Americans who live in big cities, suburban towns and rural communities inevitably see or interact in some way with local police officers or sheriff's deputies.

Here's what most Americans don't experience in those encounters: masks hiding the faces of local law enforcement officers, who are wearing mismatched uniforms with no name tags, roaming the streets in roving patrols, randomly snatching people and beating on bystanders, with zero accountability.

There are a lot of strong opinions about President Donald Trump's attempt at mass deportation of immigrants who entered this country illegally. But on this, there should be widespread and bipartisan agreement – America doesn't need or want a secret police force.

That's why Senate Democrats, joined by seven Republicans, on Jan. 29 first blocked a long-term funding package for the Department of Homeland Security, in a move that could cause a government shutdown.

Democrats later that day struck a deal to fund DHS for two weeks, but that must now be approved in the Republican-controlled U.S. House, where the timing of a vote and the fate of the deal were uncertain ahead of the looming deadline when Jan. 30 becomes Jan. 31.

Democrats have the political leverage in this moment to force reform in how DHS carries out Trump's policies across America. They don't want a shutdown. They want agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol to be held to the same standards as local cops.

That means no masks hiding........

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