Hazmat crews descended Friday morning on two Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in North Texas after agents found white powder inside envelopes mailed to the facilities, marking at least the fourth incident related to federal immigration operations in Texas this year.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, an ICE officer opened an envelope addressed to “Dallas Field Office” about 7 a.m. Friday that contained “a white powdery substance.” Jason Evans, a fire department spokesman, said preliminary tests showed the substance was not dangerous.
A second envelope was discovered at an ICE office in Irving, DHS said.
DHS officials noted a similar scare in August, in which five envelopes containing white powder were found in the mailroom of an ICE office in New York City. The powder was later revealed to be boric acid, ABC News reported.
“There is no threat to the public and the matter is under investigation,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote Friday in a statement. “We call on politicians and activists to tone down their rhetoric before a law enforcement officer is killed.”
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By mid-morning Friday, the hum of passing cars was the only sound interrupting the silence hanging over the Dallas ICE facility tucked off the highway in the Stemmons Corridor. The office is used for migrants to check in with agents and to hold migrants who have been arrested until they can be sent to long-term detention centers across the country. Migrants picked up by ICE at local jails are first transferred to the field office to be processed.
The response was in stark contrast to the last time police swarmed the federal building in September.
On Sept. 24, officials said a gunman fired at the facility “indiscriminately” from a neighboring rooftop, killing two detainees and leaving another critically injured.
According to Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn acted alone when he targeted ICE agents with a long-range rifle, and was not intending to harm any detainees. Jahn died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
In August, a man was arrested after he walked up to an entrance of the building and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack.
On July 4, a police officer was wounded in a shooting at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado after a protest escalated into what federal authorities described as a “planned ambush.” At least 16 people have been charged. The officer, who was shot in the neck, survived.
Breaking news editor Leah Waters contributed to this report.