Bondi hedges on masked ICE agents, says it’s ‘the first time the issue has come to me’

The attorney general said she’ll be “happy to look at that issue.” Such an examination is long overdue.

During her latest appearance before a Senate committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi covered a fair amount of ground. The Republican struggled with a question about the administration following court orders, clumsily tried to dodge a question about why she thinks the availability of automatic firing devices on semiautomatic weapons would make Americans “safer,” and took the hearing in a rather intemperate direction after being asked about Donald Trump’s allegedly corrupt crypto schemes.

But there was another exchange that stood out to me as especially notable. The Guardian reported:

[Bondi] professed ignorance of reports of immigration officials hiding their faces with masks during roundups of undocumented people, despite widespread video evidence and reports that they are instilling pervasive fear and panic. Challenged at a Wednesday Capitol Hill subcommittee hearing by Gary Peters, a Democratic senator for Michigan, Bondi, who as the country’s top law officer has a prominent role in the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy, implied she was unaware of plain-clothed agents concealing their faces while carrying out arrests but suggested it was for self-protection.

 

In fact, pressed on masked ICE agents, the attorney general responded, “Senator Peters, that’s the first time that issue has come to me, about them, you’re saying law enforcement officers when they cover their faces? … I’d be happy to look at that issue.”

To be fair, Bondi didn’t explicitly say she was unfamiliar with the issue, but given the context, her sworn testimony certainly gave that impression. Indeed, she literally said this was “the first time” she’d been confronted with this, which seemed hard to believe given that this has been a subject of considerable public debate of late.

As for the attorney general’s suggestion that ICE agents are entitled to anonymity, to prevent “doxxing,” The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie explained otherwise in his latest column.

… ICE officers aren’t anonymous commentators on a social network; they are representatives of the state, acting on its behalf and empowered to use force if necessary. As a federal agent, an ICE officer is a public servant whose ultimate responsibility lies with the people. And the people have the right to know who is operating in their government. If an ICE officer does not want to risk identification — if he does not want the public he serves to hold him accountable for his actions — then he can choose another line of work. That ICE has claimed this right to anonymity — which is to say, the right to evade responsibility for its actions in the field — is a testament to the ways that Trump has, in his pursuit of impunity, warped and undermined the idea of a public trust.

 

Revisiting our earlier coverage, every day, in communities nationwide, police officers do their jobs with a high degree of transparency: The public can see the officers’ faces, badge numbers, rank and, in most instances, even their last names featured on uniforms. Though many cops are forced to deal with threats and violence, there isn’t a police department in the United States that allows officers to wear masks or hide their identities while they carry out day-to-day duties.

Indeed, that’s the American norm across agencies, departments and jurisdictions. State troopers don’t wear masks. Neither do FBI agents. U.S. marshals don’t wear masks; sheriffs don’t wear masks; prosecutors don’t wear masks; and Secret Service agents don’t wear masks.

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement appears to be operating under different standards. Indeed, it’s become rather common in recent months to see ICE agents, acting at the president’s behest, snatching people off American streets while hiding their identities.

Bondi is now “happy to look at that issue.” I’ll be eager to learn the results of her examination.