Migrant arrested after posting on TikTok offering a $10K bounty for ICE agents
The alleged threat on the platform called for ten men who ‘aren’t afraid to die’ and offered ‘10K for each ICE agent’
An undocumented immigrant from Mexico living in Texas was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly posting a TikTok offering a $10,000 bounty to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Eduardo Aguilar, 23, has been charged with transmitting communications containing a threat, according to the Justice Department.
“Threats against our law enforcement officers are completely unacceptable,” Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson said in a statement. “All threats against our agents and officers will be investigated thoroughly, and anyone who threatens or puts a bounty on agents will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”
On October 9, Aguilar allegedly posted a TikTok video with text reading, originally in Spanish, “I need 10 dudes in Dallas with determination (guts) who aren’t afraid to,” following by skull emojis.
“10K for each ICE agent,” reads a second line in the video.
Aguilar could face up to five years in prison.
TikTok helped local authorities catch Aguilar by offering identity details tied to his account, according to court documents.
The Independent has contacted his public defenders for comment.
The alleged threat comes as Homeland Security officials say immigration agents are facing a 1000 percent increase in assaults.
Last month, gunman Joshua Jahn allegedly opened fire on a Dallas immigration facility in a sniper-style attack, killing two detainees.
Officials say bullet casings with the words ‘Anti-ICE’ written on them were found at the scene of the shooting.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security announced the arrest of Juan Espinoza-Martinez, an alleged undocumented immigrant and Latin Kings gang member in Illinois who allegedly put a bounty out on Gregory Bovino, the Commander at Larger of the U.S. Border Patrol, which is currently active in the Chicago region as part of a mass enforcement effort known as Operation Midway Blitz.
The alleged bounty, shared in a Snapchat message, offered $2,000 to catch Bovino and $10,000 “if you take him down.”
Martinez has demanded a jury trial and claims there is no evidence he’s a gang member or that he issued a threat against the Border Patrol officer.
“The government can not prove Juan engaged in a murder-for-hire plot, and they sure can not show Juan is, or ever was, a gang member — no matter how many times they say it on TV,” his attorney, Jonathan S. Bedi, told The Independent in a statement. “The government is brazenly politicizing Juan’s case, desperately scrambling to smear him as some violent street gang member without a shred of evidence — all the justify ICE’s absolutely ridiculous and blatantly illegal actions in Chicago.”