DoomsdaysCWIn American life, a growing and forbidding visual rises: The law-enforcement officer in a #mask
By DEEPTI HAJELA
Updated 3:21 PM EDT, July 18, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — "In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents’ faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable.
"With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of #ImmigrationCrackdowns directed by President Donald Trump’s White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025.
"The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump’s administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing.
"Trump administration officials have consistently defended the practice, saying that immigration agents have faced strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they have gone about their enforcement in service of Trump’s drive toward mass deportation, and hiding their identities is for their and their families’ safety to avoid things like death threats and doxing, where someone’s personal information is released without their permission on the internet."
#ACAB #Gestapo #MaskedKidnappers #ResistICE #ICEKidnapping
#USPol #SilencingFreeSpeech
#SilencingDissent #Authoritarianism
#ICEGestapo #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
Immigration enforcement officers in masks become a visual staple in US
Immigration enforcement agents are detaining people and taking them into custody, at times under public anger and outcry. What’s often not visible are the agents’ faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable. The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration and those in support. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict in a way that has no real corollary in the U.S. history of policing.