The shooting in Dallas came two weeks after Kirk, co-founder of the conservative student political group Turning Point USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead by a sniper during a speaking event on Sep 10 in Orem, Utah, fueling fears of a new wave of political violence in the US.
Kirk’s death set off a firestorm of political recriminations and deepened concerns among Trump’s critics that the Republican president would use that killing to justify further cracking down on his perceived opponents.
A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah has been charged with murder in the Kirk assassination, although authorities have not suggested a precise motive for the attack.
CASTING BLAME FOR VIOLENCE
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials have blamed, without proof, liberal organisations for fomenting unrest and encouraging violence against the right.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring the anti-fascist movement antifa a domestic “terrorist organisation” despite the fact that there has been no evidence made public linking antifa to Kirk’s death.
White House adviser Stephen Miller posted a video on X of California Governor Gavin Newsom describing ICE raids by “masked men, jumping out of unmarked cars” with “no due process” and calling such tactics “authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government”.
Above the clip, taken from Newsom’s guest appearance on Tuesday on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, Miller wrote: “This language incites violence and terrorism.”
Perpetrators of political violence “feel like they get cover when you have leaders in this country going out there and defending those types of actions”, Noem said on Fox.
At a news briefing, Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said investigators were treating the predawn attack as an “act of targeted violence.”
The site was an ICE field office where immigration officers conduct short-term processing of recently arrested detainees.
The Trump administration’s aggressive use of ICE agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants has sparked outcries from Democrats and liberal activists.
ICE detention facilities have increasingly become sites of conflict, with heavily armed agents deploying pepper ball guns, tear gas and other chemical agents in clashes with protesters.
An ICE facility in suburban Chicago, where protesters have gathered daily since a Trump administration immigration surge began earlier this month, erected fencing on Monday after several demonstrators, including the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, were injured in a clash with agents last week.
Wednesday’s attack was the third shooting this year in Texas at a Department of Homeland Security facility.
A police officer was shot in a July incident at an ICE detention centre in Prairieland, and a 27-year-old Michigan man was shot dead by agents after opening fire on a US Border Patrol station in McAllen in July.
