DOJ Sending Letters to Dems Warning Them for Impeding ICE Arrests
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department is preparing to investigate several high-profile Democrats accused of attempting to interfere with federal immigration enforcement operations ordered by President Donald J. Trump.
Bondi joined Fox News host Jesse Watters on Jesse Watters Primetime to respond to newly surfaced footage of former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot promoting an initiative called the “ICE Accountability Project,” which seeks to “unmask” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and track what the group claims are “purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents.”
Watters summed up the controversy bluntly: “Lori Lightfoot, JB ‘Back Ribs’ Pritzker, they are doxing, telling people the whereabouts of I.C.E. agents. Is that legal?”
Bondi was clear in her response.
“No, and the first time I’ve seen the Lori Lightfoot video was just now on your show. She will be getting a letter from us tomorrow to preserve anything she has done as well to make sure that she’s not violating the law. It appears she is.”
Bondi emphasized that the law is not ambiguous when it comes to protecting the identities of federal agents.
“You cannot disclose the identity of a federal agent, where they live, anything that could harm them. Pritzker, same ball game. Nancy Pelosi got a letter today from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, so did Brooke Jenkins, that D.A. in San Francisco. We told them to preserve your emails, preserve everything you have on this topic, because if you are telling people to arrest our I.C.E. officers, our federal agents, you cannot do that, you are impeding an investigation, and we will charge them if they think I won’t they have not met me because we will charge them if they are violating the law.”
She continued, making clear the administration's support for law enforcement:
“We will protect our federal agents. They are out there working nonstop as you are showing right now, during a shutdown. These people are working to keep Californians safe yet you have Pelosi out there saying to obstruct their investigation. You cannot do it and we are going to investigate her now as well as that d.a. Pritzker is on the list, too.”
Watters asked whether the preservation notices represented a formal warning, to which Bondi confirmed:
“That’s right. They got these letters today in California because they cannot impede a federal investigation, they cannot impede federal officers doing their jobs.”
Bondi then delivered a pointed message to those encouraging interference with federal enforcement:
“They are out there risking their lives every single day and night to keep the people of California safe, yet these lawmakers are insane. They are truly insane by what they are doing and Donald Trump is not going to put up with it. We are going to protect our men and women in blue, we are going to protect all of our law enforcement agents, and these politicians are not going to get away with it anymore.”
Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, widely seen as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential campaign, escalated tensions during an interview on ABC’s This Week. Responding to President Trump’s recent statement that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers,” Pritzker challenged the administration, saying:
“Come and get me.”
The dispute follows reports from Chicago last week when police officers were allegedly instructed to stand down as federal agents came under attack near an ICE facility. According to federal accounts, agents were surrounded by a hostile crowd before a woman armed with a semi-automatic weapon allegedly attempted to ram officers with a vehicle. She was shot and taken into custody.
The administration has made clear it will not tolerate local officials shielding violent offenders or obstructing federal enforcement.