ICE Director claims liberal mayors are hurting communities by stoking fears of law enforcement

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons on Wednesday blasted "radical left mayors" as "hurting their community" by not cooperating with federal law enforcement in their fight to curb illegal immigration.

Lyons' comment occurred as attacks on law enforcement officers rise in the aftermath of ICE raids across the country. The raids led to anti-ICE protests in major cities like New York City and Los Angeles, which culminated in a riot in June.

The acting director claimed the riots in Los Angeles were just the "tip of the iceberg" for him and his team after reports surfaced that attacks on ICE agents rose by 800% since President Donald Trump took office in January, per the Daily Signal.

“It is the worst I’ve ever seen in my whole career in law enforcement,” Lyons told the outlet. “I get asked a lot of time, ‘What’s the one thing that keeps you up at night?’ It’s the violence and the attacks on officers, agents, and not only them, but their families.”

Lyons slammed Democrats on all levels of public service for appearing to support the doxxing, harassment and attacks on ICE officers. Some lawmakers have tried to pass legislation that would force ICE agents to unmask.

”When you do have these, you know, really radical left mayors like [Los Angeles Mayor] Karen Bass or the mayor of Chicago or Mayor [Michelle] Wu in Boston that are just constantly out there stoking the fires and fears of what ICE isn’t doing,” Lyons said, “all they’re doing is hurting their community as well as hurting the law enforcement mission.”

The Justice Department recently published a list of all sanctuary cities and states that are not cooperating with ICE to detain and deport illegal migrants. 

Lyons previously said the rise in attacks could be partly attributed to the visibility of ICE officials under the Trump administration. The acting-director claimed that his teams are forced to go into communities more often because sanctuary cities will not allow local law enforcement to help out.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.