A sniper opened fire on the Dallas ICE office in September 2025 with ANTI ICE inscribed on his ammunition.
A South Texas Democrat fighting to keep his seat in Congress has now picked a new fight with ICE.
Sitting across from Dana Bash on CNN, he laid out what a Democrat majority would do to the agency's workforce.
Vicente Gonzalez Told CNN He Wants to Get Rid of Rogue ICE Agents
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) made the comments on the October 28 broadcast of CNN's Inside Politics.
Bash noted that a big chunk of his party wants ICE abolished outright and asked whether Democrats should push that far.
She also asked what Democrats would do with the agency if they win back the House majority.
Gonzalez said abolishing the agency went too far.
Then he told viewers what he actually had in mind.
"We need to get rid of a bunch of rogue agents," Gonzalez said.
He argued the agency's newest hires never got proper training.
He said Latino communities have taken the brunt of what he called abusive enforcement.
He even insisted that plenty of ICE agents secretly oppose the Trump policies they carry out.
He did offer kind words for the officers working trade and border security back home in South Texas.
But the headline was the purge.
A sitting congressman went on national television and branded a whole group of federal officers as rogue.
ICE Officers Have Been Assaulted 647 Times Since Trump Took Office
Those officers are already working with targets on their backs.
The Dallas gunman fired from a rooftop at the ICE field office on North Stemmons Freeway on September 24, 2025.
His bullets struck three detainees, and two of them died.
FBI Director Kash Patel warned that "politically motivated attacks against law enforcement are not a one-off."
He was right.
DHS recorded 647 assaults on ICE personnel between January 20, 2025, and September 20, 2026.
In the same stretch of the Biden administration, from January 20, 2021, to September 20, 2022, there were 37.
That is a 1,649 percent increase.
DHS also reported an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against ICE officers and their families.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has warned that ICE officers "are under attack every single day."
Mullin has demanded that sanctuary politicians quit targeting federal law enforcement with their rhetoric.
In July 2025, attackers ambushed officers outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas.
Eight people tied to that attack have been sentenced to between 30 and 100 years in prison.
Now a Texas congressman is handing the anti-ICE crowd a fresh label to throw at officers.
Abolishing ICE has become a rallying cry for the radical left, from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on down.
Gonzalez just repackaged it for a swing district.
Eric Flores Wore the Uniform On the Border Gonzalez Now Lectures About
Gonzalez is not running in friendly territory.
Texas Republicans redrew the 34th District, and Trump carried the new lines by 10 points in 2024.
His Republican opponent is Eric Flores, a Trump-backed federal prosecutor and National Guardsman who served on the southern border.
Flores has the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott, Speaker Mike Johnson, and the National Border Patrol Council – the union for the agents who actually work the line.
Those agents know the difference between a rogue officer and a congressman looking for a talking point.
A Texas Southern University poll released in August showed Gonzalez at 45 percent and Flores at 42 percent.
That three-point gap sits inside the poll's 3.7-point margin of error.
Back in 2021, Gonzalez warned that rolling back Trump's border rules would unleash a catastrophic surge.
Biden rolled them back anyway, and the surge came.
In this race, Gonzalez concedes border crossings are down.
That is Trump's enforcement working, and Gonzalez wants to rein in the agency doing the enforcing.
So on CNN, he steered away from abolition talk and reached for reform instead.
The plan underneath it is the same – fewer agents and more handcuffs on the ones who stay.
A Democrat House Majority Would Decide Which ICE Agents Keep Their Badges
Bash asked the right question.
What would Democrats do with ICE if they take the House?
Gonzalez answered it.
They would start sorting federal officers into good agents and bad agents based on whether Democrats like the policies they enforce.
That is not reform.
That is a political loyalty test for the people standing between South Texas and the cartels.
And it would land on officers who already face death threats and ambushes for doing the job Congress gave them.
South Texas voters will decide on November 3 whether they want that congressman speaking for them.
Sources:
- Ian Hanchett, "Dem Rep. Gonzalez: 'Need to Get Rid of a Bunch of' 'Rogue' ICE Agents," Breitbart, October 29, 2026.
- Madi Marks, "'ANTI-ICE' Written on Bullets Found at Scene of Dallas ICE Shooting," Fox 4 News, September 24, 2025.
- Louis Casiano, "DHS Secretary Mullin Slams Sanctuary Politicians as Attacks on ICE Officers Skyrocket," Fox News, September 24, 2026.
- Misty Severi, "DHS, Mullin Slam Sanctuary Politicians as Attacks on ICE Officers Skyrocket Under Trump Admin," Just The News, September 24, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "ICE Officers Face an 8,000% Increase in Death Threats Against Them and Their Families," U.S. Department of Homeland Security, January 26, 2026.
- Steven Ardary, "South Texas Congressional Poll Gives Democrats Edge in Three Key Districts," Fox 7 Austin, August 28, 2026.
