Federal law enforcement officials told CBS News on Wednesday that the gunman who opened fire at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center earlier this week “targeted agents,” according to investigators working the case. The disclosure, offered as authorities continue to piece together motive and movements, frames the episode as a deliberate attack on law enforcement rather than an indiscriminate act of violence inside a secure facility.

Officials declined to release full details pending notification of next of kin and an ongoing criminal probe, but said the investigation includes interviews with witnesses, a forensic review of body-worn camera footage and an examination of the shooter’s social media and communications. Local and federal investigators have cordoned off portions of the facility and have said there is no ongoing threat to the surrounding community.

The shooting has immediate operational and policy consequences for ICE, which oversees a sprawling detention system that relies heavily on a mix of federal facilities and contracts with private and local jails. ICE currently employs roughly 20,000 people and in recent years has held an average daily detention population in the low tens of thousands, numbers that have made security at individual sites a persistent budgetary and political challenge.

“This incident exposes vulnerabilities that demand a full accounting,” a senior congressional aide said, speaking on background. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle signaled they will press for hearings. Republican and Democratic members of the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees said they expect testimony from ICE leadership and from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, who has previously faulted the agency for lapses in staffing and oversight at some contracted facilities.

The economic implications are measurable but narrow. In the immediate term, local governments and detention contractors typically face higher overtime bills, increased insurance claims and the potential for litigation. Private prison operators that house ICE detainees, such as the larger contractors who account for a substantial share of detention capacity, may face heightened scrutiny from investors and clients, which can translate into short-term stock volatility. Analysts say, however, that such episodes rarely move broader financial markets; the ripple is usually confined to defense contractors, security service providers and local budgets directly involved.

Longer-term, the incident renews policy debates about alternatives to detention. Advocates for reducing reliance on physical incarceration point to monitoring programs and community-based case management that cost less and, supporters argue, lower the risk of concentrated violence. Costs for bolstering facility security are not trivial: retrofitting sites, increasing staffing ratios and expanding training can add millions to annual operating budgets for agencies already under strain.

As investigators continue to develop a timeline of the shooting and to determine whether the attacker acted alone or had accomplices, officials say the priority is accountability and preventing a repeat. “We owe it to the victims and our personnel to get this right,” an unnamed law enforcement official told CBS News. For policymakers, the episode will test appetite for spending and reform in an immigration enforcement system under sustained pressure from political volatility and resource constraints.