Every day, in communities nationwide, police officers do their jobs with a high degree of transparency: The public can see the officers’ faces, badge numbers, rank and, in most instances, even their surnames featured on uniforms. Though many cops are forced to deal with threats and violence, there isn’t a police department in the United States that allows officers to wear masks or hide their identities while they carry out day-to-day duties.

Indeed, that’s the American norm across agencies, departments and jurisdictions. State troopers don’t wear masks. Neither do FBI agents. U.S. marshals don’t wear masks; sheriffs don’t wear masks; judges and prosecutors don’t wear masks; and Secret Service agents don’t wear masks.

But federal immigration agents, most notably Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, have spent much of the past year operating under a unique standard.

Much of the public is not on board with this. The latest national poll from Quinnipiac University, for example, found that 61% of Americans believe ICE agents should not be permitted to wear masks or other face coverings.

By and large, Republican policymakers don’t seem to care, though they keep struggling with the same obvious question: Why should ICE agents have the kind of secrecy that’s at odds with the American tradition, Americans’ attitudes and the standards of every other person who works in American law enforcement?

Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, for example, appeared on CNBC this week and suggested that masks and badges are necessary for immigration agents. “They’re known, obviously, to their supervisors,” the congressman said, as if that were helpful.

Pressed on why ICE agents are receiving special dispensation, Steil added that immigration agents are subject to a unique threat environment that includes being doxxed.

That might sound vaguely compelling, but the details matter. MS NOW contributor Philip Bump explained:

What the Department of Homeland Security has long argued is that this is dangerous for the officers. Assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents surged in 2025, we have been told. Agents must protect their identities in order to keep themselves safe from this uptick in hostility and violence.

A review of DHS and ICE press releases since January 2025, though, indicates that this theoretical scenario has never actually occurred. At no point in time has an officer been seen conducting his work, identified and subsequently attacked. While there have been threats issued against agents and incidents of off-duty harassment, there are no known incidents in which an officer was assaulted while off-duty because he was identified as a federal agent.

But while GOP officials continue to search for a talking point that stands up to scrutiny, spare a thought for appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, who suggested some federal immigration agents are wearing masks for warmth.

“It’s been below zero in Minneapolis,” he told Fox News on Tuesday morning. “If you’re going to be doing work outside, having a mask on is sort of a practical issue.”

It’s the sort of comment that makes one wonder: If Democrats proposed banning masks on agents starting in June, would Husted and his GOP colleagues consider it?

This post updates our related earlier coverage.