In ICE masking debate, these former officers say take them off

Former law enforcement and immigration officials are coming out in opposition to the Trump administration’s defense of masks worn by agents leading its immigration crackdown. 

The federal government has argued that having officers wear masks is necessary for their protection, but former officials who worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations told The Hill it’s important for law enforcement to show their faces. 

“We have never worn masks my entire career,” said Darius Reeves, whose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) career spanned the Bush, Obama, Biden and both Trump administrations.

Reeves said the masking appeared to start when other federal forces were augmented into ICE and needed to maintain anonymity for potential undercover operations in their day-to-day job. 

But that “no longer seems to be the scenario,” he said, adding that current immigration tactics are “something totally weird, something I totally do not recognize.”

The issue of masked officers has grown in prominence since the January killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Good was killed by a masked ICE officer, while Pretti was shot to death by masked Border Patrol agents. 

Democrats have long criticized the masks and have made unmasking agents a key part of the talks around funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been partially shut down since mid-February.

The Trump administration and many Republicans on Capitol Hill have cited an uptick in attacks against federal officers in pushing back against Democratic demands. 

“They are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them,” DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Publicizing their identities puts their lives and the lives of their families at serious risk.”

Noel March, a former U.S. Marshal for the District of Maine under President Obama, said there are other ways to balance safety of immigration agents with the need for accountability.  

“In the 40 years that I served behind a badge, my face was visible to every member of the public and my family name, I wore on the front of my uniform,” March said. 

“When law enforcement becomes anonymous to the very people they have sworn to serve, then we have gone into a very dark place of........

© The Hill