11-07-2025
Do ICE agents have to identify themselves? Why do they wear masks? What to know
Federal immigration agents have been seen wearing masks while carrying out enforcement actions in cities and communities across the country.
But why? Do ICE agents have to identify themselves when masked?
Here's what to know as lawmakers and experts debate the issue, including some who want to see the practice banned.
Why ICE agents are wearing masks
The Trump Administration's immigration enforcement efforts, including raids, detentions and deportations, have come under scrutiny since President Donald Trump assumed his second term in office.
On July 8, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), introduced a bill to ban ICE agents and other U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers from wearing 'non-medical face coverings.'
In a statement on the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement Act, Booker said that 'for weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country.'
He added that the VISIBLE Act is 'necessary' and would 'prohibit immigration enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and require them to display their name or badge number and the agency they represent.'
ICE officers wearing masks is something that has generally not been seen previously, Columbia Law School professor and director of the university's Immigrant Rights Clinic, Elora Mukherjee, told McClatchy News via email.
She called the practice 'unprecedented and dangerous.'
'When ICE officers wear masks, they are less likely to be held accountable for their actions, and there are heightened concerns about government overreach, abuse, and the violation of constitutional rights,' said Mukherjee, who legally represents asylum seekers from around the world.
'When approached by masked individuals, an ordinary person doesn't know who is targeting them — law enforcement officers or imposters,' Mukherjee noted.
According to DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, ICE agents are wearing masks for their safety.
The purpose is 'to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists,' McLaughlin said in a statement to McClatchy News on July 11.
She added that there has been 'a nearly 700% increase in assaults' faced by officers.
David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies for the Cato Institute, a nonprofit libertarian think tank, told McClatchy News that a change in ICE tactics, including masking and carrying out street arrests instead of arresting individuals who are already 'behind bars,' is related to the harm agents have been facing.
In criticizing the report of increased assaults, Bier said 'it's clear many of the assaults are fake and it was the agents themselves who initiated the confrontation with bystanders, witnesses, and targets who they had no probable cause to believe were here illegally.'
'I have never seen any law enforcement agency have a policy of nearly always wearing masks to conduct routine operations,' Bier also said.
In a July 11 news release, DHS said there have been doxxing efforts against ICE officers, resulting in the release of their personal information, putting agents and their families at risk.
The agency specifically mentioned recent doxing attempts in Portland, Oregon.
Andrew 'Art' Arthur, a former immigration judge, national security expert and the Center for Immigration Studies' resident fellow in law and policy, feels that it is 'not ideal' for ICE agents to wear masks, but said concerns raised by DHS are valid.
'Unfortunately… given the atmosphere in which they're now operating, given the attempts to dox them… I think that it is actually important that they do so,' Arthur said.
'It's not what we want,' he added. 'But…there are, you know, legitimate reasons that they have to do so at least right now.'
McLaughlin's statement on the risks to ICE agents comes a week after a shooting at an ICE detention facility in northern Texas on July 4, when one officer was shot, according to the Justice Department, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Eleven people accused of organizing the 'planned ambush' are now facing charges.
ICE agents supposed to identify themselves
Bier told McClatchy News that 'ICE agents are required to identify themselves under DHS regulations.'
The proposed VISIBLE Act, if signed into law, would require immigration officers to make their name or badge number visible when carrying out enforcement efforts.
McLaughlin said that when ICE officers 'clearly identify themselves as law enforcement,' when carrying out operations.
But critics, including the New York City Bar Association, are concerned masking is an attempt to shield agents from accountability. In a June 20 statement, the association called for an end to ICE agents wearing face coverings.
According to a July 1 Marist poll, more than half of Americans believe the Trump Administration has 'gone too far' with immigration enforcement actions, McClatchy News reported. Others polled, 26%, feel ongoing ICE activities are 'about right,' while 18% said they think ICE has 'not gone far enough.'
Arthur, who was a congressional staffer under President George H.W. Bush's administration, said that, based on his 33 years of experience, 'enforcement under the Trump administration right now isn't really that different from immigration enforcement throughout the vast majority of my career.'
He believes the public has become 'used to' what he feels was a lack of enforcement under President Joe Biden's administration.
As of June 23, there were about 59,000 immigrants detained in ICE detention centers in the U.S., according to the National Immigration Forum, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington D.C.
This marks a 'record high' in U.S. history, the organization reports. Citing ICE internal data, the nonprofit said almost half of those individuals detained have no criminal history.
Mukherjee told McClatchy News masked ICE agents are 'snatching law-abiding people out of their homes, schools and communities,' actions that are undermining 'core American values and constitutional protections.'
