US: Masked Federal Agents Undermine Rule of Law

United States federal immigration enforcement agents now commonly operate masked and without visible identification, compounding the abusive and unaccountable nature of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, Human Rights Watch said today. The indefinite and widespread nature of these practices is fundamentally inconsistent with the United States’ obligations to ensure that law enforcement abuses are investigated and met with accountability.

“Law enforcement officers must be identifiable to be accountable,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “This kind of secrecy should be an exception, never the norm, and it’s even more alarming given the widespread abuses associated with immigration arrests in recent months.”

Since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025, his administration has carried out an abusive campaign of immigration raids and arrests, primarily of people of color, across the country. Many of the raids target places where Latino people work, shop, eat, and live. The agents have seized people in courthouses and at regularly-scheduled appointments with immigration officials, as well as in places of worship, schools, and other sensitive locations. Many raids have been marked by the sudden and unprovoked use of force without any justification, creating a climate of fear in many immigrant communities.

These immigration enforcement operations have often involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents wearing masks and, in some cases, civilian clothes. Agents are regularly concealing agency insignias and using unmarked vehicles to detain people who are in their cars and at courthouses, schools, workplaces, homes, on the street, and in public transport.

On its website, ICE justifies the widespread practice of masking “to prevent doxing.” This kind of generalized, blanket justification for concealing officers’ identity is not compatible with US human rights obligations, except when necessary and proportionate to address particular safety concerns, Human Rights Watch said. When applied as a broad, default approach, such measures serve as a barrier to accountability inconsistent with US human rights obligations. Anonymity also weakens deterrence, fosters conditions for impunity, and chills the exercise of rights.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 18 people who witnessed arrests by or who were arrested by unidentifiable people in five US cities since January 20. They all described the incidents as frightening, with a sense that they couldn’t do anything if they were abused, especially with the agents unidentifiable. Human Rights Watch also reviewed dozens of videos of stops and arrests involving masked agents posted on social media.

In one example, on March 25 at about 5:15 p.m., at least six officers, all in civilian dress and unmarked vehicles, without identifying themselves, confronted and stopped Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, 30, who was apparently targeted for writing an opinion piece in a student newspaper calling on Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from investments connected to Israel. Öztürk, who had been living in the United States for six years, told Human Rights Watch about the incident, which was also captured on CCTV footage.

Öztürk was walking on the street when several masked people approached her, forcibly took her phone and backpack, and placed her in handcuffs. Öztürk said when she asked who they were and to see their badges, one said they were “police” and one flashed a gold necklace, but she did not see a badge attached, and it did not help her identify them. In the footage, a bystander is heard asking the agents: “Why are you hiding your faces?” Öztürk said she was not shown any paperwork justifying her arrest. She was then forcibly removed from the state and wrongfully detained.

“It was a horrible feeling,” Öztürk said. “I didn’t think that they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this. I thought they were people who were doxing me, and I was genuinely very afraid for my safety… As a woman who’s traveled and lived alone in various countries for my studies, I’ve never experienced intense fear for my safety—until that moment.”

One woman who has witnessed numerous raids and stops in Chicago since August said: “I’ve had experiences with agents who refused to identify themselves. That adds another level of fear. These are not identifiable police officers who could be held publicly accountable.” A man from Washington, DC, who has also witnessed numerous arrests by masked ICE agents since August, said these tactics have “completely destroyed any trust we’ve had for local and federal law enforcement.”

Many observers have suggested that the terror these tactics instill is by design. One US District Court judge asserted in a ruling that “ICE goes masked for a single reason—to terrorize Americans into quiescence… We have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.” The court dismissed ICE’s stated rationale for masking as “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable.”

In recent months, media outlets have reported on people posing as federal agents kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and extorting victims, exploiting fears of immigration enforcement. This demonstrates how the lines can be blurred between criminals and law enforcement officers when federal agents themselves are unidentifiable, Human Rights Watch said.

Several states are taking steps to pass legislation to restrict law enforcement officers from concealing their identities during public interactions. It is unlikely these initiatives would be enforceable. At the federal level, the proposed VISIBLE Act, backed by Senators Cory Booker and Alex Padilla, would mandate legible identification and prohibit nonmedical face coverings for immigration enforcement officers.

Congress should investigate the brutality of the ongoing immigration enforcement activities, including the specific impacts of unidentifiable agents carrying out stops and arrests on impeding investigations and accountability efforts, Human Rights Watch said.

“Allowing masked, unidentified agents to roam communities and apprehend people without identifying themselves erodes trusts in the rule of law and creates a dangerous vacuum where abuses can flourish, exacerbating the unnecessary violence and brutality of the arrests,” Wille said.