Snow masks ignite recovery. When can officials prevent their faces?
With the Trump administration races to expand its deportation campaign, viral videos of federal factors that wear face masks during the arrests. The tactic has ignited both confusion and retreat in communities.
Immigration raids under the new Trump administration have taken a new tone, to each other. The American ICE and Customs agents and officers (ICE) increases their identities through masks, and they work in controversial locations such as schools and courts, and targeting immigrants without any criminal background. These prominent immigration raids often resulted in society, which were widely embodied through the protests in Los Angeles this week.
Critics were quick to point out what they see as hypocrisy with disguised federal immigration agents.
Why did we write this
Immigration enforcement officials direct attention to wearing face masks. This practice has ignited anxiety about whether the agents themselves are in danger, or if they create a culture of impunity by protecting their identities.
On June 8, Mr. Trump wrote on the social truth that the demonstrators will not be allowed to wear masks to go forward, and ask, “What should these people hide, and why?” His administration also criticized the demonstrators for students to wear masks while protesting against the war in Gaza.
The Kato Institute, a research center born in Libertaria, has published condition In May, it is concerned that convincing agents resemble the secret police. He noticed that judges do not hide their identities, despite a sharp rise in threats.
Why do ice agents wear face masks?
The use of masks and regular clothes by law enforcement officers has some precedents. Facial masks have been used by officers working in crowded events or doing the police such as protests. This last practice led to lawsuits after Black Lives Matter’s protests in 2020, in addition to a new federal law asking officers to wear a kind of visual identity when responding to “civil disorder”, with limited exceptions.
But it is still legal for officers to cover their faces. This policy has been subjected to more audit, as videos continue to show masked officers, as officers arrested suspects in non -crowded car parks and residential areas.
Defenders of ice agents say that these officials should hide their identities to protect them from the threats of violence themselves and their families, especially amid a high -level deportation campaign.
Acting Ice Director, Todd Leon, defended the officers who wear masks at a press conference on June 2.
In response to a question about the officers who wear masks: “I will not allow the officers and agents to go there and put their lives at the stake, and their family at the stake, because people do not like what immigration enforcement.”
The Ministry of Internal Security said in a post on social media in May that ice officers are facing a 413 % increase In the attacks. The Ministry of National Security did not provide details to support this claim.
John Torres, who held the position of Acting ICE manager from 2008 to 2009, told the monitoring that when he was in the agency, masks were mainly used by the agents who worked in secrecy. But he also says that the spread of social media has made the task more dangerous for officers in this field today.
“I look at it differently now,” he says. To see agents wearing masks [in the United States] I think it is really a sad indictment about our whereabouts … the agents should worry about threats against their lives, against their families. “
What are the concerns about agents who hide their faces?
Critics have argued that agents who hide their faces reduce accountability and can create confusion and fear of arrests.
When masked officers detained two men outside a court in Charlottesville, Virginia, in April, the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia answered: “Without an official identity, no demonstration of legal authority, and there is no declared reason to arrest him, this incident cannot be distinguished from the kidnapping.”
Another concern is that ordinary citizens can impersonate the personality of ice agents to carry out actual kidnappings or other crimes. A woman in Florida faced this spring to clarify her as a convincing ice worker to kidnap her ex -boyfriend’s wife.
There are also complications for passers -by. ICE recently said that she would sue two women in Charlottesville, who tried to hinder ice agents from the suspects. Florida law now requires passers -by to keep 25 feet of law enforcement officers when filming if requested.
Collin Botzl Cavano, an assistant policy analyst at the Institute of Immigration Policy, says that reservation “can cause a lot of ambiguity.” “I think it is in general, people are ready to cooperate to the extent that they can when approaching a federal agent. But they also have the right to know whether the person is actually a federal agent.”
Are you required of ice agents to get to know themselves?
There is no specific federal law that imposes law enforcement officers to wear uniforms or put their faces during detention.
However, some defenders say that the exercise of agents who hide their identities raises the fourth amendment concerns. This amendment protects people from “unreasonable searches and injuries” and proves that the arrest order requires “a possible reason.”
Some legal precedents address this. In the case of the court of 2021, the Illinois District Court judge that ICE officers could not arrest a person without a judicial order unless they had a possible reason that the person is not subsequently enjoyed. In California, a judge last year found that ICE officers were unable to hide their identities to deceive someone to allow them in their homes. (The ruling applies only to some provinces inside California.) According to the Immigrant Legal Resources Center, ICE officers must Define themselves As soon as possible when arresting. In general, ICE scientists cannot enter homes or private offices without a judicial order, but they can make arrests without orders in public areas.
Veronica Garcia, the ILRC lawyer, believes that the presence of masked officers raises constitutional problems. “If the convincing individual approaches me without an identifier, then where is my work?”
The Trump administration also authorized officials from other federal agencies, such as the drug control department, alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives to arrest immigration. But there is a few general information about the role these officials play in deportations and whether they are directly performing arrests or wearing masks, says Ms. Bottal Cavano.
What do politicians do about this situation?
Boston Michel Wu mayor said the masks are part of a broader intimidation campaign by ICE.
“What is the other definition of the secret police – when people are extracted from the street by masked individuals, and they were not told where they go, he disappeared until someone finds some information?” I asked at an event on June 5 in Roslindel, Massachusetts.
SNS Democratic Sens in Virginia Mark Warner and Tim Kane sent a letter to the Minister of Internal Security Christie and others in May, urging them to direct ice officers to clearly identify themselves during detention and limit the use of face covers.
They wrote: “We still feel very anxious that ICE’s lack of transparency will lead to the audience’s overlap in enforcement efforts, the already raised interaction, and the risk of a violent situation that can be completely avoided.”
Meanwhile, Republican members focus on the safety of ice agents.
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn foot Legislation on June 4 to make it illegal to publish the name of federal law enforcement employees with the intention of obstructing the immigration process. The bill after Freddy Ocunil, Nashville mayor, Tennessee, which generally issued statements that included the names of internal security personnel.