A MAGA supporter allegedly threatened to burn down the White House and kill ICE agents after becoming frustrated over his fiancée’s visa issue.
Tristen Elijah Giroux, 30, reportedly made the threats on a recorded line on October 24 as his anger boiled over during a call to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Giroux was trying to resolve an issue with paperwork related to his Colombian fiancée’s K1 visa, but became stuck in a phone tree and struggled to get connected to a person.
Highlights
- Tristen Elijah Giroux allegedly threatened to burn down the White House and kill ICE agents over his fiancé’s K1 visa issue during a USCIS call.
- Giroux’s threats were recorded while he struggled to reach a USCIS representative amid frustration with visa paperwork delays.
- Federal agents traced Giroux’s phone, located him in Florida, and arrested him after a joint FBI and sheriff’s office operation.
Tristen Elijah Giroux allegedly threatened ICE agents and the White House
Image credits: J. David Ake/Getty Images
According to a recently unsealed criminal complaint reported by The Independent, Giroux told the virtual operator, “Transfer me to a customer service representative. Stupid b***h.”
He also demanded “Transfer me to a representative, dumb c**t b***h,” the affidavit stated, before going on to make alleged threats.
“I’m gonna burn down the White House,” Giroux allegedly said on the recorded line. “I’m gonna go choke out every ICE member I see. Kill them all.”
Federal investigators quickly traced the phone number used by Giroux and obtained a subpoena for T-Mobile to hand over subscriber details and location data.
The company complied, providing agents with Giroux’s personal information and a series of location pings that ultimately guided them to his residence.
Image credits: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
By the next afternoon, a joint team of FBI agents and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at Giroux’s apartment in Central Florida.
As described in the affidavit, one of the agents identified herself and asked Giroux to step outside. Once he did, she informed him of the reason for their visit.
“He explained that he called USCIS to try to resolve an issue he was having with his upcoming marriage between him and his paramour, a Colombian national, for whom Giroux was seeking a K1 visa,” the affidavit states.
While Giroux had sent in the documents regarding the intended marriage, he told agents that USCIS had sent them back without explanation, and he was “running out of time.”
He described being “extremely frustrated” that he was unable to get a hold of an actual representative and kept getting routed to the automated system.
The incident took place during the ongoing government shutdown that has placed hundreds of thousands of federal employees on furlough.
Image credits: The White House
Giroux insisted that he “had no intention of harming anyone,” and said how “stupid it was that he had said those things and that he regretted it,” the document stated.
The affidavit continued: “Giroux said that he is a supporter of President Trump.”
It added that he had “seen the ICE protests on the social media platform TikTok, and that they disgust him because he is supportive of ICE’s efforts.”
“Giroux explained that he is trying to handle the immigration of his paramour in the right way, and it is so difficult, while in the meantime, people are entering the country illegally.”
He confessed to authorities that he had made threats against ICE agents and the White House, but contended it was “in order to try and get someone's attention and to see if anyone was actually listening to what he was saying.”
Giroux was arrested on a charge of transmitting a threat to kill in interstate commerce, and if convicted, could spend up to five years in prison.