By Khaleda Rahman
Copyright newsweek
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo on Monday directing several law enforcement agencies to send agents to crack down on protests outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities across the country.
The DOJ “is deploying agents to protect ICE facilities, arrest violent agitators on the spot, and bring the strongest federal charges possible,” Bondi wrote in a post on X on Monday, alongside a memo she issued to components of the department.
“The rule of law will prevail.”
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been contacted for comment via a contact form on its website.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi prepares to board Air Force One on September 11, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
Why It Matters
The move represents the latest crackdown in response to protests against the Trump administration’s ramped up immigration enforcement in cities including Chicago and Portland.
Protesters who have gathered outside ICE facilities to protest raids, arrests and detention conditions have been met with tear gas and rubber bullets from federal agents on several occasions, including outside an ICE building in Broadview, west of Chicago. Critics have called out the Trump administration for using force against those exercising their First Amendment rights, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has called the protesters “violent rioters” and made arrests.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would send troops to Portland, adding it was necessary to protect ICE facilities which he alleged were “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” And Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said on Monday that the Trump administration is preparing to deploy 100 troops to the state.
What To Know
In the memo, Bondi directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to send “all necessary officers and agents to defend ICE facilities and personnel wherever and wherever they come under attack, including in Portland and Chicago.”
Bondi wrote that the officers “will suppress all unlawful rioting and arrest every person suspected of threatening or assaulting a federal law enforcement officer or interfering with federal law enforcement operations.”
She wrote that “as President Trump stated, we are witnessing a new era of extreme political violence” citing several incidents including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the attempts on Trump’s life last year and the recent mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota.
Her memo cited the DHS accounts of recent protests in Chicago and Portland, saying that the “riots” in those cities reflect a 1,000 percent increase in assaults on ICE officers since January 21 compared to the same period last year.
She also pointed to the shooting at a Dallas immigration field office earlier this month, where a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, killing one detainee and wounding two others. No ICE personnel were hurt in that shooting.
What People Are Saying
Bondi wrote in the memo: “Enough is enough. The Department of Justice will stand strong when federal law enforcement officers are attacked or threatened for doing their sworn duty on behalf of the United States government.”
Journalist Chris Geidner wrote in his Law Dork newsletter about Bondi’s memo: “Memos like this—including this one—absolutely should be examined, implementation should be watched, and the inevitable overreach must get pushback. But, from my view, this memo is not much different than what had already been the policy in this administration. And while those policies already have faced challenges and will face more, this is not some dramatic escalation.”
What’s Next
Bondi wrote in the memo that she was directing the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Oregon and Northern District of Illinois to charge those arrested “with the highest provable offense available under the law.”
She wrote that the “charging priorities directed by this memorandum are not limited to those criminals who are caught red-handed committing acts of violence against ICE facilities and personnel.”
The DOJ will also “arrest and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law every person who aids, abets, or conspires to commit these crimes, whether through funding, coordination, planning, or other means,” she added.
