Gunman kills detainee at ICE office in Dallas

Members of the Federal Protective Service gather after a shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. One person was killed and two others were wounded, according to officials at a news conference. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, they said. No members of law enforcement were hurt in the attack. (Shelby Tauber/The New York Times)

By J. DAVID GOODMAN, HAMED ALEAZIZ and MICHAEL LEVENSON

A sniper perched on a nearby rooftop fired at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas on Wednesday morning, killing one detainee and critically injuring two others, the Department of Homeland Security said. It was the latest act of violence to raise fears that politically motivated attacks are increasing in the United States.

Authorities said that the gunman killed himself, and that no law enforcement officers were injured in the attack.

R. Joseph Rothrock, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said that rounds found near the shooter were marked with messages that were “anti-ICE in nature.” Kash Patel, the FBI director, posted a photo on social media showing a rifle ammunition clip, with one bullet inscribed with the words “ANTI-ICE.”

Rothrock said that the FBI was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence.”

Three people familiar with the investigation identified the shooter as Joshua Jahn. Jahn was 29, one of the people said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not identify any of the victims as of Wednesday afternoon. It initially said two people had been killed before revising that figure to one. One of the detainees in critical condition was a Mexican national, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said.

Homeland Security, which ICE is a part of, said in a statement that the gunman fired “indiscriminately” at the ICE office, including at a van in a sally port where the detainees were shot. Officials noted that it was the third shooting at a federal immigration facility in Texas in recent months.

On July 4, two shooters opened fire from a wooded area next to an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, injuring a police officer who was hit in the neck, according to prosecutors. Three days later, a gunman fired dozens of shots at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection building in McAllen, injuring three people, including two officers, before he was fatally shot by law enforcement authorities. On Aug. 25, a man was arrested after making a bomb threat against the ICE office in Dallas.

Federal officials linked the shooting on Wednesday to heated political rhetoric denouncing ICE agents who have been carrying out President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

Beyond the messages on the bullets, authorities did not release any information about the shooter’s possible motivations, or his background. But Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration was confident the gunman was a “violent left-wing extremist.”