By Rebecca Downs, The Daily Signal | July 22, 2025
A Cincinnati man was arrested Saturday for allegedly making threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on social media.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Anthony Marcus Kelly, 38, faces federal charges, including threatening to assault, kidnap, or murder a United States official, as well as transmitting communications containing threats to kidnap or injure another person.
The arrest comes as violence against agents is up 830%. However, this may be an undercounted figure.
As an ICE press release detailed Tuesday:
Law enforcement became aware of a social media user going by the name of ‘Slab’ after he allegedly made multiple social media posts calling for the killing of ICE officers and detailing his acquisition of firearms to carry out that threat.
After an investigation, the user making these posts was identified as Kelly, who lives in the Cincinnati area.
In one of his alleged posts, Kelly wrote ‘Why even bother with these damn courts anymore. #Gestapedos don’t deserve anything but the smoke coming for them anyway. #RevolutionIsTheSolution #DestroyICE they’re rabid dogs that need to be put down. Including #KristiNoem #DogmeatWalking.’
In another, he wrote, ‘You come here for me, you’re getting shot. And I’m not looking to disable […] I’m shooting for the kill. I won’t give a **** about your names, who you are, or anything else’.
Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said in the same statement, “Let me be crystal clear: Threatening to kill a federal officer is not protest — it’s terrorism.”
Lyons also took aim at politicians who are turning federal agents into targets.
“Anthony Kelly’s violent threats, while disgusting and completely unhinged, are a symptom of a larger problem: Politicians are trying to turn our law enforcement officials into targets by scaring their constituents and whipping them into a frenzy in a fact-free vacuum,” Lyons said. “This is what happens when anti-ICE activists don’t realize or care that we’re out there arresting rapists, murderers and child molesters who are in this country illegally. Enough is enough.”
Democrats have been demonizing the agency, including at the local level. Mayor Freddie O’Connell of Nashville earned a rebuke from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Last week, Democrats in the Massachusetts House presented a bill to ban ICE agents from covering their faces during raids and arrests. Similarly, Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., last week unveiled the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act in Congress, which would require officers to display identification.
A Customs and Border Protection officer was also just recently shot in New York. The suspects not only have prior arrests but are in the country illegally. Noem continued to call out politicians for their “rhetoric” when speaking from New York City on Monday.
White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson posted the announcement of Kelly’s arrest to her X account on Tuesday morning, with the comment “FAFO”—an acronym for “F— Around and Find Out.”
On the day of Kelly’s arrest, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted screenshots of posts allegedly made by the suspect and thanked law enforcement.
McLaughlin also noted that a firearm and ammunition were “recovered … from [Kelly’s] residence.”
Fox 19 WXIX reported that Kelly has “admitted” to making such posts.
Kelly, who already had an initial court appearance on Monday, is being held at the Butler County Jail “without bond for the foreseeable future,” the report further mentioned. He’s been appointed a federal public defender.
The Daily Signal has reached out to ICE and the FBI Cincinnati office for comment.
Rebecca Downs is the Ohio correspondent for The Daily Signal.
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