DHS: Nancy Pelosi is 'putting a target on the backs' of federal agents with arrest threats

The Department of Homeland Security fired back at former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she and other California Democrats laid out plans for the arrest of federal immigration agents for supposed violations of state laws.

Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said her office already has plans to arrest federal agents should they use force in her city as they did during violent protests and riots in Los Angeles and Chicago. Jenkins explained the San Francisco Police Department is on board with the idea in cases of "clear, excessive use of force."

'If politicians and activists don’t like the law, they should try to change it instead of demonizing our brave men and women in uniform.'

DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called the plans "gross" in a statement to Blaze News, adding, "America’s brave ICE and Border Patrol agents put their lives on the line every day to enforce U.S. law and arrest the worst of the worst — including gang members, rapists, and murderers."

RELATED: House Democrats' ICE 'tracker' will 'put our lives in danger': DHS agent

ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

"From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop. Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric is putting a target on the backs of federal law enforcement officers who are already facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them. Our law enforcement is ENFORCING federal law — if politicians and activists don’t like the law, they should try to change it instead of demonizing our brave men and women in uniform," McLaughlin added.

The Department of Justice sent a letter to Pelosi and Jenkins warning them that their plans violate federal law and that there will be consequences should any state or local police arrest federal agents while lawfully carrying out their duties.

The heightened threat level DHS personnel are facing was realized in the San Francisco Bay last week after a driver apparently attempted to ram a U-Haul truck into a checkpoint at Coast Guard Island Alameda. Coast Guard security personnel shot at the suspect after he did not listen to verbal commands to stop.

"The truck driver was wounded in the stomach and is being held for mental health evaluation. A bystander was struck by a fragment, treated at a local hospital, and released," DHS said about the shooting.

Anti-ICE attackers have increasingly used vehicles to allegedly ram federal agents' vehicles or block their path on the road during operations. Attacks in that fashion have taken place in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.

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