Rep. Summer Lee questions use of masks in ICE raids

When federal agents use unmarked vehicles and wear masks during raids that are part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, it violates basic civil rights and contradicts democratic principles, two members of Congress wrote U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a letter released Friday.

The letter was written by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, the ranking member of the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee, and U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Noem will respond using official channels, according to Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are concealing their identities to protect themselves from violent gang members, McLaughlin said.

“When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs,” McLaughlin said in a statement to TribLive.

The letter from the legislators cited instances in which criminals, emboldened by ICE’s masking tactics, committed serious crimes, including an April incident in Florida where a woman wore an ICE shirt, used a sheriff’s business card and a handheld radio to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife.

In another instance, in Houston, a man claimed to be an ICE agent, flashed a badge and took $1,800 and a Guatemalan ID.

“Although these enforcement methods have been justified under the broad banner of national security or public order, they represent an alarming deviation from accepted and effective standards of policing,” Garcia and Lee wrote in the letter.

It also violates constitutional rights to due process and unlawful searches and seizures, Lee said.

“Federal agents under the Trump administration are operating like a secret police force on U.S. soil,” Lee said. “These agents must identify themselves rather than cowardly concealing their identities behind masks.

“These state-sanctioned fear tactics are opening the door for vulnerable communities to be abused and must not become the norm,” she said.

University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris said using masks and otherwise obscuring the identities of federal agents should only be used when there is a clear threat to the officers.

“When they’re arresting people at a Mexican restaurant in Cranberry, they’re not facing a situation like that,” Harris said.

It’s why undercover operations are the exception and not the norm, Harris said.

“The reason that every regular law enforcement agency requires their officers to wear a badge with a number and a nameplate and to wear uniforms is because we civilians need to be assured we can hold officers accountable,” Harris said. “It is so basic as to what law enforcement is about: We should know who they are. We should be able to identify them. It’s an important thing in our society.”

Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center Director Andrew Baranoski said his organization is concerned about ICE’s use of masks. PIRC helps immigrants who are being detained and/or those who are victims of crimes or domestic violence.

“Anytime anyone is going to be detained, confined, jailed, there needs to be an accountability,” Baranoski said.

Masks prevent those being detained from being able to identify who is taking them into custody, he said. That can also present safety concerns, he added.

The letter co-written by Lee was the latest instance where she’s acted as a foil to the policies of the Trump administration or been among those presenting an alternative to them.

She also joined several colleagues in introducing the End Solitary Confinement Act, on Friday. It would end the practice in federal prisons, jails, and detention centers, with limited exceptions.

Earlier this week, Lee spearheaded a bipartisan push to subpoena files related the investigation of financier-turned sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“I expect my Republican colleagues to care about this, because their constituents certainly care about child sex trafficking whether it’s through the immigration system like this hearing alleges, or by a U.S. citizen facilitating other powerful U.S. citizens,” said Lee.