Republican lawmakers on Monday demanded a federal investigation after video surfaced of a man at a “No Kings” rally in Chicago urging the crowd to shoot Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, language that critics said crossed the line from protest into criminal threats.
In the footage, the speaker can be heard telling demonstrators, “You gotta grab a gun, we gotta turn around the guns on this fascist system. These ICE agents gotta get shot and wiped out. The same machinery that’s on full display right there has to get wiped out.” The remarks, captured at a large public gathering, prompted immediate condemnation from Republicans who said they illustrated a dangerous escalation in rhetoric directed at federal law enforcement.
Illinois Republican Representative Mary Miller called the comments “sickening” on X and pressed the Justice Department to act. “A staff member at Wilbur Wright College is calling for ICE agents to get ‘shot’ and ‘wiped out,’” she wrote, tagging the Department of Justice. “This is a criminal threat that should be investigated.” Her response reflected a broader GOP argument that aggressive rhetoric from segments of the protest movement has at times spilled into outright calls for violence, creating real danger for officers and the broader public.
A Department of Justice spokesman said the department was taking the charge seriously. “The Department is actively tracking these targeted assaults against our law enforcement and will hold offenders accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” the spokesman said, a pledge that underscored federal authorities’ view of the incident as more than mere political speech.
The episode in Chicago comes amid a string of worrying developments cited by Republicans as evidence of an increasingly violent environment for immigration officers. The speech followed reports of a sniper attack in Texas, and was mentioned alongside a separate allegation that an undocumented immigrant had been arrested for allegedly offering $10,000 bounties to kill ICE agents on TikTok. Those items, reported by conservative outlets, have added urgency to Republican calls for stronger protections for federal agents and for an examination of the ways protest movements have been allowed to evolve.
EXCLUSIVE: Yesterday in Chicago, on the perimeter of the NO KINGS rally, an activists speaking in front of a Progressive Labor Party sign exclaims, “You gotta grab a gun, we gotta turn around the guns on this fascist system. These ICE agents gotta get shot and wiped out. The same… pic.twitter.com/zKkiyVKe9J
— Christopher Sweat (@SweatEm) October 19, 2025
The identity of the speaker in the Chicago video has been tied in Republican accounts to a college staff member, raising questions about whether institutions of higher learning are enabling or failing to condemn explicit calls for violence. GOP officials said that allegation, if confirmed, would be particularly troubling.
For Republicans, the incident illustrated a broader cultural problem: when extreme rhetoric is tolerated at public events, it can quickly lead to real-world threats against government employees simply performing their duties.
Demonstrations remain a central feature of American political life, and protest plays an essential role in democratic expression. But the line between vigorous dissent and criminal incitement is a bright one under the law, and Republicans insisted Monday that the Justice Department must determine whether that line was crossed in Chicago. As Representative Miller put it, the video showed “a criminal threat that should be investigated.”
Federal investigators now face the task of tracing the origins of the footage, identifying the speaker and determining whether his words amount to a prosecutable offense.
For Republicans, the case is likely to become a test of whether authorities will treat threats against federal officers with the urgency those officers and their supporters say the incidents deserve.
[READ MORE: Critics Say New York’s “Raise the Age” Law Is Fueling a Surge in Teen Gun Violence]
