Wednesday’s deadly shooting at an Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (Ice) facility in Dallas comes as the agency has heightened its crusade against undocumented people and bolstered its self-image of being under siege from violent enemies.
Little is known of the motives of the gunman who opened fire on the detention center near Love Field airport from a nearby roof, killing a detainee and wounding two others before killing himself.
But Kash Patel, the FBI director, was quick to seize on the “anti-Ice” message written on one of the bullets found at the scene.
Going further, Donald Trump sought to tie the shooting to “radical left terrorists” in a manner similar to how the president and his supporters have tarred the party over the recent murder of Charlie Kirk – even though senior Democrats have condemned the rightwing activist’s killing and political violence generally.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a press release containing a list of supposedly incriminating quotes attributed to Democratic figures. Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella wrote: “Radical Democrats have been blatantly demonizing Ice agents and our law enforcement for years.
“A deep and pervasive sickness has infected the radical left in this country, and elected Democrats’ escalatory rhetoric is feeding it.”
Joe Rothrock, the FBI’s field agent for Dallas, told reporters that Wednesday’s attack was the latest episode of “targeted violence” in the state against agents involved in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
On 2 July, Ice agents reported that one of their vehicles was rammed by a man trying to evade arrest in Linda Vista, near San Diego, before three activists allegedly attacked agents.
Two days later, as referenced by Rothrock, attackers dressed in black military clothing opened fire on Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, south-west of Dallas, in what was described as an ambush of enforcement officers.
Ten people were arrested in connection with the attack, and the FBI offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Benjamin Hanil Song, a former US marine reservist, who faces three counts of the attempted murder of federal agents in the incident.
Later in July, a man armed with an assault rifle, later identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, fired multiple rounds at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in McAllen, near the southern border, injuring three people. He was shot and killed by a CPB agent.
The incidents were part of what Ice officials say was a 700% increase in assaults from “activists masquerading as immigrant advocates”.
Meanwhile, counter-narratives have described both agencies as engaging in rough and sometimes violent tactics against detainees and protesters.
Agents concealing their faces behind masks have smashed car windows to arrest suspects deemed to be insufficiently cooperative. Some US citizens have been reportedly detained for no other reason than their appearance marked them as potentially undocumented immigrants.
In June, the Democratic California senator Alex Padilla was wrestled to the floor and handcuffed by agents when he tried to question Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, at a news conference in Los Angeles.
The latest flashpoint is Chicago, where Gregory Bovino’s El Centro border squad has been deployed outside the city’s Broadview facility – roughly 2,000 miles from its southern California base.
Sixteen protesters were arrested last weekend in confrontations that saw both sides accuse the other of violence.
The National Lawyers Guild accused agents of using violent tactics against protesters. Officials called the protesters “rioters” and said they had thrown bricks, bottles and even fireworks
Two weeks ago, a Mexican man, Silverio Villegas-González, was shot and killed by an Ice agent after an attempted traffic stop in Illinois. Officials said the shooting happened after he attempted to evade arrest and dragged an agent a “significant distance” in his car. His family has demanded greater transparency over his death.
From these competing and often confused storylines, the Trump administration has tried to construct a clear picture of “radical left” violence – depicting this as a much graver problem than its far-right equivalent.
Experts, detailed studies and recent violent attacks on Democratic political figures suggest a more complicated picture of violent extremism from both ends of the spectrum.
This year – after a deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed 14 and an explosion that blew up a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas – Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, predicted such a scenario.
“There’s going to be several types of extremists that are going to be emboldened by Trump,” he told the Guardian.
“With what we have going on internationally, where we have the highest frequency of conflicts we’ve seen in some time; add in idiosyncratic extremists, either their single-issue or idiosyncratic prejudices and hatreds, then you see there really is a perfect storm. The key words going forward are everything, everywhere, all at once.”
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