On Wednesday, the unthinkable happened in Dallas, Texas: a gunman opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, leaving one migrant detainee dead and two others in critical condition. According to FBI Director Kash Patel, investigators discovered that at least one of the spent shell casings was scrawled with anti-ICE messages, strongly pointing to a left-wing ideological motive for the attack.
This wasn’t a random act of violence—it was the tragic consequence of months of demonization. For years, ICE agents have been portrayed not as law enforcement officers carrying out federal duties, but as villains in a political narrative pushed by progressive leaders and activists. Time and again, rhetoric from high-profile Democrats has vilified these men and women, who put their lives on the line daily to uphold immigration law. The warnings that such heated language could lead to a real-world attack were ignored.
The agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons, had publicly cautioned that rhetoric portraying ICE agents as criminals or enemies could put a target on their backs. His fears were realized on Wednesday. When public officials spend months framing ICE officers as “Gestapo,” “neo-Nazis,” or “slave patrols,” it’s not surprising when extremists decide to take matters into their own hands.
Just last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom claimed ICE agents might be used by President Donald Trump to suppress voter turnout, going so far as to say, “[Trump’s] already sending out masked people to intimidate folks. When we launched our campaign, did it down in Little Tokyo in LA — do you think ICE is not going to show up around voting and polling booths to chill participation? And you know that — the National Guard — you know that.” This reckless suggestion—that federal law enforcement would be deployed to tamper with elections—was a baseless smear that sowed further distrust.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor’s wife, echoed that hostility, saying ICE raids on farms were akin to “watching families be targeted, watched, hunted, farmworkers being chased across fields.” By casting federal officers as predators rather than professionals, this kind of rhetoric only fuels fear and resentment.
The drumbeat of incendiary comments has been steady. Rep. Jasmine Crockett compared ICE agents to “slave patrols,” saying, “when I see ICE, I see slave patrols.” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu likened ICE agents to neo-Nazi groups, claiming, “I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks. We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, addressing law school graduates, went even further, calling ICE “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.” His words painted federal law enforcement as kidnappers: “They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons. No chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
Rep. John Larson urged “Americans to rise up,” saying, “This is not Germany. That’s the SS and the Gestapo. This is the United States of America. Unmask yourselves.” Similarly, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared he would help expose ICE officers, insisting, “And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will of course be identified.”
Even Wu doubled down later, calling ICE Trump’s “secret police,” saying, “People are terrified for their lives and for their neighbors, folks getting snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained.”
The pattern is unmistakable: prominent Democrats have repeatedly painted ICE officers not as protectors of national security, but as enemies of freedom—Gestapo, secret police, hunters of immigrants. And now, an actual ICE facility has come under deadly attack.
This is what happens when political leaders abandon restraint. The weaponization of rhetoric against law enforcement doesn’t just score points in a partisan battle; it erodes trust in institutions, emboldens radicals, and puts real lives in danger. America depends on law and order, and the officers carrying out federal immigration enforcement deserve support, not scapegoating. The violence in Dallas is a sobering reminder of what’s at stake when words are treated carelessly and ideology replaces common sense.
AMERICA REMEMBER THE TREACHERY OF THE TYRANTS DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS AND PROGRESSIVES VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE