ICE chief will continue to permit mask use by agents

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Todd Lyons said agents can continue to use masks in the field, even as the agency has increasingly come under fire for moves that limit identification of its personnel.

In an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Lyons defended the practice despite some misgivings, citing rising threats against ICE agents.

“I've said it publicly before, I'm not a proponent of the masks. However, if that's a tool that the men and women of ICE to keep themselves and their family safe, then I will allow it,” he said.

Lyons said some ICE agents have been “severely doxxed,” while there has also been a sharp uptick in assaults on officers.

ICE has faced significant criticism for wearing masks, as well as carrying out more operations with plainclothes officers.

In Los Angeles, where ICE raids sparked widespread protests, Mayor Karen Bass (D) has condemned the practice, saying “for the average citizen, it looks like it’s a violent kidnapping.” 

Masked, plainclothes officers have also been conducting arrests at immigration courthouses. ICE attorneys will move to dismiss a case, a practice that most migrants interpret as the agency dropping efforts to deport them but opens the agency to then arrest them and place them in expedited removal proceedings that largely receive no court review.

Lyons disputed that agents are not identifiable, saying they should be wearing clothing with some kind of ICE insignia.

But he also said he wants more backing from critical lawmakers as ICE agents have faced doxxing.

“I would push back on the notion that we aren't identifying themselves. Now, what I would advocate for, and I've said this many times, is I know a lot of elected officials have put forward legislation or proposed legislation about banning of the masks, things like that. I would also want, you know, elected officials to help us hold those people accountable that do doxx or threaten an ICE officer or agent or their family,” Lyons said.

“If we had that kind of support and had those laws or regulations in place, that we can hold those folks accountable to give ICE agents and officers and other law enforcement officers the peace of mind that someone that does threaten their life or their families or doxxes them will be held accountable. I think that'd go a long way.”

Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, both New York Democrats, have introduced legislation that would ban ICE agents from using masks.

“If you uphold the peace of a democratic society, you should not be anonymous. DHS and ICE agents wearing masks and hiding identification echoes the tactics of secret police authoritarian regimes – and deviates from the practices of local law enforcement, which contributes to confusion in communities,” Espaillat said in a statement at the time.

“Many immigrants come to America seeking opportunities, hope, and freedom to escape Draconian practices, and under no circumstance should they, or anyone, fear being disappeared by masked and armed individuals in unmarked vehicles. 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.” 

Lyons also confirmed that ICE has been given access to Medicaid databases, a set that includes information like addresses of the limited number of non-U.S. citizens eligible for the program in some states.

“Under the last administration, we have so many known got-aways, or individuals that came into the United States and just totally disappeared off the grid. What ICE is doing is working with all of our other federal partners to try to gain intelligence, to locate these individuals that have been ordered deported by a judge or have been released from a sanctuary jurisdiction like we talked about,” he said.

“That is what ICE is using that data for, whether it be data from the Department of Labor, data from health and service- Health and Human Services, Medicaid, we are using that data to try to locate, again, the worst of the worst, those people that have been lawfully deported. So I think that's what you're going to see that data used for.”