For several months now, Americans have watched while federal law enforcement officers, faces hidden under neck gaiters and balaclavas, have carried out immigration-related arrests as the Trump administration demands thousands of such arrests per day to try to meet its deportation quotas.
The agents’ badges and vests, bearing the initials of law enforcement agencies, can often be seen. But their identities are otherwise unknown.
While the Trump administration has insisted that the masks are essential for safety, masked police forces seem counterintuitive – if not contrary – in the United States, where law enforcement aspires to a reputation for courage, transparency, and adherence to democratic principles.
Why We Wrote This
Masked immigration officers are facing pushback in a country where people expect police transparency. Some argue that in an era of increased political violence, masks keep officers safe. Others say they erode public trust.
As a result, a growing number of communities have begun to push back, grappling with how – and when – their officers will wear masks, and whether that is even the democratic thing to do. Masked agents, particularly those in plain clothes or using unmarked cars, create a climate of fear and resemble a “secret police’’ force, which erodes public trust, critics argue.
Masking, while not illegal, “is in direct conflict with our mission to be part of the community and to be transparent,” says James Dudley, a former police officer and 32-year veteran officer in the San Francisco Police Department, now a faculty lecturer at San Francisco State University.
But “some of the cops who worked for me were doxed and attacked, and there were phone calls in the middle of the night that the family answers – ‘I’m going to maim, dismember, and rape; I know your address’ – and all of that comes into play.”
The masks have become a trend, both particular and peculiar, as the Trump administration pushes to fulfill a campaign promise of the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
Enforcement meets resistance
Since January, the administration has targeted the more than 10 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States while moving to revoke legal protections from others. Since then, data shows border crossings have dropped, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have doubled in some areas, and the number of those detained is at an all-time high, according to researchers at Syracuse University and The Marshall Project.
But the deportation tactics have not gone unchallenged. ICE agents have reported being shot at, doxed, assaulted, and even dragged down the street in one case as a suspect tried to evade arrest.
In the first six months of this year, the Department of Homeland Security recorded 79 assaults on its ICE officers, up from 10 the year before, according to Fox News.
As the federal deportation efforts begin to involve more local police, pressure is mounting for local officers to adopt the masking tactic in certain circumstances. Even after outlawing masks worn by protesters last year, Nassau County, New York, this month moved to allow its officers to mask up while helping ICE.
“Policing is a tough job,” says Ian Adams, a former West Jordan, Utah, police officer and now a criminologist at the University of South Carolina.
“But it becomes extremely hard if you are showing up in a firestorm where people are angry about policies you don’t have any control over,’’ he says. “And then you have this understandable reaction of, ‘I don’t want my name posted on the dark web.’”
Much of the action is taking place as the administration focuses manpower on “sanctuary” cities and states such as California, New York, and Illinois, where local authorities often limit cooperation with federal agents executing mass deportation arrests. Legal filings and legislative efforts are also challenging the use of masks by law enforcement officers across the country.
A group of 21 state attorneys general – all Democrats – has urged Congress to pass a law prohibiting federal immigration agents from wearing masks that conceal their identities, and requiring them to display the insignia or name of the agency for which they work.
But police aren’t alone in seeking anonymity in a heightened threat environment. In California, just as lawmakers have proposed a “No Secret Police Act’’ bill that would ban officers from wearing masks, they are also trying to pass a bill to make elected officials more anonymous, given an increase in politically motivated violence.
Federal authorities say that some of their officers are facing threats and attacks from anarchist groups that have “doxed’’ agents, publishing their names, pictures, personal addresses, and other identifying information on websites to embarrass or harass them.
At the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas, for example, immigration agents were ambushed and shot at by a group of alleged anarchists on July 4.
“There are definite threats to law enforcement today that weren’t relevant in 2015, ’16, ’17, ’18, OK?” says Scott Mechkowski, a retired ICE official.
Are masks affecting public trust?
But the question remains about the impact the masks are having, both on community and police morale and on America’s sense of justice.
“It drives distrust higher when our law enforcement officers hide their identities,” says Professor Adams, who studies the intersection of technology and policing. “There’s a reason why in almost every agency across America the officer’s name is right there on their chest, inches away from their face.”
While ICE personnel may feel vulnerable due to publicity around recent arrests, he says, masking could make outcomes worse not just for the public interest, but also for public safety – including officer safety.
Another concern is that allowing law enforcement officials to move about anonymously makes it easier for people to impersonate them for nefarious reasons.
Last month, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed by a man who came to their home, impersonating a uniformed police officer.
“The trend [in policing] has been toward more accountability and ethics, and now you have the feds saying not only are you not accountable, you’re anonymous, and deliberately so,” adds Patrick Skinner, a homicide detective with the Savannah, Georgia, Police Department. “Without accountability, everything else is smoke and mirrors.”
A recent global study of trust in police found that it is highest in two types of societies: autocratic ones, such as China, and full democracies, like the U.S., where police accountability has been a focus in recent years.
This is the result of the public’s trust that police are carrying out the judicial process in a fair manner. But there is little research on what happens when that trust wanes due to a dramatic policy shift, says Daniel McCarthy, a criminologist at the University of Surrey, in Guildford, England.
“In democratic societies, we find that people tend to judge the police by their level of public engagement, trust, responsiveness, and legitimate behavior, as opposed to in autocracies, where the emphasis might include some of those factors mixed in with deference to police because of their status,” he says.
Ultimately, the professionalism of agents, even while masked, is likely to be key to whether the administration’s tactics will retain the public’s trust.
And even as the Trump administration hails the agents as heroic and courageous, the operation has led to worsening morale among some agents, Mr. Mechkowski says.
Publicly, ICE officials have painted the threat as coming primarily from protesters and Democratic officials.
But some agents are also aware of potential blowback from their home communities, he says.
“All these officers and agents are part of a community somewhere, and this is a very polarizing issue for everybody,” says Mr. Mechkowski, former deputy field office director for ICE in New York City. “Our officers and their families are grounded members in the community – they’re not trying to tear their community down; they’re trying to protect their communities.”
Moreover, he says, masked agents “are worried not because they’re doing something illegal, but what happens in three and a half years when Trump’s out of office?” What happens if the next administration rejects President Trump’s policies and punishes those officers who enforced them? he says.
“Politicians come and go. But your job doesn’t.”
