For immigrant rights groups, the anti-ICE shooting in Texas was worthy of condemnation — but some took pains to say the deportation agency bore at least part of the blame for a “climate of violence” that led to the incident, which took the life of one migrant and critically wounded two others.
Immigration groups in Texas extended their condolences, but in a joint press release, quickly pivoted to demanding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement change its policies to head off more attacks.
“The increasingly hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric and posture of federal and state authorities only contributes to the climate of violence we saw today. The dehumanization that allows people to be locked in ICE detention centers is the same dehumanization that allowed for today’s violence to occur,” said the 13 groups, which include the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Frontera Federation and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
The groups also blamed ICE for “failures in anticipating threats” that led to the migrants being shot.
They called for the immediate release of all migrants being detained in the Dallas area, where the shooting took place, and they demanded an end to “hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric” they tied to the incident.
Suggesting ICE contributed to the shooting by carrying out its deportation duties was “shocking,” said Jonathan Fahey, a former federal prosecutor who served as the acting director of ICE at the end of the first Trump administration.
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“That’s a stunning quote,” he said of the immigration groups’ statement. “It essentially is blaming ICE agents for being attacked.”
“It’s grossly insensitive, considering what just happened,” Mr. Fahey added.
Wednesday’s shooting saw a sniper fire from a nearby building at ICE’s Dallas office, hitting migrants being shuttled in a van. Investigators recovered a clip of bullets at the scene with “Anti ICE” written on the side of one casing.
Senior administration officials quickly connected dots from the shooting to virulent denunciations of ICE as “Nazis” or a “secret police” that have become standard fare for national Democratic Party leaders.
“When Democrats like [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom say these people are part of an authoritarian government, when the left-wing media lies about what they’re doing, when they lie about who they’re arresting, when they lie about the actual job of law enforcement, what they’re doing is encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence,” Vice President JD Vance said.
National Democrats, for their part, cast the shooting as the latest in a string of “political violence” that they said crosses ideological boundaries — and needs to stop.
That didn’t deter immigration groups, who continued to use charged rhetoric to describe ICE activities in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting.
In New York City, organizers announced plans for a rally Thursday night to protest ICE arrests, which they compared to kidnappings and abductions.
New York Comptroller General Brad Lander, a Democrat, is slated to attend, as are some Democratic members of the state legislature.
They were also part of a protest last week when they tried to enter the ICE processing facility at Foley Square, saying they wanted to check on conditions after a federal judge found overcrowding and inhumane conditions.
“We put our bodies on the line for the lives and freedom of thousands of New Yorkers who have been illegally kidnapped and detained by ICE,” state Assembly Member Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas said after being arrested during last week’s protests.
Mr. Fahey said it’s wrong to use words like “kidnapped” to describe ICE’s activities.
“That’s flat-out false,” he said. “Kidnapping is a serious crime. What [ICE is] doing is not only lawful but it’s what they’re required to do as part of their position and the law.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.