EXCLUSIVE— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents say misinformation and misleading videos are putting them at risk, fueling public hostility and attacks on officers. Fox News Digital embedded with ICE teams in Dallas and Houston in September to see their work firsthand and separate fact from fiction about their mission.

Acting Assistant Field Office Director in the Houston field office, Tom Persad, told Fox News Digital during the ride-along that it is a “privilege to live in America.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to have criminals living in their community breaking in and robbing them, stealing from them, raping them, child predators, gangbangers. And if these people commit their crimes, they should go back to their home country. It’s a privilege to live here,” Persad said.

A Dallas assistant office field director, who Fox News Digital joined for the ride-along, emphasized that ICE has targeted individuals when conducting arrests.

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“We want to keep our community safe,” he continued. “Stop believing what people are posting as far as like ICE is out there conducting raids, ICE is just arresting anyone they see, or they’re profiling.”

Persad in Houston emphasized that the theory that ICE is conducting raids against one particular demographic is not true.

“It’s just not one specific community. It just depends on their – the criminality,” Persad said.

Fox News Digital rode along with the Houston team on Sept. 12. Persad said many protesters and critics of ICE do not understand how the agency operates and criticized media outlets for misrepresenting ICE’s work.

“I’m not going to say all media, but the majority of them don’t put out the whole story. They just put out part of it. So then the general public or even the communities, they just, they’re not… informed fully, so then they just make a rash decision, or a rash conclusion about what we’re doing,” Persad said.

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He said this misinformation has real-world consequences.

“I feel if the media would actually tell the whole story, it would make everyone’s lives a lot easier doing this job, and also you don’t have these people resisting and running and fleeing and fighting and assaulting officers. Assaults have gone up dramatically in the last six to seven months.”

“Folks need to be better educated on as far as like our agency and what we do,” the Dallas officer emphasized.

During the Houston ride-along, agents arrested a Syrian citizen, a convicted child predator who was found to possess child sexual abuse materials in Harris County, Texas, and was admitted to the U.S. as a non-immigrant visitor but failed to return to his home country by the required date.

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Persad said following the arrest, “It’s not just the Hispanic community that we look at. We look at everybody. And it just depends on, the case today might come up with someone from Mexico. Tomorrow it might be someone from England, or Canada, or South America, or even Africa. We just don’t target one specific community.”

During the Dallas ride-along, agents arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico with a long rap sheet of alleged crimes from his home country.

The individual ICE targeted that morning from Mexico had committed fraud while applying for status in the U.S., and had also faced allegations ranging from murder to money laundering that he hadn’t disclosed, according to the Dallas agent.

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Agents also stressed the importance of respect and safety during operations.

“Communication is key. And I think for individuals that we encounter on a daily basis, if we stay professional, and we treat them with respect, we expect the same back, right? And for the most part, that’s what we get,” the Dallas agent said.

He continued, “Safety is going to be the number one concern, but also it’s not just our safety, it’s their safety as well. So it’s very important, I think, to have that professional communication and treating everyone the way they should be, right? We’re all human beings.”

The Dallas ride-along took place on Sept. 23. Just one day later, a gunman opened fire at the ICE field office in Dallas, authorities confirmed.

ICE officers are facing a surge in death threats and violent attacks as they carry out the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security last month show that ICE officers are experiencing an 8,000% increase in death threats targeting ICE officers.

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Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the threats come as officers “risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst.”

“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,” she said.

Fox News’ Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.