Michigan AG Nessel pushes for change to how ICE officers operate in letter to Congress
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined other state attorneys general urging lawmakers to pass bills that would prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from wearing masks to conceal their identity.
On Tuesday, the attorneys general after Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, as well as Sens. Alex Padilla and Cory Booker, introduced legislation requiring ICE officers to display visible ID during enforcement actions.
Nessel says she feels it's only a matter of time before people impersonate ICE officers in Michigan. She says allowing officers to operate without clear uniforms, often fully masked, is dangerous not just for the public but for officers, too.
"ICE is operating in a manner that is inconsistent from anything that I've seen in my over 30 years as either a prosecutor or a defense attorney," she said. "People don't know-- are these bad actors who are impersonating Ice that are perpetrating a kidnapping, uh, or are these actual law enforcement officers who should be complying with their directives and their orders?"
She tells CBS News Detroit that she feels allowing ICE officers to operate without clear identifying insignia and guidelines that require officers to announce the agency they represent leads to dangerous and sometimes very heated situations for everyone involved.
"In Michigan, in really all states, people have a right to self-defense," Nessel said. "Well, if you don't really know that, it's, you know, ICE, you know, you might pull out your firearm or you might use other means to try to defend and protect yourself. And that might be dangerous for law enforcement."
She said prosecutors in her office deal with dangerous people daily-- and they don't cover their faces when they do their jobs.
"There's ways to protect law enforcement officers if you're afraid they might get doxed. And there's a whole litany of ways that many law enforcement agencies operate, including mine, to protect their staff," Nessel said.
Nessel encourages Michiganders to film interactions with ICE agents if they can and not pull over for unmarked cars.
