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The Hill
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Is ICE following rules for ID'ing itself in migrant arrests?
(NewsNation) — With U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers being pressed by the White House to arrest thousands of migrants each day, how they are carrying out their mission remains under scrutiny amid complaints the agency is shrouded in secrecy. Democrats are pushing legislation that would require federal immigration officers to identify themselves properly and to operate without their faces covered. Lawmakers claim ICE's tactics 'endanger public safety by creating confusion, fear and mistrust' in communities migrant advocates say have been terrorized by threats of arrests and deportation. Department of Homeland Security officials insist officers and agents are acting properly despite significantly rising cases of ICE officers being assaulted. But the Trump administration's insistence that ICE put 3,000 migrants in custody per day is putting officers in a very dangerous position, a former ICE official told NewsNation. 'The eye is off the ball for public safety, and it's about the quota,' Jason Houser, the agency's chief of staff between 2021-23, said. 'The ICE officer is now the sword of the political class in the White House.' According to the Code of Federal Regulations, federal immigration officers are required to identify themselves 'as soon as it is practical and safe to do so'. The rules stipulate that officers are required to inform a person that they are being arrested and for what reason. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 requires federal officers responding to a civil disturbance to visibly display identifying information of the officer and the agency they represent unless they are working under cover. But some insist that's not happening, including Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who said federal officers are 'pulling people off the street' with their faces covered and dressed in civilian clothing. Booker and Sen. Alex Padilla are among the lawmakers to introduce bills that would force ICE officers to show their faces. Houser said that by officers attempting to arrest migrants while dressed in hoodies and other non-identifiable items, officers put themselves and colleagues from other federal immigration agencies at risk. ICE is leaving how officers dress to the discretion of individual field offices, which is creating confusion among the general public, Houser said. Houser said ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies often act outside the bounds of other law enforcement organizations. 'There is no policy, there is no stance, there is no procedure for what they are doing,' Houser said, adding, 'Nobody conforms in this way and acts in this manner.' However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin argued in a statement to NewsNation that federal immigration agents and officers 'clearly identify themselves as law enforcement' despite needing to protect themselves from 'highly sophisticated gangs' by covering their faces. ICE Director Todd Lyons told NewsNation that officers rarely wore masks before President Donald Trump took office in January. However, citing rising attacks being reported on federal immigration officers who also face doxing threats, some officers have been forced to mask their identities. 'They don't want to wear those masks, but it's for their own safety,' Lyons said. 'If I could figure out a way that we could do it and they could do their job safely, I would love to sit down with lawmakers and come up with some solution to that. But until I can assure the men and women of ICE and their families are going to be protected, I'm going to let them do whatever they need to do to protect themselves.' However, Houser said that by covering their faces, federal officers are creating confusion about whether they are true federal employees or part of a growing number of people who have been accused of impersonating federal officers. Other complaints include that federal officers are using unmarked cars as part of their operations. While acknowledging that some DHS officers are working undercover, a spokesperson for the agency told NewsNation that some of the claims being made against DHS are 'getting a little desperate.' In June, Huntington Park, Calif., police arrested a man who had previously been arrested on human smuggling charges. Police alleged that he had a loaded gun, passports and materials purporting him to be a federal immigration officer in a vehicle that was parked in a handicapped spot. The city's mayor, Arturo Flores, said that the incident highlighted the fear that exists among a largely immigrant population due to the uncertainty of whether people claiming to be federal officers actually work for immigration agencies. 'Masked agents, unmarked vehicles and refusal to identify yourself is not the image of a just and lawful government – it is the image of fear,' Flores said. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has accused ICE of inflaming tensions by allowing officers to cover their faces. 'If they are standing on lawfulness, they shouldn't be afraid to show their faces,' Swalwell said on 'CUOMO'. 'No other law enforcement agency operates routinely the way that they're doing, and it's terrorizing people.' The California arrest came weeks before DHS officers recently refused to identify themselves in Chicago, where 10-15 vehicles pulled up to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Art & Culture and remained for nearly two hours. Museum workers said federal officers refused to show identification or inform employees why they were there. DHS said the visit was not immigration-related and was instead connected to a narcotics investigation being conducted by a Homeland Security Investigations financial task force. 'Why didn't (officers) say that before, and why didn't (they) identify yourselves to the folks there so they didn't have to sound the alarm that this type of activity was occurring?' Chicago Ald. Gil Villegas told NewsNation. 'Had they said that, it would have never escalated.' While Democrats of migrant advocates push for more federal transparency, Houser puts much of the blame for how ICE officers are being treated squarely on the White House, citing calls by Border Czar Tom Homan and others for the number of migrant arrests to continue by whatever means necessary. He said as long as those directives remain in place, federal officers will remain under a difficult spotlight. Homan said that while many are complaining about the 3,000 daily arrest figure, calculations would require federal officers to make 7,000 arrests per day to capture the migrants that Homan said former President Joe Biden allowed into the country. 'When you have quotas on arrests and you're now targeting non-criminal working migrants, this is what happens,' Houser told NewsNation. 'ICE agents are put at risk, where they're personally going to be targeted because of a really bad policy.' NewsNation's Ali Bradley contributed reporting to this story
USA Today
11-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Ft. Liberty is now Ft. Bragg. What's the history behind the name and Hegseth's decision?
Ft. Liberty is now Ft. Bragg. What's the history behind the name and Hegseth's decision? Show Caption Hide Caption Pete Hegseth pledges to support President Trump's immigration policy Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Defense Department will support "mass deportations in support of the president's objective." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's move to rename Fort Bragg appears to be his latest effort to roll back Biden-administration diversity policies for the military. On Monday, a memo from Hegseth appeared in federal court that prohibits the armed services from accepting recruits who are transgender. He also ordered a pause in medical treatment for service members who have gender dysphoria. Later that day, Hegseth announced that Fort Liberty's name would be changed back to Fort Bragg – in honor of a World War II hero, not the Confederate general who had been its original namesake. "Bragg is back," Hegseth told reporters while on a trip to Germany on Tuesday. "It's about that legacy. It's about the connection to the community, to those who served." "We're not done there," he said of other bases and roads that have been similarly renamed. More: Pentagon revives ban on transgender troops joining U.S. military Why did the Biden administration change the name in the first place? A commission created by Congress during the Biden administration recommended changing the names of bases and other monuments honoring Confederate soldiers who had waged the Civil War against the United States. Under the law that led to the commission's creation, Hegseth has the authority to change base names if he chooses to honor a person who did not serve in the Confederacy. The action "violates the spirit of the law but not the law itself," Ty Seidule, a retired Army general and the former vice chair of the naming commission, said in an email. Seidule said he was "surprised" Hegseth "did not stick with the name the local community united around," including a military Gold Star mother who led the effort. A congressional source who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Hegseth has the ability to change the name because the law prohibits the Defense secretary from naming a military asset after a Confederate soldier. Why is Hegseth changing the names back to Fort Bragg and Fort Benning? Through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, the annual defense policy bill, Congress appointed a commission to recommend new names for bases, streets and other monuments that bore the names of Confederate soldiers who committed treason and fought against U.S. soldiers in the Civil War. Trump, in his first term, vetoed the must-pass Defense bill that sets defense policy because of the commission. Bi-partisan majorities in the House and Senate overrode his veto. The base was officially renamed in 2023. Costs to update its name were estimated at $8 million at the time. It's unclear how much it might cost the military to change the name again. Hegseth already signaled his intention to revert the original, Confederate names of two bases. In some of his first remarks as Defense secretary, Hegseth referred to Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, a Georgia base renamed Fort Moore, pointedly using their original Confederate namesakes. More: Erasing the Confederacy: Army changes names of iconic Fort Hood and Fort Benning bases In a podcast interview last year, Hegseth said, "there's also a generational link that breaks when you rename Benning and Bragg," calling the new names "garbage." Trump also promised during the campaign that he would rename the bases, vowing at a rally in Fayeteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Liberty, that "we're going to do everything we can, we're going to get it back." His plans to revert the bases' names have drawn criticism from lawmakers across the aisle. Republican Rep. Don Bacon, of Nebraska, told POLITICO, 'The law was passed, it's not going to go backward." Who were the bases originally named after? Fort Moore was renamed in honor of Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Moore. Lt. Gen. Moore was highly decorated for his heroism during the battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, as depicted in the book and film, 'We Were Soldiers Once…and Young." Julia Moore's support of families of troops killed in action prompted the Army to change the way it makes death notifications. Like Bragg, Camp Benning was built in 1918. Its mission was to provide basic training for soldiers deploying in World War I. The Army named the base in honor of Henry Benning, a lawyer and senior Confederate officer whom the commission, on the Army's web site, labeled an 'ardent secessionist.' 'He is on record as saying that he would rather be stricken with illness and starvation than see slaves liberated and given equality as citizens,' the commission report said. 'As the commander of the Benning Brigade, he fought in many of the battles throughout the war. Heartbroken over the Confederacy's defeat, he was one of the last officers to lead his men to the surrender ceremony in 1865.' Some Army posts in the South, as well as streets and buildings on installations like West Point in the North, bore the names of Confederate officers like Gen. Robert E. Lee. In the South, several forts sprung up during the massive mobilization for World War I. Many were given names honoring Confederate generals in apparent effort at post-Civil War reconciliation. 'It was also the height of the Jim Crow Laws in the South, so there was no consideration for the feelings of African Americans who had to serve at bases named after men who fought to defend slavery,' according to the Pentagon's web site. Nothing to Bragg about Fort Liberty began as Camp Bragg in 1918 as an Army artillery training ground. It was named after Braxton Bragg, who, according to the commission charged with changing base names, was 'a slave owning plantation owner and senior Confederate Army officer." Bragg is 'considered one of the worst generals of the Civil War," according to the commission. "Most of the battles he was involved in ended in defeat and resulted in tremendous losses for the Confederate Army" and were "highly consequential to the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy." "Bragg was temperamental, a harsh disciplinarian, and widely disliked in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army and within the Confederate Army by peers and subordinates alike throughout his career," according to the commission. Hegseth's decision to name the base after Roland Bragg, not for the Confederate general, could be seen as an admission that Braxton Bragg was undeserving, said Peter Feaver, a Duke University professor and expert on civil-military relations. Hegseth has made clear that 'he understands the Department of Defense faces a daunting array of challenges and I doubt that he thinks those problems will be fixed merely by changing names and pronouns,' Feaver said. 'The hard work of defense reform is still ahead.'
