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“A shooter with a rifle opened fire from a nearby roof onto a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement location in Dallas on Wednesday, killing one detainee and wounding two others in a transport van before taking his own life… FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on social media showing a bullet found at the scene with ‘ANTI-ICE’ written on it.” AP News
“[The shooter] left behind notes saying he acted alone in an attack intended to kill and ‘terrorize’ ICE agents, whose work he viewed as ‘human trafficking,’ officials said on Thursday.” Reuters
The left is critical of Republicans’ responses to the shooting.
“As usual, before much credible information was available, Trump & Co. filled the void with their own ‘facts,’ all to their advantage… Trump made sure to quickly paint the perpetrator as one of ‘them,’ or what Trump described as ‘the Left Wing Domestic Terrorism that is terrorizing our Country.’…
“Even if it is a case of domestic terrorism, whom are we to believe? The once-independent Department of Justice is now compromised and complicit, with the attorney general following Trump’s orders. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and political attack dog, recently took the opportunity to demonize the Democratic Party, calling it ‘a domestic extremist organization.’…
“An important footnote about political violence in America: In 2024, the Department of Justice published a study that found the number of far-right attacks ‘continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism’ in the United States. According to 404 Media, that study, an inconvenient truth for Trump, was deleted from the DOJ website on September 12.”
Dan Rather, Substack
“If people are getting violent towards ICE officers, it’s not because we are ‘demonizing them.’ It is because everyone can see, with their own eyes, what they are doing. Kristi Noem may think she looks totes adorbs frolicking around in her ICE Barbie outfits and hair extensions, but it is a deeply, deeply disturbing visual for anyone who thinks of these immigrants as human beings…
“No one needs to say ‘They look like the Gestapo’ out loud, because they look, to anyone who has ever taken a world history course or watched a World War II documentary, like the Gestapo. They’re masked men dragging people off without identifying themselves, beating people, demanding to see papers, separating families, and sending people to far off lands where they don’t know anyone. There’s not a way to make that not horrifying.”
Robyn Pennacchia, Wonkette
“Public assassinations and mass shootings today are as much about theater as ideology. These high-profile killers are staging a performance, knowing the audience is global and the press will play along. The choice to etch bullets with song lyrics or anime jokes isn’t about belief; it’s about spectacle. And every time we give breathless coverage to these details, we reward that spectacle…
“Indeed, one analysis found 87 percent of mass shooters explicitly sought fame in their planning, using media coverage of prior attacks as a blueprint. In many cases, excessive focus on the killer has turned them into anti-heroes of an online cult, while root causes fade from view… In amplifying these cryptic scribbles on shell casings, newsrooms become unwitting collaborators in the shooter’s performance.”
Alain Stephens, The Intercept
The right argues that Democrats should tone down their rhetoric about ICE.
The right argues that Democrats should tone down their rhetoric about ICE.
“In recent weeks here are just a few of the words that have been used to describe ICE officers: Gestapo. Neo-Nazis. Secret Police. And these words were not used by some deranged online hysteric typing from their basement. They were used by — in order — Governor Tim Walz, Mayor of Boston Michelle Wu and Governor Gavin Newsom…
“You would have thought that people in such prominent positions would have thought twice before sticking the worst possible labels onto federal employees… In a culture which has almost no other reference points for evil, calling people such things is an outright invitation for people to act. Unless you believe that you can identify people as Nazis but believe that you should leave Nazis alone. And exactly who thinks that?”
Douglas Murray, New York Post
“Unlike the Gestapo, ICE has no extrajudicial powers allowing it to detain, torture, kidnap, or execute at will. Nor does ICE have the right to enter private residences absent the consent of its lawful occupant, a warrant signed by a judge, or probable cause to believe entry is needed to prevent imminent criminality. In contrast, the Gestapo was able to detain anyone its officers deemed a threat to the Third Reich, and then dispose of those individuals as it pleased…
“Persons previously detained by ICE aren’t later being discovered as having been tortured, disappeared, or executed by ICE. Yes, there have been incidents of excessive force and questionable tactics employed by ICE. Yes, the Trump administration has sometimes extended its deportation authority beyond breaking point… [But] the overwhelming majority of individuals detained by ICE have avoided injury or ill-treatment… ICE agents lawfully going about their work are not heirs to the Nazi secret police.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“This has to stop. It’s part of a very disturbing trend. In July, eleven left-wing agitators ambushed an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, opening fire on agents and shooting one in the neck. In Portland, Ore., an incendiary device was thrown at officers. That same month, another attacker in McAllen, Texas, shot two police officers and a Border Patrol employee, sending them to the hospital. An ICE facility in Washington suffered an arson attack…
“This anti-ICE movement has been implicitly cheered on by elected Democrats who adopted a party line of invoking fascism when talking about immigration enforcement… The rhetoric that ICE is a lawless or personal force wielded by the president against enemies is not just overheated nonsense — it is hypocritical. All but five Democratic senators voted for a threefold increase in ICE’s annual budget recently. ICE agents are doing a job lawfully and constitutionally given to them by our elected government.”
The Editors, National Review
