Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’

Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.

Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.

It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.

Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.

  • Auli@lemmy.ca
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    6 hours ago

    The masks have nothing to do with COVID. To protect themselves means to hide their identity so people can’t dox them and harasses them at home.

    • msprout@lemmy.world
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      38 minutes ago

      I know. But they are making COVID masks illegal to wear at protests because they are claiming that we are anarchists trying to to hide our identities. Meanwhile, these same cowards covering their face to protect themselves were the same cowards screaming bloody murder at the beginning of COVID that they can’t wear a mask because of 'health issues.