In American life, a growing and forbidding visual rises: the law-enforcement officer in a mask

NEW YORK (AP) — In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents' faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable.

With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President Donald Trump's White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025.

The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Donald Trump's administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing.

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In American culture, covering one's face has often gone hand in hand with assumptions of negative behavior. Think bandits donning bandanas in cowboy movies, or robbers putting on ski masks before pulling a heist on a bank. Even comic-book superheroes who cover their faces have been swept up in storylines in recent years that derisively refer to them as “masks” and say their decision to hide their identities while enforcing justice is transgressive.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-life-growing-forbidding-visual-194525897.html