Local advocacy groups held a vigil outside of Parkland Hospital Thursday evening for the victims of this week's deadly shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office that left one detainee dead and two others hospitalized.
Advocacy groups sought to honor the victims and call for an end to "hateful" anti-immigrant rhetoric.
"It's important that we shine a light on what's happening in Dallas and everywhere throughout the U.S.," said Azael Alvarez, a member of El Movimiento DFW.
The groups are urging ICE to release information about the victims to their families, and they want the agency to be required to notify families of new detainees within 12 hours of detention.
Organizers didn't have much information about the individuals who were injured, but they believed at least one of them was in the hospital where the vigil took place. The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one of the injured migrants was a Mexican national.
Tony Rodriguez, a regional commander for the activist group the Brown Berets, stopped short of condemning the suspected shooter who FBI investigators said was targeting ICE agents.
"It's a natural thing that's going to continue to happen unless this hate is stopped," he said. "So support or not support, I don't support the hate that makes this happen."
The suspected shooter has been identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn of Fairview. Investigators said he planned the shooting months in advance and intended to kill ICE agents to "cause terror." Jahn died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
While authorities are investigating the shooting as an attack on ICE agents, Rodriguez said he wants the focus to remain on the victims.
"The truth is that we want the story to be told about the people being hurt," he said. "This story is not about ICE being attacked. It's about our community being attacked."
The shooting has sparked fear within the immigrant community.
"We're full of fear," Flaka Martinez, a representative for Vecinos Unidos DFW, said Thursday night.
She said a lack of transparency at the field office has led to confusion among detainees' family members after the attack.
"We have a couple of families that are trying to figure out if their family members are in there," Martinez said. "We're trying to, again, call for those demands to tell us who's in there so then we can figure out what help they will need and connect them with their families."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association said some of the detainees at the office have been transported 40 miles away to the Prairieland facility in Alvarado for processing.
Azael Alvarez told KERA News it's hard to process the shooting.
"You're kind of going crazy because they're trying to spin the narrative and they're not talking about the facts ... about what's happening with the community," he said. "It's just like, what do we do when they aren't listening?"
Alvarez pointed to the deep distrust that has grown between the immigrant community and law enforcement under the Trump administration.
"It's like a constant battle," he said. "But we're going to keep going."
Dylan Duke is KERA's Fall news intern. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
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