El Paso County Commissioners Court adopted a resolution to condemn what it described as heavy-handed enforcement of immigration by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The resolution calls on the local government to “support the American principles of fairness, justice, human dignity and equality, and due process under the constitutional rights that are the bedrock of freedom.”
The resolution adopted Monday, June 23, calls on federal agencies operating within El Paso County to maintain clear personal identification, clear identification of insignia of their federal agency and bars of the use of face masks.
The resolution declares “El Paso County Commissioners Court demands a clear, consistent, and constitutionally sound process for the handling of individuals — immigrants or otherwise — by any agency or organization operating within our jurisdiction.”
Commissioner David Stout presented the resolution for discussion.
“This is people being snatched off the streets and people being taken away while they are doing what they were asked to be done,” Stout said ahead of the reading of the resolution. “People are being ground threw the gears of an inadequate, and now more than ever, inhumane immigration system.”
Witnesses to federal courthouse arrests by masked agents came to the commissioners court meeting to voice their support for the resolution, including Deacon Sandra Jones from the St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in El Paso. They recounted the daily detention of immigrants and asylum seekers in the immigration courthouse and the trauma caused by federal agents.
“I watched ICE agents arrive, they were dressed in street clothes,” Jones said. “They were fully masked. The ICE agents were unidentifiable.”
She detailed how she held a family member of someone who was taken away by these agents as she wept. She pointed out that these people are not criminals and that they are trying to comply with U.S. law.
“It is kind of sad to see that the ideals that our forefathers put forward are regressing rather than moving forward,” Commissioner Sergio Coronado said. “We need to defend the rule of law and we need to stand up and we need to demand justice, not just from the administration, but from our courts, our Congress, because they can put a stop to this.”
The resolution comes as videos on social media from sites across the United States show heavily armed individuals with covered faces and in plainclothes forcibly abducting immigrants from worksites or following court hearings. The agents, often with federal agencies such as the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency or Department of Homeland Security investigation unit, have generated outcry for their lack of transparency and accountability.
Other counties in Texas, including Hayes and Travis counties, have adopted similar resolutions.
Department of Homeland Security defends use of masks
The Department of Homeland Security, which is the agency that oversees ICE, has defended the use of face masks by federal agents. Federal authorities say that the masks are needed to protect agents from being doxed.
“When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as police while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers,” a DHS spokesperson said when asked about the use of face masks.
“It is interesting that the media who are so concerned with our law enforcement officers wearing masks to protect themselves don’t say a word about the terrorist sympathizers on U.S. college campuses who cowardly wear masks as they do the bidding of terrorist organizations that relish the killing of Americans and Jews.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions asking about concerns over public confidence in federal agencies and a follow up question about the possibility of illicit actions by people saying they were federal agents.
The agency claimed in a post on the social media X that there has been a 500% increase in assaults on ICE agents. The post cites an article from far-right media Breitbart.
State governments moves to ban use of face masks
Southern California has been the epicenter of the outcry over the use of masked federal agents, most recently with federal agents attempting to raid a Dodgers baseball game.
But the state government is pursing steps to remove the masks through the “No Secret Police Act.”
Two California state legislators presented a state bill on June 16 that would ban federal agents from concealing their faces while working. The bill was presented by Sen. Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, and Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
The proposed legislation would make it a misdemeanor for local, state and federal law enforcement officers to cover the face. It also would require officers to wear identification at all times.
“The recent federal operations in California have created an environment of profound terror,” Wiener said in a statement. “If we want the public to trust law enforcement, we cannot allow them to behave like secret police in an authoritarian state.”
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@gannett.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Commissioners Court demands that due process is respected in El Paso County
Reporting by Jeff Abbott, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
