Thank you for shining a light on this deeply disturbing and increasingly urgent issue. Many of us who observe and study these shifts are sounding the alarm — what we’re seeing isn’t just policy overreach, it’s the rise of authoritarian tactics under the guise of law enforcement. Masked agents, anonymous detentions, threats against bystanders — these are not hallmarks of a free society. We have to keep showing up, amplifying stories like this, and refusing to let these abuses go unchallenged. The stage is being set for something profoundly dangerous, and it’s up to us to resist before it’s too late.
A uniform and a badge are outward symbols of an understanding of the law and a commitment to upholding it. When black tape goes over name tags and officers seek to hid their identities, they are up to no good and the law should not shield them.
Why did it take SIX masked agents, who displayed no identification or insignia, to kidnap a graduate student off the street? I've wondered what will happen when an armed citizen intervenes in one of these kidnappings.
Trump has requested 20,000 more ICE agents, which suggests the formation of an unaccountable secret police force.
Isn’t the fact that a bunch of White South Africans have been flown in and offered asylum here while our fellow immigrants are being forced out of the country and into horrible conditions in other countries they’re not even from a bit worrisome? He’s building his militias and they are full of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, pardoned Jan 6ers, KKK, etc.! They will be deputized and given free range to get rid of anyone they want! I want to know why this isn’t scaring everyone!
ICE agents wear masks because they are part of a human trafficking ring. They need to be charged with kidnapping. In many states wearing masks is illegal.
Terrifying that people are able to justify anything that is clearly not normal. Police officers, swat teams & border patrol & judges have never felt the need to hide their faces or their badges/identification. This is NOT NORMAL that these people of “authority “ are doing so nor should it be allowed to be whitewashed. This idea of a secret police is real & being perpetrated. I believe we haven’t done more than scratch the surface especially with all the data mining that was done.
ICE is just the first step. There will be other paramilitary groups: internal military, MAGA brown shirts plus the trove of information stolen by DOGE.
Why are they hiding their faces and not show ID's? No warrant, I call the police. Show your face and the warrant and I will go with you. Literally, they are kidnapping people. Unmarked cars are another story. Since when have we been a banana republic?
In a couple recent instances---one in MA, one in TX---neighbors DID call the police, thinking kidnappings were going on. In both these cases, the police assisted the ICE agents.
Big stink going on about that in MA. People (relatives) in Worcester are raising a big stink. They want to know if they are paying the taxes for leo's to do federal work or are the feds paying the leo's.
Excellent article. Thank you to Charlie Sykes for passing it on.
The Hamas wears masks
The security guards at the prison in El Salvador wear masks
Russia has secret police
It’s a good question why are ICE agents wearing masks in the United States of America?
I read somewhere here on sub stack and saw a video of a couple in a car and some supposed ICE agents we’re breaking their car windows with an ax because they were too afraid to open their door. The article with it said that one of the guys was a pastor from one of these Mega Maga churches .
Evidently, they are taking it upon themselves in these churches to form groups to go do this stuff in the name of God .
The whole Maga crowd obsessed with owning and brandishing guns rifles AK 47s
the release of the January 6 criminals
Of course it was to have a private militia right along with Proud Boys
Oath keepers
3percenters
And whatever other groups were there at the capital
What happens when masked and armed criminals, without warrants or identification, start disappearing people into unmarked vehicles? If everyone assumes this is how ICE operates, how do police and civilians distinguish who is who? This is insane.
The country is trying to address lapses or wrongdoing by prior administrations. We are in this difficult situation as Congress is AWOL on addressing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are already in the US and are leading decent lives.
As for the masks, I get it. What might happen to an agent or their families if they are identified?? Those in an adversarial position have "SWAT'ed their homes, sent pizzas to let them know they are being watched, and more.
The Constitution allows the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended only when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. This means that the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus is not granted to the executive branch alone; it requires action by Congress.
Politicians, Judges, lawyers and prosecutors bravely continue their high profile jobs complete with pizzas and swatting. Right now we have Trump's secret police. Anonymity encourages abuse as in the KKK. These masked thugs don't even have official insignia so they can do anything with impunity. That is the shame.
If three masked individuals in odd baseball caps and street clothes with no recognizable id grabbed you, what would you do? Go quietly into the dark-windowed van? Or scream that you are being kidnapped?
More to the point, if you were a gang or other organized crime leader, wouldn’t you borrow this approach, make your kidnapping look like “just another ICE raid”?
I’m sorry, but law enforcement already hides behind the badge and the gun. They don’t need a mask too. If they are afraid of being identified for whatever reason, they should find a different profession.
Contact local law enforcement and join an officer on a ride-along. It opened my eyes to what they have to deal with, even with a traffic stop. It is well worth the investment of your time in your community.
That’s a non sequiter. You are saying that all law enforcement, including the security mall cop, should be wearing ski masks on the job because …. what…???? They sometimes deal with nasty people???? PS, I have very good friends who are retired big city cops. Yep, they dealt with some really ugly stuff, and saw the under belly of society up close. And they risked their lives, doing a job I’d be incapable of doing. But they were proud of their role and their responsibilities. Not cowards who would hide behind a mask.
You go first, get in touch with Homeland Security, ICE division and ask if you can be an observer on one of their "raids." Be sure and report back with their response.
If ICE agents violate due process, they have broken the law. If they capture ANY person in the US and send them out of the country, they are kidnappers. If they send the kidnapped people to a gulag, they are imoral.
They are lawless thugs, regardless of what you think about Congress.
Trump's Congressional lackeys killed expanding the number of immigration judges. These judges would legally reduce the immigration processing backlog. What is your position on that issue?
Congress created the problem, and they need to step up and spend what is necessary to address it properly. Also, agents are not all lawless thugs, nor are they all lawful saints. They are individual humans, just as you and I.
I agree that agents are human. They probably all got excellent training at the beginning and were proud of being professionals. The problem comes when superiors ask them to do things that are against their training and unprofessional. Military and Police have the same problem. At what point is it too much for them? At what point is their own personal line crossed? and if the morally struggling ones leave does that just leave the 100% bad ones who enjoy it, left? The "just following orders" conundrum. Trump is destroying the professionalism and pride of all of our services. We have a sociopath President who gives sociopathic orders.
I keep asking….who is going to stop them and how?? Have we gotten Kilmar back yet? Wanna take bets on whether or not Trump accepts the airplane?? At this point all you pundits and experts are just stating the obvious - we ALL know it’s blatantly criminal. And yet I haven’t heard anyone give any real ideas on how it stops.
I agree with you Denise! I think part of the project 25 plan is to kill elections. They'll come up with a reason why they'd have to cancel them. And I agree with Charles above you. We all know what's going on how do we stop it? I was particularly upset by Worcester Massachusetts. The Worcester local police department was called in and they arrested people trying to save that woman and her daughter. When you have the local police working with a bunch of thugs, where does that leave the private citizen ?
“Wait till 2026!! We’ll show em then, just like we got out and voted for Kamala in 2024!!!” Oops…. We shouldn’t HAVE to wait, Jim. There are laws against what is going on - but obviously no real system of enforcement. The opposition we elected is pathetic and ineffective; and I’m hearing NOTHING about how that changes.
They have all the chips. They have control over all the agencies, who, by the way, praise Trump so thoroughly that it makes me sick. They have the House and Senate. They have all of our data. They have the FREAKING Supreme Court who gave Trump all this power. And not to mention all the billionaires and corporations. The dark web and corrupt governments are throwing money at Trump because he can be bought. We are screwed.
You’re right on, Linda. Maybe the most frustrating thing to me is the Right basically announces everything they’re going to do - and the Dems can’t or won’t stop them! I mean, Project 2025 was online way in advance of the election…Surely Biden, Garland etc read it and could see the looming danger…yet they did NOTHING to stop it. Biden had the same immunity Trump has but Dems choose to take the so-called high road even if the country burns
It seems to me that nothing works any longer in this country, because the Rule of Law does not work any longer. Norm Eisen and Jamie Raskin and others are fighting the lawlessness with court cases, which they are largely winning, but will they prevail in the face of such abusive, brazen lawlessness?
Some people like Chris Murphy Senator in Connecticut call out this unthinkable assault on our Constitution in detail. But there seems to be no mechanism to stop the blatant steamrolling our Constitution, from this band of over-moneyed Thugs, starting with trumpf and musk, and extending to all the Billionaires who are gobbling and grasping with impunity.
And all the while Leonard Leo and Russ Vought and their ilk slink silently in the background. It is demoralizing and fury making beyond words. It makes one angry enough almost to want to kill, which is not a good sign in a Quaker.
You have identified the problem and hit it squarely on the head.
Timothy Snyder outlines the way in which Tyranny takes over, in detail, but resistance seems to be the only tool on offer we have to combat authoritarian takeover, in his book On Tyranny.
Even Stephen Bechschloss (America America) doesn't seem to have a really good idea of a solution, of how we can actually stop this unthinkable runaway train.
We are told to remain vigilant. But none of the people in positions of United States governance, it seems to me, the elected officials we expect to keep our government within bounds of normal operation of a Democracy, seem to know what to do, or to take any action that stops the blatant abuse of power that we all see going on.
The tyrannists, organized by the people (Leonard Leo, Russ Vought, et al), who quietly wrote and plotted since 1982 Project 2025, are bounding ahead with the lunacy headpiece of Donald Trump to keep us all distracted while the real evil doers lurk behind the scenes making the real moves and supplying the Billions and Billions to carry out nothing less than the total power grab by a handful of the planet's biggest thieves, the multi Billionaires in The Heritage Foundation and its satellites -- Billionaires whose end goal is total world dominance.
Think of what Lech Walesa accomplished with his non violent Velvet Revolution. He faced threat to his life and was incarcerated. His communist were much more powerful than Trump.
BTW, Lech's autobiography, "A Way of Hope", has converted me to be pro minimum wage. Solidarity!
Good! Glad to know you are now pro minimum wage. Only people who have never been paid that amount or less and tried to live on it could possibly be against it. Our income, in real terms (allowing for inflation etc) has dropped since the 1970s to ONE THIRD of what we earned in the 1970s. Who has all the money? The Billionaires, or course.
For the record, I have worked jobs that were sub minimum wage because of the small size of the companies. I have worked plenty of minimum wage jobs.
In theory, it would be better for the federal government to provide healthcare and income support, rather than making that the responsibility of employers.
In college, in Econ 101, I was taught that a minimum wage helps those who get it, but also it reduces jobs offered, so it's a net loss to the economy.
Secret Police are favored by tyrants worldwide … but masks are new. (Actually, new-ish—remember Seattle?) Couldn’t be shame … but perhaps a fond nod to those beloved Covid-19 masks.
Yes. American Gestapo. That is exactly what it is. Why dont we get a lot of the dead wood Congresspeople out of their cushy jobs and get some young motivated young (many brilliant) people wanting to serve in the US Government in their place?
People like Chuck Schumer are a big part of the problem, it seems to me.
People like AOC, Maxwell Frost and others are the people who will fight for our country, in my view.
Thank you for shining a light on this deeply disturbing and increasingly urgent issue. Many of us who observe and study these shifts are sounding the alarm — what we’re seeing isn’t just policy overreach, it’s the rise of authoritarian tactics under the guise of law enforcement. Masked agents, anonymous detentions, threats against bystanders — these are not hallmarks of a free society. We have to keep showing up, amplifying stories like this, and refusing to let these abuses go unchallenged. The stage is being set for something profoundly dangerous, and it’s up to us to resist before it’s too late.
A uniform and a badge are outward symbols of an understanding of the law and a commitment to upholding it. When black tape goes over name tags and officers seek to hid their identities, they are up to no good and the law should not shield them.
The law is not what shields them, but rather their guns and body armor. They are lawless thugs.
Why did it take SIX masked agents, who displayed no identification or insignia, to kidnap a graduate student off the street? I've wondered what will happen when an armed citizen intervenes in one of these kidnappings.
Trump has requested 20,000 more ICE agents, which suggests the formation of an unaccountable secret police force.
Isn’t the fact that a bunch of White South Africans have been flown in and offered asylum here while our fellow immigrants are being forced out of the country and into horrible conditions in other countries they’re not even from a bit worrisome? He’s building his militias and they are full of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, pardoned Jan 6ers, KKK, etc.! They will be deputized and given free range to get rid of anyone they want! I want to know why this isn’t scaring everyone!
ICE agents wear masks because they are part of a human trafficking ring. They need to be charged with kidnapping. In many states wearing masks is illegal.
Terrifying that people are able to justify anything that is clearly not normal. Police officers, swat teams & border patrol & judges have never felt the need to hide their faces or their badges/identification. This is NOT NORMAL that these people of “authority “ are doing so nor should it be allowed to be whitewashed. This idea of a secret police is real & being perpetrated. I believe we haven’t done more than scratch the surface especially with all the data mining that was done.
Amplify and bring it into the light!!
Well said. If their actions are normal law enforcement activities, there is no need to hide behind masks and unmarked clothing.
Oh, heavens -- they might be shamed.
Dare I suggest that if your job might lead you to be shamed, you might want to reconsider whether or not you are doing something that is immoral.
There’s no shame amongst MAGAites … but methinks they’re afraid dems might borrow MAGA doxing tactics.
Oh, you bet your sweet ass we will!
ICE is just the first step. There will be other paramilitary groups: internal military, MAGA brown shirts plus the trove of information stolen by DOGE.
Why are they hiding their faces and not show ID's? No warrant, I call the police. Show your face and the warrant and I will go with you. Literally, they are kidnapping people. Unmarked cars are another story. Since when have we been a banana republic?
Since January 20, 2025.
In a couple recent instances---one in MA, one in TX---neighbors DID call the police, thinking kidnappings were going on. In both these cases, the police assisted the ICE agents.
Which, in MA is not kosher. It is being investigated. In Texas? Please. No comparison - as for the police there? HA!
Big stink going on about that in MA. People (relatives) in Worcester are raising a big stink. They want to know if they are paying the taxes for leo's to do federal work or are the feds paying the leo's.
Maybe the local leos are afraid of the feds?
Excellent article. Thank you to Charlie Sykes for passing it on.
The Hamas wears masks
The security guards at the prison in El Salvador wear masks
Russia has secret police
It’s a good question why are ICE agents wearing masks in the United States of America?
I read somewhere here on sub stack and saw a video of a couple in a car and some supposed ICE agents we’re breaking their car windows with an ax because they were too afraid to open their door. The article with it said that one of the guys was a pastor from one of these Mega Maga churches .
Evidently, they are taking it upon themselves in these churches to form groups to go do this stuff in the name of God .
The whole Maga crowd obsessed with owning and brandishing guns rifles AK 47s
the release of the January 6 criminals
Of course it was to have a private militia right along with Proud Boys
Oath keepers
3percenters
And whatever other groups were there at the capital
It all is pretty scary
I want to know how many ICE agents are J6ers, Proud Boys, 3%ers, etc.
What happens when masked and armed criminals, without warrants or identification, start disappearing people into unmarked vehicles? If everyone assumes this is how ICE operates, how do police and civilians distinguish who is who? This is insane.
The country is trying to address lapses or wrongdoing by prior administrations. We are in this difficult situation as Congress is AWOL on addressing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are already in the US and are leading decent lives.
As for the masks, I get it. What might happen to an agent or their families if they are identified?? Those in an adversarial position have "SWAT'ed their homes, sent pizzas to let them know they are being watched, and more.
The Constitution allows the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended only when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. This means that the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus is not granted to the executive branch alone; it requires action by Congress.
May this all end intelligently and soon.
Politicians, Judges, lawyers and prosecutors bravely continue their high profile jobs complete with pizzas and swatting. Right now we have Trump's secret police. Anonymity encourages abuse as in the KKK. These masked thugs don't even have official insignia so they can do anything with impunity. That is the shame.
They should at least have uniforms or a badge showing, a good point.
If three masked individuals in odd baseball caps and street clothes with no recognizable id grabbed you, what would you do? Go quietly into the dark-windowed van? Or scream that you are being kidnapped?
More to the point, if you were a gang or other organized crime leader, wouldn’t you borrow this approach, make your kidnapping look like “just another ICE raid”?
I’m sorry, but law enforcement already hides behind the badge and the gun. They don’t need a mask too. If they are afraid of being identified for whatever reason, they should find a different profession.
Contact local law enforcement and join an officer on a ride-along. It opened my eyes to what they have to deal with, even with a traffic stop. It is well worth the investment of your time in your community.
That’s a non sequiter. You are saying that all law enforcement, including the security mall cop, should be wearing ski masks on the job because …. what…???? They sometimes deal with nasty people???? PS, I have very good friends who are retired big city cops. Yep, they dealt with some really ugly stuff, and saw the under belly of society up close. And they risked their lives, doing a job I’d be incapable of doing. But they were proud of their role and their responsibilities. Not cowards who would hide behind a mask.
Not at all.
You go first, get in touch with Homeland Security, ICE division and ask if you can be an observer on one of their "raids." Be sure and report back with their response.
If ICE agents violate due process, they have broken the law. If they capture ANY person in the US and send them out of the country, they are kidnappers. If they send the kidnapped people to a gulag, they are imoral.
They are lawless thugs, regardless of what you think about Congress.
Trump's Congressional lackeys killed expanding the number of immigration judges. These judges would legally reduce the immigration processing backlog. What is your position on that issue?
Congress created the problem, and they need to step up and spend what is necessary to address it properly. Also, agents are not all lawless thugs, nor are they all lawful saints. They are individual humans, just as you and I.
I agree that agents are human. They probably all got excellent training at the beginning and were proud of being professionals. The problem comes when superiors ask them to do things that are against their training and unprofessional. Military and Police have the same problem. At what point is it too much for them? At what point is their own personal line crossed? and if the morally struggling ones leave does that just leave the 100% bad ones who enjoy it, left? The "just following orders" conundrum. Trump is destroying the professionalism and pride of all of our services. We have a sociopath President who gives sociopathic orders.
End intelligently? Not when one’s opponent is proudly non-intellectual.
Where are the excellent lawyers on this, like Norm Eisen?
I keep asking….who is going to stop them and how?? Have we gotten Kilmar back yet? Wanna take bets on whether or not Trump accepts the airplane?? At this point all you pundits and experts are just stating the obvious - we ALL know it’s blatantly criminal. And yet I haven’t heard anyone give any real ideas on how it stops.
WE are going to stop them at the voting booth. Trump's Johnson will be in the minority soon and that should help a good bit.
You assume that there will be legitimate (vs. staged) elections next year, Jim. I don't for a minute believe that's a given.
I agree with you Denise! I think part of the project 25 plan is to kill elections. They'll come up with a reason why they'd have to cancel them. And I agree with Charles above you. We all know what's going on how do we stop it? I was particularly upset by Worcester Massachusetts. The Worcester local police department was called in and they arrested people trying to save that woman and her daughter. When you have the local police working with a bunch of thugs, where does that leave the private citizen ?
100% screwed, is where it leaves us.
👍
Denise - Once upon a time I would have read your comment and laughed "Oh! How silly!"
Not any more. .
I am terrified. I guess the only thing we can do is keep the protests up .
I don't see any other recourse, Elizabeth, as long as our elected officials en masse have the spines of jellyfish.
The absurd has become the everyday. The impossible has become the probable. We're living in interesting times---the Chinese curse.
The Chinese Curse is apocryphal. But Trump really is breaking the law. It is the duty of Congress to fight Trump, tooth and nail.
It's their duty, but it appears that the majority of them, R or D, have no intention of performing it.
“Wait till 2026!! We’ll show em then, just like we got out and voted for Kamala in 2024!!!” Oops…. We shouldn’t HAVE to wait, Jim. There are laws against what is going on - but obviously no real system of enforcement. The opposition we elected is pathetic and ineffective; and I’m hearing NOTHING about how that changes.
Agree. I'm growing impatient.
They have all the chips. They have control over all the agencies, who, by the way, praise Trump so thoroughly that it makes me sick. They have the House and Senate. They have all of our data. They have the FREAKING Supreme Court who gave Trump all this power. And not to mention all the billionaires and corporations. The dark web and corrupt governments are throwing money at Trump because he can be bought. We are screwed.
You’re right on, Linda. Maybe the most frustrating thing to me is the Right basically announces everything they’re going to do - and the Dems can’t or won’t stop them! I mean, Project 2025 was online way in advance of the election…Surely Biden, Garland etc read it and could see the looming danger…yet they did NOTHING to stop it. Biden had the same immunity Trump has but Dems choose to take the so-called high road even if the country burns
Stay in the fight if you can. If it's a lost cause, at least it's for the good guys.
If you can't, you still have my love, for free.
Most of the Democrats in Congress are in the pockets of oligarchs. E.g., Chuck Schumer. THAT is their "messaging" problem.
Good point. You ask who is going to stop them?
It seems to me that nothing works any longer in this country, because the Rule of Law does not work any longer. Norm Eisen and Jamie Raskin and others are fighting the lawlessness with court cases, which they are largely winning, but will they prevail in the face of such abusive, brazen lawlessness?
Some people like Chris Murphy Senator in Connecticut call out this unthinkable assault on our Constitution in detail. But there seems to be no mechanism to stop the blatant steamrolling our Constitution, from this band of over-moneyed Thugs, starting with trumpf and musk, and extending to all the Billionaires who are gobbling and grasping with impunity.
And all the while Leonard Leo and Russ Vought and their ilk slink silently in the background. It is demoralizing and fury making beyond words. It makes one angry enough almost to want to kill, which is not a good sign in a Quaker.
I think Murphy is doing an excellent job. But how do you suggest that we fight Trump's lawlessness?
You have identified the problem and hit it squarely on the head.
Timothy Snyder outlines the way in which Tyranny takes over, in detail, but resistance seems to be the only tool on offer we have to combat authoritarian takeover, in his book On Tyranny.
Even Stephen Bechschloss (America America) doesn't seem to have a really good idea of a solution, of how we can actually stop this unthinkable runaway train.
We are told to remain vigilant. But none of the people in positions of United States governance, it seems to me, the elected officials we expect to keep our government within bounds of normal operation of a Democracy, seem to know what to do, or to take any action that stops the blatant abuse of power that we all see going on.
The tyrannists, organized by the people (Leonard Leo, Russ Vought, et al), who quietly wrote and plotted since 1982 Project 2025, are bounding ahead with the lunacy headpiece of Donald Trump to keep us all distracted while the real evil doers lurk behind the scenes making the real moves and supplying the Billions and Billions to carry out nothing less than the total power grab by a handful of the planet's biggest thieves, the multi Billionaires in The Heritage Foundation and its satellites -- Billionaires whose end goal is total world dominance.
Think of what Lech Walesa accomplished with his non violent Velvet Revolution. He faced threat to his life and was incarcerated. His communist were much more powerful than Trump.
BTW, Lech's autobiography, "A Way of Hope", has converted me to be pro minimum wage. Solidarity!
Good! Glad to know you are now pro minimum wage. Only people who have never been paid that amount or less and tried to live on it could possibly be against it. Our income, in real terms (allowing for inflation etc) has dropped since the 1970s to ONE THIRD of what we earned in the 1970s. Who has all the money? The Billionaires, or course.
For the record, I have worked jobs that were sub minimum wage because of the small size of the companies. I have worked plenty of minimum wage jobs.
In theory, it would be better for the federal government to provide healthcare and income support, rather than making that the responsibility of employers.
In college, in Econ 101, I was taught that a minimum wage helps those who get it, but also it reduces jobs offered, so it's a net loss to the economy.
In practice, that doesn't work.
Secret Police are favored by tyrants worldwide … but masks are new. (Actually, new-ish—remember Seattle?) Couldn’t be shame … but perhaps a fond nod to those beloved Covid-19 masks.
American Gestapo
Yes. American Gestapo. That is exactly what it is. Why dont we get a lot of the dead wood Congresspeople out of their cushy jobs and get some young motivated young (many brilliant) people wanting to serve in the US Government in their place?
People like Chuck Schumer are a big part of the problem, it seems to me.
People like AOC, Maxwell Frost and others are the people who will fight for our country, in my view.
Great piece, I was hoping someone would talk about what are they hiding, and who are they really?