NY Dems aim to de-mask ICE agents to scare them off raids — NOT protect the public

Supporters claim a bill introduced by Democratic state lawmakers last month banning ICE agents and police from wearing masks during raids will ensure safety and prevent authoritarianism.

One backer, Sen. Patricia Fahy, fumes that ICE is “operating like masked militias” and “paramilitary secret police” and so must be reined in.

Nonsense: The awkwardly and misleadingly named Mandating End to Lawless Tactics Act is actually little more than an attempt to thwart immigration enforcement by making ICE agents fear for their personal safety.

It joins similar efforts in other states and in Congress to “unmask ICE.”

In the words of GOP Sen. George Borrello, “This bill is driven by ideology, not a genuine concern for public safety.”

The Left’s hypocrisy on this issue is staggering.

Progressives — including many of the MELT Act’s supporters in the Legislature — have opposed mask bans for criminal suspects and rioters, such as Nassau County’s common-sense ban, which has exceptions for law enforcement.

Yet for all their sympathy for those involved with the criminal-justice system, they have no qualms about painting cops as criminals and subjecting them to mask bans.

If these lawmakers truly cared about public safety, they’d go after the rioters and real criminals who’ve routinely hidden their identities to evade accountability following the 2020 George Floyd unrest and Oct. 7 demonstrations.

ICE and other law enforcement don’t mask up because they have machinations of becoming a “paramilitary secret police.” They do so to keep themselves and their families safe from multinational gangs such as Tren de Aragua.

Facial-recognition technology, now rapidly improving due to AI, gives anyone — including nefarious actors like Antifa or cartel members — the ability to reverse image search the unmasked face of an ICE agent.

They can then obtain and post their names, addresses and information about their relatives to social media.

While the Justice Department can prosecute those responsible for such doxxing, it is nonetheless a frequent threat to agents and loved ones.

Addresses of hotels where agents stay during operations are routinely spread on social media so that protesters can harass them.

Agitators are so well-organized that an app was created to report and rush to ICE raid locations, as seen in Los Angeles riots this year.

The Department of Homeland Security has reported an 830% increase in assaults on ICE personnel this year, attributed to an increase in doxxing and rhetoric against agents.

Worse still, even if the MELT Act passes, its effects would be largely symbolic.

Lawmakers like Fahy clearly don’t understand federalism. Because the Constitution gives federal law precedence, any federal regulation would immediately supersede the MELT Act if passed, rendering it largely symbolic.

Additionally, federal agents are immune from state criminal prosecution when acting within the scope of their authority.

The MELT Act would also require that all law enforcement agents display their names or badge numbers on their uniforms, hamstringing the plainclothes units of local New York police departments, which now must only provide this information verbally.

Some of the bill’s supporters mention a more realistic point that masking without wearing identification might allow for easier impersonation of ICE officers. They might also argue that a lack of masking deters possible police misconduct, despite the widespread use of body cameras.

Those are valid concerns. But there are ways to protect the public even with masked law enforcement.

Public-education campaigns should remind residents that ICE agents and other law enforcement are legally required to identify themselves as police as soon as it is practicable and safe to do so.

New Yorkers under arrest should keep in mind their constitutional protections, such as the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

Masked or not, imposters can still pose as ICE or any other law-enforcement officers.

Requiring names or badge numbers does nothing if there’s no reliable way to immediately verify the person’s legitimacy.

The answer isn’t a largely symbolic law to neuter real agents; it’s to strengthen identification through local cooperation.

The only way to fully reassure New Yorkers is cooperation between local police and ICE, whether via collaborative task forces, such as through the federal 287(g) program already adopted by several counties, or by having nearby officers accompany raids to keep public order, which would help quickly debunk any imposters.

This type of public partnership would not be a political statement about immigration, rather a commonsense way to put the public at ease and ensure all involved in raids are safe.

The MELT Act is symbolic theater that punishes law enforcement while doing nothing to realistically stop imposters.

New Yorkers would be safer if lawmakers scrapped this bill and instead fostered real cooperation between local police and ICE to deter fraud and protect both the public and the agents doing dangerous work.

Paul Dreyer is a cities policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute.