DHS spokesperson confirms detainees among the injured
Tricia McLaughlin, who serves as the assistant secretary of Homeland Security, told Fox News today that detainees “were among the victims” and that no federal agents were wounded.
“We know our Ice law enforcement was not injured, but we’re not sure about local security and other local law enforcement,” she said.
Despite this, vice-president JD Vance wrote on social media just over an hour ago that “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop”.
Key events
Press conference following shooting at Ice facility due to start
Law enforcement officials will brief the media shortly following the shooting at an Ice field office in Dallas.
At least one person was pronounced dead at the scene, and two are wounded. A DHS official said that detainees were among the victims and that no federal agents were wounded.
Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, said that his office is “fully engaged” with local law enforcement in Dallas following today’s shooting.
DHS spokesperson confirms detainees among the injured
Tricia McLaughlin, who serves as the assistant secretary of Homeland Security, told Fox News today that detainees “were among the victims” and that no federal agents were wounded.
“We know our Ice law enforcement was not injured, but we’re not sure about local security and other local law enforcement,” she said.
Despite this, vice-president JD Vance wrote on social media just over an hour ago that “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop”.
Dallas confirm one victim has died at the scene, press briefing to follow
The Dallas police said that one victim has died at the scene of today’s shooting at an Ice facility in the city.
They added that “two people were transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds”, but their statement did not confirm CNN’s reporting that they were detainees.
The police said that the suspect opened fire at “a government building from an adjacent building”.
Law enforcement officials will hold a press briefing later today.
Right now, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is addressing the UN general assembly. This comes a day after Donald Trump said that he believes Ukraine has the capability to win back all the territory it has lost to Russia, since the beginning of the 2022 invasion.
As my colleague, Jakub Krupa, reports, the Ukrainian leader began his speech with a direct message: weapons are the only thing that can guarantee lasting freedom.
No one but ourselves can guarantee security. Only strong alliances, only strong partners and only our own weapons. The 21st century isn’t much different from the past. If a nation wants peace it still has to work on weapons. …Not international law, not cooperation – but weapons decide who survives.
Yesterday, Trump said that the current model, where Nato purchases weapons from the US, is something he’s happy to continue.
Follow along for the latest below.
Two detainees shot in Dallas Ice facility shooting – report
Per my last post, two detainees were shot at the Ice facility in Dallas, according to a report by CNN, citing two law enforcement officials.
Earlier, on CNN, acting Ice director Todd Lyons said three individuals were shot, all of whom were taken to a hospital. However, he did not specify who the three people were, or their condition at this time.
Lyons added that preliminary information is “a possible sniper” and that shots came from “outside” the facility. He noted that the Ice field office is now locked down and secure.
DHS secretary confirms shooting at Dallas Ice facility, reports ‘multiple injuries and fatalities’
There has been a shooting at an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in Dallas, according to a statement from Kristi Noem – the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“Details are still emerging but we can confirm there were multiple injuries and fatalities,” Noem said. “The shooter is deceased by a self-inflicted gun shot wound.”
Noem added that the motive of the shooting is currently unknown.
We’ll bring you the latest as we know more.
Top Democrats say that Americans will blame Trump and Republican lawmakers for looming shutdown
With no short term spending bill locked in by members of Congress, and government funding set to lapse on 30 September, a shutdown looms.
Today, top Democratic lawmakers continued to blame their colleagues across the aisle.
In a statement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Donald Trump and GOP members of Congress “continue to march this country toward a painful Republican shutdown, while exacerbating the healthcare crisis that they have unleashed in America.”
They added that the American people will hold the president and “Republican sycophants” responsible.
On Tuesday, Trump said that he would no longer meet with Schumer and Jeffries to discuss their calls for more healthcare provisions in a funding extension to keep government agencies running for the next several weeks. A move that the top Democratic lawmakers called “an unhinged temper tantrum”, in their statement today.
Trump said that no meeting “could possibly be productive,” in a post on Truth Social. He said that Democrats needed to “get serious” about the future of the nation, while adding that the “ball is their court” when it comes to avoiding a shutdown.
“They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand,” the president wrote.
Aaron Glantz
Nearly 100 doctors who have practiced at the US Department of Veterans of Affairs (VA) issued a mass letter on Wednesday raising “urgent concerns” about Trump administration policies that they said will “negatively affect the lives of all veterans”.
The letter sent to congressional leaders, VA secretary Doug Collins and the agency’s inspector general marks the first time VA physicians have spoken collectively about staffing cuts and aggressive privatization moves at the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system.
“We have witnessed these ongoing harms and can provide evidence and testimony of their impacts,” said the letter, which was signed by roughly 170 physicians, psychologists and other health workers in all.
If the trend continues, these current and former staffers said, VA “facilities may be forced to close, and veterans may be forced into costlier, often overburdened community health systems ill-equipped to meet their specialized needs”.
Attorneys say the letter is protected under federal whistleblower law.
The letter raises concerns that widespread staff cuts are being made without clear objectives or assessments of their impact on veterans’ access to healthcare. It also says rapid growth in the outsourcing of veterans healthcare to private doctors “threatens to divert resources” from the VA’s high-quality direct care.
Agency officials assert these changes are aimed at reducing bureaucracy and will not undermine medical services for veterans. Collins, the VA secretary, has said he’s simply “giving veterans more choices for quality, timely healthcare, whether at VA facilities or with doctors in the community”.
The Guardian has asked the VA for a response to the doctors’ letter and will add it to this story when the agency provides a reply.
Sixty-nine active VA physicians signed the letter, organizers said, joined by about 100 others – including former VA physicians as well as current and former VA researchers, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists. Many chose to sign anonymously out of fear for retaliation.
Donald Trump doesn’t have any public events today, per his official schedule.
The president is set to receive his intelligence briefing at 1pm EST, and will host a dinner in the Rose Garden at the White House at 7pm, which is closed to press.
If we get word that he’s going to address reporters at any point, we’ll bring you the latest here.
Colombia’s president calls for criminal investigation against Trump over Caribbean strikes
Colombian president Gustavo Petro on Tuesday called for a criminal investigation against US president Donald Trump and other officials involved in this month’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the White House has said were transporting drugs.
Petro repudiated the three attacks in his speech at the annual meeting of the UN general assembly during which he also accused Trump of criminalising poverty and migration, AP reported.
“Criminal proceedings must be opened against those officials, who are from the US, even if it includes the highest-ranking official who gave the order: president Trump,” Petro said of the strikes, adding that boat passengers were not members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang as claimed by the Trump administration after the first attack.
If the boats were carrying drugs as alleged by the US government, Petro said, their passengers “were not drug traffickers; they were simply poor young people from Latin America who had no other option.”
Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.
The General Services Administration (GSA) has given the employees – who managed government workspaces – until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press.
Those who accept must report for duty on 6 October after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs – passed along to taxpayers – to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.
“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”
Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said the sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast.
