Since Trump’s immigration crackdown on Los Angeles began in June, local leaders and community activists have criticized agents for sometimes making it difficult to identify them as law enforcement officials or refusing to identify them.
Now, an unexpected new party has voiced its concerns: the FBI.
In a string of incidents in which undercover criminals pose as immigration officials and kidnap victims, the FBI has recently released memos that suggest agents are in the field.
The FBI explained its findings in a three-page document sent to international agencies last year.
In the memo, the FBI says that criminals impersonating law enforcement “damages trust” between themselves and the public and the public “partners” to show better information about their affiliation and identification when questioned while being questioned where they are questioned.
Undocumented immigrants and US citizens have been arrested by undercover agents in city streets, hospitals, airports and foreign schools and places of worship in recent months. California has banned the use of masks among law enforcement agencies, but on Tuesday a cadre of masked agents rallied around a parking lot dodger while carrying out multiple raids.
A man seeking asylum in Colombia was arrested by Federal Agents as he went to court in New York City immigration court.
(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The FBI memo, obtained through a records request made through the National Security Procuring Agency’s public records, was prepared by the New York field office and was first reported by Wire magazine. It details several cases where people impersonate immigration agents.
In Florida, a man pretending to be an ice agent kidnapped a woman who was in the process of becoming a US citizen. The suspect approached the woman on April 21, said he was there to pick her up and showed her his snow-proof shirt, the FBI said. The woman got into the suspect’s car and drove him to the apartment, but she managed to escape.
In August, three men dressed in black and wearing vests robbed a New York restaurant and stole its ATM. The suspects also beat the workers and arrested them. One of the employees voluntarily surrendered to the suspects when they heard they were immigration agents, the FBI said.
The FBI also pointed to an April social media post in which a person wearing a black jacket with an ice patch stood outside a hardware store to threaten hardware workers. A photo circulating on social media similar to the description of the incident showed the man also wearing a red trump hat.
“I don’t know if there’s a federal law that requires uniforms for regular police officers,” said David Levine, a law professor at UC San Francisco. “It’s good to practice distinguishing the distinguishing uniform. Because when you have federal agents dressed as ruffians, with a scarf on their face and their glasses in aviation life, then it’s very easy for people to do it for themselves.”
The FBI’s press office did not respond to requests for comment, citing the government’s shutdown by default via email.
The US Border Patrol March after a show of force outside the Japanese American national museum where Gov. Gavin Newlom held a press conference on Aug. 14 in Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
The FBI memo comes months after masked agents from Los Angeles and other cities across the country searched the Trump White House. Many undocumented immigrants died while trying to escape from masked agents during immigration raids, while others were shot while in their cars and many were beaten by masked agents who did not immediately reveal themselves.
Levine says it is a person’s constitutional right under the 4th amendment to ask a masked, federal agent to identify himself.
“It takes a cool head in less than a tense moment to ask someone, ‘What’s your name? I can’t see your badge?'” Levine said. “It’s impossible to ask all that when you’re thrown into the ground. But you have the right to ask.”
There have been many examples of people allegedly impersonating the law in California in recent years.
In April 2018, Luis Flores-Mendoza from Santa Ana was sentenced to eight years in prison for meeting with an immigration official in an attempt to extort $5,000 from a woman, who was reported to the police. The following month, Matthew Ryan Johnston of Fontana was sentenced to two years in state prison for making an ice agent. In 2023 and 2024, police in southern California announced arrests in two separate cases in which men were accused of impersonating police officers to conduct traffic stops.
But federal officials are sounding the alarm over Trump’s administration style.
Earlier this year, following a federal immigration raid in the central valley, two Fresno men were accused of sending immigration agents to local immigration agencies and taking pictures of themselves harassing local businesses. The Fresno Police Department said the two men wore wigs and black vests with letters on them on purpose so they studied “police” and “dealing with people in about a dozen businesses. The department said the men appeared to have done it on social media and declined to release their names.”
Raymond Cruz, 56, places a sign in the “no snow” part of the mural in Inglewood on July 1.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The following month, atty. Gen. Rob Bonta issued a warning to Californians about the rise of ice actors and scammers looking to take “advantage of the fear and uncertainty created by Trump’s deportation policies.”
“Let me be clear: If you want to scan or otherwise take advantage of California communities, you will be answered,” said Bonta.
In June, two local cases emerged that were included in the FBI Memo.
In one case, Huntington Park police arrested a man they accused of posing as a Border Patrol agent. Police said the suspect was in possession of an illegal handgun and copies of US deportation orders and a list of cultural radio codes to protect American interests.
Huntington Park Police Chief Cosme Lozano speaks at a press conference after a 23-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested by Huntington Police in a mock law enforcement operation.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
In another, Los Angeles County police arrested a man driving a police cruiser with reverse lights and a cocaine badge, who was investigating a pellet in his car’s badge.
In a statement, the property of the people in charge of Ryan Shapiro, said, “The FBI thinks that ICE has a PR problem in the migration communities because of the actors, while the Icegents Ice Capents are fighting for the daily campaign.”
The Department of Homeland Security and Fission and Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment.
Kash Patel, director of the FBI, left, President Trump, center, and Pam Bondi, during a press conference in the White House aval office in Washington, DC.
(Jo LO SCASZO / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a statement at the time, the Office of Mayor Karen Bass said it is unacceptable for law enforcement officers to work without proper identification.
“The mayor has supported federal legislation that would require immigration officials to identify themselves and make it a crime for law enforcement to wear dangerous clothing.”
Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses leads Hernandez, whose district includes MacArthur Park, Cypress Park and Pico Union, said that the FBI memo confirms that local people, as they do the challenge “, chaos and real danger.”
“Now even the FBI, under the extended administration of the corrupt enforcement of illegal immigration, has confirmed that when the agents do not clearly identify themselves,” the door is opened for violent actors to prey on vulnerable families, “said Hernandez. “That is exactly why I allowed the movement of the Council to require the lapd to verify the identity of the spokesperson of the law, and to strengthen the penalties for impersonating an officer, and it is a clear sign that this problem has not been taken into account.”
Still, not everyone thinks agents will heed the FBI’s advice. Even if agents were to begin explaining themselves during the sweep, the mistrust created from the depths of this summer will stay with members of the public for a while, advocates say.
“I don’t expect them all to start later by walking without a mask or start walking and showing themselves,” said Leo Martinez of VC Defensi, a coalition of local groups dedicated to protecting migrants and refugees in Ventura County. “More than anything, I think it’s a way for the FBI to put a little distance between themselves and the ice agents in the public relations section of the public sector, but not really.”
