DHS Says Recording or Following Law Enforcement 'Sure Sounds Like Obstruction of Justice' |
Law enforcement
C.J. Ciaramella | 12.22.2025 12:22 PM
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says recording or following federal law enforcement "sure sounds like obstruction of justice," despite federal circuit courts repeatedly ruling that such activity is core First Amendment speech.
In response to a question from Reason asking if the department considered following or recording a federal law enforcement officer to be obstruction of justice, the DHS Office of Public Affairs said in an emailed statement attributed to an unnamed spokesperson: "That sure sounds like obstruction of justice. Our brave ICE law enforcement face a more than 1150% increase in assaults against them. If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
It's one of the most direct public statements yet from DHS articulating a policy that treats following, recording, and revealing the identities of federal immigration officers as illegal activity. There have been months of news reports and viral showing federal immigration officers threatening, brandishing weapons, and violently detaining people for following and recording them in public.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, collected dozens of these instances in a report released earlier this month. Bier concluded that the amount of video evidence, in conjunction memos and public statements........