Masks emerge as symbol of Trump's ICE crackdown and a flashpoint in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Beyond the car windows being smashed, people tackled on city streets — or even a little child with a floppy bunny ears snowcap detained — the images of masked federal officers has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

Not in recent U.S. memory has an American policing operation so consistently masked its thousands of officers from the public, a development that the Department of Homeland Security believes is important to safeguard employees from online harassment. But experts warn masking serves another purpose, inciting fear in communities, and risks shattering norms, accountability and trust between the police and its citizenry.

Whether to ban the masks — or allow the masking to continue — has emerged as a central question in the debate in Congress over funding Homeland Security ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline, when it faces a partial agency shutdown.

“Humans read each others’ faces — that’s how we communicate,” said Justin Smith, a former Colorado sheriff who is executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs' Association.

“When you have a number of federal agents involved in these operations, and they can’t be identified, you can’t see their face, it just tends to make people uncomfortable,” he said. “That’s bringing up some questions.”

Masks on federal agents have been one constant throughout the first year of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation.

What began as a jarring image last spring, when plain-clothed officers drawing up their masks surrounded and detained a Tufts University doctoral student near her Massachusetts home, has morphed into familiar scenes in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities. The shooting deaths of two American citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers during demonstrations against ICE raids in Minneapolis sparked widespread public protest and spurred lawmakers to respond.

“Cameras on, masks off” has become a rallying cry among Democrats, who are also insisting the officers wear body cameras as a way to provide greater accountability and oversight of the operations.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol that unmasking the federal agents is a “hard red line” in the negotiations ahead.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says on its website that its officers “wear masks to prevent doxing, which can (and has) placed them and their families at risk. All ICE law enforcement officers carry badges and credentials and will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity.”

Fueled with funds from the Trump’s big tax cuts bill, which poured some $170 billion into Homeland Security, ICE has grown to become among the largest law enforcement operations in the nation. Last year, it announced it had more than doubled its ranks, to 22,000, with rapid hiring — and $50,000 signing bonuses. Homeland Security did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.

Most Republicans say the current political climate leaves the immigration officers, many of them new to the job, exposed if their faces and identities are made public.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he just can't agree with Democrats' demand that officers unmask themselves.

“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” he said. “That’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”

It appears no other policing agency in the country regularly uses masking on a widespread basis. Instead, masks are used during special operations, particularly undercover work or at times during large crowd control or protest situations, and when there is inclement weather or individual health concerns.

Experts said only perhaps during the Ku Klux Klan raids or in the Old West has masking been a more widely used tool.

"It is without precedent in modern American history,” said the American Civil Liberties Union’s Naureen Shah in Washington.

She said the idea of masked patrols on city streets seeking immigrants can leave people scared and confused about who they are encountering — which she suggested is part of the point.

“I think it’s calculated to terrify people,” she said. “I don’t think anybody viscerally feels like, OK, this is something we want to become a permanent fixture in our streets.”

Toward the end of the first Trump administration, Congress sought to clamp down after masked federal agents showed up in 2020 to quell protests in Portland and other cities. A provision requiring agents to clearly identify themselves was tucked into a massive defense authorization bill that Trump signed into law.

Last year, California became the first state in the nation to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces. The Trump administration's Justice Department sued, saying the state's policies “create risk” for the agents.

Smith, of the sheriffs' association, said there’s no easy answer to the current masking debate.

He suggested perhaps a middle ground could be reached — one that would allow officers to wear masks, but also require their badge or other identifying numbers to be prominently displayed.

Advocates said while unmasking the federal agents would be an important step, other restraints on immigration enforcement operations may be even more so.

They are pushing Congress to curb the ability of ICE officers to rely on administrative warrants in immigration operations, particularly to enter people’s homes, insisting such actions should be required to use judicial warrants, with sign off from the courts.

There is also an effort to end roving patrols — the ability of immigration officers to use a person’s race, language or job location to question their legal status, sometimes called "Kavanaugh stops" after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurring opinion to a Supreme Court decision last summer.

Greg Chen, senior director of government affairs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said because Congress gave Homeland Security such robust funding in the tax cuts bill, "That’s why the policy reforms are so important right now to bring the agency in check.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who recently returned from Minnesota, said the weight of the masked enforcement operation can be felt in ways that impact everyone — regardless of a person’s own immigration status.

“It’s a very a heavy presence of surveillance and intimidation," she said. “No one is exempt.”

FILE - Federal immigration enforcement agents shatter a truck window and detain two men outside a Home Depot in Evanston, Ill., Dec. 17, 2025. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)

FILE - Observers film while federal agents conduct immigration enforcement operations Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy, File)

FILE - A gas mask and goggles are seen attached to a Customs and Border Protection officer's leg outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, Oct. 4, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

FILE - Police and federal officers throw gas canisters to disperse protesters near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - Federal agents conduct immigration enforcement operations Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy, File)

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA said Sunday that the game between Argentina and Spain known as Finalissima that was supposed to be held in Qatar has been canceled after the widening Middle East war.

The game between South American champion Argentina and European champion Spain was scheduled to be held in Doha on March 27. It was going to be a marquee matchup between the teams led by Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal before this summer’s World Cup in North America.

But the security of the game was put into serious doubt when Iran intensified its attacks on neighboring countries in retaliation to the aerial attacks by United States and Israel that are now in their third week.

“After much discussion between UEFA and the organizing authorities in Qatar, it is announced today that due to the current political situation in the region, the Finalissima between UEFA EURO 2024 winners Spain and CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 champions Argentina cannot be played as hoped in Qatar on 27 March,” UEFA said in a statement.

Argentina and Spain were to play at Lusail Stadium, which staged the epic 2022 World Cup final. Argentina won a penalty shootout against France after Messi scored twice and Kylian Mbappé got a hat trick in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

Other venues had reportedly been considered as alternatives to Doha, including Spain's capital. UEFA, however, said all other feasible alternatives it explored “ultimately proved unacceptable to the Argentinian Football Association.”

“The first option was to stage the match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on the original date with a 50:50 split of supporters in the stadium,” UEFA said. “This would have provided a world-class setting, befitting of such a prestigious event, but Argentina refused."

The option of staging the event over two legs — one in Madrid on March 27, the other in Buenos Aires before the Euros and Copa America in 2028 — was also rejected. Argentina had proposed to play the match later this year after the World Cup but Spain had no available dates.

South American soccer body Conmebol said in a statement on Sunday that Argentina’s soccer federation (AFA) received an offer from UEFA to play the match in Italy on March 27, but the defending World Cup and Copa America champions countered that the game take place on March 31.

“Regrettably, UEFA said the match taking place on the 31st – only four days after their original offer – was not possible, and so the Finalissima was cancelled,” the South American confederation said. “CONMEBOL and AFA regret deeply that, despite all the efforts and the manifested interest in playing the match in a neutral ground since the first moment, it was not possible.”

Argentina won the inaugural edition of the Finalissima in 2022 with a 3-0 victory over Italy at Wembley Stadium in London.

The violence in the Middle East, where Iran is hitting the Gulf Arab states with drone and missile attacks, has stranded travelers, upset economic markets and sent oil prices soaring.

It has also impacted the world of international sport beyond the Finalissima. Formula 1’s races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled for April have been called off due to the war, while President Donald Trump has suggested that Iran not participate in this summer's World Cup that is co-hosted by the U.S.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Spectators fill the stands during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Portugal and Switzerland, at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Dec. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, file)