Assaults on ICE and other federal officers are surging during immigration operations, and recent arrests suggest a federal crackdown. In Los Angeles, Border Patrol’s BORTAC team arrested a U.S. citizen who allegedly spit on agents during a deportation action, an incident highlighted by El Centro Sector Chief Gregory K. Bovino.
Bovino posted video showing the suspect—wearing an anti-ICE shirt—being taken into custody at a business, adding that assaulting federal officers brings federal consequences and that agents swiftly served a warrant.
In Oregon, prosecutors charged 24-year-old Robert Jacob Hoopes with aggravated assault on a federal officer and depredation of government property after he allegedly threw large rocks at Portland’s ICE building—striking an officer in the head—and helped use an upended stop sign to ram the main door. Since June 13, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office there has charged 23 defendants tied to violence at the facility.
Separately, two Southern California clinic workers were charged with assaulting a federal officer and conspiring to obstruct duties after a July 25 incident in Los Angeles. DHS says assaults on ICE officials rose 830% from Jan. 21 to July 14, 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
