Homeland Security said Wednesday that it has arrested an illegal immigrant who delivered a racially tinged threat to kill President Trump over his aggressive border and deportation crackdowns.
Ramon Morales-Reyes, 54, wrote a letter carrying the threat, promising to leave the country after he’d assassinated the president.
“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” he wrote in neat handwritten script in the note, which was released by Homeland Security. “We have done more for this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him.”
He went on to say he would “self deport” but first he would “shoot your precious president in is [sic] head.”
He said he would take the shot at “one of his big ralleys [sic].”
The letter was received by a field intelligence officer at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which rushed to arrest Mr. Morales.
“Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
She pointed out the threat came less than a year after a would-be assassin shot at Mr. Trump at a campaign rally, hitting him in the ear and killing one rallygoer while severely wounding two others.
Ms. Noem, who also oversees the Secret Service that protects the president, said the threat also came two weeks after “former FBI Director Comey called for the president’s assassination.”
She pleaded for cool.
“All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trump’s life and tone down their rhetoric,” she said.
ICE arrested Mr. Morales on May 22, a day after the agency received the letter.
Homeland Security identified his status as “illegal alien” and said he is being held under immigration detention in Wisconsin pending a deportation hearing.
He has nine previous illegal entries on his record, from 1998 to 2005, and has a criminal record including felony hit-and-run, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.
Rhetoric against both Mr. Trump and ICE has ramped up as the new administration carries out its agenda.
Authorities last month arrested a Pennsylvania man accused of posting to social media saying he wanted to “start killing people” starting with the president. He also allegedly called ICE “terrorist people” and said “we need to start killing them.”
And in California, a couple were charged with using their vehicle to try to harass ICE agents returning from an operation. The man charged in that case told investigators he was acting out of “pride for Mexico,” according to court documents.
More recently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election, said ICE is a “modern-day Gestapo.” And Democrats on Capitol Hill have called ICE “out of control” after charges were filed against a congresswoman caught on video shoving an ICE officer during a scuffle at a detention facility in New Jersey.
ICE says the rhetoric is translating into violence, as assaults on officers are up 400% so far this year compared to last year.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, faced two clear assassination attempts last year during the presidential campaign. A gunman in Pennsylvania wounded him in the ear and came within an inch of a fatal headshot, and Secret Service agents spotted and chased away a man with a rifle on a Florida golf course where Mr. Trump was playing.
Mr. Comey was criticized earlier this month after posting to social media shells in the form of the numbers “86 47,” which Ms. Noem has said was a call to assassinate the 47th president.
The former FBI chief said he understood it to be a political message, but said he didn’t know it could be interpreted as a threat of violence against Mr. Trump.
