ICE officers are skipping masks at airports, reigniting debate
USA TODAY
President Trump's push for ICE officers to remove masks at airports reignites debate over if and when the federal agents should wear them.
BURLINGTON, Vermont ‒ Critics of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts have seized on his request that ICE officers patrolling airports should not wear masks as evidence they never needed them in the first place.
Civil rights groups have been fighting to force Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to show their faces during operations as a way of ensuring accountability. Several states are now battling the White House in federal court over anonymizing mask bans. The administration's prior insistence of the necessity of masks is partially driving the ongoing partial federal government shutdown that has halted paychecks for TSA security screeners.
Because so many unarmed TSA workers are either calling in sick or outright quitting, Trump ordered armed ICE officers to bolster their numbers at airports. The move alarmed some travelers who worried that immigration officers might use overly aggressive tactics inside the nation's airports. In cities across the country, ICE and Border Patrol officers have come under criticism for how they have operated, pulling passengers from vehicles, deploying teargas and for the events that lead to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
At Burlington International Airport in Vermont’s largest city, Seattle resident Sarah Sellke, 28, said she found it ironic ICE officers now feel comfortable enough to be public. Sellke wore an N-95 mask during her travels. She said TSA has long been criticized for racial profiling, and worried that ICE would only exacerbate those fears, given the airport deployments.
“I wear a mask for health protections,” Sellke said. “ICE isn’t wearing masks for the same reason. And I wonder if they aren’t feeling more empowered in that controlled environment, more emboldened not to hide their identities.”
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