Facts are technically correct but framed in a way that likely leads to a wrong impression. Learn more in Methodology.
Official injury/assault incident statistics for federal law enforcement compare the specified periods to confirm an increase of more than 1,300% as claimed.
The DHS press release from January 8, 2026 cites internal statistics claiming assaults on ICE officers rose from 19 in a specified 2024 period to 275 in the same period in 2025, which it labels a 1,347% increase; the January 15, 2026 ICE release repeats this as a claim that federal law enforcement officers face a “more than 1,300% increase in assaults.” Numerically, 19 to 275 does correspond to an increase of more than 1,300%, so the arithmetic underlying the percentage is internally consistent with DHS’s own figures. However, independent analysis of publicly available data does not show anything close to a 1,000%+ nationwide surge in assaults on federal officers. NPR/Colorado Public Radio’s review of federal court records in 2025 found roughly a 25% increase in assault-on-federal-officer charges year over year, and DHS refused to provide underlying data to substantiate its much larger percentage claims, despite asserting that all assaults would be prosecuted. Because the “more than 1,300%” figure rests on opaque, selective internal counts that sharply conflict with available national indicators, the statement is technically supported by DHS’s cited numbers but is likely to give the public an exaggerated impression of the overall change in assaults on federal law enforcement. The verdict is Misleading because the claimed percentage increase is mathematically consistent with DHS’s chosen internal baseline but is presented as a broad fact about assaults on federal law enforcement despite substantial evidence that publicly verifiable data do not support such an extreme nationwide spike and DHS has not disclosed transparent underlying data or methodology.