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In the 24 hours since a gunman opened fire on the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on North Stemmons Freeway, answers have come at a trickle.
The “targeted attack” is being investigated by the FBI. While some details have begun to emerge about the suspected shooter, 29-year-old North Texas resident Joshua Jahn, little information has been released about the individuals injured in the attack. Jahn reportedly fired into an unmarked van that was bringing ICE detainees to the processing facility, and three detainees were wounded by gunfire. One has died of those injuries.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that one of the individuals injured in the attack is a Mexican national. The nationalities, genders, names and ages of the other two victims remain unknown.
For advocacy groups that have doubled down on calls for immigrant rights during President Donald Trump’s second term, Wednesday’s attack was a shock. However, the political jockeying that has followed the shooting is less shocking.
“We’re still trying to gather details just because a lot of the details aren’t making sense and aren’t adding up for us,” said Esperanza Tomeo, an organizer with Latino civil rights group the Brown Berets. “Ted Cruz made the statement about wanting the end to political violence, but he made no mention of what causes that political violence, the division that’s been caused by [Gov. Greg] Abbott and by himself with the propaganda and rhetoric against the people. There’s been no mention from them about the victims, or any remorse, empathy, or sympathy at all. It’s just been purely focused on building their narrative.”
As soon as news of the shooting began to emerge, the Brown Berets had to take a headcount to ensure no members were at the scene at the time the attack occurred. The group has regularly protested outside the facility in recent months or attended meetings with community members who may be intimidated by ICE.
Once accounted for, the organization began the process of trying to identify the victims of the shooting when it became clear to them that the government was in no rush to give out names. She said the group hopes to contact families who may be in other countries to offer Dallas-based resources and assistance.
Another dozen organizations — ranging from the Dallas Asian American Historical Society to the North Texas Christians Against Christian Nationalism to Vecinos Unidos, the group that has served as a community watchdog at the Dallas federal immigration court as ICE has begun ramping up courtroom arrests — have signed a letter condemning the violence of Wednesday’s attack while also urging officials to scale down “the increasingly hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric” that “contributes to the violence we saw (Wednesday).”
Like the Brown Berets, the signees are calling for more information about the victims of the shooting while also urging the Department of Homeland Security to improve conditions at the North Stemmons facility. In July, North Texas Congressional leaders called on immigration authorities to address reports that conditions within the facility are “unacceptable” to the point that they could be in “serious violation of detainees’ basic human rights.” Local ICE officials have rejected those claims.
“The dehumanization that allows people to be locked in ICE detention centers is the same dehumanization that allowed for today’s violence to occur,” the letter states. “The conditions for immigrants in Dallas are unsafe, unlawful, and now, deadly.”
For Tomeo, as more information about the shooting is revealed in the coming days, she will be “taking it with a grain of salt.” She is openly skeptical of information from leaders like FBI Director Kash Patel or Gov. Greg Abbott, who she believes has a clear anti-immigrant agenda.
“This assassination will NOT slow our arrest, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants,” wrote Abbott on social media three hours after the shooting.
Wednesday morning Patel posted a photo to X of what appears to be bullets, at least one of which has the words “Anti-ICE” written on it. While officials have suggested the bullet inscriptions show a clear motive in the attack, Tomeo wants people to remember it was immigrants who were ultimately harmed.
She worries that the attack will compound the fears of Dallas’ immigrant community, many of whom are already too scared to show up for a court hearing or ICE check-in out of fear of being detained.
“The last thing that we want our people to be is to be scared,” Tomeo said. “We have to believe that this is going to only perpetuate their fear more. So we’re doing everything we can to help comfort them and give them reassurance that we are still here to be there for them as their vanguard.”
