(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed Democrats after a sniper opened fire on an ICE facility in Texas — as questions remain about the motive behind the attack and the intended target.
“This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,'” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in which he said he had been briefed on the shooting.
“I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!” Trump added.
Vance addressed the shooting during a visit to North Carolina on Wednesday, saying the administration had evidence not yet released to the public that the shooter was a “violent left-wing extremist.”
“They were politically motivated to go after law enforcement. They were politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border,” Vance said.
The Department of Homeland Security called the shooting an “attack on law enforcement.” FBI Director Kash Patel released images of bullets recovered from the scene, including one engraved with “ANTI-ICE,” and DHS released a photo that appears to show a gunshot in an American flag display.
One detainee was killed and two others were critically wounded in the attack at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, according to DHS. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Vance offered condolences to those affected by the attack, saying it “looks like some of the detainees, in other words, some of the potential illegal aliens were some of those who were affected.”
“Look, just because we don’t support illegal aliens, we don’t want them to be executed by violent assassins engaged in political violence either,” Vance said.
Vance went on to say rhetoric disparaging law enforcement is “disgusting” and suggested Democrats were to blame.
“You don’t have to agree with my immigration policies. You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies. But if your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America,” the vice president added.
Democratic leaders condemned the shooting, which they said is part of an alarming trend in America, as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric they say puts that community in harm’s way.
“No one in America should be violently targeted, including our men and women in law enforcement who protect and serve our neighborhoods, and the immigrants who are too often the victims of dehumanizing rhetoric,” House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement.
“The political and ideologically-motivated violence in America has reached a breaking point this year. We need leaders who bring the country together in moments of crisis — and that is what is required right now,” they wrote.
“This is a heartbreaking act of violence. All of us need to reject extremism in our politics and come together to prevent tragedies like this,” said Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat whose been an outspoken critic of ICE, said she was “devastated by the horrific shooting” that claimed the lives of detainees and was “grateful that no members of law enforcement were injured.”
“The rhetoric used to dehumanize and demonize immigrants in this country has led to increased hate crime incidents and other horrific events like the mass shooting in El Paso — often at the hands of troubled white men. This rhetoric not only threatens the lives of immigrants in the country but also makes the job of our law enforcement officers more dangerous, as can be seen by today’s tragic events,” Crockett said in a statement.
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