They arrived just before dawn on Thursday morning in vans on the quiet streets under the cover of helicopters flying low overhead.
Out of their vehicles stepped agents resembling soldiers, clad head to toe in camouflaged body armor, wearing helmets, and brandishing long guns. They looked ready for war in hostile enemy territory. The menacing sight would certainly send civilians running for cover in fear and give pause to anyone who dared to resist.
Is this a scene out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, or Venezuela? No.
The agents were none other than members later identified as Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officials. HSI has been working alongside of ICE in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
On Thursday, Dec. 4, they came to Jackson Heights with a startling show of force to make an arrest of two Spanish-speaking individuals. Along with their body armor and camouflage, these agents wore masks concealing their faces, and they had bulletproof vests with patches bearing the word “POLICE” — though the NYPD itself was not part of the operation, as sources told amNewYork.
There has been no evidence presented publicly to suggest that this immigration operation required such a massive show of force on the federal agents’ part. So what was the point of all this?
Why can’t ICE and HSI operate with the same sense of duty and civic responsibility as the NYPD?
The NYPD has had its issues in recent years, but you don’t often see every officer wearing masks to hide their true identities from everyone they encounter. You don’t see cops on every corner carrying long guns. And you don’t see these officers armed to the teeth swooping into a neighborhood in the dead of night, pulling people from their homes for immigration discrepancies.
New York City is the safest big city in America, on track to have the fewest shootings and homicides on record this year. It’s no accident. The NYPD follows the law and upholds it, and does so without resorting to using sledgehammers to squash flies.
Enough is enough. ICE and HSI need to stand down and abandon their overmilitarized tactics. If the NYPD can keep the city safe without such brazen aggression, so can they.
If ICE and HSI cannot accomplish their mission without resorting to such aggression, then it’s time to ask: Of what use is this mission? What good does it serve? And why must we subject ourselves to its continuance?
