Ernst cherry picks facts

In a letter I received from Sen. Joni Ernst, she reports that in the last year, there has been a 1,300 percent increase in vehicle-ramming incidents against ICE personnel. She characterizes this as an “alarming increase,” and gives a few other similar statistics for other types of incidents.

I was able to find the source of this figure on the DHS website, where I read that there were 28 incidents since January 20, 2025, compared with 2 in the same period in 2024. This is indeed a 1300% increase. The same site also reports a 58% increase (from 45 to 71) in such incidents against CBP agents. The senator did not mention this considerably more modest figure in her letter. Since both figures are together in the DHS source, it seems like she was cherry-picking the most impressive stats.

She could also have pooled these figures: for ICE and CBP combined, the incidents went from 47 to 99, about a 111% increase, or about double. And noting that there has been a considerable increase in DHS personnel, very much more ICE activity especially, and over that period, roughly twice as many people were detained by ICE and DHS, then on a per-detention basis, the rate of car rammings experienced by DHS agents has stayed about the same. So much for an alarming increase.

Russ Lenth

North Liberty