Violent demonstrations cause chaos and confrontation with federal authorities in several US cities

Peaceful protest, especially when aimed at identifying cases of abuse of power or authority, is a fundamental right. Moreover, each citizen is responsible for addressing his or her protest to his or her representative and senators by asking them to investigate and punish those who have abused. But the problem we are contemplating is another and worse.  

Federal authorities have arrested 54 people in New York City under Operation Salvo, an investigative operation on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, organized since July 2025, after a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer was injured in a shooting, according to a January 8 statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). «Those arrested are from violent transnational gangs, including members of "the Trinitarios", who, in addition to the July shooting of the CBP officer (who was identified by the attackers but was off-duty), are also responsible for weapons trafficking, human smuggling and prostitution, drug trafficking and distribution, armed robberies and violent assaults across New York City and several locations in the state of Massachusetts,» DHS reported. Trinitarios is a criminal enterprise that strives to dominate communities by establishing control over certain neighborhoods in Massachusetts and New York and intimidating rival gangs, often using extreme violence.

The authorities who carry out these operations are frequently assaulted and intimidated by organized mobs to make it appear that the population is demanding the withdrawal of these forces. Available reports do not clearly specify the exact number of injuries caused by demonstrators to ICE and DHS officials. However, there is data on the number of incidents, and in 2025 there were 238 attacks against ICE law enforcement officers. In addition, over the past year, federal DHS officers and agents have themselves faced a dangerously escalating pattern of violence, ranging from hitting, spitting, kicking and biting, to ramming vehicles, shooting guns, and throwing heavy rocks and Molotov cocktails at the law-enforcement officers and their vehicles. This violence against law enforcement authorities is a coordinated strategy taking place simultaneously in several cities of the United States, where municipal and/or state authorities oppose activities carried out against these gangs and other people who have violated immigration laws.