Massachusetts bill would force ICE agents to unmask

A new bill in Massachusetts aims to require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal immigration enforcement officers to unmask. 

The legislative proposal was introduced Wednesday by Democratic state Rep. James Hawkins. 

It calls for a new section to the Massachusetts Penal Code that states, “A law enforcement officer shall not wear any mask or personal disguise while interacting with the public in the performance of their duties, except for medical grade masks that are surgical or N95 respirators designed to prevent the transmission of airborne diseases and masks designed to protect against exposure to smoke or toxins during a state of emergency.” 

“A violation of this section shall be punishable as a misdemeanor,” the bill, which was co-sponsored by another 10 Democratic state representatives, said. 

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It says the intent of the legislature is to enact legislation “to require law enforcement officers to include their name or badge number on their uniforms,” as well as to enact legislation to “ensure that Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team officers can utilize gear necessary to protect their faces from physical harm while they perform their SWAT responsibilities.” 

ICE acting director Todd Lyons defended mask-wearing by his agents during a May press conference announcing an operation had resulted in nearly 1,500 arrests across Massachusetts. 

“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 and put their lives on the line, their family on the line, because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” Lyons during a press conference in Boston. “Is that the issue here that we’re upset about, the masks? Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled terrorists?” 

During an operation in Los Angeles weeks prior, Lyons said, ICE agents were “doxed” – having their personal information publicized – and people took photos of agents’ names and faces and posted them online “with death threats to their families and to themselves.”

Most of those arrested in the Massachusetts operation had “significant criminality in the U.S. or abroad” and agents targeted “the most dangerous alien offenders in some of the most crime-infested neighborhoods of Massachusetts,” officials said. 

“If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them to the public, we would not have to go out to the communities and do this,” Lyons added. “Boston’s my hometown, and it really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers, drug dealers, human traffickers and child rapists back into the neighborhoods.” 

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Hawkins cited the March arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk by masked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents outside of her home in Somerville, Mass. ICE accused the 30-year-old Turkish national of supporting Hamas, and DHS later confirmed her student visa had been revoked. She was subsequently transported to ICE detention centers in New Hampshire, Vermont and Louisiana, until a judge approved her release and return to Massachusetts in May. 

The bill is only the latest of a series of legislative proposals brought by Democrats seeking to unmask ICE agents. 

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced the “Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement” or VISIBLE Act this week. They argue the bill would “strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability for the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and alarming immigration enforcement tactics that have terrorized communities across California and the nation.” 

Reacting to the Senate bill, President Donald Trump noted how demonstrators protesting ICE and other Trump administration policies don masks and other face coverings regularly to hide their identities. 

“It’s sort of funny when people picket in front of Columbia, in front of Harvard, and they have masks on – more than masks. I mean, you can’t see anything. Nobody complains about that. But when a patriot who works for ICE or Border Patrol puts a mask on so that they won’t recognize him and his family, so they can lead a little bit of a normal life after having worked so hard and so dangerously, there’s a problem with that,” Trump said Wednesday during a White House meeting with African leaders. 

“This is the problem with the Democrats. They have a lot of bad things going on in their heads,” Trump added. “They’ve lost their confidence, number one. And they’re really – they’ve become somewhat deranged. I want to do whatever is necessary to protect our great law enforcement people. And they are right at the top of the list.” 

The Justice Department told Fox News Digital on Wednesday it is actively tracking the recent uptick in “targeted assaults” against federal immigration enforcement agents and ICE facilities.