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Photo credit: Elizabeth Flores / Getty Images. Fort Snelling, Minnesota, January 10, 2026.
On September 10, Pennsylvania troopers found $215,000 in gold hidden under the seats of two men's car. Police say Gagandeep Singh and Ajaypreet Singh posed as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to take $1.2 million in gold. One week later, ICE officer Christian Castro appeared before a Minnesota judge on felony assault charges in the shooting of a Venezuelan man. Twenty months into the crackdown, prosecutors are charging real ICE officers alongside impostors who imitate the agency. A woman stopped by a masked man still lacks any way to tell which badge he carries.
Under the Trump administration, ICE officers make arrests in masks, plain clothes, and unmarked cars. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the face coverings in June 2025, arguing that concealment protected staff conducting investigative work. Scott Shuchart, a former department civil rights official, warned in July 2025 that anonymous, plainclothes personnel risk escalating violence. That same month, Senate Democrats introduced the VISIBLE Act to force immigration enforcers to display names or badge numbers.
The man in the opening scene was Carl Thomas Bennett Jr., who confronted the woman at a motel in January 2025. Arrest warrants state that Bennett threatened to deport her unless she submitted to intercourse. Police charged Bennett with multiple sexual offenses after the victim reported the attack.
On February 11, 2025, Leon Howell told a 51-year-old woman waiting for a cab that he worked for ICE. The 43-year-old forced the victim into a stairwell, punched her, and attempted to rape her, according to police. The attacker then took her phone, purse, and chain, and officers later charged him with rape, robbery, assault, and burglary.
Noticias Telemundo documented at least 31 impersonation cases in 2025, against a prior-decade average of 5.3 per year. Impostors claimed ICE employment in 26 of those incidents, according to the network’s analysis. The investigators found violence in 38 percent of 2025 crimes, up from under one-quarter in earlier years.
Congress set a maximum three-year prison sentence for impersonating a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. § 912. Before 2025, U.S. attorneys charged about half of ICE impostor schemes, according to CNN. By October 2025, prosecutors had invoked that statute in one of roughly 24 incidents. In an October 17, 2025, bulletin, the FBI warned that impostors make distinguishing lawful agents from criminals difficult.
ICE arrested roughly 50,000 people in August alone, according to NBC News. Newsweek obtained records of internal investigations into agents for sexual assault, bribery, and drug smuggling. ICE refused to tell Newsweek how many allegations investigators substantiated or prosecutors charged.
Police in two states arrested ICE impostors on consecutive days in early 2025. Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson, 33, stopped three Latino men in a pickup truck and said they faced deportation to Mexico. Police charged Johnson with three kidnapping counts and officer impersonation after video of the confrontation circulated online. Johnson surrendered to authorities, posted bond, and left jail the following day.
The next day, two men wearing shirts marked “Police” and “ICE” tried to enter a campus residence hall. Dormitory security staff refused entry, and a third participant, 22-year-old Aidan Steigelmann, departed with the two impostors. Police charged Steigelmann with conspiracy to impersonate a public servant, and university officials suspended the student. Students inside the building had to decide whether to obey possible criminals or resist possible federal agents.
The students faced that choice at the start of an enforcement buildup that Congress would fund at historic levels. The same FBI bulletin flagged at least five ICE impostor incidents between January and August 2025. In one case, three men dressed in black robbed an ATM, tied up two people, and kicked one victim.
In June 2025, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons justified masks by citing online death threats naming officers. Lyons said ICE averaged roughly 1,600 daily arrests at the time, and White House adviser Stephen Miller wanted 3,000. At that pace, residents facing a masked arrest team lack any baseline for recognizing an operation ICE never ordered.
Congress gave ICE $75 billion through September 2029 in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. Lawmakers allotted $45 billion for detention and $29.9 billion for enforcement, including funds for 10,000 additional officers. The Brennan Center calculated that ICE controlled $28.7 billion in fiscal 2025, nearly triple the agency’s 2024 budget. The House and Senate added $38.5 billion more through the Secure America Act of 2026, according to the American Immigration Council. ICE’s 2025 funding exceeded the combined budgets of all other federal law enforcement functions outside immigration.
ICE aims that funding at immigrants, but impostors choose victims without checking citizenship papers. Police charged the motel attacker with sexual offenses and declined to disclose the victim’s immigration status. The two men in ICE shirts tried to enter a dormitory housing citizens and international students alike.
Predators carrying counterfeit badges and printed ICE shirts exploit the instinct to obey authority, whatever the victim’s legal standing. Sen. Tim Kaine said constituents who saw masked ICE agents wondered whether they faced gang members or kidnappers. Those constituents had to choose between interrupting a possible abduction and obstructing a possible federal arrest.
On September 20, 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the nation’s first state ban on masked law enforcement. The No Secret Police Act covers federal agents and exempts undercover work, tactical operations, and health risks. The companion No Vigilantes Act requires plainclothes officers to display agency and name or badge number. At the signing, Newsom likened ICE raids to a dystopian film and told agents to unmask. Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin replied that officers wear masks against doxxing by suspected terrorist sympathizers.
The Justice Department sued in November 2025, arguing both laws violated the Supremacy Clause. On February 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder blocked the mask ban, ruling that exempting state officers discriminated against federal agents. Snyder also found masks nonessential to federal duties, and she upheld the No Vigilantes Act’s identification requirement.
State Sen. Scott Wiener responded with SB 1004, which adds state officers, including the Highway Patrol, to the ban. The Senate approved SB 1004 by 29 to 11, and the Assembly passed the measure 41 to 18. Newsom suggested in February that he would not sign the expansion, saying Congress should pass a federal mask ban. Newsom must sign or veto SB 1004 by September 30, 2026.
Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky argues federal employees must obey state laws that leave federal duties unimpeded. Chemerinsky wrote that federal drivers must stop at red lights under state law. The Justice Department countered that the ban improperly limits federal agents’ work.
California still needs local police willing to cite masked federal agents. The law makes masking a misdemeanor and exposes violators to false-arrest suits. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell refused to enforce the ban, calling the law bad policy.
Defense attorneys can argue that arrests by masked, unidentified agents violate due process. Prosecutors will likely invoke officer safety, an argument Snyder rejected in February. The defense can also cite the identification requirement Snyder upheld.
Anonymous officers escape routine accountability, because judges, complainants, and supervisors need a name. Cato Institute fellow Walter Olson tied masking to a Trump strategy of “pursuing impunity for rights-violating law enforcers.” Olson writes for a libertarian think tank, yet his critique echoes Senate Democrats.
Impostors have used that anonymity, and CNN found their crimes shifted from scams toward violence in 2025. The network documented at least eight 2025 cases of alleged kidnapping, robbery, assault, or rape. Congress criminalized forcibly resisting a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. § 111. Impostors exploit that statute, because victims cannot tell whether resisting will stop a crime or bring a charge.
Sociologist Max Weber defined the state by its monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. Every impostor who passes as ICE wields force reserved for the state. By keeping ICE officers anonymous, the Trump administration shields those impostors from detection.
Congress can pass the VISIBLE Act, which would require immigration officers to display their agency and a name or badge number. The bill should also require written supervisor approval for each masked operation, so inspectors can audit exceptions. The Justice Department should prosecute violent impersonation under 18 U.S.C. § 912 instead of deferring to state prosecutors. Lawmakers should raise the statute’s three-year maximum when an impostor commits kidnapping, robbery, or sexual assault under claimed federal authority.
The FBI's October 2025 bulletin also warned that impostors damage trust between residents and law enforcement. The bulletin also urged partner agencies to identify themselves, contradicting ICE's mask policy from inside the Trump administration. Residents who distrust every badge may stop reporting crimes, leaving investigators without witnesses.
Democrats demanded unmasked ICE officers in 2026 funding talks, and Homeland Security shut down on February 14. Border official Tom Homan defended the masks the next day, citing a 1,500 percent rise in threats. Washington Post columnist Philip Bump found most cited assaults were arrest scuffles that masks would not have prevented. Several states banned masks for federal agents, and spokesperson Lauren Bis vowed Homeland Security would refuse to comply. On April 29, 2026, the Justice Department sued New Jersey under the Supremacy Clause.
The shutdown ended on April 30, when Congress funded most of Homeland Security but excluded ICE. Republicans then funded ICE through a June reconciliation law without past oversight terms. Because that money lasts through 2029, annual budgets give Congress little control over ICE.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed New Jersey's mask and identification law in March 2026, covering officers at every level. Legislators avoided the state-officer carve-out Snyder blocked, but federal attorneys still challenge the law in court. A federal judge blocked New York's similar law in August under the Supremacy Clause. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on whether states may require federal officers to show faces or names. ICE says officers identify themselves when public safety requires, and impostor attacks meet that standard.
How to Test a Suspected ICE Impostor
Residents facing a masked stranger with a badge can still test the encounter against rules ICE has written for agency officers.
At the door
Keep the door closed and ask the officers to hold any warrant against a window or slide the paper underneath.
Judicial warrants name a court and bear a judge’s signature, but ICE Forms I-200 and I-205 bear a supervisor’s signature.
ICE’s May 2025 memo claims an I-205 permits forced home entry, a policy civil rights groups challenged in April 2026.
The same memo requires officers to knock, identify themselves, and enter only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Officers who force entry outside those hours, or without knocking, are violating ICE’s own policy, so call 911.
Identification
Federal law does not require ICE officers to show names or badge numbers, so a refusal alone proves little.
Photograph each badge, vehicle plate, and face or mask, and note the time, because prosecutors need those details.
If you suspect an impostor
Do not physically resist even a suspected impostor, because 18 U.S.C. § 111 punishes forcible resistance to a genuine officer.
Call 911 to report a possible impersonation in progress, as ICE advises residents to contact local police about impostors.
Report the encounter at tips.fbi.gov, because impersonating a federal officer violates 18 U.S.C. § 912.
Guarding Against Phone and Payment Scams
Impostors also call families and demand money, and ICE never collects payments that way.
Payment scams
ICE agents do not phone immigrants to warn of arrest, and scammers often spoof the agency’s number on caller ID.
Families may pay immigration bonds only through cebonds.ice.gov or by check or money order at a field office.
Scammers ask for Western Union, Zelle, or partial payments, but ICE requires each bond in full.
Immigration courts hold virtual hearings on Webex, so a hearing notice listing Skype or another platform is fraudulent.
Report payment demands at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and contact your bank at once to attempt a recall.
Family records
Record each relative’s A-number, because CeBONDS requires the number and ICE’s online detainee locator accepts the number as a search key.
Agree on a family code word, so a caller claiming a relative’s arrest must prove the call is genuine.
Encounters at Work and in Public
Outside the home, ICE’s authority depends on whether a space is open to the public.
ICE officers may walk into lobbies, parking lots, and dining rooms without a warrant, since the public uses those spaces.
Officers need a judicial warrant or the employer’s consent to reach break rooms, kitchens, or warehouse floors.
Owners must actually bar the public from “Employees Only” rooms, or ICE may treat those rooms as public space.
An arrest at a school, hospital, or church does not indicate impersonation, because Homeland Security dropped protected-area limits in January 2025.
Report misconduct by a genuine immigration officer to the Homeland Security inspector general’s hotline at oig.dhs.gov.
Push lawmakers to require identification:
Urge state legislators to copy the identification law a federal judge upheld in California in February 2026.
Federal attorneys conceded on September 14, 2026, that immigration officers continue masking in defiance of state law. Across a force exceeding 22,000 officers, impostors such as the gold-scheme defendants operate with minimal risk of detection. Until Congress mandates visible identification, the federal government cedes part of Weber's monopoly on legitimate force to every masked impostor.
Sources
Axios. “Bill Would Force ICE Agents to ID Themselves, Ban Most Masks.” https://www.axios.com/2025/07/
08/ice-agents-masks-democrats- id-bill Spectrum News via Rep. Nanette Barragán. “Lawmakers Introduce VISIBLE Act to Require ICE Agents to Lose Their Masks.” https://barragan.house.gov/
2025/07/29/spectrum-news- lawmakers-introduce-visible- act-to-require-ice-agents-to- lose-their-masks Office of Sen. Patty Murray. “Murray, Padilla, Booker, Colleagues Unveil New Bill to Require ICE to Display Clear Identification.” https://www.murray.senate.gov/
murray-padilla-booker- colleagues-unveil-new-bill-to- require-ice-to-display-clear- identification-stop-ice- agents-from-hiding-behind- masks-plainclothes Live 5 News. “Man Accused of Impersonating ICE Officer, Sexually Assaulting Woman He Threatened to Deport.” https://www.live5news.com/
2025/01/29/man-accused- impersonating-ice-officer- sexually-assaulting-woman-he- threatened-deport/ ABC News. “Attempted Rapist Told Victim He Was an ICE Agent: Police Sources.” https://abcnews.go.com/US/
attempted-rapist-told-victim- ice-agent-police-sources/ story?id=118741709 NBC News and Noticias Telemundo. “ICE Impersonators Are Preying on Immigrants Amid Trump Administration Raids.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/
us-news/ice-impersonators- immigrants-raids-violence- trump-administration- rcna265653 CNN. “ICE Impersonator Incidents Rise During Trump’s Second Term.” https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/
02/us/ice-impersonator- incidents-rise-invs-vis Newsweek. “Exclusive: ICE Agents Investigated for Sexual Assault, Bribery, Drug Smuggling.” https://www.newsweek.com/
exclusive-ice-agents- investigated-for-sex-assault- bribery-drug-smuggling- 12393998 Nolo. “Can ICE Agents Legally Wear Masks? What the Law Says and Which States Are Pushing Back.” https://www.nolo.com/news/can-
ice-agents-wear-masks-the- legal-debate.html Reason. “Tom Homan Defends Masked ICE Agents by Claiming Threats Are Up ‘Over 8,000 Percent.’” https://reason.com/2026/02/17/
tom-homan-justifies-masked- ice-agents-because-threats- are-up-over-8000-percent/ NBC News. “Men in Two States Are Accused of Impersonating ICE Officers.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/
us-news/men-two-states-are- accused-impersonating-ice- officers-rcna190446 Newsweek. “ICE Director Responds to Agents Being Labeled ‘Terrorists.’” https://www.newsweek.com/ice-
raids-immigration-masks- terrorists-safety-2080248 American Immigration Council. “What’s in the Big Beautiful Bill? Immigration and Border Security Unpacked.” https://www.
americanimmigrationcouncil. org/fact-sheet/big-beautiful- bill-immigration-border- security/ Brennan Center for Justice. “Big Budget Act Creates a ‘Deportation-Industrial Complex.’” https://www.brennancenter.org/
our-work/analysis-opinion/big- budget-act-creates- deportation-industrial-complex American Immigration Council. “The Cost of Immigration Enforcement and Border Security.” https://www.
americanimmigrationcouncil. org/fact-sheet/the-cost-of- immigration-enforcement-and- border-security/ Close Up Foundation. “Are ICE Agents Required to Identify Themselves?” https://www.closeup.org/
should-ice-agents-be-required- to-visibly-identify- themselves/ NPR. “Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill Banning Law Enforcement and ICE from Wearing Masks.” https://www.npr.org/
transcripts/nx-s1-5549089 FindLaw. “DOJ Sues California Over Laws Requiring Federal Agents to Go Unmasked.” https://www.findlaw.com/
legalblogs/courtside/doj-sues- california-over-laws- requiring-federal-agents-to- go-unmasked/ Time. “California Bans ICE Agents From Wearing Masks to Conceal Identity.” https://time.com/7319259/
california-ice-immigration- agents-mask-ban-secret-police- newsom-law-challenge/ LAist. “Judge Temporarily Blocks California’s ‘No Secret Police’ Ban on Masked Federal Immigration Agents.” https://laist.com/news/judge-
temporarily-blocks-california- ban-on-masked-federal- immigration-agents San Francisco Chronicle. “California Dems Carved CHP Out of Mask Ban, Handing ICE a Rare Win.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/
politics/article/newsom- wiener-ice-mask-ban-21343662. php Office of Sen. Scott Wiener. “California Legislature Passes Senator Wiener’s Bill to Make ICE Mask Ban Enforceable.” https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/
news/california-legislature- passes-senator-wieners-bill- make-ice-mask-ban-enforceable Office of Sen. Scott Wiener. “After Federal Court Rules California Has Power to Ban Federal Agents from Wearing Masks, Senator Wiener Announces Legislation to Make Ban Enforceable.” https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/
news/after-federal-court- rules-california-has-power- ban-federal-agents-wearing- masks-senator-wiener Fox News. “Newsom Bans Law Enforcement from Wearing Masks, Taunts ICE Agents.” https://www.foxnews.com/
politics/newsom-bans-law- enforcement-wearing-masks- taunts-ice-agents-what-you- afraid Cato Institute. “ICE Agents Routinely Mask Up When Seizing People—That’s Wrong.” https://www.cato.org/blog/ice-
agents-seizing-people-now- routinely-wear-masks-thats- wrong Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. “18 U.S. Code § 111: Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers or Employees.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/
uscode/text/18/111 NBC News. “Congress Releases Massive Funding Bill Ahead of Shutdown Deadline as ICE Clash Looms.” https://www.nbcnews.com/
politics/congress/congress- releases-massive-funding-bill- ahead-shutdown-deadline-ice- cla-rcna254968 Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines.” https://www.crfb.org/blogs/
upcoming-congressional-fiscal- policy-deadlines National Immigration Law Center. “What’s in Congress’s New ICE Funding Law?” https://www.nilc.org/articles/
whats-in-congresss-new-ice- funding-law/ Senate Appropriations Committee. “Bill Summary: Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations Bill.” https://www.appropriations.
senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy26_ homeland_security_conference_ bill_summary.pdf New Jersey Monitor. “NJ Residents Share Stories of Masked ICE Agents in Push to Retain Mask Ban.” https://newjerseymonitor.com/
2026/08/26/nj-residents- masked-ice-agents/ Courthouse News Service. “Trump Administration Sues New Jersey Over State Law Barring ICE from Wearing Masks.” https://www.courthousenews.
com/trump-administration-sues- new-jersey-over-state-law- barring-ice-from-wearing- masks/ New Jersey Monitor. “Feds Ask Judge to Reject NJ Law Restricting ICE Agents from Wearing Masks.” https://newjerseymonitor.com/
2026/09/16/nj-law-ice-agents- wearing-masks/ Associated Press via Yahoo News. “Masks Emerge as Symbol of Trump’s ICE Crackdown and a Flashpoint in Congress.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/
articles/masks-emerge-symbol- trumps-ice-120521766.html Associated Press via Yahoo News. "Masks Emerge as Symbol of Trump's ICE Crackdown and a Flashpoint in Congress." Already listed as source 34, which supports the 22,000-officer figure.
The Hill. "FBI Urges ICE to ID Themselves as Criminals Impersonate Officers." https://thehill.com/policy/
national-security/5590694-fbi- ice-masks-dhs/ Publication Disclaimer: This publication provides journalism, political analysis, historical interpretation, and protected opinion. Nothing published here advocates, solicits, encourages, instructs, or assists unlawful conduct. W. A. Lawrence and this Substack reject violence, criminal activity, and threats against any person or institution. Readers remain solely responsible for their conduct and compliance with applicable laws.
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