Senator Ted Cruz: “Your political enemy is not the Nazis.”
Sen. Ted Cruz spoke after two detainees were killed at an ice facility in Dallas, Texas, and another defendant was seriously injured in the shooting of a sniper.
The shooter opened fire at a US immigration customs facility in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, killing one detainee and seriously injured two other people authorities are investigating as “targeted violence.”
Officials say the shooter was fired “indiscriminately” from a nearby rooftop, hitting the immigration facility and van in Surryport where the victim was attacked. Authorities say the gunman was found dead at the scene from a self-injured gunshot wound.
Authorities said they have not been hit with the shooting, but the shooting is being investigated as a target attack against law enforcement. FBI Director Kash Patel said there was evidence of “ideological motives” on the scene and posted an image showing X’s shell casings in blue without the word “Anti-Ice” inscribed.
Officials have not confirmed the suspect’s name. CNN and NBC News have identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn.
The incident was the second shooting this year at a Texas ice facility, coming just two weeks after the gunman fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university in Utah. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, officials slammed a partial rhetoric shooting of immigrant enforcement law enforcement calling for an end to political violence.
“This is wrong. Political-motivated violence is wrong,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz added, “We need to learn to work together without attacking each other, without demonizing each other.”
Among the victims of the shooting were Mexicans “really injured,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
“Consulate officials contacted the victims’ families to provide support and legal assistance,” Mexican officials said in a statement about the victims being treated at the hospital. “The Consulate is in continuous communication with the authorities responsible for the investigation, awaiting permission to visit any hospitalized Mexican citizens.”
Mexican officials are calling for a full investigation into the shooting and access to victims.
Their push said President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday sent a diplomatic memo at the hands of immigration agents seeking information on the fatal shootings of Mexicans outside of Chicago.
Immigration officials announced Wednesday evening that they would increase security at agency facilities around the country in response to the shooting.
Agency spokesman Tricia McLaughlin shared a video on social media, saying that Homeland Security’s Department of Homeland Security ordered “enhanced security” with centres on detention facilities and field offices.
McLaughlin didn’t say what the increase in security measures would look like, but NOEM requests for increased security will arise as agency staff outside Chicago install metal fences around facilities where people protest immigration enforcement every day. Local fire department officials demanded that the fence be withdrawn, saying they would present a risk in the event of an emergency.
McLaughlin also said agents would increase recruitment, adding that “numbers are safe.”
In a social media post calling the shooting “despicable,” President Donald Trump denounced the attacks in Texas with “crazy radical leftists” and said he would sign an executive order this week “to dismantle these domestic terrorist networks.”
Beyond the authorities’ photographs of shell casings that say “anti-ice” come Trump’s comments erroneously erroneously as authorities make little public information about the shooter. It was not immediately clear how such an executive order would be implemented.
Elected Democrat officials also quickly condemned the attack in Texas.
“The shooting at an ice facility in Dallas is an unacceptable act of violence. My heart is with the victims and their loved ones,” Sen. Cory Booker wrote in X.
Vice President JD Vance told the North Carolina crowd that stopping political violence “relax, it starts at the top of the Democrats.”
“If you want to stop political violence, stop attacking law enforcement as a Gestapo,” Vance told a rally in Concord, outside Charlotte. “If you want to stop political violence, stop telling your supporters that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is a Nazi. If you want to stop political violence, look in the mirror.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin condemned “this meaningless, coronavirus attack” in a statement on ice shooting.
“Let me be clear. It is necessary that not only on one side of the aisle, but all of us, to quell this epidemic of violence, it is not in our democracy,” added Martin. “Democrats continue to be committed to solving differences through debate and elections, not weapons.”
A September 11 study by the libertarian think tank, Cato Research Institute, found that terrorists motivated by the extreme sector of right-leaning ideology killed six times more people than those on the far left of the political spectrum from 1975 to 10 September.
– Zach Anderson, Sudicsha Kochi
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that one detainee was killed and two were seriously injured in the shootings Wednesday.
The agency previously said two detainees had been killed and one was seriously injured.
A suspect in a fatal shooting at the Icefield office in Dallas, Texas has been identified, several media outlets reported.
The alleged attacker was identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, according to CNN and NBC News. Officials have not confirmed the suspect’s name.
According to a database of Dallas City Active Police Calls, 38 police forces responded to a 6:38am call for assistance at 8100 N. Stemmons Freeway, where the local ice headquarters is located. The facility is located in the northwest of the city.
Dallas Police Department Chief Daniel Comeau said at a press conference that police responded to the area after the initial aid call for assistance was received around 6:40 a.m.
At the scene, officers learned that four people, including the gunman, had been shot dead, Comeau said.
– Lauren Villagran
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson asked people not to jump to conclusions before investigators work to identify the clear motives for Wednesday’s fatal shooting.
“Let’s hold on. Stay calm and let our partners become law enforcement partners. The police department should do their job,” he told the news conference. “This is an active survey. There are still many unanswered questions and I would like to encourage you to exercise a little restraint.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the shootings Wednesday, calling on politicians to stop using rhetoric “devilized” ice and border patrol agents.
“This needs to be stopped,” he said. “This is wrong. Political-motivated violence is wrong.”
Cruz pointed to other attacks on ice and border shelters this year, along with the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk two weeks ago.
“In America, I don’t agree that it’s okay. It’s a democratic process, but your political enemy is not the Nazis,” he said. “We need to learn to work together without attacking each other and without demonizing each other.”
Gabby Giffords, a former Arizona Senator who survived an attempted assassination in 2011, expressed his sadness towards the victims in a shooting at an ICE facility. She also cited the administration’s “cruel and inhumane immigration policies.”
“We are waiting for more information, but it is clear that our country is in the midst of a gun crime crisis, and I urge our leaders to take action soon,” Gifford said in the X-Post.
Joseph Roth Lock, a special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI Field Office, found the round near the body of a suspected shooter who had the message that investigators were “anti-ice in nature.”
The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of target violence, Rothlock said.
“This is the latest example of this type of attack,” he said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said “the initial review of the evidence shows the ideological motives behind this attack.”
He posted an image on X of ammunition on the scene, including one engraved in the phrase “anti-ice.”
“A further update is coming up,” Patel added.
The FBI is involved in investigating a fatal shooting at an ice facility in Dallas, agency officials have announced.
“The FBI is fully involved in conjunction with state and federal law enforcement partners at the scene of crime in Dallas,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a statement from X.
At least one person killed in Dallas ice detention shooting was injured
At least one lethal death and multiple injuries were reported at the Ice Detention Center in Dallas.
In July, an ice facility near the Dallas-Fort Worth area was attacked with a shooting that injured a local police officer.
Federal officials say a “violent group” launched a coordinated attack on the Prairiland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, firing dozens of rounds at the facility and attacking Alvarado police officers in the neck. More than 10 people have been charged in connection with the incident.
Ice facilities across the country were protest sites, and sometimes became violent as clashes between federal officials and demonstrators. White House officials say assaults against immigrant agents have risen by 700% amid the Trump administration’s vast deportation campaign.
The United Latin American Citizens’ Federation (LULAC), a national civil society for Latin Americans, has condemned the attacks at ICE facilities.
“Violence is by no means the answer. Our country should not normalize these horrible actions,” said Roman Palomares, president of the National President and Organizational Council of Lulac, in a statement. “We are grieving and urge Americans to lower the temperature of our public discourse.”
LeLac was founded in Texas almost 100 years ago.
-Eduardo Cuevas
Last month, the Dallas Ice Field Office, targeted in Wednesday’s attack, issued an order for shelter to the location after a man approached the building and claimed he had an explosive device in his backpack.
The Department of Homeland Security said on August 25, the man approached the ice facility and showed security guards what he claimed to be a “explosiver” on his wrist. A bomb squad was sent to the scene and local law enforcement officers arrested Bratton Dean Wilkinson, 36.
Officials after the shooting said attacks on immigration agencies “mune must be stopped.”
“We don’t know the motivation yet, but we know that our ICE law enforcement agencies face unprecedented violence against them, and that has to be stopped,” Noem said.
“Obstracism attacks on law enforcement, especially ICE, must stop. Everyone has been hurt and praying for their families,” Vice President JD Vance said.
Sen. Ted Cruz of R-Texas said he is aware of the incident in X and is closely monitoring the situation.
“We pray for the injured person’s prompt recovery and are deeply grateful to the brave first responder who rushed to the scene,” he said.
