During a Sunday interview appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said some federal agents have been targeted amid increasing immigration enforcement throughout the country by having bounties placed on them by “gangs, cartel members and known terrorist organizations.”
Newsweek has reached out to the DHS for further comment on Sunday morning.
Why It Matters
These developments arrive amid a major escalation in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Chicago and other cities, raising concerns about overall safety, civil rights, and the broader impact of federal intervention in local jurisdictions.
President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, and thousands of immigrants residing in the country illegally and legally, with valid documentation, including green cards and visas, have been detained.
The allegations of bounties being placed on federal agents’ heads mark a new level of threat that Noem said is “unprecedented” and come as state and local officials voice strong opposition regarding federal tactics.
What To Know
Amid ongoing immigration enforcement, Noem described a violent incident in Chicago on Saturday that ended with agents shooting a civilian, saying that a caravan of 10 vehicles followed and cornered federal agents on duty.
“They had followed them [the agents] and gotten them cornered, pinned them down, and then our agents, when getting out of their cars, they tried to run them over, and had semi-automatic handguns on them to where our agents had to protect themselves, and shots were fired, and an individual ended up in the hospital that was attacking these officers,” Noem said, adding it was a “very dangerous situation.”
“This individual had threatened them previously and had told them that they all needed to go down and shouted expletives at them,” Noem said.
The woman who was shot by federal agents was taken in fair condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt told the Chicago Sun-Times Saturday. There have been no updates on the patient’s status as of early Sunday morning.
Noem said the incident wasn’t isolated but part of a larger, organized targeting of federal agents.
According to Noem, intelligence reports have indicated the attackers were organized and had previously threatened agents.
“We have specific officers and agents that have bounties that have been put out on their heads. It’s been $2,000 to kidnap them, $10,000 to kill them,” the DHS secretary said. “They’ve released their pictures. They’ve sent them between their networks, and it’s an extremely dangerous situation and unprecedented.”
When asked who was behind the bounties, Noem said that “it was gangs, cartel members and known terrorist organizations, so foreign terrorist organizations as deemed by the president but also ones that we have known for many, many years.”
She added: “They are making sure that they know which officers are out there and being extremely effective, and they want to take them down, because they want to try to stop the operations that are going, that are keeping them from making money off their criminal networks.”
Over 900 arrests have been made in Illinois as part of “Operation Midway Blitz.” Witnesses reported aggressive detentions and expressed fears about indiscriminate arrests, noting that some affected residents are asylum-seekers or legal residents, local news station WLS reported.
The surge in ICE operations has drawn criticism from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and local officials who say the tactics risk community trust and safety.
“Instead of going after the bad guys, they’re just picking up people who are brown and Black and then checking their credentials. Are you a U.S. citizen? I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around papers that say I’m a US citizen,” Pritzker said on CNN on Sunday morning.
What People Are Saying
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday: “Our intelligence indicates that these people are organized. They’re getting more and more people on their team, as far as attacking officers, and they’re making plans to ambush them and to kill them. We have specific officers and agents that have bounties that have been put out on their heads. It’s been $2,000 to kidnap them, $10,000 to kill them. They’ve released their pictures. They’ve sent them between their networks, and it’s an extremely dangerous situation and unprecedented. So, we’ve put protective detail around those individuals, changed some of our operations to keep our officers safe.”
“Make no mistake, this isn’t just about protesting free speech or that they don’t like that people out here are upholding the law of our country. They’re actually going out there and saying kill these people and we’ll give you this much money to do it.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told CNN Sunday: “They [agents] were going after a few gang members, and instead, they broke windows, they broke down doors, they ransacked the place. And there were people that were held, I mean, elderly people and children zip-tied. Elderly people held for three hours at a time. They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago if they’re not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said they were going to do. They need to get the heck out.”
Darryl Morin of Forward Latino said during a press conference on Friday: “While other states such as California and Illinois have borne the brunt of these new immigration enforcement actions, I fear we are entering a new, sad chapter in immigration enforcement right here in our great state.”
What Happens Next?
DHS indicated that federal law enforcement operations would continue in Chicago and could expand to additional cities, depending on assessments of organized threats and local conditions.
Illinois officials and immigrant advocacy groups are pressing for increased transparency and oversight. As investigations into both the shooting and alleged bounty threats continue, federal and local tensions around immigration enforcement are likely to remain high.
