A few days ago, I noticed a social media post from an acquaintance who was defending ICE officials wearing masks. It caught my attention because this person is married to a well-known Democratic personality and otherwise holds more liberal viewpoints.
And from what I’ve been told, that person also works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Not as an enforcement officer, but in a support role. It is a position they’ve had for years, not a part of the rapid expansion pushed by President Donald Trump and his administration.
The juxtaposition made me stop and reflect. Here was an otherwise liberal individual espousing a position absolutely despised by people on the left. Maybe I needed to be more open-minded? Maybe I needed to take a step back to foster understanding? Maybe the omnipresent masks were a necessity to perform legitimate duties?
The more I thought, the more I realized: maybe that person is just plain wrong.
The basic argument for masks, and the one I saw, goes like this: ICE law enforcement frequently engages in operations against very dangerous individuals and groups such as drug cartels. That poses a risk to the ICE agents investigating and arresting them. Consequently, they wear masks to protect themselves from physical danger.
Except that argument does not hold up under even the slightest scrutiny.
The CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank touted by Republicans for decades, has studied the surge in Department of Homeland Security and ICE extensively over the past year. Their review demonstrated that 2025 was the second safest year for Border Patrol and ICE agents. More telling, only two ICE agents have been murdered in the line of duty since 2003, neither in enforcement actions. One was killed in Mexico and another by an escaped U.S. citizen. In comparison, 32 people died in ICE custody last year.
As CATO points out, the chance of an ICE agent being killed in the line of duty is about 5.5 times less likely than any average person being murdered going about their daily lives.
There is no imminent threat to the lives of ICE agents. They do not face potential death every time they go to work. They do not need to hide their identities to protect themselves from violent criminals.
To the contrary. The Trump Administration has shifted tens of thousands of officers away from trafficking investigations and enforcement — and the most violent and dangerous criminals — to civil immigration and detention cases. Only about 5% of those detained in civil cases have violent convictions, while almost three-quarters have no convictions at all.
Detaining 5-year-old children does not pose such significant risk of deadly violence to ICE agents.
What ICE is hiding is their own shame. They are hiding from being recognized by family and friends. They are hiding from accountability. They are hiding from one day in the future when they will have to answer for their actions. They are hiding from the murders of American citizens and the exposed lies they tell to courts.
There is no other reason for ICE to wear masks in almost every circumstance.
For example, ICE agents appear masked while staffing routine checkpoints. These are not targeted actions aimed at armed criminals, but the law enforcement equivalent of a scratch ticket; they can stop thousands and will likely only come away with a few low-level offenders. It is something local law enforcement does across the country every day without wearing masks. Yet there ICE agents are, with masks pulled up over their noses, just under their eyes to ask for a license.
Similarly, ICE agents engaged in crowd control near protesters — something they do not have substantial training or expertise to do — all wear masks. They intimidate citizens and threaten their homes. ICE agents confront and assault people engaged in First Amendment rights because they believe the cloth over their face allows them to ignore the Constitution.
The masks worn by ICE do not protect them from criminal behavior, but instead subject American citizens and legal residents to violence. Violence to their physical person, to their legal rights and to their communities.
That is why the Denver City Council, and other governments across the country, are right to ban law enforcement from wearing masks in most circumstances. They know their communities will be safer without anonymous law enforcement officers terrorizing people. They understand the cited reasons for ICE to wear masks do not withstand scrutiny while the implicit reasons endanger us all.
In “Cool Hand Luke,” a prison guard told Paul Newman, “I’m just doing my job, you gotta appreciate that.” In an iconic retort, Newman acerbicly replies, “Nah. Calling it your job don’t make it right, Boss.”
Calling masks necessary for ICE to do their job doesn’t make it right, either. To the contrary, the past year has shown us putting ICE agents in masks can only lead to a long list of wrongs.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on BlueSky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.
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