Is it legal for immigration agents to wear masks during operations?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are increasingly wearing masks that cover their faces during raids, including in Milwaukee.

Elysse Chay, 46, recently saw videos of masked ICE agents refusing to identify themselves. A lifelong Milwaukee resident, Chay said she has never seen law enforcement officers wearing masks except during the pandemic.

She wondered: Were these officers breaking the law?

Chay asked the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which is collecting and answering readers' questions about immigration, for clarity.

“If public safety is what they’re doing, then why would they cover their face?” Chay asked.

Here are answers to questions about this practice by ICE.

Simple question. Not a simple answer.

In general, law enforcement officers must be identifiable to avoid confusion with other law enforcement and for accountability.

Cities like Milwaukee require police officers to make their names or officer identification numbers visible. This ensures that if there is an allegation of wrongdoing, the officer can be identified. This also is to guard against impersonators.

There are exceptions. For instance, Milwaukee police detectives wear "plain clothes," often a dress shirt and pants. And, of course, undercover officers dress in such a way not to be identifiable, by design.

At the 2024 Republican National Convention, where 4,500 outside officers came to assist, the Milwaukee Police Department was clear that any visible uniform change would be deemed an escalation of force.

Federal law enforcement, like FBI and ICE, for the most part do not have an official uniform, though during raids they typically wear body armor, windbreakers or other gear with the name of their agency emblazoned on it.

At times, federal and local law enforcement have covered their faces during raids, most often when they involve gangs or terrorism where there is a risk of retaliation.

In 2025, ICE officers have increasingly been wearing face coverings. ICE leaders said that's because their officers increasingly are being assaulted and harassed online.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has defended the practice as necessary.

In May 2025, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said assaults against ICE personnel are up fourfold. On June 26, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said assaults were up more than 500%.

The practice of masking is necessary, McLaughlin said, when officers are arresting members of gangs or people involved in violent crimes. She did not address other types of arrests. She also did not disclose the raw number of attacks against ICE or provide documentation of them.

“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," McLaughlin said in an emailed statement.

Mathew Silverman, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said he is not surprised assaults are up given increased operations by ICE.

The biggest concern, he said, is that agents' home addresses and family members' pictures are being shared on social media. He said that while that may not be happening often, the stakes are high. Silverman also said some officers are concerned they will not be able to work undercover if their photos are shared online.

But Silverman said he thinks every masked federal officer and agent should have the name of their agency visible and also have a number on their uniform identifying who they are in the event of an allegation of misconduct.

"If we don't have accountability, we have lost everything we worked for," Silverman said. "We need to be accountable to the people and to the oath we took."

Yes. ACLU of Wisconsin Senior Staff Attorney Tim Muth said there is no law or rule banning ICE officers from covering their faces, but added the practice raises concerns.

Muth said ICE agents are masking not to go after gang members or suspected terrorists but to arrest people at schools, courthouses and workplaces.

"Local police and other law enforcement regularly perform their duties unmasked, with visible identification, and in situations which are often more dangerous," Muth said.

He added that masking shields officers from being held accountable for possible abuses and has the effect of sowing terror in immigrant communities.

The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations requires ICE officers to identify themselves as immigration officers who are authorized to execute arrests and to state the reason for the arrest. The regulations do not require officers to identify themselves by name or show a badge.

Some elected officials are pushing to prevent ICE agents from covering their faces.

For instance, two lawmakers in the California Senate introduced the "No Secret Police Act" in June. The bill aims to ensure law enforcement is "easily identifiable," said Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Federal authorities have pushed back against those efforts, saying face coverings protect the officers and their families from harassment or retaliation.

Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino, a national nonprofit advocacy organization, agreed that ICE officers masking raises concerns about accountability.

It also opens the door to people impersonating ICE agents. Earlier this year, a New Berlin man was charged with impersonating a Border Patrol agent.

Conversely, a citizen may not believe someone really is an ICE officer. In February, Newsweek reported that a fake ICE jacket was a best-selling item on Amazon.

"At some point, someone is not going to show ID and the person being arrested is going to pull out a firearm," Morin said. "This is a tragedy waiting to happen. It is just a matter of time."

Silverman, of the law enforcement association, said he could see someone mistakenly shooting an officer.

"It is a very dangerous situation for a lot of people right now, law enforcement and others," he said.

Muth, the ACLU attorney, said he isn't certain if ICE agents wore masks during the Bush or Obama administrations.

"We don't recall this being a widespread practice before this year," Muth said.

Silverman, of the federal officers association, said agents and officers have worn masks during raids and arrests for years. He said it is becoming more common as bystanders have taken to recording or photographing agents, the license plates to their cars and other identifying information.

There are high-profile cases, such as the arrest of Mexican drug lord El Chapo, where the federal officers' faces are unmasked. Silverman said that is a personal preference by the agents.

Sergio González, an assistant professor of history at Marquette University who studies Latino communities, called masked ICE agents an “escalation” of previous tactics.

“I’ve never seen instances (elsewhere) where they’ve gone in and completely covered their faces,” said González.

González compared the situation to a series of raids of immigrant farming communities in Cambria and Sun Prairie, two cities in south-central Wisconsin, in 1983.

The raids occurred during Hispanic Heritage Week amid then-President Ronald Reagan’s crackdown on illegal immigration, González said.

At that time, ICE had not yet been created. The Immigration and Naturalization Service oversaw immigration enforcement instead.

Many of the INS agents didn’t identify themselves and wore plain clothes, according to former state Senator Carl Otte, who interviewed several of the immigrants. The immigrants told Otte that agents shook them awake or stopped them on their way back to their barracks after night shifts to ask for their papers.

According to González, these raids sowed fear and distrust of law enforcement within the Latino community.

“They no longer felt safe,” González said.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ashley Luthern contributed to this article.

Gina Castro is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at [email protected]. John Diedrich is an investigative reporter and can be reached at [email protected].

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