DHS’s “more than 80,000 officers and agents” refers to the law-enforcement personnel working in its nine operational law-enforcement components. Public DHS documents don’t list all nine by name in one place, but they consistently describe this workforce as including officers and agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Protective Service (FPS), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), among others. These officers and agents perform roles such as border patrol and inspections, immigration enforcement and removals, criminal investigations, facility protection, transportation security screening, and protective security details for officials and sites.
In this press release, DHS does not provide a formal definition of “criminal illegal alien.” From the context, DHS is using the phrase to describe non‑U.S. citizens who are in the United States without lawful immigration status and who have been convicted of serious crimes (for example, lewd acts with a child, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, murder, accessory to first‑degree murder, or firearms trafficking). ICE more generally uses the term “criminal alien” to mean noncitizens who have been convicted of criminal offenses.
DHS’s percentage increases (more than 1,300% in assaults, 3,200% in vehicular attacks, and 8,000% in death threats) come from ICE incident statistics covering roughly the first year of the Trump administration, compared to the prior year. In a companion DHS release, the department explains that it compared:
Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (often called National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day) is an annual observance in the United States held on January 9 to encourage the public to show support and gratitude for law‑enforcement officers. It was started in 2015 by the nonprofit Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) and partner organizations. It is not a congressionally designated federal holiday or official nationwide federal observance, though some federal agencies issue statements recognizing it.
Kristi Noem is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She became the 8th Secretary of Homeland Security in 2025, after previously serving as the governor of South Dakota and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In this DHS press release she is quoted in her capacity as DHS Secretary.
“Accessory after the fact relating to first‑degree murder” means the person is accused of helping someone who has already committed first‑degree murder to avoid being caught or punished. Legally, an accessory after the fact is someone who knows a crime has been committed and then harbors, conceals, or aids the offender with the intent to help them avoid arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment. The underlying crime here is first‑degree murder (a premeditated or especially serious killing), but the accessory’s alleged conduct occurs after the killing, not during it.
The “Worst of the Worst” initiative is a DHS campaign and web portal that highlights noncitizens whom DHS and ICE label as the “worst of the worst criminal aliens.” The site showcases individuals arrested by ICE who are in the U.S. unlawfully and have serious criminal convictions (such as sexual offenses against children, violent assaults, kidnapping, or other serious felonies). Under Secretary Noem, DHS describes this as part of a broader effort to carry out mass deportations starting with those it considers the most dangerous offenders.