F.B.I. Investigating Shootings at San Antonio ICE Facilities
No one was hurt after shots were fired at two buildings housing ICE operations on Tuesday, the authorities said.
Federal officials are investigating two shootings that they say targeted facilities housing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in San Antonio.
Numerous shots were fired into two ICE facilities in private commercial buildings around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s San Antonio division, said at a news conference later in the day. It was unknown how many individuals might be involved in the shootings, he said.
As a result, the F.B.I. opened an investigation as an “assault on a federal official case,” he said.
“I want to stress to everyone that any attempt at any violence or illegal activity against a federal official, the F.B.I. will open a federal case and we will vigorously go after those that are responsible,” Mr. Combs said.
There were federal employees present at the time, but no one was hurt, he said. Daniel Bible, the field office director for the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Antonio, declined to comment at the news conference on how many people were present at the time of the shooting.
The buildings also house businesses unrelated to the agency, according to a statement from the F.B.I. on Wednesday.
“Had the bullets gone two inches in another direction, we could be here today talking about the murder of a federal official,” Mr. Combs said.
He called the shots fired into the buildings not “an act of protest” but “an act of violence.”
“I don’t think there is a question that they knew which floors the ICE offices were,” Mr. Combs said. “All of the shots that we have found are on the floors where ICE had offices. This is no question this is a very targeted attack.”
Mr. Bible said that one of the buildings was used for executive administration and that his agency occupied the top two floors. The second building housed a contractor that works for ICE, he said.
Amid continued anger over the crisis at the border, calls to abolish or defund ICE last year became a rallying cry among some Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned on eliminating the agency.
When asked about the national immigration debate, as well as calls for the elimination of his job, Mr. Bible said the discourse was “reckless.”
“My officers are out there every day doing things to make our community safer,” Mr. Bible said.
While the extent of the damage from Tuesday’s shootings was not immediately clear, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the acting director for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, shared a photo of a bullet hole on Twitter later in the day. (Mr. Cuccinelli was also facing backlash for remarks in which he adapted the poem on the Statue of Liberty to a more Trumpian view of immigration — “Well, of course, that poem was referring back to people coming from Europe,” he said on CNN on Tuesday.)
“@USCIS stands with @ICE as they work to enforce our laws and keep Americans safe,” he tweeted.
The shootings follow a string of incidents that targeted immigration-related buildings. In mid-July, the police fatally shot a man who attacked an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Wash. The authorities said the man, Willem Van Spronsen, was armed with a rifle and was throwing unspecified “incendiary devices” at the Northwest Detention Center. Mr. Spronsen also tried and failed to ignite a commercial-size propane tank attached to the center.
“This could have resulted in the mass murder of staff and detainees housed at the facility,” Shawn Fallah, the resident agent in charge of the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, said at the time. “These are the kinds of incidents that keep you up at night.”
ICE raids around the country are growing in size. In early August, roughly 680 immigrants, who the authorities believe were working without legal documentation, were apprehended at numerous Mississippi poultry and food-processing plants. The authorities said the raid might be the largest worksite enforcement action ever in a single state.
Mr. Combs said the F.B.I. was working on other threats against ICE facilities around the country.
“We are concerned that there could be additional attacks,” he said. “We have to stop that. We cannot allow political discourse to lead us to the point of violence.”
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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