(NewsNation) — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell is among observers who feel U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is inflaming tensions by allowing officers to regularly wear masks.
The California Democrat, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, condemns recent violent attacks on ICE officers, including the July 4 ambush of agency personnel at an Alvarado, Texas, detention center that left a local police officer wounded. But as the son and brother to police officers, Swalwell said, he doesn’t support the agency’s frequent use of face coverings as officers conduct public-facing duties.
“If they are standing on lawfulness, they shouldn’t be afraid to show their faces,” Swalwell told “CUOMO” on Wednesday. “No other law enforcement agency operates routinely the way that they’re doing, and it’s terrorizing people.”
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Told that ICE officers face increasing violence and the threat of being “doxxed” — having their personal information distributed online — the former prosecutor said the agency, under the Trump administration, was using face coverings from “day one.”
“You should prosecute aggressively anyone who threatens them,” Swalwell said.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has included workplace raids by ICE officers. The operations have become a flashpoint in Los Angeles, which has a large immigrant population. Critics blasted as heavy-handed a sweep of L.A.’s MacArthur Park on Monday by federal agents and military personnel.
“It was just like an assault, an infantry assault. They sent the ground troops first, then the mounted patrol. Then the armored vehicles,” said NewsNation correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera, who also criticized federal operatives for wearing masks.
“That is a provocation,” Rivera told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Wednesday.
Appearing with Rivera was Mick Mulvaney, a former top aide in the first Trump administration. He agreed that mask-wearing by law enforcement goes too far.
“American law enforcement are the good guys and the good girls,” he said. “You don’t wear a mask. Bad guys wear masks, and I don’t want to live in a country where law enforcement wears masks.”
