1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to express my growing concerns about heavily-armed “law enforcement”— purportedly from Immigration and Customs Enforcement—in military tactical gear, without IDs or warrants, abducting people off the streets and sending them to detention facilities with no due process. Without proper identification, there is no way to determine if these “officers” are actually ICE agents. These are literal Gestapo tactics—When asked for identification, a Gestapo officer was required only to present his badge, not a picture ID, so as not to reveal his identity while “disappearing” people. The masks and lack of IDs in these raids is not for the “officers” personal protection, as claimed. It’s to create fear. Fear of a faceless enemy sending you to a black site where you have no legal recourse. This undermines public trust in law enforcement, as is seen in the videos of bystanders protesting these abductions. In the United States, due process is a right, not a privilege. Without due process we have no rule of law. Have we, as a nation, traded Constitutional rights for the tactics of one of the 20th Century’s most brutal regimes? My wife and I urge you to use your authority as a member on Congress to demand transparency in these raids. Demand these “officers” show their faces and display agency and name identification.