By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that the agency will be bolstering security at its field offices and facilities in the wake of a shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas on Wednesday that left one detainee dead and two injured.
“In light of the horrific shooting that was motivated by hatred for ICE and the other unprecedented acts of violence against ICE law enforcement, including bomb threats, cars being used a weapons, rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at officers, and doxing online of officers’ families, DHS will immediately begin increasing security at ICE facilities across the country,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a prepared statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on social media showing an unspent shell casing found at the scene of the Dallas shooting with “ANTI-ICE” written on it.
The attack was the latest high-profile targeted killing in the United States, coming two weeks after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University, and amid heightened immigration enforcement measures across the country.
Authorities have given few details about the shooting on Wednesday and did not publicly release the names of the victims or the gunman. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence,” while officials said that no law enforcement personnel were hurt or killed in the shooting.
The agency added that ICE officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults this year, suggesting that the media and progressive politicians are partially to blame due to their rhetoric about ICE and immigration enforcement.
“This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences. Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences. The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters,” McLaughlin said.
“They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, we just want to go home to our families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
Shortly after the shooting and before officials said at least one victim was a detainee, Vice President JD Vance posted on X that attacks “on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued a similar statement, calling for an end to political violence.
Officials have noted a recent uptick in targeting of ICE or Border Patrol agents.
On July 4, attackers in black, military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. One police officer was injured. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with the attack.
Days later, a man with a rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents leaving a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen. The man, identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, injured a responding police officer before authorities shot and killed him.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has vowed to carry out a mass deportation campaign across the United States while increasing security measures at the U.S.-Mexico border. His border czar, Tom Homan, said in a recent interview that some 2 million illegal immigrants have either been deported or voluntarily left the country since the administration took office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
