A California State University professor and Black Lives Matter founder is facing outrage after video appeared to show her identifying an ICE officer and urging activists to confront him.
The remarks, delivered before a political gathering in Oxnard, quickly ignited concern that an individual federal agent had been placed in danger.
The Sunday event was hosted by La Defensa del Pueblo, a far left coalition that brought together immigration activists, religious figures, labor groups, and allied organizers.
Abdullah was speaking on the summit’s closing panel alongside California State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (@SashaReneePerez), The People’s Forum founder Manolo De Los Santos, PSL Central Committee member Karina Garcia, and moderator Kameron Hurt, himself a PSL organizer.
Former… pic.twitter.com/vIAyQPhJqd
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 7, 2026
Its summit portrayed federal immigration enforcement and the Trump administration’s public safety agenda as “terror against the people.”
Speakers directed much of their anger at President Donald Trump’s September 2025 executive order, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.”
The order was designed to give federal officials more tools to investigate and disrupt organized political violence, an obvious sore spot for activists accustomed to friendly treatment from Democrats and the press.
The coalition also condemned Trump’s immigration policies and accused his administration of waging a “war on Black America.”
That overheated rhetoric was merely the warmup, however, as the event moved from familiar left wing grievance politics toward language critics viewed as a direct threat.
Stu Smith of the Manhattan Institute shared footage Monday that appeared to show Cal State Los Angeles professor Melina Abdullah naming the officer and telling attendees where she believed he was staying.
We are withholding those identifying and location details because repeating them would further expose the agent targeted in the remarks.
In the clip, Abdullah described the unnamed officer as “The killer ICE agent” and displayed what she said was his photograph.
She then told the crowd, “You see the devil right there, f**k him up!” before repeating the same profane command as she discussed his supposed location.
Her language did not stop at one angry outburst.
Abdullah later said, “When I say f**k him up, I mean in many ways! They don’t get to do their dirt in the dark!”
She added, “There should be nowhere where they go where they are comfortable!”
The message was hard to mistake, even with the attempt to broaden what “many ways” might mean after repeatedly telling a politically charged audience to target a named officer.
Abdullah also directed attendees toward revolutionary reading. “If you already read “Blood in My Eye”…If not, pick up that book and study guerrilla warfare.”
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That combination of personal identification, claimed lodging information, a displayed image, repeated profanity, and a recommendation to study guerrilla warfare raises serious questions.
Political speech is protected, but publicly steering an agitated crowd toward a specific law enforcement officer is not normal protest rhetoric, no matter how campus activists try to sanitize it.
The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzalez noted that Abdullah is not merely another rally speaker.
She is a university professor, was among the original founders of Black Lives Matter, and previously served as a leader of BLM Grassroots, giving her words far more reach than those of a random protester.
Abdullah has also reportedly been friendly with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
That connection adds another political layer to a controversy involving a prominent activist, a public university employee, and an immigration officer carrying out federal duties amid a furious national debate.
The episode offers another ugly snapshot of the double standard surrounding political extremism.
If a conservative professor identified a federal employee, announced where that person could be found, flashed a photograph, and repeatedly urged a crowd to attack, cable news panels and university administrators would demand consequences before the video finished playing.
Cal State Los Angeles now faces an obvious question about whether this conduct meets its standards for faculty members.
Taxpayers should not be expected to shrug while a professor uses her platform to inflame a crowd against an officer whose job has already become more dangerous because of reckless political demonization.
Federal authorities may also have to determine whether the comments crossed any legal line, a judgment that depends on context, intent, and the likelihood of imminent action.
At minimum, the footage deserves a serious review rather than the usual institutional silence reserved for radicals with fashionable causes.
ICE officers enforce laws passed by Congress, regardless of how loudly activist groups object.
Naming an agent, pointing supporters toward his supposed lodging, and chanting violent instructions is not courageous resistance, it is a dangerous escalation that responsible leaders should condemn without hesitation.
