Earlier this year, the Supreme Court’s ruling that the federal government (not Texas) had ultimate authority over border enforcement sparked a tense standoff that fueled violent rhetoric and civil war fantasies online. That ruling, which DHS cited as a factor behind the increase in anti-immigration threats, attracted a series of extremists who traveled in convoy to the border to “support” Texas authorities. While that was happening, FBI agents said they foiled a plot by militiamen to shoot border patrol agents and immigrants and “start a war.”
And last month, Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, pounced on a debunked story, stemming from a Facebook rumor, that claimed Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in the city of Springfield, Ohio. . City officials were bombarded with false bomb and death threats, forcing some schools and municipal buildings to temporarily close. Proud Boys and neo-Nazis from the group Blood Tribe also paraded through Springfield.
“We’ve certainly seen in the last couple of years the increase in threats from anti-immigrant extremists,” says Jon Lewis, a researcher in the extremism program at George Washington University. “We see this as one of the easiest mobilization concepts for the right-wing ecosystem…it certainly shouldn’t be a surprise that we see foot soldiers mobilizing in response to these repeated calls to arms.”
The intelligence fits into a broader trend on the right, which once typically supported all law enforcement, villainizing certain agencies. For example, the The FBI has received threats for his participation in the January 6 prosecutions.
Recently released fbi data It also shows that hate crimes targeting Latinos, who have been widely scapegoated for anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric, also increased 11 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, continuing a disturbing upward trend that has already been going on. years.
Anti-immigrant sentiment is generating threats against “critical government infrastructure” and causing US officials to be attacked in their homes, according to another security memo, drafted in April. Violent threats against “all immigration-related targets” tripled in January compared to previous months, according to the memo. In April, several immigration-related court rulings were reported to have led to a rise in calls for the “mass murder of American judges.”
“A lot of immigrant rights and advocacy groups in recent years have been sounding the alarm in terms of this nativist rhetoric,” says Jesse Franzblau, senior analyst at the National Immigration Justice Center. “Particularly from members of Congress.”
“It’s nothing new,” says Franzblau, “to blame immigrants for the country’s social ills. But it has gone to a new extreme and seems more coordinated. A lot of money is being invested in developing these talking points and fully pushing them forward.” “. dangerous narratives about immigrant communities. broad consensus among economists that immigration, in the long term, revitalizes local economies.
DHS projects that overall threats against court officials and court facilities will continue to increase through 2025, the memos show. Threats against federal judges increased 52 percent last year, according to a memo, while threats against judicial officials effectively doubled.
“Threat actors include domestic violent extremists (DVE) motivated by political and policy-related grievances and criminal actors who threaten critical government infrastructure and personnel, both in their workplaces and in private residences,” it says, adding that the incidents involving “deception,” “swatting,” and “doxing” have affected a “wide range of federal and state judicial figures.”
The April memo also blames “immigration-related complaints” for a “series of swatting incidents” against members of Congress earlier this year, culminating in a seven percent increase in Capitol Police investigations into Threats to US officials.