A Georgia resident is facing serious federal charges after being accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a building of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in downtown Atlanta last Tuesday.
Inique Hinton, 31 years old and a resident of Douglasville, Georgia, was arrested on Thursday without resistance at a residence in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
The security cameras of the building, located at 180 Ted Turner Drive, recorded Hinton igniting the incendiary device around 8:12 PM and throwing it against the multi-story brick structure.
The object struck the perimeter metal fence and caused the flames to spread, without reaching the main building. An Atlanta police officer who witnessed the incident chased the suspect, but the suspect managed to escape at that moment.
The investigators found burned fabric, lighter fluid, a glass bottle, and a lighter at the scene.
The building houses both operational offices of ICE and an immigration court, making it a federal facility of significant symbolic value in the immigration debate.
The federal prosecutor Theodore S. Hertzberg filed charges for attempted arson of a federal building and damage to government property, and described the speed with which authorities identified and apprehended the suspect as "exemplary."
"We are going to respond with extreme severity when addressing this behavior because we need to send a message that this is not acceptable," Hertzberg stated at a press conference.
The prosecutor also noted that he was not aware of any criminal record for Hinton. The court records did not indicate that the defendant had an assigned attorney.
If found guilty, Hinton could face up to 20 years in prison for the charge of arson —with a mandatory minimum sentence of five years— and up to an additional 10 years for the charge of damage to government property.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, described the attack as a "dangerous and unacceptable escalation" against ICE personnel in a statement released days before the arrest, when the FBI came forward to offer a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the identification of the suspect.
The incident is not isolated. In July of this year, a veteran of the Army attacked the federal building at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, which also houses ICE offices and an immigration court, injuring three people slightly.
The DHS has reported an increase of over 1,600% in assaults against ICE employees since January 2025, a figure that comes from the department itself and has not been independently verified.
This climate of tension coincides with an unprecedented intensification of immigration operations: ICE was ordered to raise its daily arrest target from 2,000 to 3,000 people in October 2026.
Hinton's first appearance before a federal magistrate judge was scheduled for this Monday, and the reason for the attack had not been publicly clarified until now.
Este incidente ocurrió en una sede de ICE, una de las agencias en el centro del debate migratorio en Estados Unidos. Sigue la cobertura completa en nuestra sección de .
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