When the Arsonist Cries About the Smoke

DHS Wants to Blame Everyone But Themselves for the Violence ICE Incites

“ICE agents now face a 500% increase in assaults against them.”

— Department of Homeland Security, June 20, 2025

That’s the headline DHS chose to publish this morning.

Not: “ICE agents continue to conduct unlawful raids.”

Not: “DHS investigates use of flash grenades on peaceful demonstrators.”

Not even: “Federal agents accused of assault and kidnapping in Los Angeles.”

No.

The federal government’s message today is clear: ICE agents are the victims now.

And the people speaking up — local leaders, community organizers, journalists, and legal advocates — are to blame for the violence on our streets.

Let’s set the record straight.

DHS and ICE Can’t Set Fire to a City and Then Complain About the Heat

What we’re seeing across Los Angeles County, Orange County and beyond isn’t the result of some wild anti-government radicalism.

It’s the result of ICE conducting:

• Unlawful detentions without probable cause

• Warrantless home entries

• Assaults using flashbangs, tear gas, and pepper spray on peaceful crowds

• Fabricated reports and false pretenses used to arrest U.S. citizens

• Militarized deployments into civilian neighborhoods without local consent

And when people record it?

Or protest it?

Or speak out against it?

DHS turns around and calls them the problem.

The Real Spin in DHS’s Statement

The June 20 DHS press release doesn’t cite:

• Independent reviews of incidents

• Use-of-force investigations

• Internal discipline records

Instead, it blames:

• “Inaccurate information shared online”

• “False claims about agents’ actions”

• And local leaders who had the audacity to call for de-escalation and oversight

In other words:

It’s not ICE’s behavior that’s the issue. It’s the public’s reaction to it.

Local Leaders Are Right to Speak Out

When city council members, mayors, and even law enforcement leaders express concern about how ICE is operating, they are not “spreading misinformation.”

They are doing their jobs.

When they question why agents are storming city streets in tactical gear and assaulting citizens in masks, without warrants or identification, they are defending the Constitution — something DHS leadership seems to have forgotten how to do.

It is ICE’s refusal to operate under professional law enforcement standards — not local criticism — that’s threatening agent safety.

Let me be clear: True public safety starts with legitimacy. ICE has none.

This is How You Destroy Trust — and Invite Resistance

ICE shows up unannounced.

It refuses to present judicial warrants.

It detains people for their accent or skin tone.

It misrepresents arrests in official reports.

It deploys overwhelming force in neighborhoods already living in fear.

Then it tells local police to step aside and communities to shut up.

And when people don’t?

They call it assault.

If You Want Fewer Confrontations, Here’s What DHS Can Do:

• Train your agents like real peace officers — or don’t deploy them.

• Fire agents who lie in arrest reports or engage in excessive force.

• End warrantless street-level detentions based on race or accent.

• Repeal rules that allow administrative warrants to be used like criminal ones.

• Restore authority of local officials to govern their own communities.

• Accept that public criticism is not a threat — it’s accountability.

What Communities Still Need to Know

You are not the problem.

ICE agents violating the Constitution are the problem.

Know your rights. Teach them. Assert them.

• You do not have to answer questions about where you were born.

• You do not have to let them into your home without a signed judicial warrant.

• You can ask: “Am I free to go?” — and if they say yes, you walk.

• If they detain or move you without cause, that may be kidnappingor false arrest.

• Document everything: location, time, badge number, video if possible.

A Call to Every Institution with a Platform or a Pulpit

To churches, nonprofits, and neighborhood councils:

Don’t just pass out rights cards. Hold rights-training forums.

Host hotlines. Partner with legal defense groups.

Preach the truth: Fear is not compliance. Silence is not peace.

To elected officials and state attorneys general:

Investigate every ICE assault like you would any other.

If federal agents commit crimes on your streets — prosecute them.

Federal status does not come with immunity.

To law enforcement leaders:

If you stand by while federal agents undermine every best practice of crowd control, due process, and proportionality — you’re complicit.

Final Word

When the government uses lies, violence, and spin to criminalize resistance and shield its own misconduct, that’s not law enforcement.

That’s propaganda enforcement.

The Constitution doesn’t disappear when ICE arrives.

Neither should your rights — or your voice.

If DHS wants fewer headlines, fewer injuries, and fewer confrontations, there’s a simple solution: Follow the damn law.

Until then, we’ll keep telling the truth.

And we’ll keep calling them out.

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Educate your community. Speak up when they want you silent.

Because when lawlessness wears a badge and a federal patch, the only defense left is us.