A rooftop gunman opened fire on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas on September 24, striking a transport van in the sally port and killing one detainee while wounding two others before turning the gun on himself. The morning ambush shattered the illusion that politically motivated attacks on federal officers and facilities are a rare anomaly in America today.
Authorities quickly identified the shooter as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, and investigators recovered unfired ammunition and shell casings from the scene that were marked with the words ANTI-ICE, suggesting an ideological motive rather than a random act of violence. This isn’t just crime — it’s political violence aimed at men and women doing a dangerous job enforcing our laws.
Reports say the victims were detainees inside the transport van when they were struck, and no ICE officers were physically harmed in the attack, but the target was clearly the agency and the system that upholds border enforcement. The sally port is where detainees are transferred and where security should be ironclad; the fact that a rooftop shooter could rain down bullets there exposes a dangerous vulnerability.
Federal investigators, including the FBI, are treating this as a targeted, politically motivated act, and top officials have warned that violent rhetoric against immigration enforcement has real-world consequences. We cannot pretend that venomous, anti-enforcement chanting is speech when it so clearly motivates murder; leadership matters, and leaders who demonize those enforcing the law bear responsibility for the climate they foster.
Make no mistake: condemning violence must be absolute and unequivocal, yet our political class has a habit of soft-pedaling attacks when the perpetrator’s stated grievance aligns with partisan talking points. Conservatives will call out the cowardice of anyone who cheers on the idea of “abolish” or “defund” while pretending to be shocked when people answer violent calls to action with violence. Actions have consequences, and it’s past time for accountability across the board.
Homeland Security has said it will increase security at ICE facilities nationwide, and rightly so — protecting federal personnel and the people in their custody must be a top priority for any administration that values law and order. The solution is not to cave to intimidation or to rewrite our immigration laws in the middle of a crisis; it’s to secure the border, support officers who do a dangerous job, and crush domestic terror networks that target Americans.
This attack on an ICE facility is a reminder that patriotic Americans must stand for the rule of law and the safety of our communities, even when the politics are messy and unpopular. We mourn the dead and injured, we demand justice, and we will not let violent extremism become an acceptable tool for achieving political ends.
