Domestic terrorism investigations in the United States have surged by over 350 percent recently.

Countries & Cities · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Domestic terrorism is defined by law as criminal acts on U.S. soil intended to coerce populations or influence government policy. While the threat is evolving, federal agencies are struggling to synchronize their data, leaving critical gaps in how the government tracks and combats these dangerous, often lethal, ideological attacks.

Between 2010 and 2021, the Department of Homeland Security identified 231 incidents of domestic terrorism across the United States. These acts, which involve criminal behavior dangerous to human life, are most frequent in states with large metropolitan areas, including California, New York, and Washington, D.C. The largest and most lethal category of these incidents—roughly 35 percent—is motivated by racial or ethnic extremism. Other significant drivers include anti-government sentiment, which accounted for 15 deaths during the same period, as well as violence linked to abortion-related extremism and animal rights causes.

The federal response to these threats has expanded significantly. The number of open FBI investigations into domestic terrorism has more than quadrupled, rising from 1,981 in fiscal year 2013 to 9,049 in fiscal year 2021. Despite this surge in activity and a corresponding increase in federal prosecutions, the infrastructure for managing these threats remains fragmented. A recent government report revealed that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, the two primary agencies responsible for intelligence and investigation, often fail to share data effectively. In some instances, officials were unaware that their counterparts were even collecting relevant incident information.

This lack of integration hinders the government's ability to assess the full scope of the threat. The FBI and DHS have been advised to formalize their collaboration agreements and conduct periodic evaluations of their joint efforts. Because no specific federal criminal offense is titled 'domestic terrorism'—with prosecutors instead relying on specific statutes like those involving explosives or attacks on federal agents—the ability to track and categorize these cases accurately is essential. Strengthening these interagency partnerships is now considered a critical step in evolving the federal strategy to identify and neutralize domestic extremist plots before they result in further loss of life.

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