Residents surround federal and Border Patrol agents after an immigrant raid on Atlantic Boulevard in Bell, Calif., June 19, 2025. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
He added that the safety risk does require more resources when conducting arrests. When ICE was conducting operations in Los Angeles in June, President Donald Trump sent in the California National Guard to the city with the goal of protecting agents and quelling riots. That move was legally challenged by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"The Marines are withdrawing. This is another win for Los Angeles," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass posted to X Monday.
ICE agents have faced an 830% increase in assaults since last year, according to DHS. However, proponents of the VISIBLE Act have said it's nessescary for accountability.
"For weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country," Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, said in a statement July 8.
"Reports of individuals impersonating ICE officers have only increased the risk to public and officer safety. The lack of visible identification and uniform standards for immigration enforcement officers has created confusion, stoked fear and undermined public trust in law enforcement."
"Death to ICE" is written on a garbage cart after multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Los Angeles June 6, 2025. (Reuters/Daniel Cole)
"Well, the FBI is doing a great job investigating it as a whole organized event," Lyons said. "So, you saw where it was actually organized with social media, where you have organized people in a typical L-shaped ambush where you had escape vehicles. So, without getting too much into what the Department of Justice and the FBI do, there is definitely evidence that this was planned for a while, and it wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment protest. These were agitators focused on assaulting law enforcement officers and assaulting ICE."
In terms of facing these coordinated efforts, the director said it’s a matter of planning and looking at the information available before conducting an operation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents look over lists of names and their hearing times and locations inside the Federal Plaza courthouse before making arrests June 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)
"What we're doing is definitely working with all of our federal partners as well as the state partners that do coordinate with us what we use and all the intelligence that we have at our disposal to go ahead and try to find out as much about these groups and as much as about these organizations and these planned events that we can to let our officers and agents know in the field prior to going out," Lyons said.
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"So, we wanna make sure that officers are fully aware of what the situations they're getting into, but we are also making sure that we're properly staffed when we go out."
In addition, he said recent funding from the "big, beautiful bill" would be to try to bring back personnel that "retired early" under the Biden administration and look at veterans and officials at the local and state levels who "already have the training" to "beef up" staffing at the agency.
Cameron Arcand is a politics writer at Fox News Digital in Washington D.C. Story tips can be sent to Cameron.Arcand@Fox.com and on Twitter: @cameron_arcand
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ice-chief-warns-ai-technology-could-lead-safety-risks-agents-fringe-organizations