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"The Klan and ICE agents both were masks—and they do so for the same reason. Neither wants to be identified so they can’t be held accountable for their crimes."
The Klan and ICE agents both were masks—and they do so for the same reason. Neither wants to be identified so they can’t be held accountable for their crimes. The difference is ICE is part of the U.S. government. But instead, today’s ICE is acting like Trump’s “secret police” as they disappear and even beat up people while wearing masks so we can’t identify them. The latest example came Friday when ICE officers—many wearing masks—roughed up two Democratic members of Congress and arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside a recently opened ICE facility in Newark. Despite the lies of Trump regime officials that the Mayor was “trespassing,” Baraka made it clear on Friday when he appeared on CNN that, “Not a single person, not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards…Nobody told me to leave that place.” Instead, he explained, “Somebody from Homeland Security came in the end and began to escalate the situation.” Of course, they did because Trump and his regime officials from Border Czar Tom Homan to DHS secretary Kristi Noem have made ICE officers believe they are above the law. And wearing masks while beating up and arresting people is part of that! Below is video of masked ICE agents roughing up the Mayor, members of Congress and others outside the ICE facility on Friday. You can hear people calling ICE agents “Trump’s Gestapo” and comparing them to Hitler’s “Brownshirts'.”  After this ICE attack, Rep. Bob Menendez, Jr. (D-NJ) angrily told the press: “This Administration lies every day. They feel no weight of the law and no restraint on what they should be doing. And that was shown in broad daylight today when they not just arrested the Mayor of Newark, but when they put their hands on two Members of Congress.” Below is a clip of the rightfully angry Rep. Menendez.  And Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) –one of the members of Congress assaulted by ICE agents-angrily declared, “ICE is out of control” ICE thinks it can intimidate all of us!” ICE is clearly out of control because the person at the top of their power structure, Donald Trump, is a convicted felon who has no regard for the law. This is man who incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack and then pardoned the people who brutally beat up police officers. Given the Jan 6 terrorists didn’t for the most part wear masks, it was easy to identify them. Now Trump wants to ensure that doesn’t happen again by allowing his ICE “secret police” to wear masks so they can’t be held accountable. This is also alarmingly all part of the fascist playbook to create fear that if you defy the Trump regime, masked people will suddenly show up, arrest you, whisk you away you in an unmarked car and then imprison you. In fact, that is exactly what happened to Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk who was walking down a suburban tree lined street in Sommerville, Massachusetts in March when in broad daylight she was suddenly confronted by a group of masked people claiming to be the police. It looked like a scene from a movie about the East German secret police known as The Stasi during the Cold war or from the film “Sicario” about Mexican drug cartels disappearing people. And that is by design. Below is a photo of that arrest which went viral:
Ozturk was held for 6 weeks until she was released this past Thursday by a federal judge who found the Trump regime had produced no evidence she posed any risk. Instead, the judge found she was imprisoned simply for writing an op-ed about Gaza that the Trump administration did not approve of. This is the America Trump and the GOP want to create. If you are wondering if there is a federal law or regulation that governs federal officers wearing masks, the answer is no. But law enforcement experts have expressed concerns at the ethics of the masks—noting that police officers when arresting even high ranking mobsters or terrorists have not covered their faces. This level of transparency is important to give people confidence in the justice system. As Eric Lee, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association rightly told CNN, “People who are nakedly violating the law are generally the ones who are trying to hide their identities.” He added, “It’s quite revealing that ICE and DHS are engaging in this de facto policy now.” Trump’s DHS could very easily mandate that all ICE agents be barred from wearing masks. Obviously, exceptions can be made if it’s an objectively dangerous situation such as involving arresting dangerous drug cartel members, but not for daily activities on the streets of the United States. Also as many flagged on social media, are these ICE agents hiding their faces because we will learn they were members of The Proud Boys or white supremacist terrorist groups? Or are some pardoned Jan. 6 MAGA terrorists?! The masks make it impossible to know that. In addition, we have seen MAGA supporters pretend to be ICE agents in order to cruelly scare people who appear to be immigrants. Examples include a South Carolina man detaining a group of Latino men along a Charleston County Road saying on the video, “You all got caught!...You from Mexico? You’re going back to Mexico!” The South Carolina man—as were other Trump supporters—was arrested for impersonating ICE officers. Ensuring all ICE agents must be unmasked would help people know if the so-called ICE agents are real or just MAGA people getting a kick out of scaring people of color. The irony is the Trump regime is demanding universities ban students from wearing masks during protests so they can hold those accountable who may violate the law or school regulations. But when it comes to Trump’s own agents, they want to ensure they can’t be held accountable. Again, ICE agents work for us. They are paid by your tax dollars. And given that, there must be transparency. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman put it perfectly on Friday after slamming ICE for “being out of control” hellbent on intimidating us. She declared about ICE and Trump, “We, the people will make sure that this administration adheres to the rules that separate us from dictatorships!” To that end, we need ICE agents to be barred from wearing masks. And if Trump refuses to order that, then we need state officials to immediately begin investigating and prosecuting ICE agents for any potential state crimes. (Trump can’t pardon ICE agents for state law crimes.) This is all part of how we “make sure that this administration adheres to the rules that separate us from dictatorships!” |
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