After months of saying that ICE agents need to wear masks so they don’t get doxxed, President Donald Trump said this week that they should not wear masks while working at airports.
In an MS NOW opinion piece from Jarvis DeBerry, the opinion editor described how Trump had reversed his initial stance on masks, and noted the hypocrisy of this move considering that law enforcement officers across America go to work daily with their names on their chests and faces visible.
And as the partial government shutdown hits the 40-day mark and airport security lines leave lengthy wait times — while TSA staffing shortages continue and workers go without pay — the move to bring ICE agents to airports has raised questions about why Republicans have argued the federal officers need to conceal their identities.
“During the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Democrats have demanded reforms that include requiring ICE agents to show their faces,” DeBerry wrote. “Trump’s social media post on Monday signaled to Democrats that talk of doxxing was always a ruse and that facial coverings for ICE officers aren’t non-negotiable, as Republicans have previously insisted.”
DeBerry explained how MAGA’s argument that ICE agents feared for their personal safety hasn’t held up.
“To argue that ICE agents are vulnerable to doxxing by showing their faces is to argue that all law enforcement officers who show their faces are,” DeBerry wrote.
And by saying ICE agents don’t need to wear masks at airports, Trump has admitted something else, DeBerry wrote.
“The president’s opposition to ICE agents wearing masks in airports seems to be his acknowledgment of the sense of terror and unease masked agents can evoke,” DeBerry added. “But at the same time, Trump asking those same agents to keep their masks on outside airports is an admission that he’s fine with ICE provoking fear and trepidation everywhere else.”
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