Chuck Schumer Facing Calls To Be Removed After Move Against ICE Agents
A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill Tuesday aimed at prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing face masks while on duty, including during raids and the arrest of undocumented migrants.
The legislation follows the release of video footage showing ICE agents arresting migrants while concealing their identities, often wearing plainclothes with no visible indication they were federal officials, The Guardian reported.
That said, agents have begun shielding their identities because Democrats and Dem-aligned groups have either doxxed them and their families or have threatened to do so.
Introduced by Democratic Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California, the bill would require immigration agents to clearly display their agency affiliation—such as ICE or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—as well as either their name or badge number. It would also prohibit agents from wearing face masks unless medically necessary.
“Members of the public often have no way to confirm whether they are interacting with legitimate government officials,” Padilla, who was physically detained briefly after attempting to rush DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference in L.A. last month, said in a statement.
“This lack of transparency endangers public safety by causing confusion, fear, and mistrust, especially in communities already subjected to heightened immigration scrutiny,” he claimed without any mention of the danger his bill would put ICE agents in if it were to pass.
“It also increases risks for law enforcement personnel by creating uncertainty in high-stress situations, particularly when individuals cannot distinguish real officers from impersonators,” he continued.
ICE has not publicly responded to the proposed legislation, but acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has previously resisted changing the agency’s mask policy, citing concerns about agents being doxxed.
“We ran an operation where ICE officers were doxxed,” Lyons said. “People are out there taking photos of the names and their faces and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves, so I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is.”
The bill comes amid growing calls from Trump administration officials for Democrats to dial back their anti-ICE rhetoric, following two recent shootings targeting ICE facilities in Texas over the past week.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, border czar Tom Homan called out Democrats over their rhetoric and reminded viewers he predicted the escalation in violence against federal immigration enforcers, such as two recent shooting incidents in Texas.
“I said over two months ago, I said on your network, numerous networks, I do a lot of interviews, I said over two months ago, if the rhetoric continues against ICE agents and Border Patrol agents about being compared to terrorists, like Congresswoman [Pramila] Jayapal did, being compared to Nazis and racists, that it’s going to end with a use of force that either a criminal is going to die or an officer is going to die. I’ve seen this recipe before. I knew it was coming and I don’t think it’s over,” he told host Martha MacCallum.
“This is a well-planned attack. And it’s because of the rhetoric. These nuts that want to take it beyond protesting to criminal activity, they’re getting rhetoric from the members of Congress, the senators who compare ICE to the Nazis, and Congresswoman Jayapal compared to the terrorist organizations,” he continued.
“So these people, these fringe groups, feel emboldened. If a member of Congress can attack ICE, why can’t we? So in response to this, ICE facilities, the security protocol has been heightened to the highest levels, along with Border Patrol facilities,” Homan said, adding that the threats won’t slow down immigration enforcement.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
