Homeland Security Investigations agents in Fort Myers, Fla., have arrested a man accused of making multiple violent threats to kill federal immigration officers online.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Giancola, who posted under the pseudonym “Cain Delon” on the social media platform Bluesky, made a series of posts urging others to “shoot ICE agents” and “get out your guns and shoot them down.”
Giancola’s statements included several explicit death threats directed toward U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, calling them “Nazis” and encouraging violence against law enforcement.
“This cowardly individual made repeated disgusting death threats against ICE law enforcement officers. He is now in federal custody and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Our ICE law enforcement officers are now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members.”
McLaughlin said ICE personnel have been increasingly targeted in recent months by bounties, online doxxing, stalking, and threats against their families—an alarming trend DHS attributes to political rhetoric that demonizes law enforcement.
“For months, the Department of Homeland Security has warned politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement,” McLaughlin added. “Comparing ICE officers to the Nazi Gestapo or slave patrols has consequences. The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons, and daughters. They get up every morning to make our communities safer.”
DHS emphasized that any threats or acts of violence against federal agents will be prosecuted aggressively and that the department remains committed to protecting its personnel.
“Threaten violence or death to our law enforcement? You’ll end up behind bars like this guy,” McLaughlin said.
Officials noted that Giancola is now in federal custody pending prosecution. DHS reaffirmed its support for the men and women of ICE and Customs and Border Protection, calling them “hardworking Americans who put their lives on the line every day to defend the homeland.”
