Bullet casings engraved with anti-immigration messages found at scene where suspected sniper killed two detainees before taking own life
A sniper opened fire on a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility early Wednesday morning, killing two migrant detainees and wounding a third in what federal authorities are investigating as an ideologically motivated attack. The gunman, positioned on a nearby rooftop, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police approached the scene.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that shell casings recovered at the scene bore anti-immigration messages, with one unspent round engraved with the phrase “ANTI ICE” in blue ink. While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack,” Patel said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
The attack unfolded at approximately 6.40am local time when the shooter, positioned on an adjacent building roof, opened fire into the facility’s sally port, a secure entryway where detainees were being transferred. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux confirmed that officers responding to the scene found four people with gunshot wounds, including two who were dead.
Senator Cruz Condemns Political Violence
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, speaking at a press conference in Dallas, forcefully condemned the attack and called for an end to inflammatory rhetoric targeting immigration enforcement. “In America, we disagree. That’s fine, that’s the democratic process, but your political opponents are not Nazis,” Cruz said, adding that Americans must “work together without demonizing each other, without attacking each other.
The Republican senator stressed that “Violence is wrong, politically motivated violence is wrong,” and warned politicians to cease their inflammatory language. “To every politician who is using rhetoric demonizing ICE and demonizing CBP: stop. To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxxed and calling for people to go after their families, stop,” Cruz stated.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons characterised the shooter as “a sniper from an elevated position” firing from “a couple hundred yards” away. The attack occurred whilst the sally port was open during a routine detainee transfer, with all three victims identified as ICE detainees who were inside a law enforcement van at the time of the shooting.
Pattern of Escalating Violence
Wednesday’s shooting marks the third attack on Texas immigration facilities this year, highlighting what officials describe as unprecedented violence against federal immigration enforcement. FBI Special Agent in Charge Joe Rothrock called it “an act of targeted violence,” adding that “early evidence that we’ve seen from rounds that were found near the suspected shooter contains messages that are anti-ICE in nature.”
The Dallas facility had previously been targeted on 20 August when a 36-year-old man named Bratton Dean Wilkinson arrived claiming to have a bomb in his backpack, prompting a shelter-in-place order before he was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats.
Most notably, on 4 July, a coordinated attack at ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, left a local police officer shot in the neck. Sixteen people were subsequently charged in connection with that assault, which involved assailants dressed in military-style clothing firing 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers whilst using AR-style rifles and body armour.
Joshua Johnson, acting field office director for ICE Dallas, expressed frustration at the recurring violence, stating: “This is the second time I’ve had to stand in front of you and talk about a shooter at one of my facilities, and I think that the takeaway from all of this is that the rhetoric has to stop.”
Government Response
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed multiple casualties, stating: “While we don’t know motive yet, we know that our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them. It must stop.”
Vice President JD Vance described the incident as an “obsessive attack on law enforcement” that “must stop,” whilst Texas Governor Greg Abbott characterised it as an “assassination” and vowed that the attack “will NOT slow our arrest, detention, & deportation of illegal immigrants.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson called for unity, asking residents to pray “for this city, that we can come together at a time like this, and that we can be there for one another the way we always have.
Security Concerns and Previous Incidents
The targeted facility, located off Interstate 35E near Empire Central in northwest Dallas, serves as a field office where detainees are typically processed before transfer to detention centres. According to a former senior ICE official, the facility contains three or four holding cells with capacity ranging from a few detainees to approximately 100 people, though it typically averages a couple dozen at any given time.
Pro-immigration demonstrators have frequently targeted the Dallas ICE facility in recent months, though Wednesday’s attack represents a significant escalation in violence. The facility processes detainees as part of ICE’s expanded deportation efforts under the current administration.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin noted during a Fox News appearance that it was “just a month ago to the day that there was a viable bomb threat” at the same Dallas location, suggesting the facility may have been under surveillance.
Investigation Underway
The FBI, working alongside the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Dallas Police Department, has launched a comprehensive investigation into the attack. Rothrock promised “no resource not utilized to bring all those individuals who are responsible to be, to bring them to justice and to hold them accountable.”
FBI Director Patel, who was confirmed as the bureau’s ninth director in February 2025, referenced the July attack at Prairieland, stating: “These despicable, politically motivated attacks against law enforcement are not a one-off. We are only miles from Prairieland Texas where just two months ago an individual ambushed a separate ICE facility targeting their officers.
Acting ICE Director Lyons announced that all ICE facilities nationwide would be placed on heightened alert to protect agents and civilians carrying out the agency’s mission. The identity of the shooter has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.
As the investigation continues, law enforcement officials stress the need to address what they describe as dangerous rhetoric that may be inspiring real-world violence against federal immigration enforcement personnel.
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