AILSA CHANG, HOST:
By now, some of the Trump administration's immigration tactics are well-known - swarming, federal agents, in some cases, detaining people by force or breaking down doors, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers seen wearing masks over their faces. But far less public attention has been paid to the apparent masking of the vehicles that these agents are using. NPR immigration policy reporter Ximena Bustillo has been looking into this and joins us now. Hey, Ximena.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So what have you learned?
BUSTILLO: Over the course of the last few months, NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner and I have seen several videos on social media of federal officers conducting what appear to be immigration arrests. And we notice that some of the video shot in states like California and Illinois, vehicles appear to be driven by federal agents, but they don't have rear license plates, which are required in all states.
CHANG: Exactly.
BUSTILLO: Since the start of this administration, there have been questions regarding how ICE as an agency should be operating and whether they can or should be concealing their personal identities, vehicles or uniforms. And we spoke with several immigration advocates who say they had seen arrests made using vehicles without license plates.
CHANG: Wait. But does ICE have any official regulations about this practice of hiding or not having back license plates?
BUSTILLO: ICE spokesperson Mike Alvarez told me that federal law allows government vehicles to be exempt from displaying government plates if that would interfere with their, quote, "critical duties." DHS officials have previously said that their officers are seeing outsized doxing and interference with arrests, but former agency employees still see this tactic as unusual. I spoke with Darius Reeves, who was a former field office director for the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Baltimore until earlier this year.
DARIUS REEVES: The agency clearly wants to appear like a ghost, that there's no way that the vehicles can be, you know, tracked back to a particular field office.
BUSTILLO: ICE's policy manual says the exemptions have to be requested internally, but the agency declined to confirm how many exemptions have been requested this year. And while ICE has been the agency to get all this attention, we can't be sure yet that ICE is the one operating without license plates. The Trump administration is mixing and matching federal law enforcement agencies, bringing on people from the Department of Justice, IRS and others to do immigration enforcement. And each has different policies and rules for how they can operate.
CHANG: OK. Well, Ximena, explain why it could be important for the public to have information like license plates.
BUSTILLO: Some advocates say that people might have different rights depending on who's making the arrest. Bruno Huizar from the California Immigrant Policy Center, an immigrant rights organization, said most people are just not used to interacting with federal law enforcement.
BRUNO HUIZAR: So people are more on high alert that federal law enforcement with their vehicles are on the streets and, you know, can protect themselves, as opposed to not knowing who this agency is and not knowing what their rights are in that circumstance.
BUSTILLO: David Bier at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said if someone can't find identifiable information such as a license plate, it can make it difficult to file subpoenas or other legal actions.
DAVID BIER: If you don't know the vehicle's ID information, then, you know, good luck finding the driver, good luck finding, you know, other information.
BUSTILLO: And he said that the lack of identification could result in people resisting arrests and less cooperation.
CHANG: Well, going forward, do you think this tactic of obscuring license plates will continue during this administration?
BUSTILLO: Well, remember that the administration wants to hire 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year. And advocates warn that as more people get hired and the administration continues a fast pace of arrests, there will be more and more encounters between the public and federal law enforcement. So it's possible that we see different and more attempts to mask identities. And if it's not clear exactly who people are and what agency this is and what they should be doing, it could sow mistrust and fear.
CHANG: That is NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you, Ximena.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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