U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were forced to flee after an arsonist suspect attacked an ICE field office in Yakima, Washington, on Saturday.
In a Tuesday post on X, formerly Twitter, the Department of Homeland Security announced that a “cowardly rioter” threw a rock through the window of a building that houses an ICE field office on Saturday before igniting a “small fire” at the back of the building.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that while it is not yet clear whether ICE agents were the intended targets of Saturday’s “violent acts,” local law enforcement officials are investigating the incident as an act of arson. The Department of Homeland Security also confirmed that there were no reported injuries from Saturday’s incident in Yakima.
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale,” the Department of Homeland Security stated. “Our ICE law enforcement is now facing an 830% increase in assaults against them. Secretary Noem has been clear: Anyone who seeks to harm law enforcement officers will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
READ MORE: Videos: Assaults against ICE agents increase 830% amid ‘anti-ICE rhetoric’
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The New York Post that Democrat officials, such as Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Los Angeles Mayor Karen bass, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, are “contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE.”
McLaughlin told The New York Post that while it has not yet been confirmed whether ICE officials were the intended target of Saturday’s attack against the building that houses the agency’s field office in Yakima, public signage does identify the building as an office for the Department of Homeland Security.
Pictures shared on social media by the Department of Homeland Security show the window that was damaged by the “cowardly rioter,” as well as flames and smoke rising from behind a fence that surrounds the ICE field office building in Yakima.
