The FBI Isn’t Telling The Full Story About Men Impersonating ICE

In November, when the Trump Administration claimed ICE agents were facing increasing numbers of assaults, an FBI memo warned police nationwide of civilians impersonating law enforcement and damaging community trust. True, civilian men masquerade as ICE to assault women,  but that’s not the full story.

One man was charged with impersonating ICE to harass a woman who had rejected him—but he was an NYPD sergeant. Another New Yorker pretended to be ICE to assault and rob a woman. One North Carolina man was accused of posing as ICE to threaten, kidnap, and rape an immigrant woman. Among 16 other men arrested for soliciting sex from a minor in Minnesota was an actual ICE employee who expected protection based on his status.

Statistically, 99% of all rapists are men. But positions of authority specifically enable men to inflict violence on women with impunity, including law enforcement.

There’s no shortage of evidence here: drivers harassed at traffic stops, officers’ wives experiencing domestic violence, Black trans women, oversexualized and charged with “manifesting prostitution,” Black woman officers assaulted by colleagues, girls groomed by cops at their schools and youth programs, and women seeking rape kit examinations abused by the cops they had called for help.

Here’s what the FBI won’t say: Civilian men pretend to be ICE 1) because plainclothes, unbadged, masked ICE agents are easy to impersonate, and 2) because authorities have already normalized abusing their power to violate women and cover it up. Trust has never been earned.