For many Angeleno, the sight of an armed federal agent – the face hidden behind the gaiters on the neck and the balaclavas, leaps out of an unmarked van to steal people from the streets, poses a clear threat to public safety.
Critics warn of masking tactics as federal immigrant agents step up enforcement raids, arresting and arresting anyone suspected of violating immigration law.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” said Scott Schhart, who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency as a regulatory and policy counselor from 2022 until January this year.
“If someone approaches you with a mask, a T-shirt and a badge, why do you think they are exercising legitimate authority, as opposed to being a violent criminal trying to harm you?” Schuchert said. “How do you know you don’t need to resist to avoid arrest?
But advocates for federal immigration agents cite security as a reason for masking.
They presented immigrants as a threat to legal documents without legal documents, despite the majority of people arrested in LA in early June who had no criminal history. They also insist that masking is necessary. Because convergence of factors – supercharged political rhetoric, more sophisticated facial recognition techniques, and the increased threat of doxing on social media make jobs even more dangerous for agents in this field.
“We have a lot of agents whose faces are on social media platforms across the country,” said Mathew Silverman, national president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officials Association. “We have politicians who say, ‘We’re going to find these federal agents with masks. We’ll expose them.’ It’s just creating an era of law enforcement, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to try and do the job of law enforcement. ”
Critics of law enforcement tactics say masking doesn’t just make executives safer and escalate tensions. Some people argue that federal agents operate under a greater threat than local officials.
Stuart Schroeder, a history professor at John Hopkins University, said:
“I think it’s clear that agents are trying to create a certain sight of threats and a lack of democratic control,” he said. “An anonymize themselves indicates that they are not responsible for any kind of citizen.”
Federal immigration agents will stage outside Gate E at Dodger Stadium in June.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Do I need masking?
As the Trump administration set a new goal of arresting 3,000 unauthorized immigrants a day, authorities say they have not introduced new policies that require agents to blur their identity.
“The mask rules haven’t changed,” Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin told the Times.
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondy proposed to a Senate subcommittee that she heard she had never heard of them hiding their faces while making their arrests. However, Bondi also appeared to justify masking by saying that the officer and his family were threatened and doxed.
“If they’re covering their faces now, I can assure them that it’s about protecting themselves,” she said. “But they also want to protect all citizens.”
Is masking legal?
The US Constitution does not prohibit masking, and there is no federal law that prohibits federal law enforcement from wearing masks.
“It’s completely legal,” said Edward Obayashi, the Northern California deputy sheriff.
DHS regulations require immigration officers to identify themselves during their arrest.
California law is more specific, requiring uniformed officers to “wear a badge, nameplate, or other device that clearly names an identifier number or officer on their face.”
“In California, we’re not going to hide ourselves,” Obayashi said. “We don’t hide our identity, especially in patrols. We wear uniforms. That’s just common sense.”
What did Trump administration officials say about masks?
Acting Ice Director Todd Lyons defends the practice of federal officials hiding their identity.
“If you’re angry about people wearing masks, I’m sorry,” he said in early June. “But I’m not going to queue up their families, their families, their families, their families, because I don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”
In an interview with Fox News, Lyons said, “It’s not right for an agent called the modern Nazis to be demonized.”
This week, DHS said ICE officers and federal agents who are engaged in enforcement have experienced a 700% increase in assaults. The federal agency has rejected a request from the Times for raw numbers and details of the attack on ice agents. Fox News reported that ICE recorded 79 “assault events” during the same period this year, from January 21, 2024 to June 30, 2024.
Is the agent docked?
Some people argue that federal agents are scared of the dox threat not only to them but also to their families in recent years.
“John Q. citizens have filmed videos of this agent and posted them on social media,” Silverman said. “Photos of this agent are posted, then their address is posted. “We’re going to this house and protesting in front of this person’s house.” “Yeah, this person has a 15-year-old son. …That’s very scary for these agents.”
Federal agents also wore masks to prevent the risk of future undercover investigations, Silverman said. He argued that if a large number of agents engaged in street manipulation without covering up, their faces could be captured on camera and broadcasted online in ways that could make them vulnerable to criminals for years to come.
“Now, there’s facial recognition that criminals are using it,” Silverman said. “So now they put my face there and in five or ten years, they’ll draw me to the recognition of the face and boom!” Waiting, this guy was a law enforcement officer. ”
What precedents are there for US federal agents employing extensive masking?
Most experts agree that a long-standing American habit is for law enforcement officials to wear uniforms and recognizable insignias.
The masks have been used for a long time by immigration agents to protect their identity during sensitive undercover investigations, including ordered raids on dangerous drug homes and cartels, Silverman said. However, they were not normally used in regular patrols or in a wide range of ways.
The FBI SWAT team will take photos at the 1994 World Cup in Secaucus, New Jersey.
(Remi Benali/Getty Images)
Over the years, individual law enforcement officials have frequently pushed the boundaries of what people consider to be acceptable legal standard practices, Schroeder said.
He said the FBI counter-intelligence programs in the 1950s and 1960s were considered a certain black mark in federal law enforcement for their secret and illegal activities, including violating the constitutional rights of people, engaged in violence and conducting in secret operations on political reasons.
“The big difference here is that this is all happening during the day,” Schroeder said. “This is completely open.”
How does law enforcement masking change the relationship between citizens and law enforcement?
Many civic leaders in the metropolitan area say the practice of masked federal agents embraces the confusion in their communities.
“We’ve been asked questions like, ‘How can I know if the masked guy restraining me is an ice or a trickster?” And “If a masked man with a gun refuses to identify himself, who can protect me?” Burbank Mayor Nikki Perez said Tuesday.
In Burbank, fears of con artists turned into reality on Sunday when two masked men stopped a woman outside a mysterious museum in Magnolia Park, Perez said.
According to the Burbank Police Department, the man escaped from a white SUV, stopped the woman, impersonated a federal immigration agent, and asked her for paperwork. He said that thanks to the witness, the woman was able to leave without further harassment or inviting her.
“But it’s a new sense of fear and uncertainty about the safety of everyone in our community, regardless of the status of immigration,” Perez said.
Can lawmakers require federal agents to wear masks?
Some members of Congress are promoting NO masks for the ICE Act, a federal bill that prohibits ice agents from using face coverings during operations, except for certain safety reasons. Agents must also wear visible identifications that clearly indicate their name and agency affiliation.
However, no Republican co-sponsors have been on board yet. Until that happens, there is little momentum in the GOP-controlled house.
In Sacramento, Democrats have introduced the No Secret Police Act. This is a bill that requires executives operating in California to provide clear identification and ban masking.
But state law failed to control the actions of federal officials, said David Levine, a law professor at UC San Francisco. “Even if California passes it,” he said.
Some experts defending masking say they believe that all federal agents should display clear identifications for the safety of everyone.
“We definitely need to see the badge 100%,” Silverman said, adding that it will support the federal requirement for agents to indicate their identification. “The same thing as markings…it doesn’t matter which agent you are at. You should be able to identify it.”
In an age where anyone can order a DEA patch or FBI hat, Silverman said it’s important that agents be identifiable.
“What’s scary about me is that someone would think a federal agent is spoofing it, but it’s going to be a real agent,” he said. “Or the opposite”
What happens if there is a clash with a masked federal agent?
Levine said he wanted to see Bondy, the country’s top government lawyer, and would take the issue of identification seriously and write an advisory letter to federal agents with clear guidelines on badges, uniforms and masking.
“Because of this, someone will make a mistake,” Levine said. “I’m going to get someone shot or killed. That could be an officer.”
He said it would be very easy to say, “I felt threatened.” if someone pulled out the weapon.
“They said, “I thought I was under attack. I didn’t think they were police. They ran out of an unmarked vehicle. No one was wearing badges. No one was wearing uniforms.”
California officials cannot bring criminal charges if a masked officer without uniforms or identification is injured or killed.
“The state prosecutor cannot bring about charges against federal officials,” Obayashi said. “They can’t even bring about state accusations because of excessive force.”
