HSI San Francisco arrests a man with a prior murder conviction after he emailed violent threats calling for ICE officers to be executed — as assaults and death threats against ICE agents surge to historic levels.
A California man with a prior murder conviction has been arrested for sending a violent death threat to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, the Department of Homeland Security announced, as the agency reports an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against its law enforcement officers nationwide.
Daniel Barber, a U.S. citizen, was arrested on April 10, 2026, by ICE Homeland Security Investigations in San Francisco following a months-long investigation into an email he sent to Director Lyons on June 6, 2025.
In the email, Barber wrote that ICE officers “deserve” to be “executed right there as well with two fking bullets to the back of their maggot Nazi heads.” He added, “I’ll be fking praying daily to the universe Americans start rising up and giving them, and you, exactly that.”
ICE launched an investigation after receiving the email and identified Barber as the sender. His criminal history includes a conviction for murder and robbery with intent to cause bodily harm in 1990, as well as multiple arrests for burglary, battery, and vehicle theft.
“This convicted murderer sent this disgusting death threat to ICE Director Todd Lyons,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
A Surge in Violence Against ICE Officers
DHS reports that the threat environment facing ICE agents has reached levels not previously seen. Compared to prior periods, the agency is reporting a more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults on ICE officers, an 8,000 percent increase in death threats, and a more than 3,300 percent increase in vehicle attacks — incidents in which individuals have used cars as weapons against agents in the field.
DHS officials have attributed the rising hostility in part to what they describe as rhetoric and policies from sanctuary city politicians that, they argue, create an environment hostile to federal law enforcement carrying out lawful immigration enforcement operations.
Victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens can contact the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office at 1-855-488-6423. For more information on DHS enforcement actions, visit wow.dhs.gov.
