(The Center Square) — A pair of Democratic New York lawmakers have filed a bill that would prohibit federal authorities from wearing masks or concealing their identities during immigration raids in the state.
The Mandating End of Lawless Tactics or MELT Act, proposed by state Sen. Patricia Fahy, D-Albany and Assemblyman Tony Simone, D-Manhattan, would prohibit the use of masks or face coverings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal officers during civil immigration enforcement operations and require the authorities to wear identification.
“When agents of the federal government are operating like masked militias, we’ve crossed a dangerous line by turning immigration enforcement into a paramilitary secret police force that should shock the nation’s collective conscience,” Fahy said in a statement. “This goes beyond immigration enforcement; it’s intimidation and it echoes authoritarian regimes, not the United States of America.”
ICE has faced criticism for allowing its agents to conduct immigration enforcement operations wearing plain clothes and face coverings. The Department of Homeland Security has defended the practice, saying agents arresting immigrants are hiding their faces for their own safety because they face doxing and increasing threats. Some have been assaulted by protestors during immigration raids.
The federal agency is also under pressure as President Donald Trump has pledged to deport millions of migrants living in the United States who don’t have legal status to stay in the country.
Backers of the proposal, which has a companion bill in the state Assembly, said the legislation will ensure accountability in enforcement by requiring that federal immigration agents operating in New York do so in clearly visible uniforms with name badges and agency-identifying apparel. The bill would also require ICE to report mask use, use-of-force incidents, and civil arrests conducted in the state.
With billions of dollars now flowing into ICE’s tactical units, unmarked vehicle fleets, and intelligence operations, the lawmakers said the “result is a dangerous expansion of what increasingly resembles a paramilitary force functioning with minimal oversight.”
“Masked agents acting under the direction of Donald Trump are entering our workplaces, courthouses, and communities,” Simone said in a statement. “They are disappearing people to extra-national prisons with no due process. This is flat out un-American.”
On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letita James joined a coalition of 21 state attorneys general in calling on Congress to prohibit federal immigration agents from wearing masks and plainclothes.
Democrats including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker have proposed a federal law that would force federal immigration agents to wear visible identification during public enforcement operations, but the measure has gained a little traction in the Republican controlled House of Representatives and Senate.
ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons defended his agents for wearing masks during raids at a news conference in Boston last month where authorities announced the arrests of hundreds of “criminal aliens” during a month-long operation in Massachusetts. “People are out there taking photos of their names, of their faces, and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves,” Lyons told reporters. “So, I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there, put their lives and put their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”
