On Wednesday, a fatal shooting in a federal installation in Texas highlights the increased threats for immigration officials, as well as prisoners, in the midst of a very divisor increase in the application of immigration.
Dallas police told journalists that they had received a “aid officer” call around 6:40 am local time. After their arrival at the scene, police said they had discovered that a suspect had opened fire on the Dallas Field Office of Immigration and Customs office in an adjacent building. A spokesperson for the ICE told the instructor that the shooter had pulled without discrimination in the campaign office and in a transport van that held prisoners.
The Ministry of Internal Security said that three detainees had been killed and one died. Two are in critical condition, according to the DHS. Earlier, the ministry had published a statement saying that two detainees had died, but then published a correction. The authorities say that the alleged shooter is also dead and that no responsible for the application of the laws was injured during the shooting.
Many details on Wednesday’s set remain unknown. But referring to the first proofs at a press conference, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Dallas, Joe Rothrock, said rounds found near the alleged shooter “contain messages of an anti-ice nature”. FBI director Kash Patel published a photo on X of what he called the “Diffeomers of Non-spent shell” with “Anti-Ite” written on one of them.
“There are people who see what is placed online, and they are doing and they are doing violence against ICE employees,” said Joshua Johnson, director of the acting field office for ICE application and dismissal operations in Dallas at the press conference. “Rhetoric must stop.”
He noted that it was the second time he had to speak with the media of a shooter in one of his ice facilities.
“Although we do not yet know the motivations, we know that our ice law enforcement is faced with unprecedented violence against them. He must stop,” said Kristi Noem, interior security secretary, in a press release. “Please pray for victims and their families.”
Ice has offices on the ground across the country. These are administrative spaces that have also been used, controversial, to temporarily hold immigrants. In the same Dallas field office in August, the authorities said they had arrested a suspect who arrived at the entrance and threatens a bomb.
Wednesday’s shooting comes as internal security indicates that the assembly of attacks against the immigration authorities nationally, including Texas.
Beyond the threat of Dallas bomb, a group of suspects was accused of attempted murder linked to an attack on a detention center in Alvarado, Texas, in July. This same month, several hundred kilometers to the south, a suspect was fatally killed by the police after opening fire in a border patrol establishment in McAllen, injuring three officials of the application of the laws, said the DHS.
The leadership of the ICE affirms that the agency stimulates security by increasing the number of staff members it brings together according to these threats, in particular in the fields which it considers as “sanctuar” jurisdictions, where there is limited cooperation between local and federal authorities.
“Instead of sending the four normal officers to arrest in the street, we must now double this number, because the arrest teams must actually have security,” said Todd Lyons, the interim director of the ICE, at Monitor in an interview this summer.
Ice criticisms say that his officers and agents use disproportionate strength against demonstrators and arrest subjects – often while hiding their identities behind facial masks. Some on the left, including Democratic officials, made comparisons between ice and the Nazis, which the managers and allies of the White House condemned.
“To each politician who uses the rhetoric demonizing ice and demonizing CBP: Stop,” Texas Gop Ted Cruz said at the press conference on Wednesday. CBP means Coutussts and Border Protection, which includes the border patrol.
“This has very real consequences,” said Senator Cruz. “Look, in America, we do not agree – it’s good, it’s the democratic process. But your political opponents are not Nazis.”
The American Immigration Lawyers Association, whose members often work to defend non-citizens against ice expulsion, said immigrants deserve to be treated with dignity and freedom of violence. The group also called for a more respectful dialogue.
“Today’s tragedy underlines the urgent need for all of us – whatever our positions on immigration policy – engaging in this national conversation with compassion, respect for human life and a commitment to the security and well -being of each person,” the association said in a press release.
Publisher’s note: This story has been updated to reflect emerging developments.
