Image Credit: Department of Homeland Security 
A Virginia high-school principal and his brother have been arrested for plotting to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with guns and explosives.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the arrests on Wednesday.
John Wilson Bennett, and his brother Mark Booth Bennett, have each been charged with conspiracy to commit malicious wounding.
The brothers were overheard discussing their attacks by Virginia state police officers earlier in the month.
Mark Bennett was separately overheard discussing a plan to meet with others in Las Vegas to purchase guns and explosives. He was arrested at Norfolk International Airport, where he was scheduled to fly to Las Vegas.
John Bennett is assistant principal at Kempsville High School in Virginia.
“It’s chilling that a human being, much less a child educator, would plot to ambush and kill ICE law enforcement officers—offering such specifics as to getting a high-caliber rifle that would pierce the law enforcement’s bulletproof vests. Thanks to Homeland Security Investigations and our partners, these men are behind bars,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
“Our officers are facing a more than 1,150% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members. From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence and threats against them and their families.”
Last week, two separate ICE offices in Texas received packages containing a suspicious white powder.
An officer at the Dallas facility opened the envelope and noticed the substance. A shelter-in-place order was issued while a hazmat team and other specialists were called in to examine the substance.
A nearly identical incident occurred at the Irving office, ten miles from Dallas. Again, specialists were called in to ensure the substance was not harmful.
This is now the third threat against the Dallas Office since August.
In September, two immigrant detainees were shot and killed at the Dallas facility by a sniper, who then turned the gun on himself. He was apparently targeting ICE agents and not detainees.
Immigration agents across the country have faced threats and assaults. Protesters outside an ICE facility in Chicago rammed agents with cars and in at least one incident shot at them.
A white powder was also sent to a New York ICE office in August.
