An explosion outside the FBI's lower Manhattan headquarters on Monday morning left three people injured and prompted authorities to take a suspect into custody, according to investigators and federal officials.
The blast occurred at 26 Federal Plaza, which houses both the FBI's New York office and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. Video footage shared on social media showed thick white smoke pouring from the building's exterior, with armed law enforcement personnel rushing from doorways in response.
According to local news reports, two of the three injured individuals required hospital treatment. Witnesses described seeing a device that appeared to be loaded with fireworks placed in a wagon bearing the message "ICE out of our streets."
The FBI released a brief statement confirming the incident. "This morning, an individual deployed an incendiary device outside 26 Federal Plaza," the bureau said. "The individual has been taken into custody, and the FBI New York joint terrorism taskforce is investigating the incident."
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House and a New York representative, commended law enforcement's response in a statement released Monday. "I am grateful to law enforcement for their swift actions to stop an attack at 26 Federal Plaza this morning, for successfully apprehending the suspect and for keeping the people of New York City safe," Jeffries said, adding that the person responsible should be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The explosion comes as anti-ICE demonstrations have intensified following a series of deaths connected to federal immigration enforcement. In July alone, at least three people died in separate incidents involving ICE or Border Patrol, including two individuals shot during traffic stops in Texas and Maine, and a Venezuelan national who was discovered unresponsive at a detention facility in Georgia.
Despite the recent fatalities, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signaled last week that immigration enforcement operations would continue unabated. "We're turning up the heat on the streets. We're out there working harder than we ever have," Mullin said at a news conference Friday, pledging that immigration arrest surge operations would persist.
Author James Rodriguez: "When you're launching incendiary devices at federal buildings, you've crossed from protest into violence, and the investigation into the motive and the suspect's network matters just as much as the political context surrounding it."
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