Updated July 22, 2025 at 5:27 PM EDT
Editor's note: Some of the video descriptions in this story depict violent arrests.
A man lies pinned in the middle of the road, groaning in pain. He's surrounded by men in tactical gear marked "Police," their faces covered by masks and dark sunglasses. One officer punches him repeatedly in the head.
Outside a courthouse in San Antonio, a woman and her 3-year-old son are led away by men in plainclothes with their faces obscured. Her husband calls out, "My wife, my son," in Spanish.
These scenes have been captured in various videos posted online by firsthand witnesses of the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration across several U.S. cities.
The arrests follow a pattern: masked agents, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal officers assigned to work with ICE, wearing plainclothes and sometimes arriving in unmarked vehicles. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told NPR that agents are covering their faces to protect themselves from doxing and increasing threats. But civil rights groups and legal advocates say it's creating fear and undermining public trust.
"It may well be a reason for masking if you are engaged in a clandestine operation against an organized drug ring or a well-armed gang of some sort," said Stephen Kass, a member of the New York City Bar Association, which last month criticized agents for obscuring their identities through masking. "But that's not what's happening here."
Kass is referring to arrests like the one that Job Garcia witnessed at a Home Depot in Hollywood, Calif.
Garcia, a 37-year-old photographer and Ph.D. student at Claremont Graduate University, had just left the store when he saw men surround a box truck with a Latino man in the driver's seat. Some wore vests that read "POLICE — U.S. BORDER PATROL," and their faces were covered.
Then, one smashed the truck's window.
"Hey, no les abra! Yo, are you f***ing serious, bro?" Garcia is heard yelling in the video he recorded, in which he warns the driver in Spanish to not open his door.
When he stepped closer to film, Garcia says, agents shoved him to the ground.
"Get down! Get him down!" one shouted.
Garcia was detained for more than 24 hours. He said he was never told why, despite repeatedly stating he was born and raised in Los Angeles.
"They never said what I was being detained for," he said.
Garcia said he recorded agents because he "knew what these supposed ICE agents were doing was wrong, was unlawful," adding that he wanted them held accountable for how they were going about their arrests.
"When you have masks on, you will look a little bit more terrifying. And I think what they were trying to do is inflict terror in the community," he said.
Garcia believes the agents appeared to single him out because he's Latino.
"They saw my appearance as a threat because there were also other white bystanders who were yelling at them. And they didn't go after them."
He's now suing DHS and seeking $1 million in recompense, alleging he was targeted for speaking up.
"What they're doing is actual terror, and the pain they're inflicting on the community is huge. Stripping people from their families — this is beyond politics. This is harming actual human beings."
Garcia is being represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
"There weren't warrants presented by these Border Patrol or ICE agents to the individuals in the parking lot," said MALDEF's Ernest Herrera. "A place where predominantly Latino workers or workers of Latin American origin were seeking work. And they were, we believe, profiled because of that."
Herrera believes Garcia was also being profiled.
McLaughlin of DHS pushed back on those claims.
"It's disgusting that he's going to charge these men and women as if there is some sort of profiling going on," McLaughlin said.
She said Garcia was arrested because "he assaulted a Border Patrol officer and was actively, verbally harassing them. So it had nothing to do with his citizenship. It's the fact that he's actually going forth and assaulting [a] law enforcement officer."
When asked why Garcia says he was not given an explanation for his arrest or release, McLaughlin said, "He was arrested — I'm happy to share this specific information with you."
She added, "We have evidence that he did" allegedly assault agents. DHS did not provide NPR with evidence upon request.
McLaughlin also denied reports that ICE agents who wear masks are failing to identify themselves.
"I've been on a number of these operations," she said. "They are wearing vests that say ICE or ERO, which is the enforcement arm of ICE or Homeland Security Investigations. They clearly verbally identify themselves. And they also are flanked by vehicles that also say 'Homeland Security.'"
When asked about federal regulations that require officers to identify themselves, McLaughlin said masking is about safety.
"These are men and women who [are] being doxed online. We know that people take video of the operations as they're ongoing. Law enforcement. Their families have been targeted. Their personal addresses and information have been put on sites like Reddit and other online chat forums for people to target them," McLaughlin said.
Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey have introduced legislation that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks during arrests. In June, Padilla was forcefully removed by federal agents from a news conference in Los Angeles while attempting to question DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the Trump administration's decision to send in the National Guard to the city.
Kass, of the New York City Bar Association, said his group has other safety concerns.
"It also encourages violence," he said. "In many states, people are allowed to carry guns. They're also allowed to stand their ground when they're accosted by threatening strangers. This is an invitation for somebody to shoot back."
And, he added, it risks abuse.
"Once they are masked, they do not feel accountable because they do not feel they will be identified."
There have been scattered reports of people impersonating immigration agents. In Philadelphia, police said a man with a gun and a fake badge robbed an auto shop while claiming to be with ICE. In North Carolina, another man allegedly posed as an agent and forced a woman to have sex under threat of deportation. DHS says it is investigating those reports.
As for Garcia, he says life hasn't been the same since the arrest. He worries most about his mother, a U.S. citizen who has lived in the United States for four decades and doesn't speak English well.
"We don't allow her to go out anymore by herself. Not without one of us with her." He says fear has taken hold in his community, especially among the most vulnerable. "People are just staying home altogether and not coming out." He describes feeling othered in his own country.
Speaking out and suing, he says, is his way of taking back some power.
The digital version was adapted and produced by Majd Al-Waheidi, and edited by Obed Manuel.
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