Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called on politicians on Wednesday to immediately stop using rhetoric that demonizes federal immigration authorities following the shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas, Texas.
A shooter caused “multiple injuries and fatalities” after he opened fire on the facility and then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced. Cruz stated during a press conference that the demonization of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents has “real consequences.”
“To every politician demonizing ICE and demonizing CBP, stop. To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxxed and calling on people to go after their families, stop. This has very real consequences,” Cruz said. “Look, in America, we disagree, that’s fine. That’s part of the democratic process. But your political opponents are not Nazis. We need to learn to work together without demonizing each other, without attacking each other and I want to say thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement … of ICE and CBP and everyone who puts their lives on the line to keep us safe. The divisive rhetoric tragically has real consequences.”
WATCH:
FBI Director Kash Patel released a photograph of the alleged shooter’s bullet casings, which had been engraved with the phrase, “ANTI-ICE.”
This incident follows other violent attacks on ICE facilities since President Donald Trump took office. Authorities have charged at least 11 individuals in connection to an ambush on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, in July, which led to the injury of a police officer who was shot in the neck.
An active shooter also shot at Border Patrol agents at a facility in McAllen, Texas, in July.
Many Democrats have spewed anti-ICE rhetoric and have condemned their arrests and deportations of dangerous illegal immigrant criminals. Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett most recently compared ICE agents to “slave patrols” during a Friday appearance on MSNBC, and she also made this claim during a Sept. 12 interview on “The Breakfast Club.”
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that ICE is Trump’s “modern-day Gestapo” during a May 18 commencement speech at the University of Minnesota law school.
In May, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez encouraged her party to storm ICE facilities and claimed that federal immigration officials are “breaking the law.” She has repeatedly called to abolish ICE and said in May that it is a “rogue agency that should not exist.”
While calling to “abolish” ICE, Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar cited a debunked story on Tuesday which alleged that ICE agents held a 5-year-old autistic girl outside of her home in Massachusetts to “pressure” her father into surrendering. NBC News later issued a correction and acknowledged that it had “mischaracterized” ICE agents’ activities.
A pro-Antifa individual created an app in June that allowed for anyone to track the location of ICE agents.
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