Federal Lawmakers Demand Information on ICE Agents’ Use of Masks, Unmarked Cars

Federal lawmakers are demanding information from the Department of Homeland Security on the agency’s use of masked immigration agents to abduct and detain people.

In a letter sent to DHS on July 25, Representatives Summer Lee (D-Pennsylvania) and Robert Garcia (D-California) requested “memoranda, directives, guidance, communications, or other materials … concerning the use of unmarked vehicles, facial coverings, or lack of identifying information in enforcement operations.”

“Federal agents under the Trump administration are operating like a secret police force on U.S. soil,” Lee said in a press release. “These agents must identify themselves rather than cowardly concealing their identities behind masks.”

Lee and Garcia are also seeking documents related to government attorneys concealing their identities in immigration proceedings. In a story for The Intercept, journalist Debbie Nathan reported that she witnessed two instances in the same courtroom where the attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was kept secret.

Witnesses have recorded numerous instances of masked ICE agents conducting raids and violently arresting people. In New York City, a masked federal agent handcuffed city comptroller and then-Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander after he linked arms with a man who ICE was attempting to detain and demanded to see a judicial warrant.

In another incident, a masked agent attempted to arrest a landscaper, Dennis Guillen, who had been working on the grounds of a California medical clinic. A video of the incident shows clinic staff demanding that the officer identify himself. Despite their protests, the man was arrested. Fox News reported that federal authorities later arrested two of the staff members for assaulting a federal officer, actions that are not depicted on the video.

The agency’s tactics have led to a rash of crimes committed by people impersonating federal agents.

“In recent months, there have been several documented incidents in which individuals posing as ICE agents have leveraged the opacity and fear surrounding immigration operations to commit serious crimes,” the lawmakers wrote.

In Florida, a woman has been arrested for allegedly impersonating an ICE officer and kidnapping her ex-boyfriend’s wife. She’s accused of going to the victim’s workplace wearing a T-shirt with “ICE” emblazoned on the front and ordering the woman to go with her. She then allegedly drove the victim to an apartment complex and told her more ICE agents were on the way. The victim managed to escape and call her husband.

In Texas, a man is accused of pretending to be an ICE agent and robbing the victim of his Guatemalan ID and $1,800. In Pennsylvania, a man is charged with posing as an ICE officer and robbing an auto body shop. He allegedly zip-tied the hands of one employee and threatened to take undocumented employees into custody.

Lee and Garcia wrote that federal officers’ tactics “[hand] bad actors a roadmap to exploit vulnerable communities.”