A growing cohort of Democratic lawmakers want to ban face coverings for deportation officers amid President Donald Trump’s wide-scale crackdown on illegal immigration.
Democrats at the national and state level have introduced legislation aiming to keep face masks off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and using fascistic terminology to describe the current practice. However, federal law enforcement leaders say face coverings — which are optional for agents — help protect them at a time when the agency is being demonized and assaults against agents have risen nearly 700%.
“Every day the brave men and women of ICE go out into local communities across the country and put their lives on the line to bolster public safety and national security by apprehending transnational gang members, foreign fugitives and other dangerous criminal aliens who are in the country illegally and preying on law-abiding citizens,” an ICE spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The agency supports agents having the option to cover their face, arguing it keeps them and their family members safe. However, many Democrats are moving forward with legislation to take away that choice.
The “No Secret Police Act,” introduced on June 26 by New York Democrat Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, would prohibit Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents engaged in border security and civil immigration enforcement from using homemade, non-tactical masks, according to a press release from Goldman’s office.
“The United States is not a dictatorship, and I’m proud to introduce this commonsense legislation ensuring that our federal government’s laws are enforced by identifiable human beings, not anonymous, secret agents of the state,” Goldman said about his legislation. More than 40 Democrats are currently listed as cosponsors of the bill.
Goldman’s bill is not the only one of its type being pushed in Congress.
New York Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez introduced the “No Anonymity in Immigration Enforcement Act” on June 12. Her legislation also bans face masks for ICE agents, requires them to display their name and affiliation with the agency, and requires agents to quickly document instances when exceptions to these rules were made, such as if an agent responds to an imminent threat to life or had to wear a mask for medical purposes.
Spokespeople for Goldman and Velazquez did not respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
ICE argues such proposals can put their agents at risk, as they are constantly arresting gang members and other heinous criminals who are capable of causing them harm.
“During enforcement operations , all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Officers and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents wear badges designed to be easily identifiable and to signify their authority as law enforcement officials,” an ICE spokesperson stated to the DCNF. “If an ICE officer or agent chooses to wear a mask to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement.”
ICE attributed the sharp rise in assaults against agents to the recent demonization of the agency, many of which have come from Democratic lawmakers.
Several high-profile threats have been made against the agency in just the past few months. A Texas man was arrested in April after allegedly threatening to open fire on any ICE agents he sees in his neighborhood. In his threatening social media post, he allegedly referred to deportation officers as the “secret police,” using the same terminology found in Goldman’s bill.
A New York man was arrested and charged in July for allegedly making online posts threatening to kill ICE agents. In one post about an ICE operation, he allegedly said he “can’t wait to put a bullet into this guy’s brain, but first his children” and in another post, he allegedly said “Kill them all, ICE is the new age gestapo, stop them.”
Due to threats like these and rise of assaults, ICE is not going to discourage agents from wearing face masks during enforcement operations, according to the agency.
Both bills by Goldman and Velazquez were introduced in the wake of violent anti-ICE riots that erupted across the Los Angeles area in early June.
In response to ICE operations in the area, over 1,000 rioters in Los Angeles surrounded a federal building, assaulted deportation officers, slashed tires and defaced government property, according to the agency. Media footage of the mayhem showed anti-ICE rioters blocking traffic, defacing public property, setting cars ablaze and brandishing the flags of numerous foreign countries.
Altogether, the mayhem cost the city roughly $32 million in damages so far. The Trump administration Tuesday announced the approval of disaster aid to California for all the damage caused by the anti-ICE rioters.
Trump responded to the violence in LA by deploying the National Guard to re-establish law and order. Local Democrats responded by introducing legislation dictating what ICE agents could wear.
In June, State Sen. Scott Wiener — the lawmaker behind the California law that reduced the penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV to another individual — introduced the “No Secret Police Act,” legislation that demands law enforcement “at all levels” refrain from wearing face masks while conducting enforcement operations in California. In a public statement about his bill, Wiener claimed the recent ICE operations caused “profound terror.”
The Trump administration reiterated the importance of agents’ safety when apprehending dangerous individuals across the country.
“When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated to the DCNF. “Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is contributing to our officers now facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults.”
In a separate public statement, DHS referred to Wiener’s bill as “despicable.”
It’s also not clear if the California legislation could even apply to federal law enforcement agents. The Supremacy Clause in the Constitution explicitly states that federal law trumps any conflicting state law, ostensibly meaning California lawmakers cannot regulate how federal law enforcement officers, such as ICE agents, conduct their duties authorized by federal law.
However, this stipulation has not stopped other state lawmakers from trying. Earlier in July, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, introduced his own legislation banning face masks on ICE agents. Reflecting language allegedly used by the individual arrested in New York, Jones’ bill is named the “Stop American Gestapo Act.”
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