Fort Worth congressman on FBI after Dallas ICE shooting: ‘I don’t trust them’
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey doesn’t trust the FBI to thoroughly and objectively investigate Wednesday’s shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas.
The Fort Worth Democrat made the comment to NOTUS, a news website, on Wednesday, and addressed the subject again in an interview on CNN that evening.
“I don’t trust anything that’s happening out of that agency at all,” Veasey said to NOTUS. “I don’t trust them at all. They’re overly political.”
The North Texas congressional district represented by Veasey includes the field office where the shooting occurred. One detainee was killed in the shooting and two others were injured. No law enforcement officials were injured.
The sniper, identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn from Fairview in Collin County, died of a self-inflicted gunshot, after shooting “indiscriminately” at ICE agents and detainees, according to authorities.
FBI officials have said at least one bullet casing was found near the shooter’s body bearing a message that is “anti-ICE in nature.” FBI Director Kash Patel shared a photo of an unspent shell casing with the phrase “ANTI ICE” written on it.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett interviewed Veasey Wednesday evening, sharing the text of his remark to NOTUS on her show “Erin Burnett Outfront.”
“I know, congressman, that you are concerned about Kash Patel’s FBI and whether they can investigate this attack,” Burnett said later in the show. “How come?”
Veasey spoke to the shell casing photo shared by Patel.
“Because of situations like that,” Veasey said. “He was eager to put that out, but was not very forthcoming in letting everyone know that it was a migrant that had actually been killed.”
Following the shooting, many Republican officials, including President Donald Trump, blamed the shooting on Democrats’ anti-ICE rhetoric.
“We have got to start thinking about the human aspects of all of this first, and stop worrying about who this is going to help in November of 2026,” Veasey said.
Violent and divisive rhetoric must be condemned by both parties, he said.
“Let’s all tone it down,” he said.
Veasey and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, visited the FBI building in Washington D.C. on Thursday to try and get accurate information about the shooting.
Officials first said there were two people killed and one wounded, but later said one person was killed and two were injured, a discrepancy Veasey noted in a video of their attempted visit.
He and Crockett were trying to meet with Patel, but were not successful, they said in another video.
“Congresswoman Crockett and I are still concerned about there being very little information released about what happened yesterday,” Veasey said. “We know just some basics. There have been some facts that have changed.”
He added that little is known about the victims of the shooting.
“Those victims have families,” Veasey said. “Those victims probably have families that live in Texas.”
People who live in the area around where the shooting occurred are concerned and want more answers, he said. “We have been unable to get anyone from the Bureau to call us back and tell us these things,” Veasey said.
More details were released during a Thursday news conference, including that the shooter was not part of a political group and acted alone. Information was also released about anti-ICE notes found in the shooter’s home. Veasey and Crockett said they had not watched the Thursday news conference that provided updates on the case, but were familiar with some details from it.
Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said the shooting was “the very definition of terrorism.” Speakers also said ICE agents were the intended target of the shooting.
Veasey criticized the FBI’s messaging around the shooting.
“If you look at how this investigation has started since the tragedy unfolded yesterday, it was to create this narrative that this was done by left-wing radicals, and that’s been the narrative from the very beginning,” Veasey said.
He added: “That’s why we have no information about the victims. They want these victims to remain faceless so they can continue to perpetuate this story for political purposes.”
Crockett said the FBI “continues to reveal that it lacks the competency to handle its job,” citing the investigation into the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as an example.
“It is interesting again that we have this federal agency, that I just believe is either completely incompetent under the leadership of Kash Patel, or there’s just a lack of transparency, or they are consistently, intentionally misleading the American people,” Crockett said.
Crockett also criticized Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s response to the shooting.
“She specifically said that there were targets on the backs of these agents, and I can’t say that they were or weren’t, but what I can tell you is, based on the limited information that we have, is that it wasn’t federal officers that were the victims,” Crockett said.
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The FBI declined to comment on the lawmakers’ remarks.
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM.
