from the fun-with-numbers dept
The DHS lastly determined to offer the underlying stats for its exponentially growing claims of sky-high numbers of assaults on ICE officers.
Earlier this yr, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin insisted assaults have been up 413%, which was parroted by performing ICE route Todd Lyons in his whiny response to Washington Put up columnist Philip Bump’s questioning of ICE officer ways: specifically, the unmarked autos, the refusal to establish themselves, and the truth that just about each individual on a deportation process pressure appears incapable of doing the job with out being wearing camo and protecting all the pieces however their eyes with a masks.
In response to Lyons and McLaughlin, the masks and lack of identification have been important to defending ICE officers from the general public, what with this huge spike in assaults on officers. Lyons’ response to Philip Bump cited McLaughlin’s public statements. The DHS’s public statements cited… completely nothing.
Since ICE refuses to launch stats on assaults on officers, Philip Bump went digging into CBP stats to see in the event that they have been additionally growing. They weren’t. In actual fact, assaults on CBP officers have been trending downward since 2022 and, if the speed stays constant, there might be fewer assaults this yr than final yr.
ICE and the DHS doubled down when questioned, claiming a number of days later the rise within the variety of assaults was now 500%. To help this declare, the DHS’s official authorities web site linked to… an article on right-wing rag Breitbart, I shit you not. And this text didn’t comprise any stats. All it contained was a direct quote from DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in regards to the 500% improve.
To date, all of the DHS has given the general public is statements which can be closed loops. DHS says assaults are up 500%! Right here’s a hyperlink to the DHS saying assaults are up 500%.
Possibly the DHS ought to have simply continued doing that. Not less than that would have seemed barely much less silly than the precise fact. Invoice Melugin (of all individuals), a Fox Information correspondent, managed to safe the official stats from the DHS. And, as Jessice Pishko famous on Bluesky, the whole variety of assaults is laughably low.
If you happen to can’t learn/see the publish, that is what Pishko mentioned in regards to the assault claims:
That 700% quantity — from 10 to 79. Contemplating there have been 1000’s extra encounters that is uniquely unimpressive. (Additionally, I want to see every of those 79 stories bc I’ve a guess who began it.)
The screenshot of Melugin’s tweet has the receipts:
I requested DHS for the underlying uncooked information:
1/21/2024 – 6/30/24 10 assaults
1/21/2025 – 6/30/2025 79 assaults
That’s it. Lower than 70 extra assaults year-over-year. And that’s an insanely small improve, given the huge improve in ICE exercise, which incorporates each day raids of huge companies and densely populated areas.
Greater than 97,000 individuals have been detained over Mr. Trump’s first 5 months in workplace, CBS Information’ evaluation discovered, whereas ICE arrests, which don’t at all times lead to detentions, topped 100,000 earlier this month.
A file 59,000 individuals have been at the moment being held in ICE detention as of June 23 — almost half of them with no prison file, CBS Information reported final week.
Even when you select to imagine each assault reported right here is definitely an “assault” (somewhat than somebody inadvertently bumping an officer, standing too near an officer, “contempt of cop,” swearing at an officer, throwing a snowball at an officer, and so forth.), the federal government motion far outpaces the corresponding improve in assaults. These are rookie numbers, what with the variety of officers concerned in home terrorism mass deportation efforts.
So, now that we all know the reality, we’re again the place we began: DHS and ICE look completely ridiculous claiming immigration enforcement work is so harmful each officer wants to cover their face and drive round in unmarked autos like the abductors they’re. The subsequent time administration officers declare there’s been one other spike in assaults, keep in mind it solely takes ten assault allegations from officers so as to add one other 100% to the whole.
Filed Below: bullshit, dhs, ice, mass deportations, tricia mclaughlin
