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Democrats’ fiercest rhetoric against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security resurfaced Wednesday after the fatal sniper attack on a Dallas federal immigration facility.
A suspect fired several shots, reportedly “indiscriminately,” at the Sally Port of an ICE facility just off Interstate 35E near Dallas-Love Field that killed at least one detainee and injured others.
DHS BLAMES POLITICAL RHETORIC FOR SURGE IN ASSAULTS ON ICE AGENTS AFTER CHARLIE KIRK MURDER
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, left; California Gov. Gavin Newsom, right. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
1. CALIFORNIA GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM
Hours prior, Newsom appeared on CBS’ “Late Show” where he raged against federal agents who have masked-up to avoid being doxxed by activists in the Golden State.
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Newsom recounted the detention of a teenager outside a school, describing it as “men jumping out of unmarked cars. People disappearing. No due process. No oversight. Zero accountability: Happening in the United States of America today.”
“People ask: ‘Well, is authoritarianism you being hyperbolic?’ Bulls— we’re being hyperbolic… These are not just authoritarian tendencies, these are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government,” Newsom told host Stephen Colbert.
He went on to call President Donald Trump a “son of a b—-” and added that people have voiced appreciation for his state’s 41 lawsuits against the administration – while also warning that the 2028 election may not come to pass.
“ICE: unmask – what are you afraid of?” Newsom asked rhetorically at a press conference earlier this week announcing the first-in-the-nation law banning law enforcement from obscuring their identities.
2. MINNESOTA GOV. TIM WALZ
At his commencement speech for the University of Minnesota Law School, Walz declared ICE “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”
“They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons [with] no chance to mount a defense,” Walz said.
“To be clear: there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not, because they refused to give them a trial.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin directly blamed Walz’ specific rhetoric as helping lead to a 413% increase in assaults on federal immigration officers as of May.
3. LOS ANGELES MAYOR KAREN BASS
GOV GAVIN NEWSOM: TRUMP IS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY. DO NOT LET HIM
Bass accused ICE and the Trump homeland security apparatus of conducting a “reign of terror” in America’s second-largest city.
She told ABC News at the time of the ICE riots in her city that they “did not warrant the Marines coming into our city with basically no real mission but just a show of force.”
“I’m hoping the military leaves because they were never needed here to begin with.”
4. CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON
Johnson said in June that America under Trump looks more like the C.S.A. than the U.S.A., comparing federal immigration enforcement to “terrorism.”
He said at his weekly presser that when he refers to “what terrorism looks like, this is it,” and that there is a “tyrant in the White House.”
Johnson said the federal government is operating as a “one-branch” authority, and that checks and balances have been mooted by Trump – whom he accused of taking over the judiciary and wielding executive power as a cudgel against critics.
“They are hypocrites. They’re dangerous. There’s one branch of government right now in this country… the Congress says nothing. And so people are terrified. But in the city of Chicago, we are going to remain vigilant and firm in protecting what is sensible about our existence,” Brandon Johnson went on.
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., arrives for the House Ways and Means Committee “Hearing with the IRS Whistleblowers: Hunter Biden Investigation Obstruction in Their Own Words” in the Longworth House Office Building on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
5. REP. JOHN LARSON
After ICE operations in his district in late August, Larson called federal immigration forces “Trump’s personal secret police.”
“This is not Germany. That is the SS and the Gestapo. This is the United States of America. Unmask yourselves.”
In a statement after the situation drew national attention, Larson said ICE wrongly “took workers from Newington and Southington without notifying local officials, even tearing two mothers from their children.”
“Now, [Trump] is attacking me for defending them. This comes from a president who freed violent insurrectionists that assaulted and killed police, while he weaponizes the government against immigrant families and his political enemies,” he said.
Larson appeared to get backup from Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who said in a statement at the time that, “if I know one thing about John Larson, he will not be silenced.”
NYC Comptroller And Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander arrives to speak at a rally after being released from ICE detention on June 17, 2025, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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Dozens of Democratic officials have been arrested while protesting ICE, especially in New York.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were detained in Manhattan last week, along with several state lawmakers.
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Local media listed several Democratic state lawmakers, including Jabari Brisport, Julia Salazar, Phara Forrest, Emily Gallagher, Tiffany Caban, Tony Simone and Marcela Mitaynes as others detained or confronted by police at the same demonstration.
Earlier this year, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was arrested along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after several lawmakers attempted to gain access to the ICE facility in the Brick City.
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After the Manhattan incident, McLaughlin called out Lander as being “obsess[ed]” with “attacking the brave men and women of law enforcement, physically and rhetorically.”
“[He] must stop now.”