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Members of the “Squad” and other leading Democrats are being criticized for using inflammatory rhetoric, which Trump administration officials say has contributed to the “demonizing” and “dehumanization” of ICE law enforcement officers.
This comes as DHS says ICE agents are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults in the line of duty.
On Wednesday, a gunman, identified by the FBI as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, opened fire on an ICE field office in Dallas, killing one and injuring two others. Authorities discovered rounds with the words “anti-ICE” etched onto them at the scene. The shooter took his own life after the attack, according to authorities.
After the attack, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called on Democrats to change their rhetoric, saying, “Democrats must stop demonizing the heroic men and women of ICE who are just doing their jobs to keep Americans safe.”
Despite this, several Democrats posted anti-ICE statements on social media after the Wednesday attack in Texas.
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In a post on X several hours after the shooting, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., accused ICE agents of unleashing “dangerous and reckless immigration operations” on the public.
“I’ve joined the Illinois delegation in demanding answers about DHS’s dangerous and reckless operations in our state,” wrote Budzinski. “We refuse to stand by while masked agents trample on due process, indiscriminately arrest our neighbors, and threaten immigrant communities.”
In a since-deleted post, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also criticized ICE agents after the attack, accusing them of “picking up moms as they drop off their kids to daycare or people going to work.”
Just days before the attack, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., who is also a Democratic senatorial candidate, accused ICE of using “Gestapo tactics” against the American people, saying their actions “are a betrayal of the values we swear to uphold.”
Leading Democrats have also taken a similar tone against ICE agents, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who accused Trump Border Czar Tom Homan of working to “unleash masked ICE agents on the American people.”
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Last week, former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., accused ICE of intentionally stoking fear and tearing communities apart.
“ICE is targeting community members with no criminal record,” Warren wrote on X. “Agents are sitting outside of churches and schools. Driving unmarked vans and breaking car windows. These violent ICE arrests don’t make us safer — they intentionally stoke fear and tear communities apart.”
Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., accused federal officials of targeting anyone with “brown skin and a Hispanic surname.”
“ICE is arresting first and asking questions later,” Durbin said. “I’ve seen the devastating impacts of these policies in my state of Illinois. People are fearful of masked men in unmarked vans who can grab them at any time because of how they look or their voice, accent.”
“Parents are terrified to take their kids to school, and businesses are suffering as people are scared to go to work,” he added.
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Squad members have also been criticized for vilifying ICE agents.
The day before the attack, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., reposted a since-deleted news post accusing ICE agents of using a five-year-old autistic child as “bait” to catch her illegal immigrant father. Homeland Security has since contested the report, saying that the father, Edwards Hip Mejia, abandoned the child after being pursued by agents.
Omar reposted the story, saying, “This is vile and beyond cruel. Abolish ICE.”
In a post last week, another Squad member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., accused President Donald Trump and ICE agents of an “absolutely shameful” campaign of “terrorizing our communities to the point that students are too afraid to go to school.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has accused ICE agents under the Trump administration of an “illegal abduction” of Columbia student, immigrant and activist Mahmoud Khalil.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said last week that “ICE is racially profiling and kidnapping people just for looking Latino or speaking Spanish.”
Jayapal said that “Trump is turning our law enforcement into his own secret police to terrorize our communities.”
In response, DHS has called for a full stop to the dehumanization of ICE agents.
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“The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer,” the agency wrote on X. “The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
Speaking on Fox News after the Dallas attack, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that due to the rhetoric, ICE agents and their families are being doxxed and targeted.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable and I do think it’s incumbent, really upon the media, upon politicians, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down, we don’t want anyone to be hurt, we don’t want anyone to get killed, this is an awful day,” she added.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday following the Dallas ICE field office shooting, Trump said, “I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!”
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