Antifa Threatening Families of Law Enforcement: Homeland Security

Family members of law enforcement officers are facing threats from individuals affiliated with the far-left extremist group Antifa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an Oct. 10 X post.

“Antifa terrorists are threatening the families of our law enforcement,” DHS stated in the post. “We will hunt these sickos down and put them behind bars. In Texas, the spouse of an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE officer received a voicemail filled with violent threats.”

The agency uploaded an audio clip of the threat received by the spouse, in which a woman can be heard using expletives against the wife and comparing ICE to Nazis.

“Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II?” the caller can be heard saying in the message. “Because that’s what’s going to happen to your family.”

The White House on Oct. 10 called Antifa a radical terrorist group explicitly calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government.

“Under the Trump Administration, Antifa’s days are over,” the White House stated in an X post.

It included a video of several officials and personalities detailing threats posed by the group.

For instance, in the video, conservative influencer Cam Higby said he was “brutally attacked and almost killed” by Antifa members in Seattle and that all of his colleagues have faced violence.

In the video, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Antifa members attacked police stations, attacked courthouses, and doxxed law enforcement officers.

“They are a terrorist group and we are coming after them,” she said.

Antifa is a far-left extremist group that originated under the Soviet Union and that is known for committing politically motivated violence against its opponents, whom the group typically labels as fascists.

President Donald Trump designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in a Sept. 22 executive order, calling the group a “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that uses campaigns of violence and terrorism to accomplish its goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and the system of law.

“Antifa recruits, trains, and radicalizes young Americans to engage in this violence and suppression of political activity,” the order stated.

“[The group then employs] elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives, conceal its funding sources and operations in an effort to frustrate law enforcement, and recruit additional members.”

During a roundtable discussion at the White House on Oct. 7, several journalists assaulted by Antifa shared their experiences. One journalist, Andy Ngo, senior editor at The Post Millennial, recounted being attacked by members of the group in 2019 and 2021.

Talking about an assault in Portland, Oregon, Ngo said, “That was my only near-death experience in my life, and I’m quite shaken when I think about it now.”

At the event, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Antifa members do not just want to threaten law enforcement officers but also want to kill them.

FBI Director Kash Patel said disrupting Antifa’s funding is a priority and that the agency will not rest until it finds every single donor and funding mechanism used by the terror outfit.

Trump vowed to take strong action against the group.

“We’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us,” he said. “And that includes the people that fund them.”

Cracking Down on Antifa

In a Sept. 26 statement, DHS said it is fighting back against Antifa violence and has arrested dozens of “left-wing violent extremists” aligned to the group that have attacked law enforcement officials, killed civilians, and triggered riots across the country.

It has arrested, among others, a 36-year-old citizen suspected of making a bomb threat on the ICE Dallas Field Office; extremists who ambushed and shot officers at the ICE facility in Prairieland, Texas; and an extremist who attempted to run over a Border Patrol agent with a car, according to DHS.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal law enforcement personnel have seen a 1,000 percent increase in assaults against them. However, this has not stopped officers from upholding the rule of law, she said.

“Antifa and their friends haven’t stopped us,” McLaughlin said. “They’re not even slowing us down.”

Trump’s designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist outfit has also drawn criticism.

In a Sept. 22 statement, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said the U.S. government has never named a domestic terrorist organization in the history of the United States. To give this designation to Antifa, which he said has no defined organizational structure or leadership, is “incorrect,” he said.

“It serves no purpose other than an excuse for the Trump administration to stifle dissent, investigate anyone—or any group—they don’t like, punish their enemies, and potentially label any American they want as a terrorist,” Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Stop ANTIFA Act in September, aiming to codify Trump’s executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist group, the lawmaker’s office said in a Sept. 30 statement.

The bill instructs the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to treat Antifa as a domestic terrorist group and put a stop to the outfit’s violent suppression of political speech and its destruction of the rule of law.

“Antifa has gotten away with its evils and terrorized cities across our country for far too long,” Scott said.

“President Trump was right to fearlessly call them out as the domestic terrorists they are and to take action to stop their evils around the nation and uncover the funding behind it. I am proud to codify the president’s actions.”