James Keivom/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — An officer from the New York City Department of Correction gave federal immigration agents information about someone believed to have entered the country illegally, a violation of the city’s sanctuary laws, investigators said Thursday.
The New York City Department of Investigation said a correction officer assigned to a federal violent gang task force provided the information but was not aware it would be used as part of civil immigration enforcement. City policy would allow information sharing as part of a criminal investigation.
The officer provided information about Cristian Concepcion, who was believed to have entered the country illegally, officials said. While investigating that allegation, the DOI also found that the officer, who was not named, provided information to federal immigration authorities about another person in custody, Pedro Mujica Villa Nueva, officials said.
The officer “did not understand that the assistance he provided was in furtherance of federal civil immigration enforcement, as opposed to a federal criminal investigation,” the Department of Investigation said, which resulted from “a lack of training and guidance” from his superiors.
“New York City law and DOC policy do not allow City resources to be used for the purpose of facilitating the enforcement of federal immigration law, and that prohibition includes the sharing of information with our federal law enforcement partners for that purpose. DOI found that in at least two instances a DOC investigator unwittingly violated the law and DOC policy and that DOC failed to provide proper guidance and training to DOC staff about how to comply with City law and DOC’s own policy while maintaining critical law enforcement partnerships with federal agencies,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said.
Strauber recommended an audit of the Department of Corrections to identify any other violations.
(DALLAS) — The sniper who opened fire on the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, killing one detainee and wounding two detainees, allegedly left behind a note about looking to stoke fear for ICE agents.
The handwritten note said, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday, the note referring to armor-piercing bullets.
Patel said the sniper — identified by sources as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn — allegedly had searches last month on apps that track ICE agents and he allegedly downloaded a document called “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management,” which has a list of DHS facilities.
“He conducted multiple searches of ballistics and the ‘Charlie Kirk Shot Video'” on Tuesday and Wednesday, Patel said.
Patel said more evidence shows “a high degree” of planning from Jahn, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Jahn allegedly “fired indiscriminately” at the ICE building on Wednesday morning, killing one ICE detainee and critically wounding two others, one of whom is a Mexican national.
Detainees were being loaded out of a van when the gunfire erupted, according to a senior ICE official. Some detainees were still in the van when the shots rang out, and ICE agents ran back into the gunfire to bring the rest of them to safety in a move that “likely saved more lives,” the official said.
While no officers were injured, the Department of Homeland Security said the shooting was “an attack on ICE law enforcement.”
On Wednesday the FBI released an image of recovered bullets, including one engraved with the phrase “ANTI-ICE,” and DHS released a photo that appears to show a gunshot in an American flag display.
Vice President JD Vance said during remarks in North Carolina on Wednesday that evidence that hadn’t been released showed the shooter was a “left-wing extremist” who was “politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border.”
The FBI said the shooting is being investigated “as an act of targeted violence,” and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said he would put all ICE facilities on a higher alert.
The shooting comes amid ramped up ICE deportation efforts throughout the country and the DHS said that ICE officers have faced a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them. Two Texas facilities were targeted this July: a police officer was shot at an ICE detention facility in Alvarado and a gunman opened fire at the entrance of the Border Patrol sector annex in McAllen.
Officials said that attacks on ICE and law enforcement must end.
“Our prayers are with the families of those killed and our ICE law enforcement. This vile attack was motivated by hatred for ICE,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed. This shooting must serve as a wake-up call.”
President Donald Trump wrote on social media, “This is despicable! The Brave Men and Women of ICE are just trying to do their jobs, and remove the ‘WORST of the WORST’ Criminals out of our Country, but they are facing an unprecedented increase in threats, violence, and attacks by Deranged Radical Leftists.”
Joshua Jahn is seen in a 2016 booking photo. (Collin County Sheriff’s Office)
(DALLAS) — The man suspected of the shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on Wednesday opened fire “indiscriminately” from a nearby rooftop, killing one detainee and wounding two others in a van, authorities said.
The shooting suspect was identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Authorities said he took his own life.
Here’s what we know about the suspect.
Suspect allegedly left behind note about ICE
FBI Director Kash Patel posed that Jahn allegedly left a handwritten note that read, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?” — referring to armor-piercing bullets.
Patel also said “further accumulated evidence to this point indicates a high degree of pre-attack planning,” with the suspect allegedly downloading a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” that contained a “list of DHS facilities.”
Jahn also allegedly “searched apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents,” Patel said. He added the suspect “conducted multiple searches of ballistics and the ‘Charlie Kirk Shot Video'” between Sept. 23 and Sept. 24.
‘Anti-ICE’ messages on casings
There is no word yet on a possible motive.
However, FBI officials said rounds found near the suspect contained “messages that are anti-ICE in nature.”
Patel released an image of recovered shell casings, including one that had been engraved with the phrase “ANTI ICE,” he said.
While no officers were injured, the Department of Homeland Security said the shooting was “an attack on ICE law enforcement.”
A spokesperson for the University of Texas – Dallas said that a person matching Jahn’s name and date of birth had “briefly attended” the university “over a decade ago.”
Childhood friends remember avid gamer
Two childhood friends told ABC News they had not seen Jahn in around 10 years, but remembered him as mainly interested in video games and internet culture.
Both friends asked not to be named due to concerns about potential harassment.
“This is a complete shock to me,” one of the friends told ABC News. “Josh was the least political out of all the people I knew in high school. He liked playing video games.”
Both friends provided a username that they said belonged to Jahn on the gaming website Steam, which is also linked to a Reddit account.
The Reddit account has not been used in around six years. Previous posts point to an interest in gaming and smoking marijuana.
In addition to the Reddit account, the Steam profile appearing to belong to Jahn pointed to the life of an avid gamer, with over 10,000 hours spent playing games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Rust.
Vice President JD Vance greets local law enforcement as he arrives to depart on Air Force Two at Piedmont Triad International Airport, September 24, 2025 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Alex Brandon/Pool via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed Democrats after a sniper opened fire on an ICE facility in Texas — as questions remain about the motive behind the attack and the intended target.
“This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,'” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in which he said he had been briefed on the shooting.
“I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!” Trump added.
Vance addressed the shooting during a visit to North Carolina on Wednesday, saying the administration had evidence not yet released to the public that the shooter was a “violent left-wing extremist.”
“They were politically motivated to go after law enforcement. They were politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border,” Vance said.
The Department of Homeland Security called the shooting an “attack on law enforcement.” FBI Director Kash Patel released images of bullets recovered from the scene, including one engraved with “ANTI-ICE,” and DHS released a photo that appears to show a gunshot in an American flag display.
One detainee was killed and two others were critically wounded in the attack at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, according to DHS. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Vance offered condolences to those affected by the attack, saying it “looks like some of the detainees, in other words, some of the potential illegal aliens were some of those who were affected.”
“Look, just because we don’t support illegal aliens, we don’t want them to be executed by violent assassins engaged in political violence either,” Vance said.
Vance went on to say rhetoric disparaging law enforcement is “disgusting” and suggested Democrats were to blame.
“You don’t have to agree with my immigration policies. You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies. But if your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America,” the vice president added.
Democratic leaders condemned the shooting, which they said is part of an alarming trend in America, as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric they say puts that community in harm’s way.
“No one in America should be violently targeted, including our men and women in law enforcement who protect and serve our neighborhoods, and the immigrants who are too often the victims of dehumanizing rhetoric,” House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement.
“The political and ideologically-motivated violence in America has reached a breaking point this year. We need leaders who bring the country together in moments of crisis — and that is what is required right now,” they wrote.
“This is a heartbreaking act of violence. All of us need to reject extremism in our politics and come together to prevent tragedies like this,” said Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat whose been an outspoken critic of ICE, said she was “devastated by the horrific shooting” that claimed the lives of detainees and was “grateful that no members of law enforcement were injured.”
“The rhetoric used to dehumanize and demonize immigrants in this country has led to increased hate crime incidents and other horrific events like the mass shooting in El Paso — often at the hands of troubled white men. This rhetoric not only threatens the lives of immigrants in the country but also makes the job of our law enforcement officers more dangerous, as can be seen by today’s tragic events,” Crockett said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. economy expanded significantly more than initially estimated over a recent three-month period, suggesting robust growth despite uncertainty set off by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, federal government data on Thursday showed.
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter in the government’s final estimate, besting a 3.3% rate issued in its second estimate and far exceeding a 3% initial estimate.
The figure marked a sharp acceleration from an annualized contraction of -0.5% over the first three months of 2025. Still, taken together, the data indicates an economic slowdown over the first half of 2025.
A boost in consumer spending helped propel the economic surge over three months ending in June, the U.S. Commerce Department said. Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is a key bellwether for the outlook of the nation’s economy.
To some degree, however, Trump’s levies have blurred the GDP findings.
The government’s GDP formula subtracts imports in an effort to exclude foreign production from the calculation of total goods and services. Changes in the reading on this account reveal neither underlying economic weakness nor strength.
The measure of the GDP fell over the first three months of the year, largely due to a surge of imports as firms stockpiled inventory to avoid far-reaching tariffs. Conversely, a drop-off in imports over the second quarter may have inflated the second-quarter GDP figure.
The GDP growth “primarily reflected a decrease in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP,” the U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday.
The fresh data arrives at a wobbly moment for the nation’s economy.
A jobs report earlier this month showed a sharp decrease in hiring in August, extending a lackluster period for the labor market. Meanwhile, a revision of previous hiring estimates days later revealed the U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in 2024 and early 2025 than previously estimated, deepening concern about the health of the U.S. job market.
The weak jobs data has raised alarm among some analysts who told ABC News the U.S. economy may be slipping toward a recession, though the economy has largely averted the type of widespread job losses that often accompany a downturn.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week in an effort to boost hiring. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, projected two additional quarter-point rate cuts over the remainder of 2025.
Five meetings and nine months had elapsed since the Fed last cut interest rates.
(NEW YORK) — The tropics are heating up, with Hurricane Gabrielle and Tropical Storm Humberto both churning in the Atlantic as well as a new system that could strengthen and possibly impact the Southeast next week.
Hurricane warnings are in place over Portugal’s Azores islands, where Hurricane Gabrielle is expected to bring damaging winds, coastal flooding and destructive waves Thursday night and Friday. The remnants of Gabrielle are expected to reach Portugal and western Spain on Sunday.
Meanwhile, slow-growing Tropical Storm Humberto has formed in the Atlantic. Humberto might strengthen into a hurricane this weekend and could potentially strengthen even further into a major hurricane — Category 3 or higher — early next week.
Humberto is expected to take a similar path to last month’s Hurricane Erin, moving between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast over the first half of next week.
Another tropical wave has a strong chance to become a tropical depression on Friday and may quickly strengthen into a tropical storm named Imelda.
The system is currently bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and when it passes over or near the Bahamas this weekend, it may strengthen further into a hurricane.
Because this system hasn’t formed yet, those along the Southeast coast should monitor the forecasts over the next 48 hours.
While a landfall is unlikely, it cannot be completely ruled out.
Regardless, rain and at least some wind from this system are expected in the Southeast — especially the Carolinas — on Monday and Tuesday, potentially causing flooding.
A close-up of a Starbucks coffee shop sign on September 8, 2025 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Coffee giant Starbucks will lay off workers and close stores as part of a $1 billion restructuring plan, CEO Brian Niccol said in a memo to employees on Thursday.
The company will slash 900 employees at its stores in North America, Niccol said. The store closures will amount to a roughly 1% decline in the total number of Starbucks locations in North America in this fiscal year, after accounting for some store openings, Niccol added.
“While we’re making good progress, there is much more to do to build a better, stronger, and more resilient Starbucks,” Niccol said.
Shares of Starbucks ticked slightly higher in pre-market trading after the announcement early Thursday morning.
Starbucks weathered sluggish sales in recent years as customers weathered a years-long bout of elevated inflation, analysts previously told ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Steffen Trumpf/dpa (Photo by Steffen Trumpf/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Drone overflights again caused disruptions at Danish airports on Wednesday night, officials said, in the latest instance of unexplained drone sightings over sensitive facilities in the Scandinavian nation.
Danish officials held a press conference on Thursday morning detailing the latest incidents, which prompted the complete closure of Aalborg Airport — which is also used by the Danish armed forces — on the northern tip of Denmark’s Zealand island.
“Drones have been observed near Aalborg Airport and the airspace has been closed,” the Danish National Police said in a statement on Wednesday night. “The police are present and investigating further.”
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said at a Thursday press conference that drones were also reported over the southern cities of Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as over the Fighter Wing Skrydstrup air base, which is home to Danish F-16 fighter jets.
“The goal of this kind of hybrid attack is to create fear,” Hummelgaard said. “It is to create discord and it is to make us afraid.”
The Danish government is planning to “acquire new capabilities for detection” and to present a bill that will “provide increased opportunities for infrastructure owners to also shoot down drones,” Hummelgaard added.
The latest reports came after Copenhagen Airport was forced to close for several hours on Monday night, as was Oslo Airport in southern Norway. Both capitals sit along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits, home to busy shipping lanes which connect the North Sea to the Baltic Sea.
The origin or purpose of the drone flights is not yet clear. But Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a Thursday press conference, “There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor when we are talking about such a systematic operation in so many locations at virtually the same time.”
“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones,” Poulsen said, adding that Copenhagen has options to respond through NATO, including by triggering the alliance’s Article 4 which calls for a formal consultation with allies.
“We have no evidence to make the direct link to Russia,” Poulsen added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that she considered the initial drone intrusions over Copenhagen and elsewhere to be “a serious attack against critical infrastructure in Denmark.”
Asked if Russia — drones from which have repeatedly violated NATO airspace in recent months — should be considered responsible, Frederiksen said, “I cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia.”
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed the assertion. “A country that takes a serious position should probably not make such baseless accusations time and time again,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
And on Thursday, the Russian embassy in Denmark suggested the drone sightings “are a staged provocation.”
“Undoubtedly, they will be used as a pretext for further escalating tension in the interests of forces seeking by all means to prolong the Ukrainian conflict and extend it to other countries,” the embassy wrote on Telegram. “The Russian side firmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents.”
Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday that authorities were investigating several theories as to the origin of the drones, including that they may have been launched from nearby ships.
Danish authorities identified three tankers with links to Russia — the Astrol 1, Pushpa and Oslo Carrier 3 — as possible launch points, Reuters reported.
Of the three, only the Pushpa was close to Aalborg on Wednesday night when the latest drone overflights were reported.
As of Thursday morning, open-source maritime tracking websites showed the Pushpa sailing southwest through the North Sea toward the English Channel, with its eventual destination listed as Vadinar in India.
The Ukrainian government’s “War Sanctions” website lists the Pushpa as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers — vessels that are often uninsured and with unclear ownership which Moscow uses to evade international sanctions.
The Puspha also uses the name Boracay and sails under the flag of Benin, according to the Ukrainian government.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — Minutes after publicly identifying the suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox condemned social media.
“Social media is a cancer on our society right now,” Cox told reporters during a press conference two days after Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University. “I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass.”
Sen. James Langford, R-Okla., echoed such criticism days later. “Social media is always pushing who’s the angriest, who’s the loudest, who says the craziest thing, that’s what gets repeated over and over and over again,” Langford said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Co., described social media as “deeply corrosive.”
Some experts who spoke to ABC News blamed social media for amplifying public rancor and spreading graphic imagery, but they stopped short of identifying online platforms as a lone, direct cause of political violence. Social media has likely worsened a risk rooted in factors like social discord, inflammatory rhetoric from prominent figures and the availability of firearms, they said.
“Social media is certainly a contributing factor, but it’s like pouring gasoline on a fire — it’s not the fire itself,” Robert Pape, a political scientist and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago, told ABC News.
On Sept. 10, Kirk was shot and killed while on stage at Utah Valley University for the first stop on his latest speaking tour of college campuses. The alleged gunman, identified by police as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested almost 48 hours later and faces several charges, including aggravated murder.
Robinson’s apparent use of the online platform Discord and video games drew attention to whether such online networks may play a role in stoking political violence, though details of their possible impact on Robinson remain limited.
Discord confirmed that two hours before Robinson was taken into custody, he was posting on the platform and allegedly told a small group of friends: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all … It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the Discord message during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, saying that the FBI is investigating “anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat” with Robinson. Patel said there are “a lot more” than 20 people linked to Robinson on Discord, “and we’re running them all down. … Every single one.”
X did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did TikTok. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Discord told ABC News the company has not “found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord.”
“We continue to work closely with the FBI and local authorities, and will continue to deliver prompt responses to their requests for assistance,” Discord added.
Discord forbids “hateful conduct or the use of hate speech” on the platform, the company’s website says. “We define hate speech as any expression that degrades, vilifies, or dehumanizes individuals, incites hostility towards specific groups, or promotes harm based on protected characteristics.”
Last year, a Meta spokesperson told researchers at New York University: “We want our platforms to be a place where people can safely express themselves. That’s why we take action on content, like hate speech, bullying, or harassment, that violates our Community Standards and why we continue to invest in new technologies and methods to help protect people on our services.”
Lisa Hayes, head of safety public policy and senior counsel for the Americas at TikTok, told the NYU researchers the company takes down more than 98% of material posted by hateful organizations and individuals and works with experts “to keep ahead of evolving trends.”
On its website, X says: “We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized. For this reason, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals or groups with abuse based on their perceived membership in a protected category. “
Video footage of the fatal shooting circulated widely on social media platforms in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s killing, raising concerns among some observers about the effects that may result from mass exposure to such graphic imagery.
Some experts underscored the elevated risk of political violence created by social media, saying its algorithms favor provocative posts that induce user engagement but exacerbate political division. Additionally, in some cases, social media can largely replace a user’s in-person interactions, leaving them socially isolated, some experts added.
“We are at a very dangerous moment with social media, especially having a large population of highly alienated individuals spending most, if not all, of their time in this virtual space,” Walter Scheirer, a professor of engineering at Notre Dame University who studies online disinformation, told ABC News.
Pape, who regularly conducts surveys on political violence in partnership with NORC, said his research has found heavy users of social media — those who spend six to eight hours on the platforms each day — are more likely to support political violence. However, such individuals are relatively unusual, making up as little as 10% of those who support political violence, Pape said.
Last year, researchers at New York University and Public Circle Research, a private firm, who reviewed 400 studies related to the topic, found social media is “exploited to facilitate political intimidation and violence.”
“These conclusions are quite different from saying that social media alone causes political violence,” the researchers noted, citing other factors like partisan cable news and attackers prone to violence.
Experts who spoke to ABC News also pointed to other factors behind a rise in political violence, such as hostile rhetoric put forward by public figures and access to guns.
“Social media allows for the amplification of a message that’s already happening. If we look at the rhetoric in the U.S. over time, the language politicians are using to describe their domestic political opponents has gotten much harsher and more aggressive. Social media isn’t the cause of that, but it can amplify those voices,” Thomas Zeitzoff, a professor of justice, law and criminology at American University, told ABC News.
Some experts cited previous waves of political violence, such as a spate of assassinations in the late 1960s, which predated online platforms.
Robert Shapiro, a professor of government and public affairs at Columbia University, questioned whether the removal of social media would meaningfully reduce the likelihood of political violence. “There’s more than enough political conflict out there to provoke violence,” Shapiro told ABC News.
The killing of Kirk comes amid a wave of political violence. Over recent months, a gunman fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were shot and killed in their home and another Minnesota state lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded by the same gunman.
During that same period, two staff members at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed after an event at the city’s Jewish Museum.
Over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump survived two assassination attempts.
“This is something we’re not used to seeing in our country,” Pape said. “It hasn’t been our normal, but it’s our new normal now.”
(DALLAS) — Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said he would put all ICE facilities on a higher alert following a shooting at a Dallas field office on Wednesday which killed one detainee and critically wounded two others.
While no officers were injured, the Department of Homeland Security said the shooting was “an attack on ICE law enforcement.”
The suspected shooter has been identified by law enforcement officials as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The shooter, who was on a nearby rooftop, “fired indiscriminately at the ICE building, including at a van in the sallyport where the victims were shot,” DHS said in a statement.
The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
DHS previously said two detainees were killed and one was injured; the agency later issued a correction saying one died and two were shot but survived.
One of the wounded is a Mexican national, according to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Law enforcement and Republican politicians suggested a political motive for the shooting, which comes amid ramped up ICE deportation efforts throughout the country. The DHS said in a statement that ICE officers have faced a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them.
Two Texas facilities were targeted this July: a police officer was shot at an ICE detention facility in Alvarado and a gunman opened fire at the entrance of the Border Patrol sector annex in McAllen.
The FBI said Wednesday’s shooting is being investigated “as an act of targeted violence.”
FBI special agent Joe Rothrock said it appeared that rounds “found near the suspected shooter contain messages that are anti-ICE in nature.”
FBI Director Kash Patel released an image of recovered bullets, including one engraved with the phrase “ANTI-ICE,” and DHS released a photo that appears to show a gunshot in an American flag display.
Vice President JD Vance said during remarks in North Carolina on Wednesday that evidence that has not yet been released shows the shooter was a “left-wing extremist” who was “politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border.”
Officials said that attacks on ICE and law enforcement must end.
“Our prayers are with the families of those killed and our ICE law enforcement. This vile attack was motivated by hatred for ICE,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed. This shooting must serve as a wake-up call.”
President Donald Trump wrote on social media, “This is despicable! The Brave Men and Women of ICE are just trying to do their jobs, and remove the ‘WORST of the WORST’ Criminals out of our Country, but they are facing an unprecedented increase in threats, violence, and attacks by Deranged Radical Leftists.”
“This needs to stop,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at a news conference. “Violence is wrong, politically motivated violence is wrong.”
Vance said, “We’re praying both for our ICE agents, but also for everybody who’s affected by this terrible attack.”
House Democratic leaders in a statement thanked the first responders and offered their condolences to the victims’ families.
“No one in America should be violently targeted, including our men and women in law enforcement who protect and serve our neighborhoods, and the immigrants who are too often the victims of dehumanizing rhetoric,” the Democrats’ statement continued. “The political and ideologically-motivated violence in America has reached a breaking point this year. We need leaders who bring the country together in moments of crisis.”
