Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the Dallas field office shooting was a calculated sniper attack aimed at law enforcement, warning the alleged gunman’s anti-ICE motives and escalating rhetoric against the agency pose growing dangers to officers, detainees, and the public.
“It wasn’t directed at the detainees, it wasn’t directed at civilians on the street. It was a definite attack on law enforcement. He was there to attack that building,” Lyons told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Wednesday.
He emphasized that the alleged shooter, identified as Joshua Jahn, specifically fired on ICE vehicles and the facility itself.
Lyons noted that Jahn has a criminal history and appeared to harbor anti-ICE sentiments, which was shown on etchings he allegedly made onto his bullets.
Lyons also warned the attack could have endangered not only ICE, but also attorneys, members of the public and commuters on the nearby I-35.
“Where he fired into, it wasn’t just detainees or law enforcement officers. That was a waiting area where attorneys are, that are there to see their clients, the public that they’re visiting,” Lyons said. “I-35 is a major highway right there, and you saw those bullets penetrated through the lobby into the wall, into the flag. People going to work, going to school could have been killed on I-35.”
The acting ICE director tied the attack to increasingly hostile rhetoric toward ICE from politicians, calling comments like California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “completely ridiculous,” and blaming them for fueling threats against ICE agents and their families.
“There are so many people that want to come out and join ICE, not just for, you know, be part of this deportation mission or the secret police,” Lyons added. “There are men and women that want a noble law enforcement profession, and that’s what we offer. And that’s what really, really disgusts me, is the fact that what the men and women of ICE are doing is a noble enforcement profession. They’re doing their sworn duty, they’re following the laws that Congress has written.”