The push to unmask ICE agents is catching fire, as backlash grows to President Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportation.
“It comes across as kidnappings. At some point, where do we end up with vigilantes? Or where does this lead to a vigilante-type system with immigration or vigilante posses, or at what point do they end up hiring mercenary-type paramilitary? We’ve talked for years about making sure police are that there’s full transparency,” New York state Sen. Patricia Fahy told Salon. “They’re not even identifying themselves or producing the appropriate warrants that are mandated.”
Fahy is sponsoring the MELT Act, a bill that would require ICE agents operating in New York to unmask and identify themselves. She said the bill is about holding ICE to the same standards as other law enforcement.
Fahy explained that allowing ICE to continue to operate as it has been also allows criminals to exploit people’s fear of ICE. “We are seeing incidents, some pretty horrific ones of impersonating officers,” he said, “and we’ve already had issues with paramilitary organizations in some areas and vigilantism, and I worry that it is going to fuel that.”
For example, a Minnesota man disguised as law enforcement assassinated former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in June. Alleged ICE impersonators also conducted a roadside armed robbery in Delaware. In North Carolina, another man was arrested and accused of posing as ICE and sexually assaulting a woman, threatening to deport her if she did not comply.
The New York legislation is modeled after similar efforts in California.
“When I saw Senator Scott Weiner introduce his bill, SB 627 in California, I knew this was the model. I think that states must step up to defend their residents from unmarked, masked agents and vigilantes,” New York Assemblymember Tony Simone told Salon.“I would not be surprised if we see similar legislation introduced very soon in places like Connecticut, New Hampshire and all over the country,” he added, citing conversations with lawmakers in those states.
Since the early days of Trump’s second term, masked federal agents have been abducting and detaining people across the United States, including American citizens. Many of those picked up in immigration enforcement sweeps have been disappeared to countries like El Salvador or South Sudan; some have not been heard from since, and others have reported being tortured.
As ICE agents have swept across the country, congressional Republicans and members of the Trump administration have expressed concern over efforts to ensure that these agents are operating within the confines of the law and can be held accountable for their actions.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem just last week complained on “Fox News Sunday” about a ruling from a federal judge that prevented agents from targeting people based on their race and required the department to grant detainees access to legal counsel.
“We’ve seen this across the country over and over and over again, where judges are getting political. It’s not their job,” Noem said.
State lawmakers are not, however, the only ones pushing to force ICE to unmask. A group of 21 attorneys general has also signed on to the project, sending a letter to Congress calling for legislation that would “prohibit federal immigration agents from wearing masks that conceal their identity and require them to show their identification and agency-identifying insignia.”
“The images of masked, armed men and women, dressed in plainclothes and traveling in unmarked vehicles, snatching people from streets, homes. Workplaces and courthouses has become common in recent weeks and are now emblazoned in the public consciousness,” the attorneys general wrote. “We have watched these detentions with alarm, as the imagery evokes comparisons to repressive tactics that have no place in a free country.”
Even as state lawmakers have pushed to unmask ICE, some Democrats have worried that it might overstep state lawmakers’ authority. California Gov. Gavin Newsom questioned whether the state had the power to regulate the behavior of ICE agents.
“We have a bill — we’re looking at the constitutionality of it,” Newsom said in an interview with the Tennessee Holler. “It appears we don’t have the legal authority for federal agents, but we do for other law enforcement authorities. There’s some amendments being made in the bill and our legal team’s looking at it.”
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In light of questions concerning whether states can require ICE agents to unmask, Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would prevent agents from concealing their identity while conducting immigration enforcement raids. The bill, like the state-level bills, includes some exceptions for instances when officers might use a gas mask or are engaged in non-public operations.
“Members of the public often have no way to confirm whether they are interacting with legitimate government officials,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif, said in a statement. “This lack of transparency endangers public safety by causing confusion, fear and mistrust, especially in communities already subjected to heightened immigration scrutiny. It also increases risks for law enforcement personnel by creating uncertainty in high-stress situations, particularly when individuals cannot distinguish real officers from impersonators.”
In a statement to Salon attributed to a “senior official,” the Department of Homeland Security dismissed the legislative efforts to unmask ICE as “repulsive messaging bills that stoke dangerous anti-ICE rhetoric for cheap political points and fundraising emails.” The official accused Democrats of “trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted.”
