field Office Director for ICE in New York City, said the court filings will never fully reflect the frequency of assaults on immigration agents.

"The way it's presented and prosecuted in federal court is different for us," he said. "Like we were told — most of the time our guys got bit or they got punched — and we were told (by federal prosecutors) that's part of the job."

Mechkowski said the only people who fully collect the number of assaults on ICE officers is ICE.

Other federal jobs more perilous, according to charges filed

While not backing up the enormous increases in assaults claimed by ICE and Homeland Security leaders, the federal data does make one thing clear: At least in Colorado, in recent years it has been far more dangerous to be an employee with the federal Bureau of Prisons or the Bureau of Indian Affairs than an ICE agent.

Between 2015 and June 2025, the the largest number of assaults on federal officers in Colorado took place on Indian Country land and in the state's federal prisons.

But Denver immigration attorney Christine Hernandez said that in cases where federal officials exaggerate statistics or agents distort facts, there is a credibility cost for federal law enforcement.

Just this year, she has represented people where judges ask for evidence on links to gang affiliations and other stated facts and the prosecutors can't furnish it.

"We've never seen this before," Hernandez said. "You don't know what the government is going to say. A lot of times, they don't have evidence, they don't present evidence to back up the charging document. You're supposed to have your evidence in place. That's their job. And it's not happening."
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

(

J.W. Hendricks

/

The LA Local

)

In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.