Democratic-led cities across America are being assaulted by masked men. These federal agents under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security — some Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and some Customs and Border Protection agents — are carrying out mass arrests without judicial warrant.
Sometimes they wear uniforms. More often, they are in plainclothes. They are not required to show identification. They almost always hide their faces.
That these masked men — and they are mostly men — are allowed to operate as a nameless, faceless, clandestine police force in America epitomizes the surreal landscape we find ourselves in today.
If any other U.S. citizen showed up to a Home Depot, a church, a preschool or federal court masked, brandishing a weapon and refusing to show identification, is there any doubt he would be considered a threat to public safety or labeled a domestic terrorist?
And yet, any attempt by local and state officials to require these agents to identify themselves and refrain from the lawless violence they are perpetrating against both undocumented individuals and U.S. citizens alike is met with hostility by the Trump administration.
Federal agents pull a child away from their guardian in halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on August 26 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Nigro/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
The false claims
DHS on behalf of the president claims Article VI of the Constitution (better known as the Supremacy Clause) renders these local and state efforts unlawful. A legal challenge is brewing on this very issue.
This Secret Police Force is harming U.S. citizens, asylum seekers, Green Card applicants and Green Card holders.
While the president, his officials and his supporters repeatedly assert that only the most violent of undocumented immigrants are being subjected to the extrajudicial terror and violence perpetrated by masked men, the truth is officers are going after people in the legal process of obtaining asylum and Green Cards as well as U.S. citizens and Green Card holders.
A Donald Trump supporter yells at protesters gathered outside the suburban Chicago ICE Detention Center in Broadview, IL, after a morning of violent confrontations between federal agents and activists. Sept. 19, 2025. (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Most Americans are conditioned to believe anyone arrested is the subject of a judicial warrant issued for some sort of criminal activity. But that isn’t what’s happening with the sweeping arrests by ICE and CPB.
ICE and CPB, as extensions of the Department of Homeland Security, are under the executive branch of the U.S. government. Similarly, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, is within the Department of Justice, which also is part of the executive branch of the government. Immigration court is an administrative court — not a criminal one. An administrative warrant for removal can be signed by an immigration officer and is not indicative of criminality.
Last summer, after ICE and CPB officers indiscriminately arrested large groups of people simply because they weren’t Anglo, spoke another language, were wearing work clothes or were in locations known for day-laborers, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of the plaintiffs because these tactics violate the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. A lower court agreed the government agents’ actions were unlawful.
DHS appealed to the Supreme Court, which paused the lower court ruling.
Today, these tactics have become standard operating procedure for DHS. ICE and CPB storm a location, round up anyone who isn’t Anglo and then ask questions. If they find individuals who are not citizens — even those who are following the rules laid out by our government and are in the immigration process — ICE and CPB detain them. They then obtain an administrative warrant for the removal of the detainee after the fact.
Social media is awash with gross and inhumane comments about those being swept up in these arrests. A common refrain is, “The fact they are in this country is a crime in and of itself.”
“Lest we all forget, it is legal to come to this country and apply for asylum.”
That’s not necessarily true.
Some people may have come to this country and never bothered to adjust their status by applying for asylum or seeking a path to citizenship. But even in this case, crossing the border without permission is a misdemeanor subject to a fine. Unless there are other outstanding criminal charges, these individuals should not be subjected to the violence being perpetrated upon them by the president’s Secret Police.
And lest we all forget, it is legal to come to this country and apply for asylum. Asylum seekers, along with those who came and were granted Temporary Protected Status or are in the process of becoming permanent residents, have been following the rules laid out by our government. Now our government has changed the rules and is punishing those who have been doing things “the right way.”
Maher Tarabishi has been the primary caregiver for his son Wael, who was diagnosed at four years old with Pompe disease, a progressive muscle disorder. (Courtesy Shahd Arnaout)
Even those who have exhausted options for legal residency here have, until recently, received compassionate release to remain. Take, for example, Texas father, Maher Tarabishi. Even though his previous asylum claim was denied, he was allowed to stay in the country for 17 years — making yearly check-ins with ICE — because he is the primary caretaker for his son who has a progressive muscular disease. At his regular yearly check-in in October, he learned this administration no longer cares about empathy or compassion, and Tarabishi was detained.
According to DHS’s own statistics released in November and representing all arrests by this administration through Nov. 15, only 5% of those arrested have been convicted of violent crimes. Even more shocking, 73% of those detained have no criminal conviction. That’s a far cry from the president’s assertion that he is going after violent predators.
“Even more shocking, 73% of those detained have no criminal conviction.”
The president and his secret police force are causing irreparable harm to these people and to U.S. citizens.
ProPublica published a report in October detailing the more than 170 U.S. citizens they had documented as being detained and abused by ICE and CPB:
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.
The trauma being inflicted by violent detentions doesn’t take into account the trauma innocent bystanders experience when masked agents descend from Blackhawk helicopters and storm locations lobbing tear gas and flashbang grenades. Or of that experienced by protesters and journalists when masked agents shoot rubber bullets or deploy teargas on them for exercising their First Amendment rights.
The situation of masked men taking people off the street also lends itself to copycat behavior by criminals, as noted in a recent FBI memo. The memo cites several instances of criminals impersonating masked ICE agents with no identification to commit crimes and recommends all agents carry badges in the field and present them when it is requested.
This, of course, is just a suggestion from one federal agency to another.
Police fire projectiles during clashes between protesters and law enforcement on June 8 in Downtown Los Angeles. The clashes come after ICE raids swept throughout the city over the weekend. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
California strikes back
What legal options do communities have to protect their populations when the federal government authorizes masked agents to operate without restraint?
In her Oct. 9 Temporary Restraining Order, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis limited DHS’s use of violence against protesters and journalists and required that federal agents who are not undercover must wear visible badges. This was the first ruling against the president’s use of a secret police force.
Her final 233-page opinion released on Thursday, Nov. 20, minces no words in condemning the tactics used by DHS. But without even reading the unreleased opinion, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked it on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Yes, that’s correct: The appeals court blocked the district judge’s ruling before it was even released.
“Without even reading the unreleased opinion, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked it.”
The legal rationale employed by the government in attempts to limit DHS’s tactics is the same: They appeal to what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The second clause of Article VI reads:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Legal minds must balance this clause with the 10th Amendment, which reads:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
So, does the Supremacy Clause empower the president to raise a Secret Police Force? Do states have the right not to interfere with federal law enforcement but to insist those agents clearly identify themselves?
Gavin Newsom (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)
In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law SB-627, “No Secret Police Act,” and SB-805, “No Vigilantes Act.” Together these bills make it a crime for law enforcement officers “to wear a facial covering in the performance of their duties” and would require plainclothes officers to “visibly display identification that includes their agency and either a name or badge number to the public when performing their enforcement duties.” SB-808 also requires police agencies operating in the state to maintain and publicly post policies on the visible identification of its personnel. These acts do not apply to undercover officers acting in an official capacity.
These laws are the first attempts by state legislators to balance the safety of their communities with the authority of the U.S. government to operate willy-nilly as it pleases. The government on behalf of DHS has filed suit against the new laws, which are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
In its filing, the U.S. government contends:
- These state laws violate the ultimate supremacy of the federal government.
- These laws discriminate against federal agents and agencies by dictating what kinds of uniforms they can and cannot wear.
- These laws “recklessly endanger the lives of federal agents and their family members and compromise the operational effectiveness of federal law enforcement activities.”
It is quite stunning that the federal government contends requiring federal agents to display proper identification and their faces when brandishing weapons and detaining people is discriminatory and dangerous given the myriad of places these same requirements are in place for ordinary citizens. Think about going to the voting booth.
In spite of the federal government’s attempts to overturn California’s new laws, New Jersey lawmakers are pushing similar bills.
The issue likely will end up before the U.S. Supreme Court someday. Until then, the president’s Secret Police Force will continue to move from city to city, destroying the rule of law and faith in law enforcement as it goes.
We just learned this morning they’ve arrived in New Orleans — another Democratic-led city.
Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as the first Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas where she recently was ordained to the gospel ministry. She earned the master of divinity degree and a certificate in spiritual direction from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company, which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.
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