Massachusetts Bill Would Expose ICE Agents Amid Rise In Violent Threats

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents face increasing threats of violence, a Massachusetts lawmaker wants to make them more easily identifiable.

Massachusetts State Representative James Hawkins on Monday introduced a bill that would require ICE agents to remove face coverings while performing their public duties — making him the latest Democrat pushing to expose immigration officials. On Tuesday, Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a bill that would prohibit federal agents from concealing their identities with masks while also requiring them to “display their name or badge number and the agency they represent.”

In New York City, lawmakers — including Comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested by ICE for interfering with a deportation — introduced a similar bill, with Lander saying ICE agents wear masks “for the purpose of striking fear into asylum seekers and immigrants in the hope that they will be terrorized by masked gangs who seek to grab and abduct them.”

But according to White House Border Czar Tom Homan, ICE agents are simply masking up to protect themselves.

“Some of you here say, ‘Why are they wearing masks?'” Homan said during a May press conference. “They’re trying to protect themselves and their families! … They’re being doxxed! … Assaults are up, and it won’t be tolerated!”

There has been a 500% increase in assaults on ICE agents in recent months, according to the Department of Homeland Security. As The Daily Wire reported, an app called ICEBlock allows users to alert one another to the presence of ICE agents, something the White House says puts agents in imminent danger. Just yesterday, Border Patrol agents arrested four people in Los Angeles who are suspected of planting tire spikes in front of vehicles used by federal immigration enforcement agents.

President Donald Trump also underscored why border patrol and ICE agents may need to wear masks.

“They’re great patriots,” Trump said. “If you expose them because of, you know, statements like have been made by Democrats and others on the left, usually mostly, I think, probably exclusively, you put them in great danger, tremendous danger.”

Still, Democrats insist that ICE agents need to be unmasked. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) recently pledged  that “every single” ICE agent would “be identified,” “no matter what it takes.”

The Daily Wire reached out to Hawkins’s office but did not receive an immediate response.