Tears streamed down his face as Jonathan García, a migrant from Venezuela, clutched a folder containing immigration documents. Above his head, the heat of Dallas contrasted with the chill he felt from fear, not only of deportation, but also of being the victim of an attack that could end his life.
Just one day before, a sniper perched on a nearby rooftop rained bullets down upon the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center here on Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, where García spoke to The Dallas Morning News. He had arrived for his twice-yearly immigration check-in for his pending asylum case.
The shooter, identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, of Fairview, killed one person and injured two others, before taking his own life. Authorities say Jahn was targeting ICE employees, though all of the victims — at least those shot — were immigrants such as García.
The shooting has stoked divisive political rhetoric and a renewed round of recriminations. But for the immigrant community and law enforcement — ICE agents in particular — the tragedy on Wednesday is an all-too-real reminder of the danger that exists on all sides.
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“I’m afraid, I’m scared, because I have to go in alone and leave my family behind,” García said through tears. “I’m afraid to go out alone and not know about them anymore, not know what might happen.”
Jonathan García cries while speaking with the News after being turned away from his appointment at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement office following the shooting a day prior, Sept. 25, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
García already was fearful of deportation. Originally from Maracay, Venezuela, he arrived in the United States two years ago with his wife and two children, with whom he crossed the Darien jungle and then Mexico before reaching North America.
But now it’s also about violence.
“I had been thinking about the approaching appointment date for nights and was nervous,” García said. “Today and tomorrow I will rest easy, but on Monday I have to come back, and I’m afraid.”
Noraida Ramírez was inside the ICE offices on Wednesday during the attack. Her husband was outside, waiting for her in the car, when the attack occurred.
For her, the most terrifying moment was when she heard the gunshots and couldn’t communicate with her husband because, when she entered the offices, federal officers always take people’s phones. So, the couple was cut off from communication, not knowing what was happening to each other.
“We always come here afraid that they might deport us, that they might send us back to our country,” said Ramírez, also originally from Venezuela. “But now we are even more afraid with everything that has happened.”
The News made multiple attempts — through emails and phone calls — to speak with ICE agents about being targeted for violence, but ICE officials did not respond.
ICE, police, and FBI investigators take shelter from the rain under a building overhang in a parking lot near Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after a shooting at the facility on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Dallas.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Nancy Larson, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said at a news conference Thursday that Jahn wrote he intended to “maximize lethality” against ICE employees and also damage the facility.
“It’s clear from these notes,” Larson said, “that he was targeting ICE agents and personnel.”
Marcos Charles, the Executive Associate Director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said targeted actions such as this hit home.
“There is a heightened sense of security for everybody,” he said, “not only at work but for their families, for their families, for their loved ones.”
Sarah Saldaña, the former director of ICE under the Obama administration, stressed in a phone interview with The News on Wednesday that immigration agents are not the ones writing the country’s laws but simply enforcing them.
Immigration agents arresting migrants — who will then be placed into deportation proceedings — have always faced risks, she said.
“Going to a person’s home at 6 o’clock in the morning, knocking on the door, is dangerous,” Saldaña said.
So, too, is working or visiting an ICE facility. This marked the second shooting at a North Texas ICE facility in the last few months. Each week, hundreds of people come to these facilities to check in and complete other immigration procedures.
Yoherkis Garcés is a Venezuelan woman who has been in Dallas for two years. On Wednesday, she was inside the ICE offices when the shooting occurred.
Noraida Ramirez y Yoherkis Garces are turned away from their appointments at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement office following the shooting a day prior, Sept. 25, 2025.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
“When the first shot rang out, we thought it was fireworks, but it was strange because of the time,” said Garcés, referring to the attack that began at 6:40 a.m. “But two or three minutes later, there was a barrage of gunfire, and then we knew it was an attack, but we didn’t know where it was coming from.”
Garcés said that agents moved them to a safer area and they stayed there for several hours until the situation calmed down and it was safe to leave. As she tells the story, her hand still trembles from the fear of the previous day.
And, again, the fear of violence is piled atop the fear of deportation.
“If I don’t manage to check in this month, and next month they tell me to come in, I don’t know if they’ll allow me to stay because I won’t have this month’s signature,” Garcés said. “It’s a huge fear we all have right now.”
‘If they have eyes, may they not see me’
On Thursday afternoon outside Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where it was reported that at least one of those injured in Wednesday’s shooting was hospitalized, about 30 people gathered outside to hold a vigil for the victims.
Janet Martínez begins by inviting those present to pray the rosary, not only for the victims, but for the entire immigrant community.
“If they have eyes, may they not see me. If they have feet, may they not reach for me. If they have hands, may they not touch me. And if they have ears, may they not hear me,” says Martinez, holding the rosary in her hand.
Martínez is part of Vecinos Unidos DFW, a grassroots organization dedicated to accompanying and advising migrants in their dealings with federal authorities. These activists gather mostly at immigration courts.
Noemí Ríos, one of the founders of Vecinos Unidos DFW, attended the vigil. She said the situation worsens in circumstances like this, when authorities are not transparent and, on the contrary, show their disdain for the migrant community.
“They dehumanize you. You are not only killed, you are dehumanized,” Ríos told The News. “They don’t even acknowledge that you were a human being who lost your life. You are not just dead; you are erased.”
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., according to an official with the Department of Homeland Security; Jose Andres Bordones-Molina, from Venezuela, and Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, from Mexico.
Azael Alvarez of El Movimiento DFW said the emphasis by federal authorities on who was targeted instead of who was actually shot — authorities delayed specifically stating those shot were immigrants — should prompt community representatives to seek answers.
“That is where we demand our local officials and state representatives to stand up and try to fight for us, because it’s scary,” Alvarez said. “These immigrants are trying to do it the legal way, and if there is a fear of doing that, then they are not going to go because they also fear for their safety.”
Officers including Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) gather around 1120 Empire Central Place, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Dallas.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
That fear extends to their families, said Tony Rodríguez of Brown Berets DFW, an organization whose members are with a network of vigilantes dedicated to alerting communities to the presence of ICE agents.
“People are not only afraid that the National Guard or more federal agents will come, as in Chicago or Washington,” Rodríguez said. “But now they are also afraid that other people will attack them. The truth is, there is a lot of fear.”
Authorities said the evidence that Jahn targeted ICE agents was contained on a bullet with the message “anti-ICE” but more specifically on notes describing his plan that were discovered when executing a search warrant on his residence.
The shooting at the office follows a July 4th attack at the Prairieland Detention Center, about 35 miles south of Dallas.
An Alvarado police officer suffered a gunshot wound to the neck but survived. No ICE agents or migrants were injured. Federal authorities described the Independence Day attack as a “planned ambush.”
Authorities arrested at least a dozen people, saying they planned an “ambush with the attempt to kill ICE correction officers.”
Six women were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth on Monday in connection with the attack.
On Aug. 25, authorities arrested a man who walked up to the Dallas ICE office and allegedly told officials he had a bomb in his backpack, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.
A group gathers for a weekly prayer vigil outside the Dallas ICE office.
Courtesy of the Rev. George Mason
Marcos Charles said rhetoric villainizing ICE agents has to stop.
“We call on those who foment violence and vilify our law enforcement officers to cease the dangerous rhetoric,” Charles said. “We also call on law-abiding Americans everywhere to report any suspicious activity.”
ICE’s enforcement operations have been a major storyline during President Donald Trump’s second term. He promised to have the largest mass-deportation operation in the country’s history. His methods, however, have been divisive and spurred heated rhetoric.
That rhetoric — some argue — is in great part what is driving the violence that was visited upon Dallas this week. Violence that has been directed at both immigrants and ICE agents alike. Violence that has stoked even more fear.