The number of threats directed against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees has increased following President Donald Trump’s stance on the immigration policy – including one DHS official who found a burnt and decapitated animal on his front porch.
The threats are more violent and there are now more of them, ABC News reported.
The Trump Administration said in May that it would enforce a zero-tolerance immigration policy, and everyone who illegally crosses the southwest border with Mexico would face criminal charges.
Increasing threats to Homeland Security include burned animal carcass left on staffer’s porch https://t.co/jE6QZvvF6F pic.twitter.com/4jeH67nPh2
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) June 25, 2018
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that would keep families together during criminal proceedings.
But, Homeland Security said there was a “heightened threat against DHS employees” in response to recent government actions surrounding immigration, which was addressed in a letter sent to employees last weekend.
Claire Grady, acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, said in the letter: “This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees.”
There have been about two dozen online threats just in the past few days, mainly against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers.
A Washington, D.C. senior DHS official found a burnt and decapitated animal on his front porch.
In Portland, Oregon, protesters calling themselves “Occupy ICE PDX” camped out in front of an ICE field office for days, ABC News reported.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was bullied while eating at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., last week.
The Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America group protested at the restaurant, chanting “You’re eating a Mexican dinner as you’re deporting tens of thousands of people separated from their parents.”
She also had demonstrators play an audio recording of crying children outside her Virginia home while chanting “shame.”
“People can disagree on policy, but it is unconscionable to target our employees and advocate violence against federal law enforcement officers,” ICE spokeswoman Liz Johnson said in a statement to ABC News.
