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)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's top prosecutor said on Monday that his office had requested the arrest of one of the closest allies of opposition leader María Corina Machado, less than 12 hours after his release from a detention facility as part of a government move to free those facing politically motivated accusations.

The attorney general’s statement did not say whether Juan Pablo Guanipa was rearrested, or give indication of his whereabouts. The government had released him along with several other prominent opposition members on Sunday following lengthy politically motivated detentions.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab's office posted on social media that it had “requested the competent court to revoke the precautionary measure granted to Juan Pablo Guanipa, due to his non-compliance with the conditions imposed by the aforementioned court.”

It did not elaborate on what conditions Guanipa, a former governor for the opposition, violated during the hours he was free, but said authorities were seeking house arrest.

Guanipa's son, Ramón, told reporters Monday that a group of men in three vehicles intercepted his father and others traveling around 11:45 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood in the capital, Caracas. They were armed with long guns and wore civilian clothes and bulletproof vests.

Ramón Guanipa said authorities have not yet notified him of his father's whereabouts and their decision to place him on house arrest. He said his father did not violate the two conditions of his release — monthly check-ins with a court and no travel outside Venezuela — and showed reporters the court document listing them.

The development marked the latest twist in the political turmoil in Venezuela in the wake of the U.S. military's seizure on Jan. 3 of then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a military base compound in Caracas in a stunning operation that landed them in New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

The government of Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez began releasing prisoners days after she was sworn in and has faced mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political activities. The releases also followed a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people Sunday.

Some of those freed Sunday joined families waiting outside detention facilities for their loved ones. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a short distance.

“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Guanipa told reporters after his release. “I am convinced that it is now up to all of us to focus on building a free and democratic country.”

Guanipa had spent more than eight months in custody at a facility in Caracas.

“My father cannot be a criminal ... simply for making statements,” Ramón Guanipa said. "How much longer will speaking out be a crime in this country?”

Several members of Machado’s political organization were among the released Sunday, including attorney Perkins Rocha and local organizer María Oropeza, who had in 2024 livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Rocha was released to house arrest.

“They are terrified that Venezuelan society will mobilize and express its voice civically,” Machado, referring to Rodríguez's government, told reporters Monday in Washington. “But let me tell you something, there’s no going back... What will Juan Pablo become now? What will Perkins become as a prisoner in his own home? A reference in this fight.”

Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” that was plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.

Rodríguez’s government announced Jan. 8 that it would free a significant number of those arrested — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.

The ruling party-controlled National Assembly last week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds. The opposition and nongovernmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism as well as with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who is the acting president's brother, on Friday posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a detention center in Caracas and saying that “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.

Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement said he sent a team to the country and “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a road map for dialogue and reconciliation" in which human rights should be centered.

This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.

A supporter of the opposition waves a Venezuelan flag from a passing vehicle next to El Helicoide, the headquarters of the intelligence service and a detention center, after several political prisoners were released from custody in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

From left, opposition members Dignora Hernández, María Oropeza and Catalina celebrate with supporters after their release from custody near El Helicoide, the Venezuelan intelligence headquarters and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Opposition supporters greet political activist Jesus Armas after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa rides on the back of a motorcycle after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa rides on the back of a motorcycle after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, right, and political activist Jesus Armas ride on the back of motorbikes after their release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Opposition leaders María Oropeza and Juan Pablo Guanipa, left, ride motorbikes through Caracas, Venezuela, after their release from custody, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa records a video message to supporters after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)