NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country 鈥 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 鈥 as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President White House 鈥 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 , where someone's personal information is released without their permission on the internet.
鈥淚鈥檓 sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I鈥檓 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鈥檛 like what immigration enforcement is,鈥 Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons said last month.
There's pushback, as expected
Democrats and others, including the several state attorneys general, have pushed back, saying the use of face masks generates public fear and should be halted.
In a letter to Lyons last week, a group of Democratic senators said the stepped-up immigration enforcement in workplaces, restaurants and other sites was already causing dismay and the increasingly common sight of masked agents 鈥渞epresents a clear attempt to compound that fear and chaos 鈥 and to avoid accountability for agents鈥 actions.鈥
In American culture, covering one's face has often gone hand in hand with assumptions of negative behavior. Think bandits donning bandanas in cowboy movies, or robbers putting on ski masks before pulling a heist on a bank. Even comic-book superheroes who cover their faces have been swept up in storylines in recent years that derisively refer to them as 鈥渕asks鈥 and say their decision to hide their identities while enforcing justice is transgressive.
And the presence of masked police or paramilitary forces in other countries has been seen by Americans as antithetical to promised democracy and justice for all 鈥 and to the common-law principle of being able to face your accusers.
Mask-wearing overall in American life took another hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Trump supporters scoffed at notions that protective masks would insulate people from the deadly virus and scorned people who wore them. More recently, . He posted on social media last month that demonstrators wearing masks should be arrested.
Given all that cultural context, it's even more problematic that those enforcing laws be the ones with their faces covered, said Tobias Winright, professor of moral theology at St. Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. He has worked in law enforcement in the U.S. and writes frequently about policing ethics.
If 鈥渨hat you鈥檙e doing is above board and right," he said, 鈥渢hen why conceal your identity?鈥
Power gives different symbols different meanings
For those who question , it's because symbols have different meanings based on the power and position of the people using them, said Alison Kinney, author of 鈥淗ood,鈥 a book about that clothing item and the various ways people have used it.
鈥淚CE agents are agents of the state. and they鈥檙e invested with not only power but also with protections in carrying out their job,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut that job is also supposed to be public service. It鈥檚 also supposed to be accountable and responsible to the public."
鈥淎nd so they have a greater responsibility for transparency and accountability and making themselves known so that we can hold them accountable for the justice or injustice of their actions,鈥 she said.
Concerns over how law enforcement is held accountable to the public have come up before. Advocates pushed for officers to wear body cameras and demanded that police officers have visible names and badge numbers. But there hasn't previously been much discussion around police masking because there isn't a history of it being done in any kind of official widespread way in the United States, outside of SWAT- or undercover-type operations, Winright said.
The most high-profile example of mask-wearing in American history for the purpose of hiding identity is also its most negative one 鈥 racist attacks carried out by the members of the .
The masks served a purpose, of course, of keeping the wearers' identities secret, said Elaine Frantz, a history professor at Kent State University and author of 鈥淜u-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction.鈥 But they also made it easier for those wearing them to commit violent acts against others, she said.
鈥淥ne thing about a mask is it kind of works like being behind a riot shield,鈥 Frantz said. 鈥淲hen you have more of separation from the person you鈥檙e attacking, it鈥檚 easier to dehumanize that person.鈥
Winright said he hoped law enforcement mask-wearing wouldn't be normalized. There has been at least one expansion into local policing. In Nassau County, on Long Island just outside New York City, County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week signed an executive order allowing police officers to wear masks during certain types of work, including working with immigration agents.
Winright is concerned, though, that the move could strain police-community relations even more, thus putting officers at even more risk.
鈥淲earing a mask seems to increase fear and decrease trust, and policing from federal to local in America needs trust and transparency and community relations that are positive,鈥 he said.
He added: 鈥淭he harms, the risks, are greater by wearing masks, not only to the individual officers, but to the profession itself, as well as to the United States society. It鈥檚 just going to further exacerbate the us-versus-them polarization, the lack of trust, and that鈥檚 the probably the last thing we need right now.鈥
