Introduction to the Dallas ICE Office Shooting

Early Wednesday morning, gunfire erupted at Dallas’ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, located just off of Interstate 35E in the Stemmons Corridor. The attack, which officials have said was targeted against ICE agents, left three detainees shot, one fatally. Department of Homeland Security officials have identified the three victims who were shot as Norlan Guzman-Fuentes, from El Salvador, who was killed when a gunman fired on the office building at around 6:30 a.m.; Jose Andres Bordones-Molina, from Venezuela; and Miguel Ángel García-Hernandez, from Mexico.

The shooter, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn of Fairview, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound near the office. No law enforcement officers were injured in the shooting. President Donald Trump and other federal officials have decried the shooting as an attack from “radical leftists” and placed blame on rhetoric often used to criticize ICE.

Dallas ICE Office Shooting: The Aftermath

Officials said at a news conference Thursday that writings discovered at Jahn’s residence indicated he harbored hatred for the federal government and planned the attack months in advance. One writing of Jahn’s compared ICE’s work to “human trafficking,” officials said. The Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency under which ICE operates, announced security would be increased at DHS facilities across the nation in the wake of the attack.

Homeland Security officials have also said ICE agents are facing a “1000% increase” in assaults, though the agency has not provided data supporting this. DHS spokesperson Dexter Henson said Thursday the increase is “a comparison of assaults and attacks at our facilities comparing previous years.”

ICE and Immigration Policy

ICE has been the subject of criticism in recent months over Trump’s approach to enforcing immigration policy, which has resulted in increased arrests of migrants believed to have entered the country illegally, including at immigration court proceedings. Pro-immigrant supporters have protested the Earle Cabell federal court building in downtown Dallas, as well as at ICE’s field office in Dallas.

Some protesters during June’s “No Kings Day” also decried ICE’s tactics and criticized the agency. Protesters also gathered outside a multiday ICE hiring event in Arlington last month. Critics of ICE often condemn poor conditions in holding facilities and enforcement agents’ use of masks, which officials say is needed to protect the identities of officers in case of retaliatory attacks.

Other Incidents of Violence

Several instances of violence and threats of violence, officials said, have been directed at ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in North Texas and across the state in recent months. A 35-year-old man was arrested in late August after he arrived at the same ICE facility where the shooting occurred and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack.

Bratton Dean Wilkinson is alleged by police to have walked up to a rear entrance of the facility at about 6:38 p.m. on Aug. 25 and demanded entry, showing a security officer a wristwatch-like device on his wrist. He claimed the device was a detonator and that he had a bomb in his backpack, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.

Dallas ICE Office Shooting Details

At about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday morning, a swarm of police descended upon Dallas’ ICE field office, located in the 8100 block of Stemmons Freeway, after a shooter opened fire on the facility. Officials have said the shooter was firing “indiscriminately” at vehicles at the facility and struck ICE detainees who were inside a transport van at the building’s sally port.

Photos from the scene also showed bullet holes in the office’s windows. Kash Patel, director of the FBI, posted a photo to X shortly after the shooting that showed a clip containing five unfired bullets on a rainy surface. One of the bullets had the words “ANTI-ICE” written on it in what appears to be marker.

Bomb Threat at Dallas ICE Office

Wilkinson allegedly told police that a person armed with a handgun got in his car and ordered him to put on the backpack and drive to the ICE office. The backpack was found to contain only clothes, a screwdriver, a bottle of peroxide and a pair of binoculars, and did not contain “any items that could have caused harm to anyone,” the affidavit said.

Despite the threat being fake, a shelter-in-place was issued for the facility, and a Dallas police bomb squad responded to the scene. Wilkinson was booked into the Dallas County jail and later bonded out. Dallas police said at the time of his arrest that he faces a Class A misdemeanor charge of false reporting to induce emergency response, while an arrest-warrant affidavit indicated Wilkinson faces a charge of terroristic threat, a third-degree felony.

McAllen Border Patrol Facility Shooting

A 27-year-old man was killed by police on July 7 after he opened fire on a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, which injured two officers and a border patrol employee. Ryan Louis Mosqueda opened fire on the facility with an assault-style rifle, authorities said. The shooting took place at a facility across the street from McAllen International Airport.

Prairieland Shooting

At least 14 people are facing charges in connection with an attack at an ICE detention facility in Alvarado that left a police officer injured. The Prairieland Detention Center, located about 35 miles southwest of downtown Dallas, was the site of a protest that later escalated into a shooting.