DHS secretary honors three ICE staff who rescued detainees after Dallas sniper shooting, warns inflammatory rhetoric can spur violence

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen on Monday traveled to a Dallas detention center to recognize three immigration enforcement employees who he said risked their lives to rescue detainees after a September 24 sniper attack near the facility.

Mullen said the three — deportation officers Andres Gochce and Marco Solis, and enforcement and removal assistant Christopher Pine — moved toward gunfire to extract and stabilize wounded detainees and provided life‑saving care until emergency medical teams arrived. "They're willing to run in and risk their lives for those that were under their protection," Mullen said.

The awards followed an account of the incident from Robert Sernna, who introduced himself as a deputy field office director for ICRO and said he was the first manager on scene. Sernna said 17 shots were fired from a rooftop, multiple detainees in a transport van were struck, and partner agencies including HSI, the FBI, FPS, Texas DPS and Dallas Police Department assisted in securing the site and treating the wounded. He described damage to office windows and commended the staff who aided the injured.

Congressman Brandon Gil, introduced at the event, praised the three employees as "true heroes" and linked criticism of ICE and Border Patrol to greater risks for agents. "Eventually some lunatic is going to hear that and...act on that rhetoric," Gil said, arguing that harsh public language and withheld funding make officers' jobs more dangerous.

In a question‑and‑answer session with reporters, Mullen said DHS enforces federal law and has "zero tolerance" for threats or assaults on officers. He said verbal threats, spitting on officers, assaults on federal property and similar actions can and should be met with arrests. Mullen credited state police response in a recent New Jersey protest for bringing the situation under control and said local and state cooperation is critical to securing streets around federal facilities.

When asked whether DHS would pull Customs and Border Protection officers from airports to protect detention facilities, Mullen said DHS can "flex" CBP officers and special response teams to provide perimeters and crowd control if local resources are unavailable. "We have a plan to initiate it if required," he said, adding that the current level of cooperation from state and local authorities has so far made redeployment unnecessary.

Reporters asked what Mullen would say to families of victims wounded or killed in the incident; he said the shooting "should have never happened" and that officers "did everything we could to save as many lives as we possibly could during that tragic day." He also expressed regret and reiterated that inflammatory rhetoric can have real‑world consequences.

Mullen repeated several quantitative claims about the scale of threats against officers in response to questions. In the transcript he stated: "Death threats on ICE agents went up has went up over 800 8,000%," "vehicle assaults went up over 3,300%," and "assault on officers have went up over 1500%." Those figures were presented by Mullen during the briefing and were not independently verified in the event's remarks.

The department presented the awards and answered reporters' questions; no formal policy vote or new regulation was announced. The event concluded after a brief set of closing remarks.