When presenting the VISIBLE bill in the United States Senate, which seeks to require immigration agents to identify themselves during immigration raids, Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California said that it is an important step in holding the Donald Trump administration accountable for the abuses of power.

Getting this measure passed seems complicated because the Senate and House of Representatives are controlled by Republicans.

“It will be a bit difficult, but it is a necessary measure to maintain public trust. In addition, these requirements already apply to other agents of federal departments, state officials, and local police, and it has worked without any risk,” said the senator in a brief interview with La Opinion.

The massive immigration operations that the Trump Administration has deployed since June 6 have generated widespread repudiation not only for the arrest of immigrant workers but because the agents present themselves with their faces covered to hide their identity.

“This measure must be approved because if the agents do not identify themselves, people can react violently because they do not know if it is an officer or someone pretending to be them,” commented Senator Padilla.

He affirmed that the complaints of so many people, spouses, parents, and children arrested by masked individuals, motivated him to introduce the VISIBLE Act, which prohibits ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents from wearing masks to hide their identity and requires them to publicly display their name and badge number to the agency they work for. The VISIBLE Act (Visible Identification Standards for Immigration Enforcement) does three things: Senator Padilla introduced this bill with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. For weeks, “Americans have seen federal agents without visible identification detain people in the streets and instill fear in communities across the country,” said Senator Booker.

He explained that reports of people posing as ICE agents have only increased the risk to public safety and that of agents.

“The lack of visible identification and uniform standards for immigration agents has generated confusion, fueled fear, and undermined public confidence in law enforcement.”

Senator Padilla said that the incident he suffered on June 12 when he was forcibly removed, knocked to the ground, and handcuffed by Secret Service agents while trying to ask a question to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, at a press conference in a federal building, has made him feel more encouraged to defend immigrants and their families.

“More than ever, I am motivated to continue working for the immigrant community, whether from Washington or in California.”

A motivation that has grown even after the approval of the federal Bonita Act, which allocates a multi-million dollar budget for the arrest of immigrants, and after the operation mounted in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on July 7.

“We are talking about a budget for ICE without changes to its policies, and that what happened in MacArthur Park was pure spectacle without any arrests. It was all about generating social media content for a president who doesn't care about the country's progress." When asked about the community's demand for greater Democratic leadership to defend the immigrant community, and whether he will lead the demonstrations, he said he has done so for more than 25 years, and will do so with even more enthusiasm in these difficult times we are living in. "We must keep the faith and continue organizing to defend our rights," he said. Continued immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles County, carried out by unidentified federal agents, have generated fear and uncertainty throughout the region in the face of President Trump's unprecedented escalation of militarized tactics. Recently, at Dodger Stadium, plainclothes immigration agents parked outside the stadium without identifying themselves. In Bell, masked and uniformed agents detained at least three people at a car wash, and in Pasadena, an agent He got out of an unmarked vehicle in the middle of the street and pointed his gun at a group of pedestrians without identifying himself.

From June 6 to 22, immigration enforcement agents, many of them without identification, arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in and around Los Angeles County.

The VISIBLE Act does not apply to covert or non-public operations, nor does it prohibit the use of masks when necessary for officer safety. It also does not apply to law enforcement actions conducted solely under criminal authority.

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