WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – As the administration carries out deportations across the country, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are debating whether immigration enforcement agents should be allowed to wear masks.
Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn called her recent ride-along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement “eye opening.”
“They’re working about 75 hours a week. And of course, their focus is apprehending these criminal illegal aliens,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn’s new bill would penalize people who “dox” or reveal public information about federal law enforcement officials like ICE.
“So, the ‘Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxing Act’ would add them to that statute and provide them that presence that they need to protect themselves,” Blackburn said.
It comes as the Department of Homeland Security says ICE agents have seen a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations.
Democrats say the public should know who ICE agents are and are calling for them to stop wearing masks.
“They’re acting more like vigilantes than agents of our government,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said.
A group of House Democrats Thursday introduced a bill to ban officers engaged in immigration enforcement from covering their faces and require they clearly display ID.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell says masks limit transparency and create distrust.
“If you were of the mind to rob people, this is a opportune time to throw a mask on, claim to be ICE and folks, they don’t know,” Rep. Bell said.
In a post on X, DHS says officials do clearly identify themselves as law enforcement and wear masks to “protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists.”
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