Do ICE agents wear masks during transportation of detainees?

1. ICE policy: masks and PPE are part of transport guidance

ICE’s Pandemic Response Requirements and later Post-Pandemic guidelines explicitly update PPE guidance and include “additional guidance when transporting a detainee with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19,” indicating mask use and other PPE are part of formal expectations for transport and medical isolation scenarios ^{[1] [5] [6]}.

2. Operational detail: cohorting, screening and transport rules exist on paper

The written PRRs and IHSC guidance require intake screening, cohorting of new arrivals, isolation of symptomatic detainees consistent with CDC practices, and recommend limiting transfers unless medically necessary—procedures that presuppose use of PPE such as masks during transport to prevent spread ^{[2] [7] [8]}.

3. Oversight finds inconsistent adherence to mask-wearing in practice

The DHS Office of Inspector General’s review found that while facilities maintained supplies of PPE, “staff and detainees did not consistently wear face masks or socially distance,” and testing and transfer oversight were insufficient—evidence that the policy-to-practice gap affected infection-control measures including mask use during movements and transports ^[3].

4. Whistleblowers and contractor reports contradict a simple ‘always masked’ narrative

Congressional testimony and contractor whistleblower statements reported incidents where drivers were reprimanded for wearing PPE and where symptomatic or COVID-positive detainees were transported alongside asymptomatic detainees, sometimes in small vehicles—reports that imply operational pressure, mixed compliance, and settings where masks may not have been consistently used ^{[4] [9]}.

5. Two realities: a policy baseline and uneven field execution

Taken together, the documentary record shows a clear policy baseline requiring PPE guidance and transportation protocols (ICE PRR and IHSC guidance) while contemporaneous oversight (DHS OIG) and whistleblower accounts document lapses and inconsistent mask use during transport—so the accurate, balanced answer is that ICE policy calls for mask use in many transport scenarios but agents have not universally worn masks in all transports in practice ^{[1] [7] [3] [4]}.

6. Caveats, alternative explanations and limits of the record

ICE materials assert ongoing review of CDC guidance and steps taken to mitigate spread, such as testing new arrivals and isolating symptomatic individuals, which ICE presents as mitigation evidence; however, the OIG report and whistleblower claims provide an alternative view of implementation problems, and the available sources do not document a quantified, up-to-date compliance rate or a nationwide accounting of every transport incident—therefore it cannot be stated from these records that agents always wore masks during transport or that failures were universal ^{[8] [3] [4]}.

7. Bottom line

Policy: yes—ICE directives include mask and PPE requirements for detainee transport in many circumstances; practice: mixed—inspector general findings and whistleblower reports confirm inconsistent mask-wearing and procedural lapses during transports, especially early in the pandemic and in contractor-operated settings, so the truthful, evidence-based answer is that ICE agents were required to wear masks under the guidance but did not always do so in real-world transports according to oversight and whistleblower sources ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.