The domestic terrorist attack at a federal immigration facility in Texas Wednesday morning has only served to highlight the rash of political violence and civil unrest targeting President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda and the officers carrying it out.

Following the deadly shooting at a Dallas U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is increasing security at detention centers nationwide, in order to mitigate the risk of further terrorist attacks and loss of life. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Washington Stand, “In light of the horrific shooting that was motivated by hatred for ICE and the other unprecedented acts of violence against ICE law enforcement, including bomb threats, cars being used [as] weapons, rocks, and Molotov cocktails thrown at officers, and doxing online of officers’ families, DHS will immediately begin increasing security at ICE facilities across the country.” She added, “Our ICE officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them.”

McLaughlin pledged that DHS will also work to combat left-wing extremist groups like Antifa, which the president formally designated as a domestic terrorist organization this week. “Antifa and other left-wing extremists have shot, attacked, issued death threats against, and incited riots against law enforcement. Enough is enough: if you lay a hand on our federal law enforcement officers, you will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said. “Antifa and their friends haven’t stopped us. They’re not even slowing us down,” she added. “Despite the 1,000% increase in assaults against them, our brave men and women in federal law enforcement are still on the ground, fighting every single day to uphold the rule of law and keep Americans safe from violent extremists and criminal illegal aliens alike.”

ICE currently operates 25 field offices specializing in enforcement and removal operations (EROs) and has a network of over 200 detention centers, including local jails, private prisons, and dedicated ICE facilities. Neither DHS nor ICE shared with The Washington Stand what increased security measures may look like nor how the agencies intend to combat Antifa and other left-wing rioters.

According to authorities, the shooter who targeted the Dallas ICE facility this week intended to kill ICE agents, although he accidentally shot and killed one detained immigrant and injured two others. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Nancy Larson reported that Joshua Jahn, the 29-year-old gunman suspected of firing on the ICE facility before taking his own life, left behind notes clarifying his intention to target and kill ICE personnel. “It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ICE personnel,” she said in a press conference.

FBI Director Kash Patel shared, “One of the handwritten notes recovered read, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP [armor-piercing] rounds on that roof?’” Patel further warned that Jahn conducted a “high degree of pre-attack planning,” including using an app to track the movements and operations of ICE agents. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faulted mainstream media outlets (namely, CNN) for promoting the ICE-tracking app. “Three months ago, CNN irresponsibly gave free publicity to an app that recklessly shares the location of ICE Agents. It has now been revealed the leftist lunatic shooter who opened fire on the Dallas ICE Facility was using one of these apps,” she wrote in a social media post. “The liberal media is complicit in the increased threats and violence against ICE.” The official X account for DHS echoed the sentiment, writing in a post, “These apps, and the media who is gleefully advertising them, represent an existential threat to our agents. It’s no different than giving a hitman the location of their intended target.”

Meanwhile, rioters are targeting ICE facilities in Chicago. ICE began conducting intensive immigration raids in and around Chicago recently, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) boats seen patrolling the Chicago River this week. In the Chicago suburb of Broadview, protestors have lined up outside an ICE detention facility and, on Friday, began rioting. As ICE agents attempted to leave the facility, activists started blocking and even physically attacking the law enforcement officers’ vehicles. Others called for ICE agents to be shot and killed, with one rioter shouting, “Shoot the f******! Shoot the f******!” Eventually, federal law enforcement agents had to fire “pepper balls” at the rioters in order to let the ICE vehicles pass and ICE agents have also begun deploying tear gas in order to disperse rioters.

Earlier this year, riots broke out in Los Angeles in response to ICE operations in the city, escalating to violent attacks on ICE agents and culminating in Trump federalizing California’s National Guard and deploying U.S. Marines to stop the rioting.

Despite agitation against interior deportation operations, the Trump administration is slated to become the first in history to achieve “operational control” of the nation’s borders. The term “operational control” was defined in the 2006 Secure Fence Act as “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.”

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and the current resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, argued that the Trump administration’s stringent border security efforts may just earn Trump the distinction of being the first president to achieve “operational control” under the terms of the Secure Fence Act. “If current trends continue, FY 2025 will be the most secure year in history at the U.S.-Mexico line, and DHS will achieve complete ‘operational control’ of our borders in FY 2026,” Arthur wrote, adding, “That’s a big ‘if,’ however, because the smugglers, while quiet for now, haven’t gone away.”