Latest news with #DanGoldman
Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Lawmakers are right to try to bar ICE agents from hiding their identities
The images are jarring. Across the country, federal law enforcement officers in plain clothes and wearing ski masks and balaclavas are seizing and detaining protesters, students and even elected officials. These scenes evoke images of government thugs in violent regimes disappearing opponents. This is not how policing should look in a democratic society. Which is why everyone — regardless of political affiliation or stance on immigration enforcement — should support bills being introduced in Congress to address this growing problem. Three pieces of legislation — under consideration or expected soon — would prohibit masking by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, including one Thursday from Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and one expected Friday from Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). These are obvious, common-sense measures that shouldn't need to be codified into law — but given the reality today, and what's being done on streets across the country, they clearly do. In the United States, those tasked with enforcing the law are public servants, answerable to the people through their elected representatives. Wearing uniforms and insignia, and publicly identifying themselves, are what make clear an officer's authority and enable public accountability. That is why U.S. policing agencies generally have policies requiring officers to wear a badge or other identifier that includes their name or another unique mark, like a badge number. That is why — not so long ago — one of us wrote a letter on behalf of the Justice Department to the police chief in Ferguson, Mo., to ensure that officers were readily identifiable during protests. This letter was sent by the federal government, in the middle of the federal civil rights investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, because ensuring this 'basic component of transparency and accountability' was deemed too important to hold off raising until the end of the investigation. Exceptions have long been made for scenarios such as undercover work — but it has long been understood that, as a general rule, American law enforcement officers will identify themselves and show their faces. This foundational democratic norm is now at risk. In February, masked ICE officers in riot gear raided an apartment complex in Denver, one of the first times Americans saw agents hide their faces on the job. In March, the practice came to widespread attention when Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk was snatched by plainclothes ICE officers, one of them masked, while walking down a street in Somerville, Mass. Throughout the spring, bystanders captured videos of masked or plainclothes ICE enforcement actions from coast to coast, in small towns and big cities. ICE says it allows this so officers can protect themselves from being recognized and harassed or even assaulted. ICE's arguments just won't wash. Its claims about how many officers have been assaulted are subject to serious question. Even if they were not, though, masked law enforcement is simply unacceptable. At the most basic level, masked, anonymous officers present a safety concern for both the individuals being arrested and the agents. People are understandably far more likely to disregard instructions or even fight back when they think they're being abducted by someone who is not a law enforcement officer. If the goal is to obtain compliance, masks are counterproductive. It's far safer to encourage cooperation by appealing to one's authority as a law enforcement officer — which almost always works. Related, there is a very real and growing threat of law enforcement impersonation. There has been a disturbing uptick in reported incidents of 'ICE impersonations,' in which private individuals dress as ICE or law enforcement officials to exploit the trust and authority invested in law enforcement. Just this month, the assailant in the recent assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker was posing as a police officer. Other examples are abounding across the country. As Princeton University noted in a recent advisory, when law enforcement officers are not clearly identifying themselves, it becomes even easier for impostors to pose as law enforcement. Replicas of ICE jackets have become a bestseller on Amazon. Most fundamentally, masked detentions undermine law enforcement legitimacy. Government agencies' legitimacy is essential for effective policing, and legitimacy requires transparency and accountability. When officers hide their identities, it sends the clear message that they do not value those principles, and in fact view them as a threat. Federal law currently requires certain clear accountability measures by federal immigration enforcement officials, including that officers must identify themselves as officers and state that the person under arrest is, in fact, under arrest as well as the reason. That should sound familiar and be a relief to those of us who are grateful not to live in a secret police state. But those words are cold comfort if you are confronted by someone in street clothes and a ski mask — with no way to know if they are who they say or whom to hold accountable if they violate your rights. ICE officials cannot be allowed to continue to enforce our laws while concealing their identities. Transparency and accountability are what separate democracy from authoritarianism and legitimate law enforcement from the secret police in antidemocratic regimes. The images we are seeing are unrecognizable for the United States, and should not be tolerable for anyone. Barry Friedman is a professor of law at New York University and author of 'Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission.' Christy Lopez is a professor from practice at Georgetown University School of Law. She led the police practices unit in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from 2010-2017.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats Want To Ban Masked ICE Agents
Since Donald Trump took office for a second time, masked federal agents are wreaking havoc and making arrests of immigrants and even some U.S. citizens. Two lawmakers in Congress say they have a plan to stop the 'secret' policing that has become a feature of this administration. Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, both Democrats of New York, introduced the 'No Secret Police Act of 2025' on Thursday. If passed, the legislation would forbid law enforcement officers and agents for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from hiding their faces or concealing their identity when making arrests. Agents would also be required to display or wear certain insignia, and provide identification when they are making arrests or attempting to detain someone. Homemade, non-tactical masks are also banned under the proposed legislation. 'Across the country, plain-clothed federal agents in homemade face coverings are lying in wait outside immigration courts to snatch law-abiding, non-violent immigrants going through our legal system the right way. This isn't about protecting law enforcement, it's about terrorizing immigrant communities,' Goldman said. 'The United States is not a dictatorship, and I'm proud to introduce this commonsense legislation ensuring that our federal government's laws are enforced by identifiable human beings, not anonymous, secret agents of the state.' Last week, New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked men inside of a federal immigration court in downtown Manhattan where raids have been occurring with some frequency. Lander said he was there to observe immigration proceedings and escort people out of the building in a bid to ensure no one was arrested without a judicial warrant. Though he had done this in the past, this time, Lander was roughly detained by multiple masked agents. Only one man wore a vest that appeared to be part of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division. Though the Department of Homeland Security accused Lander of assaulting an officer and detained him for hours, no charges were filed. Some 37 Democratic lawmakers have already thrown their support behind the bill, according to a statement from Goldman. The bill out of the House of Representatives comes after similar bills barring face coverings have been introduced by others, like one from state lawmakers in California. Immigration raids have continued to ramp up there in recent weeks just like in New York. Masked federal agents without clear identification have been seen in California communities — and caught on camera — detaining people in parks, courthouses, apartment buildings, during traffic stops and at their workplaces. When California state Sen. Sasha Renee Perez (D) introduced the 'No Vigilantes Act' in Pasadena on Monday, she told reporters during a press conference that people simply shouldn't be asked to assume that arrests are being made by Homeland Security or ICE agents. 'The truth is unless these individuals provide proper identification, we don't know,' she said. Goldman and Espaillat's bill is likely to face serious headwinds in the Republican-controlled House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) blanched at the idea of ICE agents being forced to identify themselves when he appeared on Fox News earlier this month. Raising concerns about the assault and doxxing of ICE agents, Johnson compared bans on face coverings for law enforcement officers to mask-wearing measures people were asked to take when the coronavirus first started ripping through the U.S. 'From the people who mandated mask-wearing for years in America, it's absurd. They need to back off of ICE and respect our agents and stop protesting against them,' Johnson said on June 9. Johnson did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. The finger-wagging was reiterated by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday during a Justice Department budget hearing in the Senate. When asked whether she was aware that masked agents were making arrests and failing to identify themselves, Bondi said it was 'the first time the issue has come to me' before claiming that federal agents were being doxxed and threatened. Mask-wearing by agents, according to an analysis by CNN, seemed to start in earnest around March when men in plain clothes without badges, visible insignia or ID started cracking down on protests of Israel unfolding at college campuses. 'The hodgepodge of federal agencies Trump is getting to execute his war on immigrants are terrorizing immigrant communities,' Natalia Aristizabal, the deputy director of Make the Road New York, said in a statement Thursday. 'They blatantly disregard people's rights and take people from their jobs, homes and streets, all while masked and unidentified. This must stop. ICE must answer to the people, and must identify themselves and the agencies they work for.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. According to the New York City Bar Association, the concealment of agents' faces is a public safety issue that needs to be addressed immediately. In a lengthy June 20 statement, the legal organization emphasized that current federal code requires immigration officers to identify themselves 'as soon as it is practical and safe to do so,' when making an arrest, just like typical police officers are routinely required to when they make arrests. Currently, there is no federal policy regulating how or when agents should cover their face. It is usually reserved for undercover agents. Department of Homeland Security policy, however, does state that after warrantless arrests, ICE officers must submit a full write-up documenting the circumstances of the arrest, including specific details about how, at the time of the arrest, the agent identified themselves as an immigration officer. (In May, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) reminded officials at the Department of Homeland Security about this policy as masked arrests unfolded in Virginia.) Since 2020, the International Association of Chiefs of Police has warned that face coverings for police only raise tensions, put law enforcement officers in danger and make people 'heighten their defensive reactions.' Masking and concealment by law enforcement officers breeds confusion for the public and opens the door to bad actors who want to take advantage of the anonymity. Impersonation is also a serious concern: two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses were shot at their homes last week by a man impersonating a police officer. 'If you are upholding the law, you should not be anonymous, and our bill aims to safeguard from tyranny while upholding the values of our nation,' Rep. Espaillat said in a statement Thursday. Shocking Video Shows Father Of Marines Battered By ICE Agents Mike Johnson Offers Bizarre Justification For ICE Masks. Backlash Follows. Woman Says She Was 'Blindsided' After ICE Detained Her Trump-Supporting Husband
Boston Globe
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
ICE imposes new rules on congressional visits
Advertisement The new protocol, updated since February, comes as Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly been denied access to ICE facilities this month as they try to conduct congressional oversight, and amid high-profile clashes between federal immigration officials and members of Congress. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Democratic lawmakers in California, Illinois and New York have been turned away from ICE facilities recently, sometimes after trying in vain for hours to gain access to buildings that they say they are authorized to visit. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was Advertisement Law enforcement officers from a variety of agencies deployed at Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention center in Newark, amid protests outside the facility on June 13. DAKOTA SANTIAGO/NYT Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, criticized the new ICE policy as an attempt to skirt congressional oversight. In a statement, he said the new guidance was 'an affront to the Constitution and Federal law.' Thompson singled out the guidance on field offices, which he called a 'smoke screen' to prevent members from visiting offices that 'are holding migrants — and sometimes even U.S. citizens — for days at a time.' Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The new guidance spilled into public view more clearly Wednesday. In suburban Chicago, four Democratic representatives were denied access to an immigration processing facility in suburban Chicago where they believed immigrants were being held for days without access to lawyers. Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman, both D-N.Y., were both denied access to an ICE office in Manhattan, even as an official acknowledged that detainees were held there overnight. Both men said they requested a visit in advance. 'We were told not to,' William Joyce, the deputy director of the New York ICE field office, told them during an exchange in the building's lobby. In an email to a congressional office this week, an ICE official said that federal immigration officials were 'not facilitating any visits to ICE Field Offices or suboffices' currently because of their 'high operations tempo,' according to a congressional aide who was not authorized to discuss the message publicly. New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler (right) and Rep. Dan Goldman spoke at a news conference in Lower Manhattan after being barred Wednesday from entering and inspecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cells. Spencer Platt/Getty Democratic lawmakers have said that the Trump administration's escalation is precisely the reason they want to visit facilities, and that the federal government's large-scale immigration crackdown and accelerated deportation efforts demand more thorough oversight. Advertisement For months, Democrats have framed their efforts to access immigration detention and enforcement facilities as part of their constitutional duties to provide a check on the expansion of presidential power. Under the new guidance, ICE also asks for at least 72 hours' notice for a visit to its facilities. Existing guidance already required congressional staff to provide at least 24 hours' notice before visiting a detention facility. The agency also explicitly says that visitors cannot 'have any physical or verbal contact with any person in ICE detention facilities' without prior approval, and that violating that policy could lead to tours being cut short. This article originally appeared in .
CBS News
18-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
After Brad Lander's arrest by ICE inside immigration court, New York congressmen will conduct oversight visit
One day after New York City Comptroller and current Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested at federal immigration court, two members of the state's congressional delegation plan to conduct an oversight visit Wednesday. Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler said they will observe the court proceedings at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, where Lander was arrested Tuesday. They will also request access to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office located inside the same building. They plan to hold a news conference after the visit with immigration advocates. You can watch it streaming live around 11 a.m. on CBS News New York, in the video player above. Brad Lander arrested by ICE agents Tuesday's incident began with Lander holding onto a man, whom he identified as Edgardo, following his immigration hearing. Video shows masked ICE agents try to take the man into custody, and then take Lander into custody. "You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens," the comptroller is heard saying on a video of his arrest. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Lander was arrested "for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer." He was released four hours later, with his wife and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul by his side. "Charges have been dropped, he walks out of there a free man," the governor said. "You can see what happened, and the DHS statement is not accurate," Lander later told CBS News New York. Lander said he was volunteering with an immigration organization and was trying to accompany Edgardo out of court after his immigration case was dismissed. Lander explained the judge had been asking people with cases like Edgardo if they understood that once their case was dismissed, they would have no status in the U.S. Having no status, he said ICE can then detain and move to deport them. Lander accuses Trump administration of "provoking conflict" Lander said he believes what happened was politically motivated by the Trump administration. "Pam Bondi made it very clear what they're doing. They're going after the leaders of Democratic cities with a political intention of provoking conflict," said Lander. "Donald Trump is working to strike fear into immigrant families and communities, and then provoke conflict." Several public officials rallied against Lander's arrest, including his fellow mayoral candidates former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. "It's highly unusual and quite concerning, and I think the best evidence of that is that all charges were dropped and he was released within hours, which really does suggest it was a bad arrest," attorney Kaivan Shroff explained to CBS News New York. "ICE certainly doesn't have the authority to detain U.S. citizens in that way and, of course, they didn't really have probable cause against Brad Lander." The United States Southern District Court of New York said it is investigating. Lander and his wife said he was arrested while asking the agents to see a judicial warrant and the grounds for deporting Edgardo. Immigration attorneys say ICE agents do not need a warrant to arrest noncitizens in immigration court, but Shroff explained what a judicial warrant is and why it matters in this case. "An administrative warrant, which is what ICE had, is really just a piece of paper signed by an ICE official. Whereas, a judicial warrant has that authority of a judge behind it and is signed by a judge," he said. "And why it matters in this situation is because ICE does, by immigration law, only need that administrative warrant. But in New York State, it is New York court policy to require a judicial warrant to detain an undocumented person at a place like a courthouse." CBS News New York has reached out to ICE multiple times for details about why Lander was arrested, but the agency has not answered our questions.
The Independent
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump signs new travel ban targeting 12 countries
The Trump administration announced new travel restrictions to the U.S. from 19 countries, effective June 9, reminiscent of his first-term "Muslim travel ban." The restrictions fully ban travel from 12 nations, including Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, while partially restricting travel from seven others like Cuba and Venezuela. Trump cited a recent Molotov cocktail attack in Colorado, allegedly by an Egyptian man who overstayed his visa, as justification for the new restrictions. Exemptions include lawful permanent residents, athletes traveling for the World Cup and Olympics, those with asylum or refugee status, and individuals with specific visas. Critics, such as the National Iranian American Council and Congressman Dan Goldman, condemn the policy as discriminatory and reminiscent of the "great replacement theory."
