Were the ICE agents masked during pursuits of illegal immigrants?

1. What reporters actually saw: masked agents in the field

Photographs and news coverage from mid-2025 onward show immigration officers conducting public arrests in street clothes with faces covered, and outlets such as PBS and news investigations note that these images — of officers in unmarked vehicles, plain clothes and face masks — are increasingly common during enforcement actions ^{[1] [3]}.

2. The official rationale: doxing and officer safety

Department of Homeland Security and ICE publicly justify masks as a safety measure to prevent doxing — the online exposure of officers’ identities and home information — and to protect officers and their families from retaliation, a rationale repeated on agency FAQ pages and in DHS briefings ^{[2] [4] [5]}.

3. How agency leaders and critics frame the tradeoff

ICE leadership has defended permitting masked operations while acknowledging discomfort with the tactic; acting Director Todd Lyons said he is “not a proponent” but will allow it to continue to protect personnel, while critics including bar associations and civil-rights lawyers say the practice reduces transparency, risks impunity, and undermines public trust ^{[6] [7] [8]}.

4. Tangible consequences cited by reporting: impersonators and legal alarm

News outlets and legal blogs report a real increase in concern about people impersonating masked agents — several criminal impersonation cases have been linked in coverage to the broader trend — and state and federal lawmakers are proposing or pressing for legislation to force identification or ban masking when making arrests because of those risks ^{[6] [1] [4]}.

5. Scholarly and advocacy perspectives: pattern, history, and rights questions

Policy and legal commentators frame the mask practice as novel within U.S. immigration enforcement, tying it to a broader expansion of plainclothes, unmarked operations and warning it may violate norms requiring officers to identify themselves at arrest and to display credentials; organizations like the New York City Bar and academic blogs have argued masks facilitate evasion of accountability and raise Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns ^{[7] [8] [3]}.

6. Disputed facts and limits of available reporting

While multiple sources document the presence and institutional defense of masks, the reporting does not provide a comprehensive, quantified accounting of how often masks are worn during “pursuits” specifically versus other enforcement encounters, nor a nationwide dataset of masked incidents; sources vary in chronology and emphasis, and some official statistics cited in public statements (for example on assaults or threats used to justify masking) are contested in news coverage ^{[6] [3] [9]}.

7. Reading motives and public agendas in the debate

Supporters emphasize officer safety and operational security in a fraught political environment, an argument advanced by DHS and some lawmakers who also seek legal protections against doxing, while opponents — civil-rights groups, city bar associations, state attorneys general and some members of Congress — frame masks as a deliberate means to reduce oversight during an aggressive enforcement push, an interpretation that aligns with broader concerns about administration policy priorities ^{[2] [7] [6]}.

8. Bottom line answer

Yes: widely reported evidence shows ICE and other federal immigration personnel have worn masks during arrests and raids; the practice is defended by agencies on safety grounds but fiercely criticized for its transparency and legal implications, and coverage documents related harms such as impersonation risks and legislative responses; however, precise national frequency data and granular distinctions between “pursuit” versus other arrest contexts are not supplied in the sources reviewed ^{[1] [2] [7] [3]}.