No wonder agents arresting people at Phoenix immigration court wore masks

[struggle4progress]

2. ICE Agents Routinely Mask Up When Seizing People

May 12, 2025 10:18 AM
By Walter Olson

... (apparent) agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), one wearing a balaclava to hide his face, seized two men at the Charlottesville, VA, courthouse. The sequel, as reported by the local paper, the Daily Progress, was that an *unnamed* (!) ICE spokesperson threatened to prosecute two persons at the scene who challenged the action and asked the agents to identify themselves or show a warrant. The headline read: “ICE promises bystanders who challenged Charlottesville raid will be prosecuted.”

Leave aside the question of when, if at all, it is proper to prosecute bystanders under these circumstances. Why is it considered acceptable for ICE enforcers to wear masks to hide their identity in the first place? They did so last week, a video shows, when they arrested Newark, NJ Mayor Ras Baraka as he protested at a detention facility. A casual search reveals that ICE agents have worn face coverings, ski masks, and the like in raids and stops reported from around the country (Westminster, MD; Douglas County, CO; Great Barrington, MA; Bellingham, WA). Federal agents wore masks when they abducted Turkish grad student Rümeysa Öztürk off a street near her Boston-area home. (She was freed by a judge last week.) The Trump Department of Homeland Security appears to have made it standard practice.

At what point will we as a nation find ourselves with a secret police?

People who mask themselves before street confrontations ordinarily do so to avoid legal and public accountability, especially when they are up to no good ...

https://www.cato.org/blog/ice-agents-seizing-people-now-routinely-wear-masks-thats-wrong