ICE Impersonations Proliferate Amid the Agency's Undercover Tactics

[Passages]

Pretending to be an ICE agent to commit crimes is disturbingly easy.

by Naomi Bethune June 24, 2025


Over the past few months, there have been chronic reports of individuals posing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, in many cases using these guises to commit unlawful acts. Impersonation of law enforcement is not an uncommon occurrence in the United States, but the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, and the particular ways in which ICE enjoys anonymity, have led to increased opportunities for such behavior, endangering and exploiting immigrants and their communities, regardless of their status.

It is indisputable that ICE agents regularly exhibit behavior that, if it were to be displayed by anyone else, would be considered criminal activity. The detention of individuals like Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student who was seized in broad daylight by masked ICE agents, fits the defining features of kidnapping but is not viewed this way when performed by federal immigration officials. A home security camera in Somerville, Massachusetts, captured the moment when Öztürk was accosted by ICE agents dressed in plain clothes and face masks, with the agent who first approaches her quickly grabbing her hands and later handcuffing them behind her back. She was ushered into an unmarked car and held in a federal facility for six weeks.

When they have bothered to explain these activities, ICE has said that anonymity is necessary for the protection of their agents. Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended his agents’ use of masks in a press conference on June 2, claiming that “People are out there, taking photos of the names [ICE agents], their faces, and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves. So, I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”

THERE ARE MULTIPLE REASONS why people impersonate ICE, one of the biggest being the desire to try and get away with criminal acts. In January, a man in South Carolina was charged with impersonating an ICE officer and kidnapping, after detaining a group of Latino men in their car. One of the victims of this scam recorded Sean-Michael Johnson, the perpetrator, saying, “You got caught! Where you from, you from Mexico? You from Mexico? You’re going back!” During the incident, he took the driver’s keys and blocked the car with his van.
https://prospect.org/justice/2025-06-24-ice-impersonations-proliferate-agencys-undercover-tactics/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. When you see masked people w no badge numbers / name tags, call Police. Let them sort it out with ICE / pseudo-ICE

Some khaki coloured vest with ICE on the back is not ID. You can buy such gear on line at even the big outlets.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. SO SO SO predictable ... except to Repugs, who are pathologically lacking in imagination.

All their ideas are so brilliantly planned and executed, they just can't anticipate that other crooks could copy them.