Legislation Introduced to Protect Federal Law Enforcement Officers after Assaults Skyrocket

Safety at Work

Washington, DC (WorkersCompensation.com) – U.S. Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Jared Golden (D-ME) introduced legislation to protect federal judges and federally funded law enforcement officers as attacks against ICE agents skyrocket.

Bacon and Golden introduced the Back the Blue Act in July that would create new criminal provisions for killing or attempting to kill federal law enforcement officers, U.S. judges and federally funded public safety officers, including firefighters, chaplains and members of rescue squads or ambulance crews. The legislation would make killing a federally funded law enforcement officer punishable by a minimum of 30 years up to the death penalty.

“Those who protect our communities – whether it’s on the beat, from the bench, behind a hose, or performing CPR – deserve extra protection from violence directed at them, including assault, intent to kill, or conspiracy to kill,” Bacon said in a statement. “The anger and violence have risen against these community guardians and this legislation is needed now. I am looking forward to working with Rep. Golden to get this long-overdue legislation passed into law.”

Assaulting a federal law enforcement officer would become a federal crime with escalating penalties based on the extent of any injury and the use of weapons. The legislation also creates aggravating factors for death penalty prosecutions, expands self-defense and Second Amendment rights for law enforcement officers and opens up grant funding for community policing.

“At a time when violence against law enforcement is trending upward, we must do more to protect the protectors,” Golden said in a statement.  “This bill takes a strategic two-pronged approach: First, it makes clear with new criminal provisions that violence against federal law enforcement officers, judges and other federally funded public safety officers will not be tolerated. Second, it opens new federal funds to strengthen the relationship between officers and the communities they serve and protect. It’s a tough, smart bill to ensure those who attack or kill officers pay a steep price, and to help reduce violence against officers before it happens.”

The legislation comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued statistics that Immigration and Customs Enforcement have reported a nearly 700 percent increase in the number of assaults on agents.

In April, DHS reported in a tweet that assaults against ICE officers have increased 300 percent. By May, that figure had grown to a 413 percent increase according to another tweet from Homeland Security’s official X account.

In June, officials said, “New data reveals that ICE law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase.” And earlier this month, the agency said assaults were up 700 percent. ICE officials said in 2024 there were only 10 assaults on ICE agents, but so far this year there have been 79.

In June, DHS said agents were assaulted by one of their detainees during an operation in South Omaha. According to the department, ICE was serving a civil warrant related to stolen identities at Glenn Valley Food in Omaha. The agents arrived with a list of 97 employees they wanted to screen. Of those, 76 people were detained.

“Yesterday, an illegal alien from Honduras brandished a weapon and assaulted federal agents and officers who were doing their job: protecting American citizens, the public and businesses who are being victimized through identity fraud,” ICE acting Director Todd Lyons said in a June 10 press release. ”Let’s be clear — this wasn’t just someone ‘out of status.’ This was a violent criminal who attacked law enforcement while they were serving the public, which is why the term ‘criminal alien’ is a distraction. If you’re here illegally, you’ve already broken the law. When you break the law by coming here illegally and then threaten and assault federal officers on top of that — you’re a threat, plain and simple.”

Other actions against ICE include a former New York University (NYU) adjunct professor running a website that uses facial recognition to identify ICE agents in order to dox agents and their family members.

Lyons said agents are “being doxxed at a horrible rate” with their “addresses, families, Instagrams, [and] Facebook [accounts] posted and spread all around the city of Portland.”

Additionally, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) official is currently under investigation after allegedly calling for action against ICE.

The attacks against the agents come as President Donald Trump has told ICE officials to do “all in their power” to oversee the largest mass deportation program in history. According to The Atlantic, the increased pressure is causing decreased morale and burnout among agents.

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