Mike German, an ex-FBI agent, said immigration agents hiding their identities ‘highlights the illegitimacy of actions’
Some wear balaclavas. Some wear neck gators, sunglasses and hats. Some wear masks and casual clothes.
Across the country, armed federal immigration officers have increasingly hidden their identities while carrying out immigration raids, arresting protesters and roughing up prominent Democratic critics.
It’s a trend that has sparked alarm among civil rights and law enforcement experts alike.
Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. “Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls,” he said.
Oh my sweet summer child. If you really believe this, then you haven’t spent much time around conservatives. I was raised by them. Nazism was/is taken lightly, like a silly joke (that’s why you saw so many people smiling and laughing at Elon’s Nazi salute at the inauguration). Never seen as a serious threat—even today—as it starts to actually become one. The vast majority of conservatives are either in denial over the rise of Neo-Nazism, or are just straight-up Nazis themselves.
I’m not in the US but that’s truly chilling to hear. When you’re not surrounded by it, you don’t realise how normalised something becomes in a different part of society.