Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday backed a House Republican’s call for bipartisan legislation to increase penalties for protesters who publicly disclose the identities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.ICE officers, especially if they are unmasked, have been frequently doxed as they conduct immigration enforcement operations. This pattern reemerged at Delaney Hall in New Jersey last week when an anti-ICE protester threatened to kill an officer and his family.Mullin supported the idea of strengthened criminal penalties for violent protesters if federal officers are prohibited from wearing masks in certain jurisdictions.
“If we want to eliminate the officers from having to wear masks, then increase the penalties,” he told lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee. “If they dox them, they threaten them in any way whatsoever, it should be a very stiff penalty to get all their attention. And then those that are funding the protest should also be held accountable the same way.”
The man who threatened the ICE officer, along with his wife and children, outside the Newark detention center was identified as Nicholas Matthew Scelfo, a 27-year-old from Brooklyn. He was arrested and subsequently charged with threatening to assault and murder an ICE officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
