A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security found a burned and decapitated animal carcass on the front porch of his D.C.-area home, according to a DHS official — an incident that occurred as employees of the agency are seeing an increase in violent threats due to the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
The agency sent a letter to all 250,000 employees Saturday stating “there may be a heightened threat against DHS employees” in response to the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy, a DHS official told the Washington Examiner.
Under the policy, all adult illegal border crossers are referred for criminal prosecution. The policy has caused roughly 2,300 immigrant children whose parents were apprehended at the border to be separated from their families.
“This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees — although the veracity of each threat varies,” acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Claire Grady wrote to employees. “In addition, over the last few days, thousands of employees have had their personally identifiable information publicly released on social media.”
ABC News first reported the increase in threats against DHS employees.
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The DHS official said there have been roughly two dozen online threat assessments in the past few days that are being processed by the agency’s intelligence arm. Any employee that has been threatened has been contacted by Homeland Security’s security services, the official said.
The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy, implemented in May, has sparked outrage among activists, civil rights groups, celebrities, and lawmakers.
On Tuesday, activists with the D.C. Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America surrounded Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while she was eating at a D.C. Mexican restaurant and called her a “fascist pig.”
Protesters also appeared outside of Nielsen’s home Friday morning, where they played an audio recording obtained and published by ProPublica of immigrant children crying. The protesters shouted “shame” at the DHS secretary and chanted “free the kids.”
WikiLeaks published a database last week that included the personal information of more than 9,000 current and former employees with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compiled from their LinkedIn profiles.
The letter from Grady to DHS employees outlined “security awareness measures” for DHS employees to take and urged those who feel threatened to contact law enforcement or the Federal Protective Service.
“Every single day, you — the dedicated men and women of DHS — go above-and-beyond to keep the Homeland safe. For that, I am wholeheartedly grateful. Unfortunately, there are those who misconstrue your work in a negative way or seek to disrupt your work to advance outside agendas,” Grady’s letter said. “As a result, sometimes our employees face threats. Your safety is the highest priority of DHS leadership, and we want to urge everyone to recognize, detect, and report suspicious activities or attempts to compromise our people, programs, or facilities.”
President Trump signed last week an executive order that seeks to end the family separations by detaining parents and children together for the duration of criminal proceedings.
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