The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says filming and posting videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents constitutes “violence,” and has threatened to potentially charge people who take videos and photos of agents conducting immigration raids in their communities, despite First Amendment protections.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told the Center for Media and Democracy that “videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxxing our agents.”
“We will prosecute those who illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.
In July, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem made a similar remark, saying that “violence” against ICE agents includes “anything that threatens them and their safety, so it is doxing them, it’s videotaping them where they’re at when they’re out on operations.”
However, recording law enforcement activities is protected by the First Amendment.
“Federal appellate courts typically frame the right to record law enforcement as the right to record officers exercising their official duties in public,” reads an Electronic Frontier Foundation guide on the topic entitled “Yes, You Have the Right to Film ICE.”
“This right extends to private places, too, where the recorder has a legal right to be, such as in their own home,” the group explains. “However, if the law enforcement officer is off-duty or is in a private space that you don’t have a right to be in, your right to record the officer may be limited.”
The Center for Media and Democracy’s report comes as DHS announced on Monday that it will be flooding Chicago with federal agents to ramp up deportations of immigrants in the city. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois released a statement clarifying “what the law is when it comes to recording public officials — including ICE agents — operating in a public space.”
The group noted: “To be clear, if you witness ICE activity in our community, you have the right to record a federal officer in public — including those engaged in immigration enforcement. The ACLU of Illinois encourages people recording those interactions to do so from a safe distance that does not obstruct the activity.”
The ACLU of Illinois says those who have been retaliated against for recording law enforcement can contact their office.
Even though recording law enforcement activity is protected by the First Amendment, that did not stop ICE agents from attacking and jailing PhD student Job Garcia in June while he was documenting an ICE raid outside a Home Depot in Hollywood, California.
“With no warning from an agent to Mr. Garcia, one of the masked agents then turned around and lunged at Mr. Garcia, reaching for Mr. Garcia’s phone,” reads the claim filed on Garcia’s behalf by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) against Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, and ICE.
“Mr. Garcia began to move backward and away from the agents,” the claim continues. “Then, the agent who lunged grabbed Mr. Garcia’s phone, threw it to the ground, and tackled Mr. Garcia. Other agents, including one unmasked agent, almost immediately joined in assisting to restrain Mr. Garcia. One masked agent then retrieved Mr. Garcia’s phone and placed it in Mr. Garcia’s pocket as he was on the ground.”
One of the agents at the scene began speaking to Garcia in Spanish and continued to do so even after Garcia responded in English. Garcia’s attempts to prove he was an American citizen were fruitless. A non-Latinx white male was also recording, but he was not arrested or tackled.
Garcia was handcuffed and taken to Dodger Stadium, where officers interrogated him. They then took him to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in downtown Los Angeles. He was released the next day.
“Mr. Garcia has previously recorded and photographed protests and community events centered around immigrants’ rights as a personal passion,” the claim says. “Even though he would like to continue to document and photograph events and protests, he is fearful of encountering federal immigration agents and experiencing their abuses again.”
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