Simply reading mainstream coverage, one might conclude that the flurry of progressive outrage over “masked ICE agents” had died down as the outrage machine moved along to other targets such as “Alligator Alcatraz.” This, however, would be a mistake. While the major news outlets may have moved on, the mask issue has moved to social media, propagated through virtue-signaling cartoons and memes. One of the more thoughtless examples equates masked ICE officers with hooded Ku Klux Klansmen, but there are many others, each designed to suggest something deeply wrong, if not downright immoral, about law enforcement officers wearing masks in the process of performing their duties.
As is so often the case with the progressive narrative on immigration enforcement, what we’re seeing is nothing less than an outright inversion of the moral order of things. Begin with three essential propositions. First, for anyone who has been paying attention, immigration arrests have focused overwhelmingly on genuine criminals and terrorists. Everyone working from the law enforcement side of the ledger understands that simply rounding up “illegals,” that is, individuals whose only crime is having entered the country illegally, is far beyond currently available law enforcement resources.
Despite the propaganda to the contrary, ICE, the Marshals, and other federal law enforcement agencies understand how to prioritize, and their priorities are clear — go after the violent criminals, the gangbangers, and the Iranian and Chinese special operators. Go after the human traffickers who, not incidentally, are the ones who actually prey upon the otherwise innocent illegals.
It’s no accident that this kind of predatory human trafficking is associated with rampant sexual abuse and outright slavery. The unregulated immigration flood has created a target-rich environment for these monsters. Rounding them up, taking them out of circulation either through criminal prosecution or deportation, is, in fact, the humanitarian option.
Second, to the extent that enforcement actions have inadvertently targeted the “otherwise innocent,” this is largely a function of how progressive politicians in so-called “sanctuary cities” have made it impossible for their local law enforcement agencies to engage cooperatively with ICE. Local cops know full well who the worst criminals are, and they also know how to find them. Some, in fact, are actually already in city and county custody.
If not in custody, their locations are quite likely well known to street cops on the neighborhood beats, or to detectives in the gang, drug, and vice units. Working side by side with ICE represents an efficient approach to getting rid of these malefactors, and it substantially reduces the opportunity for erroneous arrests or the need for dragnet-style enforcement actions.
But when progressive mayors and city councils prevent such cooperation, the chances for error unfortunately increase. Honest law enforcement regards this as a flaw, although the politicians likely regard it as a feature. These are, after all, the selfsame people who, not long ago, were all about defunding the police and always looking to manufacture outrages to excite their political base.
Third, and last, since the primary focus of these ICE actions has been high-priority criminals, the threat to ICE personnel — and their families — is acute. In Mexico, and for a decade or more, we’ve seen how law enforcement actions aimed at the drug cartels have been crippled by the threat of retaliation against police officers and their loved ones. Sometimes the cartels work through bribes, but more often than not — and particularly with low-level officers — intimidation has been the primary weapon. “Gold or lead” has long been the slogan, “gold” for those willing to be bought, “lead,” for a bullet, for those who maintain their integrity.
And it’s not just the threat from the cartels. We’ve already seen multiple instances where Antifa terrorists have targeted ICE and other law enforcement personnel, and, sadly, without any meaningful condemnation from progressive politicians. Quite the contrary — all too often, their political rhetoric encourages such violence, although it comes with the usual perfunctory disclaimers. While developing the analogy in detail would require a separate article, those of us who remember how the actual Ku Klux Klan operated know full well that the actual heirs to the Klan are more readily found among the masked Antifa types. Much the same dynamic is at work with the keffiyeh-wrapped faces of the violent pro-Hamas demonstrators.
Masking, then, is a necessary law enforcement response when confronted with terrorists, gangs, and other violent organized criminals. In a world of doxing, in a world in which even Supreme Court justices and their families are threatened in their homes, ordinary law enforcement officers deserve, at the very least, the protection afforded by a measure of anonymity. Unlike justices and other prominent figures, they cannot count on their families being protected from those whose goal is intimidation.
Having been involved in the world of counterterrorism for much of my adult life, I can only add that, wherever law enforcement finds itself at war with terrorists, masking is seen as essential, and therefore unremarkable. Such famous counterterrorism units as Germany’s GSG-9, the British SAS, or France’s RAID and GIGN routinely mask before executing a response mission. The practice, in fact, has become near-universal — “masking up” has become standard operating procedure whenever and wherever SWAT teams, by any of their various names worldwide, are sent into action.
Perhaps then it’s time that the facile Klan comparisons are dialed down. Perhaps we might go further and insist that, in the present moment, when ICE is being asked to do a supremely dangerous and difficult job, we might extend a bit of understanding for the measures they reasonably employ to try and protect their loved ones. And for those who wish to politicize these measures, perhaps we might invite them to simply shut up.
James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a national security and counterterrorism professional. He’s just published his new novel, The Zebras from Minsk.
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