FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security is speaking out against immigration rhetoric from Democrats and launching an investigation after a U.S. citizen in Oregon was arrested and found with a manifesto stating his plans to kill U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
Last week, the St. Helens Police Department north of Portland arrested an 18-year-old during a traffic stop after he was found with knives and materials used to manufacture Molotov cocktails, according to police, Fox 12 Oregon reported.
The individual, Rayden Coleman, is also alleged to have authored a manifesto outlining a plan to kill ICE agents at a Portland ICE office in an attack using Molotov cocktails and a gun. Additionally, Coleman reportedly told investigators about his plan and that he planned to pick up an AR-15 the next day from a licensed dealer to carry out the attack. He also reportedly admitted making statements about beheading ICE agents.
“Every day there are more assaults, more vehicle-ramming attacks, more attempts to kill our officers,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. “Now, we have an American citizen planning to kill ICE officers with Molotov cocktails and gun them down. It’s disturbing.
“Sanctuary politicians comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police and slave patrols have real-world consequences. The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must end.”
The DHS statement comes the day after several House Democrats railed against ICE during a hearing with acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, comparing ICE agents to Nazis and the Gestapo as they slammed the Trump administration over the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two anti-ICE activists killed while opposing federal immigration authorities.
DHS says there is an ongoing investigation into the Oregon arrest with ICE Homeland Security Investigations and that Coleman is facing state charges on six counts of manufacturing a destructive device and two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
Coleman is being held in the Columbia County jail, and his bail is listed at $400,000.
ICE officers are facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, according to DHS, along with an 8,000% increase in death threats.
As Democrats rally against ICE across the country, Congress has until Friday at midnight to fund DHS. Democrats are threatening to shut down the government if their demands for ICE reforms are not met, and, as days go by, the odds of doing so are becoming increasingly slim.
“I think they (Democrats) are using families as political weapons,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem exclusively told Fox News Digital last week. “And this is a little bit different, because when it’s the whole government that they shut down, they’re not necessarily just attacking security.
“This feels like a direct attack on the security of our country, our homeland. And it’s almost as though they’ve gotten so extreme, they don’t care if we’re out there on the front lines keeping our country safe from terrorists, keeping our country safe from murderers and rapists.”
Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
