Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have become a more and more common sight across America during Trump’s second term, especially after the administration reportedly set a goal to increase immigration arrests to 3,000 per day. The federal agency has been whisking people off the streets, sparking protests with raids on businesses in Los Angeles, including a clothing wholesaler downtown, and even arrested (and released hours later, reportedly without charges) New York City comptroller Brad Lander at an immigration courthouse on June 17. These actions have begun to sow anxiety and even panic in communities nationwide. And ICE’s power will likely grow: President Trump’s newly-signed budget legislation allocates roughly $170 billion to immigration and border enforcement through 2029, nearly $30 billion of which is earmarked for ICE operations, including hiring and training new personnel. The way many of the current agents are dressing is only adding to the controversy.

In photographs and footage from recent raids in Nebraska, California, New York, Florida, and other states, ICE agents are often either decked out in military-style gear, including tactical vests and helmets, or seem to be dressed as civilians, with few, if any, apparent identifying markers. ICE, like some other federal law enforcement agencies, does not have a standard uniform for its agents. Many in these images wear gaiter-style masks, which the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, said in May are “for personal protection and to prevent doxing,” or being identified online. (An ICE spokesperson tells GQ via email that its officers have faced “a nearly 700% increase in assaults.” The Department of Homeland Security reportedly recorded 79 assaults against officers from the start of Trump’s second term through the end of June.)

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Federal agents arrested New York City comptroller Brad Lander at an immigration courthouse on June 17.

Olga Fedorova / AP Images

Some of these agents have reportedly refused to identify themselves as ICE, raising concerns over the agency’s accountability and oversight of its actions. According to the ICE spokesperson, during enforcement operations all of its agents “wear badges designed to be easily identifiable and to signify their authority as law enforcement officials.”

“The clothing that police wear can be very intimidating,” says Jeffrey Ian Ross, a criminologist at the University of Baltimore. Officers in tactical gear can strike fear in onlookers, Ross says, but masked agents in plainclothes and unmarked cars are perhaps even more unnerving. “It’s not just people who may be undocumented immigrants, but legal immigrants and citizens have a right to be scared by the presence of these individuals,” he says. “The general public feels most comfortable when police officers are wearing their uniforms and identify themselves as an officer.”

During the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, President Trump deployed federal law enforcement officers who were often outfitted in camouflage fatigues and tactical gear nearly indistinguishable, for civilians, from that of active military units. (In fact, this possibility reportedly troubled senior Pentagon officials.) To some, it was almost as if there was an occupying army on the streets of American cities. Others worried that federal officers could be confused with right-wing militia members.

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