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MSNBC panelists on “Chris Jansing Reports” suggested that efforts to “dehumanize” illegal immigrants contributed to a deadly shooting that took place at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas on Wednesday.
At least three people were shot, two of them killed, after a gunman opened fire at the facility. The FBI said that it is investigating the incident as a “targeted attack” against ICE after uncovering anti-ICE messages written on bullet rounds found near the shooter.
Jansing asked one of her guests, former ICE assistant chief counsel Veronica Cardenas, about the difficulties facing ICE agents working today, but Cardenas instead blamed rhetoric used to “dehumanize non-citizens” rather than the dangers ICE agents face.
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“It is very difficult,” Cardenas said. “It has been a very divisive environment. And the rhetoric does have to stop. Just yesterday, Homeland Security released a propaganda video on their social website stating or using Nintendo’s Pokémon to ‘catch them all’ and continuing to dehumanize non-citizens.”
“So how do we fix this?” Jansing asked. “Or at least start to fix this? Because at least both sides say they want to bring down the temperature.”
“The way you fix this is by really ensuring that due process is played out in these arrests, in targeting non-citizens,” Cardenas said. “When you read about people being arrested, non-citizens being arrested, it’s already stated illegal. Like that is something to assume. It’s not allegedly. And so, creating that where people, non-citizens are already guilty until proven innocent, gives others this right, this hatred to attack and to justify what they’re doing to non-citizens. And so there has to be accountability and responsibility on both sides.”
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Jansing turned to MSNBC national security analyst Christopher O’Leary about reports that bullet rounds recovered from the shooter contained anti-ICE messaging. O’Leary similarly argued that the attack stemmed from a “real or perceived grievance” from ICE tactics.
“We have a decade of intentionally attacking institutions, disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy theories, which led to polarization in society. All of those things have set the conditions for where we are now. And then you throw in the aggressive tactics that ICE has employed and the wearing of masks, that’s where you get political violence coming from,” O’Leary said.
He continued: “Political violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s in response to a real or perceived grievance that somebody has. And they think that this is the best outlet, and that is not justifying it. It’s just where you see these pockets of violence emerge. It’s in response to something.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC for comment.
The MSNBC segment followed a press conference with acting field office director Joshua Johnson, who criticized the rhetoric targeting ICE agents.
“The rhetoric has to stop. There are people out there who are seeing what is being placed online, and they’re coming, and they’re doing acts of violence against ICE employees. It’s just got to stop. It’s dangerous and people are losing their lives,” Johnson said.
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