The FBI is urging companion businesses to “adequately determine themselves” amid a string of circumstances by which these impersonating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers dedicated crimes, corresponding to kidnapping and assault.
“Due to the recent increase in ICE enforcement actions across the country, criminal actors are using ICE’s enhanced public profile and media coverage to their advantage to target vulnerable communities and commit criminal activity. This not only effects the victims and communities but also has broader negative consequences on law enforcement agencies,” the FBI wrote in a bulletin.
“These criminal impersonations make it difficult for the community to distinguish between legitimate officers conducting lawful law enforcement action and imposters engaging in criminal activity, which damages trust between the local community and law enforcement officers.”
The Oct. 17 bulletin, obtained by the group Property of the Individuals by way of a public information request, comes as ICE has performed widespread raids, usually with companion businesses, and in some circumstances masked officers have refused to determine themselves or their company.
The bulletin lists 5 situations by which somebody impersonated an ICE officer, in some circumstances to commit violent crimes.
In August in New York, three males robbed a restaurant and tied up its employees, with the victims initially surrendering to the robbers as a result of they recognized themselves as ICE officers.
In April in Florida, a person kidnapped a girl who agreed to depart with somebody posing as an ICE officer, solely to be taken to an condo advanced the place she escaped.
In Brooklyn in February, a person posing as an ICE officer directed a girl to a stairwell the place he punched her after which tried to rape her, in the end fleeing the scene along with her purse and cellular phone.
And in January in North Carolina, a person posing as an ICE officer entered a girl’s resort room and sexually assaulted her, saying he would deport her if she didn’t have intercourse with him.
The bulletin stated legislation enforcement officers of all stripes must “adequality determine themselves throughout operations and cooperate with people who request additional verification, corresponding to calling their native precinct to confirm the officer’s id.”
Neither the FBI nor ICE responded to a request for remark.
Critics have stated the anonymity offered by masks and an absence of insignia not solely creates alternatives for harmful impersonations, but in addition shields precise officers with poor conduct.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, launched a invoice earlier this yr that might bar masks and drive officers to show insignia to determine themselves.
“If you uphold the peace of a democratic society, you should not be anonymous. DHS and ICE agents wearing masks and hiding identification echoes the tactics of secret police authoritarian regimes — and deviates from the practices of local law enforcement, which contributes to confusion in communities,” Espaillat stated when the invoice was launched in June.
“Many immigrants come to America seeking opportunities, hope, and freedom to escape draconian practices, and under no circumstance should they, or anyone, fear being disappeared by masked and armed individuals in unmarked vehicles. If you are upholding the law, you should not be anonymous.”
Border czar Tom Homan has expressed blended emotions on ICE officers sporting masks, and Trump administration officers have complained officers are being doxxed.
“These men and women put a gun on their hip and wear a Kevlar vest to go on the streets every day looking for the worst of the worst to make this country safer. Wearing a mask, if that protects them and protects your families, then that has to be done,” Homan stated.
“I don’t particularly like the mask either,” he added later.
