FBI calls for ICE agents to show IDs

Memo notes a string of crimes by people posing as federal officers

- By NATHAN SOLIS AND RUBEN VIVES

CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times

BORDER agents in L.A. in August. Criminals impersonating agents have robbed and kidnapped people.

Ever since the Trump immigration raids began in Los Angeles in June, local leaders and community activists have criticized agents for sometimes making it difficult to identify them as federal law enforcement officials or refusing to identify themselves at all.

Now, an unexpected new group has expressed its own concerns: the FBI.

Citing a string of incidents in which masked criminals posing as immigration officers robbed and kidnapped victims, the FBI recently issued a memo suggesting agents clearly identify themselves while they're in the field.

The FBI explained its reasoning in a three-page document sent to police agencies across the country last month.

In the memo, the FBI says that criminals impersonating law enforcement “damages trust” between them and the community and that law enforcement has an “opportunity” to better coordinate with their local, state and federal partners. It calls for informational campaigns to educate the public about impostors and for agents to show their identification when asked while out in the field.

Undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens have been detained by masked people on city streets, in hospitals and courthouses and outside schools and places of worship over the last several months. California has banned the use of masks among law enforcement agencies, but on Tuesday a cadre of masked agents gathered in an offsite Dodger Stadium parking lot while carrying out more raids.

The FBI's memo, obtained through a records request by the national security transparency nonprofit Property of the People, was prepared by the New York field office and first reported by Wired magazine. It details several instances in which people impersonated immigration agents.