A sniper opened fire at a Texas ICE facility at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning while officers were transferring detainees, leaving two detainees dead and a third in critical condition.
The shooter was armed with a rifle on the roof. When agents approached him, he shot and killed himself.
In an X post shortly after the shooting happened, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote, “No enforcement officers were injured. There was a shooting this morning at the Dallas @ICEgov Field Office.”
Noem added that there is no known motive yet, but “our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them. It must stop.”
People gather with police at a staging area near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after a reported shooting, in Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. | Julio Cortez
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in an X post, “My team and I are closely monitoring the situation at the ICE Detention Facility in Dallas. We are praying for the swift recovery of those injured, and we are deeply grateful to the brave first responders who rushed to the scene.”
This shooting follows a viable bomb threat at the same location exactly one month ago.
This ICE facility has three or four holding cells where detainees are processed before being transferred to a detention center, a former ICE official told CNN. The facility usually only holds a couple dozen detainees at a time.
Law enforcement gather at a staging area close to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after a reported shooting, in Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. | Julio Cortez
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughin told Fox News, “So this location, it looks like it’s been targeted, and we don’t know how long this individual has been planning this act.”
“It looks like he could have been watching to look at the processing and see what happens on a day-to-day basis at this Dallas field office. But (these are) all answers that Homeland Security investigation is going to get down to the bottom of,” she said.