Tim Miller and Sam Stein talk the shocking footage of NYC Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander being handcuffed by masked ICE agents for trying to help a migrant in court, just a week after Senator Alex Padilla was similarly handcuffed in LA.
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Can Lander sue Kristi Noem and the larger regime for this? I do not know all the ins and outs of the law here, but not showing badges and then arresting a US citizen were things that Lander said were illegal.
Also, Democrats need to have a press conference or hearing about the masking because this is also putting the agents at risk. This issue needs to be on Noem because one of these agents might get killed or seriously hurt because of the masking and lack of identification (it would be self defense), so it needs to be clear NOW that it will be Noem's fault if that happens. It has the benefit of being true.
But let's be clear, we are living in a militarized police state now--it's not 'coming'; it's here.
For Kristi Noem to call out the rule of law is just the latest example of gas lighting the public. The law says that ICE agents have to display their badge, clearly identify themselves and show a warrant to arrest anyone for deportation. I think they started masking when they got wind of the 'know your rights' education that was taking place around the country and the thousands of cards - credit card size - listing a persons rights that were distributed. Brad Lander was there to ensure the ICE agents followed the law.
The problem is: How do you know if they have the authority to do it versus they are bogus “agents” that have no authority to be doing this if they don’t provide their identification and/or the warrant? Obviously, they did not have a warrant and it was all illegal. I keep saying; these things aren’t abuses of power - they don’t have this power - they are just breaking the law.
They want to scare people.
Regarding masks, hiding identity is the point. Right? Facial recognition from Jan 6 sent hundreds to jail. Masks are future-proofing this behavior. Can't identify, can't eventually prosecute.
The backward baseball hats and paper masks is just a whole new level of scum. Wtf are we doing.
The masked ICE agents are cowards who know they are breaking the law and shitting on the constitutions.
Regarding the masks, Noem and the ICE director have said publicly several times that the "ICE" agents need to be masked because there have been "multiple" incidents of doxxing when their faces and names are known. By doxxing they seem to mean social media posts and death threats, but no one ever asks them to prove it. Show us the posts with names redacted. Show us when their families have been threatened. Show us when people have shown up at their homes or swatted them.
The public needs to know who is being hired for ICE -- former police officers? FBI agents? and how they are being trained.Are they taught de-escalation techniques? Do they know Spanish? Who do they report to? Contact your congressional representatives and ask these questions.
What is disturbing? Anonymous, unidentifiable men snatching people off the streets with no explanation in a violent manner, shuffling them to … a gulag? a prison in another state? ? with potentially no recourse by people who have demonstrated they have no regard for the law.
If POTUS’ biggest concern at the G7 was the fact that Putin was not there, one should not be surprised that his administration acts like Putin’s Russia.
Now, a warning to those MAGA elites, who still believe Trump is “on their side”:
1) “Everything Trump Touches Dies” (R. Wilson) - ask Elon Musk how Tesla is doing!
2) You might want to start staying away from windows, as many Russian oligarchs found out!
Unfortunately, there is no downside to this for Trump at the moment. His supporters are loving it and so is the press. They just say Democrats are on the side of the criminals. I worry that when enough people get angry enough to push back in a concerted way, Trump will start a civil war.
I’m honestly surprised no one has been shot. This is being done in the most chaotic and violent way possible. In regards to Senator Padilla, I watched him speak on the floor and he said that the FBI agent and Nat Guard escort that came in the building with him just stood there will he was dragged out of the room. They knew who he was and just stood there watching!
I haven't watched the video recently, but I remember that at least two of the guys that took him down had FBI markings (ie, the letters FBI lol) on their vests.
The masked ICE officers remind me of the Stanford Prison experiment
https://www.britannica.com/event/Stanford-Prison-Experiment
No American has to comply with a masked man who claims to be law enforcement. Without a badge, mask, warrant, you should be able to attack someone who grabs you because it is self defense.
He was accompanying the migrant. That is not to prevent them from being taken into custody. It is to help them through the process. Accompaniment has a specific meaning around emotional care.
Where is the judge? Can't the judge stop this?
Wow! I've never seen a political official be manhandle by people who are not police.
Does ICE subcontract these people? How do we not yet know the process?
Agreed! Contact your representatives and press for answers.
I feel like this is intended to set us all up for these type of raids in the grocery store, or at the soccer field…and get us numb to it…
Thuggery, plain and simple. We are quickly veering into the SA territory in Germany in the early 1930’s.
How is it we don't know who these folks are? Are they contracted? Is this a private contractor?
Need that pretext for martial law
These people are acting as if they have ultimate authority over EVERYONE! Any other law enforcement agent has ways to dealing with this without the roughing up. They are the gestapo! We need to find a way to stop these people. It's like these people are the ultimate enforcement for the trump regime and they don't stop for anything.
Hah, you guys wish with the rank choice. We're all voting Andrew Egger 1, and JVL and Sarah's dark side/light side group 2.
So which other groups do we associate with gator masked faces?: the Patriot Front neo-Nazis, among others. That’s part of the subconscious White Christian Fashy Nationalist association with masked faces…..
I haaaaaaate these masked assholes
What a shit show.
Why are we still having the breathless conversations about how law enforcement officers are masked, dressed like street thugs, with no visible ID? Do they have to show judicial warrants? Why don't we know?! Do you guys need to have lawyers on to explain? To reporters need to force these questions on the Administration until they answer? Why still confusion??!
Do these elected officials have NO recourse??
when they cover their faces it's like the KKK that forgot the pointy hats
We need to know who these agents are - former military? How are they trained? Who is in charge of these agents?
Yes!!
It’s interesting that we all talk about these tactics as though they are out of the ordinary, but the reality is that this is how they treat immigrants all of the time. The only new thing is that they’re treating US citizens - even elected officials - with the same contempt and physical violence they use against immigrants.
Someone who claimed to be a police officer murdered elected officials in Minnesota. If they dont identify themselves we should presume they are impersonating police
We need indictment for assault by so called Ice agents. How do we know these folks are not impersonating police.
One thing they could have done was answer his question and show the warrant. Of course there very likely was no warrant.
They’re the US brown shirts.
The masked thing has always been insane but after the fake cop assassin it is purely unacceptable.
I think we need to think of a symbolic way to protest this specifically. It's so fascist.
The laws exist to control the rowdy peasants, they work down not up.
Each week there is an assault on individual freedoms, institutions and norms. They will not let up and will likely be stepping things up. Just look back at week one and all that's happened since. It's critical that we not let up and even if it's weeks and back logs of court proceedings if we relax they'll simply ratchet it up. That's how it is with the current non balance of power.
Next week it's a shrug and " did you see another elected official was handcuffed"...
Somehow I was looking at some article and I ended up looking at the White House web site.
It is a glossy hinge to Trump and all the great stuff being done while always mentioning the corrupt (anyone not MAGA Republican) Democrats and previous administration that did so many bad things
These people are playing for keeps. We can not relax or give up in any way.
So, when another official is handcuffed don't shrug simply call it out another illegal assault by mast terrorists trying to instill fear.
I haven't seen a single proposal to fix or alter immigration. Just slash and burn and keep us distracted.
the dems are demons and they want show people how they are fighting against evil
The use of masks serves several purposes for the administration including they'd say to protect ice agents.
Masks and no badge or ID of any kind hides the identity, doesn't acknowledge the agency the person actually is employed by if at all bc they could simply be a contractor. Without a a badge number or name you can't bring a jaw suite or charge on an individual so the administration can play dumb... "we don't know the name of the individual etc" so even less accountability. Masks also are a method of intimidation, terrorism instilling fear in the general public. Like a lot if thing this administration does whether illegal, unethical or simply escuing the norm, masks at this point have been normalized so anytime they want to employ "enforcers" or to call in their "loyal volunteers/patriots", it's standard procedure for this administration.
Remember though, that masks are supposedly declared illegal if you're a protesting citizen do you can be ID'd through facial recognition etc.
Get with the program, fall in place and don't question!
How do we even know these are agents? I would fight like hell before I would go with these guys!
Stephen Miller and the Trumpist hordes express fears that immigrants are turning the US into a "third world country. " Plainclothes agents of a federal government wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves or offer any judicial authority for their actions are as 'third world' as you can get. So is arresting judges, indicting elected state officials, manhandling and handcuffing a US Senator and using the power of the federal judiciary to go after your perceived enemies. So is telling that same judiciary to find reasons to charge former members of your own admiration for telling the the truth about a previous precedential election.
Guys we just had a masked man impersonating law enforcement running around Minnesota assassinating democratic lawmakers. It’s COMPLETELY reasonable for anyone to assume someone claiming to be law enforcement that refuses to identify themselves to be a dangerous criminal and nothing else. This is madness.
I am fully against the masking of these thugs. Dems needs to take this administration to court to get it stopped. We now have people who are not law enforcement pretending to be. This is dangerous.
We've seen what happens when Americans become more fearful of law enforcement - the fear spreads like wildfire. I'm old enough to remember when American's fear of law enforcement turned on all police, even the good ones. Cop's brutality was despised. We used to call them "pigs" and it was a full on assault of them from the public - we were protecting ourselves and each other. It took years for law enforcement to overcome that reputation.
As well, these officials being manhandled need to sue. Hitting folks bank accounts works. I think there are an abundance of lawyers who will take up these causes.
Lastly, these officials getting arrested need to turn the table on the optics of these activities by using them (as you suggested Lander may have had in mind) as a tool to propel democrats into the limelight as the good guys and slam the GOP as violent thugs - they seem to like that look but the majority of Americans do not. This will add fuel to raise our anger against this administration for the next steps in assuring our democracy stays a democracy.
It is my observation that ICE is in need of serious reform, which is not going to happen under the current administration. So until there is an honest administration will to do the reforms we should just refer to them as TACO Trumps secret Chicken Hawks. There is no reason for low threat contacts, or especially, protestors to be met by unidentified, masked persons, claiming to be law enforcement agents.
Let’s just disband. Customs agents only.
Border patrol at border.
Nothing else.
Tim, Sam... bless your hearts. I'm getting the impression you two haven't seen policing in America up close? A great many Americans have experienced similar unnecessarily harsh, confrontational, escalatory behavior by law enforcement. If you're poor, minority, live in the wrong neighborhood, appear NOT to belong in the "good" neighborhood where you're observed... S.O.P.
True, folks in a comptroller's milieu aren't typically treated this way. True, federal agents are supposedly better trained & disciplined than Chief Gillespie's police force. Note that since Trump's regime deploys his forces in masks, often with no or vague/contradictory insignia, who often refuse to identify themselves - who knows who they are or what training they've had, if any?
This is The Show! COPS! Except this season the new bad guys are our neighbors, our elected officials, and eventually any of us.
What, me worry?
"It's beginning to look a lot like Russia". From a sign at the No Kings
"Elect a rapist, except to get screwed." Ditto
The masks have to GO. If you have authority to detain someone, you need to show that authority with a badge, your face, and uniform. That is why cops wear uniforms. That's the whole idea.
"...you have the right to see who is doing this to you." And WE have the right to know who is doing this to [the person]!
I doubt any of the secret police, aka ICE agents, were vetted, trained law officers. It looks to me like the net was cast for angry, sadistic men who can bring the muscle.
Trump, Miller & Homan are successfully normalizing the criminalizing of elected officials by putting visuals of them being seized and in front of the public at every opportunity. There's a more than visual message that when someone is being handcuffed, he is by visual definition, a criminal and by that definition, that the person is dangerous and that the government is just doing its job. They're normalizing this because they want to do it to lots of elected Democrats. It was easy for the Nazis to pass the Enabling Acts that terminated German civil right and liberties after the Reichstag Fire because the opposing members of the legislature had been arrested in the week before the vote.
Hmmm, I dunno. It’s a pretty bad look. It’s so obviously unnecessary. And the masks. Just terrible optics. I’m surprised Mr. Reality TV hasn’t realized this. I mean, I know they’re trying to scare people but they are also making a lot of people very mad. This is helping to grow the opposition.
The ongoing arrests made by thugs wearing masks and without official identification, will never become normal to anyone that understands the constitution or our historical norms as to how arrests are supposed to made.
If the interpretation of those who witness this "visual demonstration" is that they arresting "dangerous criminals", they understand none of that, and are either naive or too stupid to be reachable.
The democratic members being constantly cuffed because they call this out, will impact the ones that do have at least a grade school level of constitutional awareness.
Excedrin Headache No. 1933: Reading the words "will never" in 2025.
Correction: This can become normal to anyone that understands the constitution or our historical norms as to how arrests are supposed to made. Make more sense?
I must respectfully express my disagreement. These troubling events tend to become normalized when we witness a new despicable drama unfolding almost every day. It's important to recognize that when you refer to the "naive or too stupid," you’re directly speaking about Trump supporters. Seventy-seven million voted for him. They appear unreachable.
Maybe the word normal is the problem. The first definition means typical, usual, or a pattern. The second means a rule, principle or constituted procedure. I think you're using the first definition, while I am using the second.
I think we actually agree. Just got caught in a little semantic entanglement.
Aren’t these people coming to court in regards to their status? Or if they are being charged shouldn’t that be allowed to proceed?
Anyone else see the interview that PBS News Hour had with Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference?
I’m sorry but if you are a current ICE agent and haven’t resigned in protest of this on going behavior, something is wrong with you. You are way too comfortable with the inhumane and anonymous brutality to have any authority over other people.
Having worked with CBP/ICE daily for 25 years at various US airports, I can honestly say, this is who they are, this is always who they have always been
I don’t even know what to say at this point. I called my local congressman as soon as I saw the early video and asked about Padilla as another example and they’re just saying they’ll relay my concerns. We’re fast forwarding into an autocracy and I guess they’ll call me later?! I’m about as fed us as I can be now. I would much rather us work out differences as adults, but they don’t seem interested in anything close to that. How the fuck do you justify this and sleep at night? Sorry, but if you’re ok with this, then you are the problem, full stop. Thank you for the coverage and rational response, but I’m getting fed up with being rational with these people.
FBI agents don't wear masks. DEA agents don't wear masks. Local police officers don't wear masks. Only the pussies at HSI wear masks. It seems inevitable that one of these HSI officers is going to get shot and killed doing this shit.
Klansmen wear masks.
But not when they're on duty as deputy sheriffs.
Every single ICE agent needs to be held to account—they’re operating so far outside of the law and their jurisdiction, and there is so much video evidence of this behavior.
We need individual accountability from the bottom of the ladder, all the way to the top of this organization.
I hope that day comes.
I've reached the point where I am in favor of abolishing ICE. We need immigration enforcement officers, but the ICE culture has become so toxic that we just need to uproot the entire agency and replace it with new recruits.
I share this perspective as well. Normally I would consider dismantling an entire agency only to rebuild it again as wasteful, but not in this case. There’s way too much lawlessness and abuse of power happening at all levels.
We need to know who these agents are -- former military? Former police officers? Private contractors? How are they screened and trained? Who do they report to? How are they held accountable for their actions?
Fuck these Gestapo bastards. ICE should be liquidated.
According to Lander's office, this was something he's been doing for a week or more: going to the immigration courts to accompany asylum seekers. So no: this is not some opportunistic ploy to get into the papers....Landers apparently has been helping asylum seekers for a while now.
Thanks for sharing that context. I know Tim and Sam have to react in real time and don't always have the full context, but it is really important in this case!
I so appreciate their analysis. And their experience in the world of politics is very valuable to understanding what happens nowadays
They just wanted to see the warrant
They didn't have a warrant. When they have a warrant, it's the first thing they show you. And the first thing they say is, "We have a warrant for your arrest."
It’s theater, racism with impunity
That’s it, it’s not in ICE jurisdiction!
The reasons “Republicans” cite for the use of masks is ridiculous! Masks are secret police! It’s not Russia!
…. Yet!
They are trying to escalate All situations enough to cause a rebellion, so then they can squash us.
Or try to.
I agree!
Obviously no warrant, it’s called body snatching!
Possible disappearing...