Republican Lawmakers Raise Concerns, Question DHS About Attacks on Federal Law Enforcement

In a May 5, 2021 letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, and Representative John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, expressed their concerns with the increased number of targeted attacks on federal law enforcement officers and federal facilities.

They cited the violence at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and the April 10, 2021 fire-related incident at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon as recent examples of this threat to law enforcement.

In the letter, the lawmakers explain that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) has an obligation to “provide security to more than 9,500 federal facilities and roughly 1,300 law enforcement officers nationwide.” They further that while people have the right to peacefully assemble and announce their grievances with the government, “any violent attack on our nation’s law enforcement…is an attack on the rule of law and directly impacts the safety and security of all Americans.”

Finally, the letter outlined questions for Secretary Mayorkas requesting information on how DHS conducts threat assessments for federal facilities, how the department plans to handle the de-escalation of threats surrounding federal facilities, and what plans and processes are in place to manage civil disturbances as they occur.