A little more than a week after the deadly shooting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas, mourners gathered for a vigil at City Hall. They placed candles in the shape of a heart and held signs bearing the names of the two men killed in the attack.
“Tonight, we are here to remember Norlan and Miguel," said Azael Alvarez, one of the organizers of the vigil, "because I want to remind you all, in the beginning, they weren't acknowledged by the administration."
He was referring to Norlan Guzman Fuentes from El Salvador, who died in the attack the morning of Sept. 24, and Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez from Mexico, who died almost a week later from his injuries.
Quickly after the shooting, government officials characterized it an attack on law enforcement; investigators said a bullet with the words "anti-ICE" written on it was found on the building nearby where the suspect, Joshua Jahn, carried out the attack before taking his own life.
Politicians like Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz decried the political violence, which came weeks after the July 4 shooting at an ICE detention center in Alvarado that injured a police officer.
“This must stop. To every politician who is using rhetoric, demonizing ICE, and demonizing CBP, stop,” Cruz said at a news conference the day of the shooting. “To every politician demanding that ICE agents be doxed and calling for people to go after their families, stop.”
But little was said about the two men killed, or a third, Jose Andres Bordones-Molina, who was injured in the shooting and remains in ICE custody. It wasn't until days after the shooting that the names of the victims were released.
Eric Cedillo, an immigration attorney who represents Stephany Gauffeney, the wife of Garcia-Hernandez, said the public statements made in the hours and days after the shooting missed the point.
"I don't think there's anyone here who would want to harm or have harm fall on anyone, including those individuals who represent our government,” Cedillo told the audience at the vigil at City Hall.
He and other advocates say migrant voices have been erased from the narrative.
“Those were the true victims of the situation, yet we heard nothing about that coming from our government," Cedillo said. "We heard nothing about the immigrants."
Talia Stroud, a political communication professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told KERA language can have an impact on how the victims are perceived publicly.
“If a view is not even there, then there’s not an opportunity to learn what’s happening there," she said, "and it also establishes that there is a precedent of moments where perspective is completely missing from media coverage."
The shooting came at a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric has been rising, and not just under the Trump administration. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration attorney and legal advisor for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said it’s been getting worse in recent years.
“We have allowed the conversation to be louder on the other end, the anti-immigrant side, where the president on his campaign convinced a lot of people in this country that immigrants are bad and dangerous and the worst of the worst," she said. "And a lot people bought that."
Tony Rodriguez is a leader of the socialist activist group the Brown Berets. He said that's why he and other organizers held vigils for the victims of the shooting.
“They just paint us as illegals or criminals, but these are fathers, these are sons, many American children are being left behind right now, so the true story isn't even being told right now," he said.
Rodriguez said the story isn’t just about an attack on ICE — but about an attack on his community.
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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