is a features editor who publishes award-winning stories about law, tech, and internet subcultures. A journalist trained as a lawyer, she has been writing about tech for 10 years.
Americans do not like masked secret police. There is really no other way to put it. The reasons why are manifold: accountability, trust in law enforcement, and just plain overall vibes. More concretely, not being able to tell who’s a cop and who’s not is dangerous. An assassin masquerading as law enforcement killed Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband last year. How is anyone supposed to tell whether they’re being dragged out of their home in their underwear by ICE or by mere amateur thugs?
Last year, California passed the No Secret Police Act, which restricts masking for federal law enforcement, alongside the No Vigilantes Act, which requires law enforcement to wear some form of identification. The Department of Homeland Security immediately sued to enjoin the law on constitutional grounds; a judge has not yet ruled on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.
State legislatures all over the country continued to introduce their own anti-masking bills
Bills that ban masks on ICE agents have been introduced in Congress — from the identically-named No Secret Police Act in the House to the VISIBLE Act in the Senate — but with Republican majorities in both chambers, neither of these bills are expected to become federal law. State legislatures have moved ahead without waiting for Washington, DC. Even after DHS sued to block California’s law, state legislatures all over the country continued to introduce their own anti-masking bills.
State legislatures that introduced bills last summer have slowly begun moving on them; just this past month, states like Maryland, Vermont, Washington, and Georgia introduced new bills. Los Angeles passed a city ordinance; the city of St. Paul is considering one as well. A Minnesota lawmaker says she will introduce her own bill when the session opens in February. Besides California, at least 15 state legislatures have their own anti-masking bills pending.
For their part, ICE has clung to the gaiters like life support. In an interview on Face the Nation last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused moderator Margaret Brennan of “doxxing” Jonathan Ross, the man who has been identified as the ICE agent who shot Renee Good despite his use of a face-obscuring gaiter in the many videos taken during the shooting.
“Don’t say his name, for heaven’s sakes. We shouldn’t have people continue to doxx law enforcement when they have an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against them,” Noem scolded Brennan. When Brennan pointed out that his name was public knowledge, Noem responded, “I know but that doesn’t mean it should continue to be said.”
“The threats to federal officers are serious and potentially deadly,” the US Department of Justice claimed in its lawsuit to enjoin the No Secret Police Act. A list of such threats includes “taunting” and “online doxxing.”
A press release on the Department of Homeland Security website claims that death threats against ICE agents have increased 8,000 percent, and that assaults have increased 1,300 percent. The web page consists mostly of a lot of blurry screenshots of X posts. There are a handful of photos of injuries supposedly suffered by ICE agents — two photos of a hand bleeding from what is supposed to be a bite, and another photo (face partially obscured) of an agent with a busted lip.
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