Since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, masked men rolling up in unmarked vans snatching people off the streets has become increasingly commonplace.
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are carrying out part of Trump's campaign promise of mass deportations by arresting people suspected of being in the country without authorization.
It’s a tactic that has been met with growing alarm by the Republican president’s critics.
In Lansing Thursday, a group of Democratic state lawmakers introduced legislation to ban local, state and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks.
State Representative Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) said the law would apply to all levels of law enforcement, but is specifically in response to ICE’s tactics.
“We must have clear, transparent practices by law enforcement. Our constituents demand it,” Coffia told reporters, “Anonymity makes enforcing accountability, enforcing the law and protecting civil rights damn near impossible.”
The bill contains some exceptions, including allowing masks to protect the officers’ health and protect the identities of uncover officers.
Coffia’s bill is similar to legislation that U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) introduced earlier this year.
Responding to a request for comment on the state legislation, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement, citing an unnamed Senior DHS official as the source:
"These are repulsive messaging bills that stoke dangerous anti-ice rhetoric for cheap political points and fundraising emails. While ICE officers face an 830% increase in assaults, sanctuary politicians are trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted. When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists. The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens. Make no mistake, if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The bill that would bar many officers from wearing masks faces an uncertain future in the Michigan Legislature.
