Ranking Members Summer Lee and Robert Garcia Demand DHS Explain Use of Masks and Unmarked Vehicles to Terrorize Immigrants
WASHINGTON, D.C. – JULY 25, 2025 — Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, and Rep. Robert Garcia (CA-42), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem concerning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other DHS agents’ use of masks and unmarked vehicles while conducting immigration raids. The Ranking Members are seeking documents and information to better understand these DHS tactics and their impacts on public safety following several incidents in which individuals posing as ICE agents used the ambiguity of masked ICE-style operations to prey on vulnerable people.
“Federal agents under the Trump administration are operating like a secret police force on U.S. soil. These agents must identify themselves rather than cowardly concealing their identities behind masks. Every person—regardless of immigration status—has a constitutional right to due process and protection from unlawful searches and seizures. These state-sanctioned fear tactics are opening the door for vulnerable communities to be abused and must not become the norm,” said Ranking Member Lee.
“Alarming reports from cities including Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago show that ICE agents are conducting enforcement operations using masks and unmarked vehicles. In Los Angeles, agents were photographed in June 2025 wearing face covers during residential raids. In Chicago, witnesses reported masked agents detaining individuals without identification. Similarly, in New York City, then-mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked federal agents. While there may be some legitimate reasons for law enforcement to take steps to conceal their identities, such as undercover work, those reasons do not apply when ICE and other DHS agents conduct mass arrests of undocumented people—many of whom have no criminal records or criminal convictions—as part of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Rather, these operations exemplify the troubling resurgence of aggressive tactics that erode public trust and fundamental constitutional rights,” wrote the Ranking Members.
In their letter, the Ranking Members highlight instances in which criminals, emboldened by ICE’s masking tactics, committed serious crimes. For example, in April, a woman in Florida wore an “ICE” t-shirt, flashed a sheriff’s business card, and used a handheld radio to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife. In Houston, Texas, a man blocked another driver using his vehicle, claimed to be an ICE agent, flashed a badge, and forcibly took $1,800 along with the victim’s Guatemalan ID. And in Anaheim, California, two teenagers in a blue SUV impersonating ICE agents approached Hispanic victims, presented fake badges, and robbed them.
In addition to questioning the concealment of agents’ identities, the Ranking Members are also concerned with the concealment of the identities of ICE attorneys before immigration judges, noting that not identifying an attorney for the government allows them to evade accountability.
“Although these enforcement methods have been justified under the broad banner of national security or public order, they represent an alarming deviation from accepted and effective standards of policing. Professional law enforcement associations have consistently emphasized the need for transparency and for measures that build trust in their communities as critical to public safety,” concluded the Ranking Members.
Click here to read the letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.