During thesecond Donald Trump presidential administration, ongoingimpersonations of United States immigration officials have become a chroniccrime problem across the United States.[1]President Donald Trump prioritized large-scale deportation of immigrant populations throughUnited States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).[1] This includes mandatory quotas for Federal law enforcement and state security forces in the U.S. to capture and detain at least 3,000 people per day.[2]
The administration's reliance on raids often carried out by agents inplainclothes, operating from unmarked vehicles and without visible warrants, blurred the line between legitimate and fraudulent immigration enforcement. Critics, including members of theUnited States Congress, argued that ICE's use of masks, plain clothes, and unmarked vehicles without visible identification made it difficult to distinguish between real and fake immigration agents, "inviting perpetrators ... to take advantage of the chaos by impersonating masked ICE agents in order to target and sexually assault women."[3] Reported impersonators in several states have threatened deportation while committing robberies, kidnappings, and sexual assaults against women in immigrant communities.[3] Documented incidents occurred in multiple states, includingCalifornia,Florida,Maryland,New York City,North Carolina,Pennsylvania,South Carolina, andWashington, D.C., with perpetrators attempting crimes in person as well as through telephone, text, and online scams.
TheAttorney General of California,Rob Bonta, described such impersonations as "bad actors capitalizing on fear",[4] while advocacy groups linked the phenomenon to ICE's own controversial operational practices and have noted that it results in broader hostility towardright-wing politics in the United States.[1] National and local media connected impersonator attacks to violent incidents such as the2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators.[1] Women's organizations argued that ICE's concealment of officer identities exacerbated risks of sexual abuse.[3]
In response, members of theUnited States Congress introduced legislation such as the proposed "No Masks for ICE Act", which would prohibit agents from covering their faces during enforcement actions and require visible display of names and agency affiliation.[5] Although impersonating afederal officer is already a crime, the persistence and geographic spread of ICE imposters has drawn scrutiny from civil rights advocates, immigrant groups, and state officials, who describe the issue as a chronic public-safety crisis. Both local and state governments across the United States began to challenge Trump-supported anonymity of government agents in response, raising questions ofstates' rights againstFederal law enforcement in the United States.[6][7][8][9]
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During theSecond Trump administration,The American Prospect reported what it called "chronic cases" of individuals impersonatingUnited States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to prey on immigrant communities.[1] ACNN report in February 2025 documented several arrests of people posing as ICE agents during a nationwide immigration crackdown.[11]
According toNew York Magazine, President Trump deployed theNational Guard and theUnited States Marine Corps to support federal immigration raids, with military forces "running interference" for ICE operations.[2] In May 2025,Reuters reported that the administration set a daily quota of about 3,000 immigration arrests, a sharp increase from earlier levels.[12][2]
KTLA reported that dozens of members of theUnited States Congress signed a letter to theUnited States Department of Homeland Security expressing concern about ICE officers' tactics and about impersonators targeting women.[3] The proposed "No Masks for ICE Act", introduced in July 2025, sought to prohibit federal immigration agents from covering their faces and to require visible identification, reflecting the absence of such statutory requirements at the time.[5]
The American Prospect described the volume and frequency of ICE impersonations to commit unlawful actions as "chronic".[1]CNN reported arrests of impersonators in multiple U.S. states.[11]Rob Bonta, theAttorney General of California, confirmed reports of growing numbers of ICE impersonators and said that "bad actors" had begun to "capitalize on the fear" raised among minorities by the Trump administration.[13][4]PBS NewsHour listed kidnappings, robberies, fraud, and sexual assaults among the incidents linked to impersonators.[14]KTLA reported that ICE had been criticized for agents' failures to identify themselves in anti-immigration operations.[3] According to theCongressional Caucus for Women's Issues, the masking of ICE agents contributed to impersonations and increased exposure of women, especially immigrants, to risk of sexual assault.[3] Arick Fudali of The Bloom Firm toldKTLA that the simplicity of ICE agents' actual uniforms, masks, and procedures made it easy for impersonators to exploit victims using the fear and intimidation associated with ICE encounters.[3]
Impersonation of ICE agents to commit crimes and harass persons has been linked in news coverage to the2025 shootings of Minnesota legislators, where a gunman masked as law enforcement murdered severalDemocratic Party elected officials, family members, and pets.[1]New York Magazine noted that Minnesota law enforcement compared the murders to ICE anonymity, quotingMinnesota Department of Public Safety commissioner Bob Jacobson as saying the assassin "had exploited the trust our uniforms are meant to represent."[2]The American Prospect also compared impersonations to attempted attacks on lawful protestors by a masked individual at aNo Kings protests event.[1] The magazine further reported that impersonators and those attempting to assist ICE actions contributed to societal hostility towardright-wing politics and beliefs, including those advanced by theRepublican Party.[1]New York Magazine asserted that ICE impersonators took advantage of the promotion of right-wing vigilante violence bythe Trumpist movement and the administration.[2]
At theConservative Political Action Conference in 2025, Jason Selvig of the political comedy groupThe Good Liars interviewed an attendee dressed in an "ICE" outfit with aMake America Great Again hat.[1] According toThe American Prospect, the attendee said he celebrated being able to instill fear into Hispanic-American populations by wearing the outfit to "aHome Depot in asanctuary city."[1]Ms. Magazine reported that right-wing extremists also wore ICE costumes in predominantly Latino workplaces and neighborhoods, including inSan Francisco, California, to instill fear across immigrant communities.[15]
ICE's predominant use of masks to hide the identities of its agents was reported to have made it easier for impersonators to pose as ICE personnel.[1] TheRefugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services said it was difficult to determine the extent of historicalunder-reporting of interactions withlaw enforcement in the United States.[1] TheCharleston Hispanic Association toldCNN that harassment of Hispanic-Americans had become commonplace but was not often reported or recorded.[11] According toKNBC, California and other states began pursuing legislation to restrict the use of masks by law enforcement in response to the presence of both masked ICE agents and impersonators.[16]Los Angeles Times also reported that criminals posing as ICE attempted to commit crimes by "phone, text, email or on social media."[4]
Arick Fudali of The Bloom Firm toldKTLA, "(To migrants), it doesn't sound out of the ordinary for someone like that to wield their power to exploit and sexually abuse someone. And what are (the women) going to do?"[3]Los Angeles Times noted that impersonating a federal officer is a crime.[4]Kristi Noem, theUnited States Secretary of Homeland Security, defended the ability of ICE agents to keep their identities secret, citing their safety over that of the public.[3]New York Magazine reported that ICE leadership said anonymity was necessary to protect agents from public oversight and repercussions.[2]California State SenatorScott Wiener compared the situation to "secret police".[17] At the Alabama Sheriffs Association's summer conference, an ICE official said agents were seen as "imperial thugs" due to their anonymity and argued that concealment was necessary for their safety, stating, "People get followed around. Now your kid cannot sit at the lunch table with other kids at school because of what I do for my job, which I think is very valuable."[18]
The following incidents are listed in approximate chronological order based on publication dates of reliable sources.
Following the arrest of a man impersonating ICE to commit crimes inHuntington Park, California, the city government required all city police to engage and force identification of any federal law enforcement seen to be operating within the city.[6]
Police inSpokane, Washington, under chief Kevin Hall, issued new policies for city police to verify detected federal law enforcement due to local threats of ICE impersonators.[7]
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Sasha Renée Pérez of theCalifornia State Senate introduced the "No Vigilantes Act".[9] SB 805, if passed, would mandate that any federal law enforcement acting in California provide "last name, badge or ID number" upon demand.[9] Pérez asked, "How am I supposed to be able to tell if this is actually federal law enforcement or if this is a vigilante who's impersonating an ICE officer?"[9] On the matter ofdoxing allegations of federal law enforcement, she noted that California state, county, and local law have had matching requirements for years without issue.[9]
InMassachusetts, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers identified ICE impersonators and masked or anonymous law enforcement as a danger to state residents.[8] In response, led byBruce Tarr, the Republican leader of theMassachusetts Senate, state senators filed a bill to modify state law, closing a loophole that only criminalized impersonating local, county, or state-level law enforcement.[8] Under the changes, it would be a state crime in Massachusetts to impersonate federal officials.[8]
In response to various incidents, CongresswomanNydia Velázquez, a Democrat from New York, introduced the "No Masks for ICE Act". The bill would "make it illegal for federal agents to cover their faces while conducting immigration enforcement unless the masks were required for their safety or their health" and would require "agents to clearly display their name and agency affiliation on their clothes during arrests and enforcement operations".[5] The measure was co-sponsored by RepresentativeLaura Friedman but had no Republican co-sponsors.[5]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theUnited States government.
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.
Since President Trump reassumed office, the United States has been subjected to a dramatic spike in law enforcement, with often brutal ramifications. With a new daily quota of 3,000 arrests, federal immigration authorities have called on a range of local police agencies to help round up immigrants and dissidents while Trump has deployed the National Guard and the Marines to run interference for the Feds during raids — an unprecedented blitz that spans big cities, small towns, and rural farmlands. This immigration dragnet will only get wider after Congress passed a megabill this month that will triple ICE's budget by 2028, likely making domestic immigration enforcement more expensive than funding the Marine Corps.
'All our lives, we are taught to fear masked men in unmarked vehicles,' the letter stated. 'We learn we should run from such men to avoid being kidnapped, sexually assaulted, or killed. Yet, ICE is increasingly conducting raids and arrests in masks, plain clothes, without visible identification or badges, using unmarked vehicles – tactics that cause confusion, terror, and mistrust among the public.'
Yet some lawmakers and different law enforcement agencies have expressed opposition towards requiring federal ICE agents to identify themselves, citing concerns of doxing, retaliation or harassment. 'I actually completely disagree with that statement,' said Pérez. 'I see for myself that our local law enforcement agents have been operating this way for years. Whether you look at our local police officers, whether you look at sheriffs, they all provide some sort of identification, some sort of verification. This is basic accountability. This is basic law and order. And I think in so many ways, this makes all of us safer.'
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem participates in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Los Angeles, California, June 12, 2025. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour)
'That impassions people,' he said. 'They want to act because they feel there is an injustice. People get followed around. Now your kid cannot sit at the lunch table with other kids at school because of what I do for my job, which I think is very valuable.'
