In a video shared on TikTok in September, a masked man in a tactical vest runs across a street in Chicago toward a Ford SUV. More people in tactical police vests get inside the vehicle, as an angry crowd forms around it, yelling profanities.
"You guys are separating families," one woman shouts at the car, which is flashing red and blue lights. "And for what?"
The woman tells others not to come near the area because "la migra" is there, which is how some Spanish speakers refer to U.S. immigration authorities. But there is little to reveal whether the Ford belongs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency that is leading President Trump's push for mass arrests and deportations of those suspected of being in the U.S. without legal status, or any other federal unit tasked with carrying out immigration-related arrests. The car has no license plates on the back and appears to have no words on the side that indicate it is government property.
Over the past year, many federal law enforcement agents conducting immigration arrests have been concealing their faces under masks and gaiters when making arrests in public, in what DHS says is an effort to avoid doxing, or publishing agents' personal information online. Dozens of pending proposals across the country now seek to ban masking of federal policing authorities in public places.
Less public attention has centered on the masking of agents' cars.
But some vehicles being used in what appear to be immigration-related arrests do not have license plates, or have traded license plates, NPR found in a review of videos shot by bystanders and reporters, and those circulating on social media. The videos appear to come from areas where the administration has focused its immigration enforcement across the country, including Illinois, California and Washington state.
Witnesses and activists have alleged similar behavior concerning license plates in court filings and in media reports, while the Illinois Secretary of State, a Democrat, has condemned the apparent trading of license plates as illegal in his state.
NPR sent several requests for comment to ICE citing the specific photos and videos that appear to show license plate removal or manipulation during immigration enforcement operations. The department did not respond to the specific examples.
Immigration advocates say that as the agency increases its presence across the country thanks to an infusion of cash from Congress, untraceable vehicles may add to confusion over what tactics immigration officers can or should be using, and could prevent people from holding officers accountable.
"Most people are not used to interacting with federal law enforcement on our streets," said Bruno Huizar, policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. Not knowing the identity of law enforcement – or not knowing if the enforcement is legitimate – exacerbates lack of trust in police, and makes it harder for people to defend their legal rights, he said.
Officers who appeared to be conducting immigration arrests in unmarked vehicles were captured on videos shot across the country and shared online on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Eyes Up, an application that tracks where federal agents have arrested migrants. NPR reviewed all videos cited in this story and confirmed the dates of the videos and locations of law enforcement presence and bystanders when possible. When details couldn't be verified, NPR corroborated information with immigration experts, activists, and a developer for an app that documents confrontations with federal agents.
In a video shared in June that takes place in Washington state, a federal agent in a police vest is seen driving a black Ford SUV with no license plate on the back of the vehicle.
And in another video posted on the Eyes Up app, labeled as shot in July in a Los Angeles suburb, a blue Nissan is seen with a placard on the back of the car that reads "Lexus of Valencia" in the space where a license plate is usually placed. The vehicle is seen parked near others that federal agents were seen using while detaining a person.
NPR asked ICE to confirm whether these vehicles and others like them belonged to federal employees working for the agency. The agency did not respond.
In an earlier statement provided in response to questions about the vehicle with the "Lexus of Valencia" placard, ICE spokesperson Mike Alvarez told NPR in a statement that ICE officers and agents do not use personal or rental vehicles while conducting immigration enforcement operations.
"Further, per federal code, federal law enforcement agency vehicles used primarily for investigative, law enforcement, intelligence, or security duties are exempt from displaying U.S. Government license plates or motor vehicle identification when such identification would interfere with these critical duties," Alvarez said.
Appearing "like a ghost"
It used to be rare for ICE employees to drive cars without plates when conducting arrests, said Darius Reeves, a former Baltimore field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. He left the agency this year.
"The agency clearly wants to appear like a ghost," Reeves said. "I have never experienced this."
The federal code, or regulation, that Alvarez cited requires that vehicles used by government employees display government license plates on the front and rear of the vehicle – except when identifying these cars would interfere with investigative, law enforcement, intelligence, or security duties.
Federal regulation also prohibits swapping license plates from one car to another.
But ICE guidelines for agents on managing vehicle fleets indicate that operating a vehicle without license plates is meant to be the exception, not the rule.
"All ICE owned, or leased motor vehicles must display DHS or [General Services Administration] license plates, unless exempted," the guidelines state. To operate a vehicle without a federal license plate, someone must submit a request for a waiver to the unit that manages ICE's fleet, according to the guidelines.
In August, NPR requested to review all license plate waivers submitted by ICE over the previous year. At the time of publication, ICE had not provided the documents to reporters, though according to the federal Freedom of Information Act, the agency should have provided them by September.
An automatic email message received this month stated all federal records offices would not communicate with reporters about records until the end of the "funding hiatus," referring to the shutdown of the federal government that began on October 1.
Alvarez, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to a question from NPR about how many times employees had submitted waivers to operate vehicles without a license plate.
Removing and swapping license plates
Some states prohibit swapping license plates on vehicles. But photos taken by activists and a video shared to social media suggest federal agents are doing this anyway in Illinois and California.
A video posted to a TikTok account in October shows a man dressed like a federal agent who said that changing license plates on vehicles was standard practice.
"We change the plates out every day," says in the video, which was described by the poster as having taken place in Round Lake, Ill., as he walks around an otherwise unmarked black Jeep SUV with an Illinois license plate.
On Oct. 22, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias posted the video to X, stating that Illinois had "zero tolerance for this type of illegal activity."
"Flipping license plates or altering them in any way to avoid detection is strictly prohibited in Illinois," said Giannoulias in the video, urging residents to report similar violations to a hotline. "No one, including a federal agent, is above the law."
Alvarez, the ICE spokesperson, identified the officers in that video as Border Patrol. A separate agency inside DHS that has been involved with immigration enforcement, Border Patrol has been among the agencies tasked with conducting immigration-related arrests, particularly in cities like Chicago in recent weeks. Customs and Border Protection, the branch of DHS it is housed within, did not respond to a request for comment from NPR asking about their practice of switching license plates.
Activists for the Harbor Area Peace Patrol, a community group based in Los Angeles, Calif., have said they also noticed behavior that seems to contradict state guidelines about license plates.
Since June, the activists say, they have monitored federal agents almost every day as they leave Terminal Island, an artificial island in southern Los Angeles that has been used as a staging area for agents before they arrest migrants and conduct raids throughout the city. More than once, activists documented people on Terminal Island, a part of LA, removing plates from vehicles.
"We've seen that multiple times," said Elijah Chiland, an activist with the group.
Activists said they have additionally noticed that sometimes, federal agents left the staging area in the same car, but with different license plates on the vehicle than the car had on a previous day. And multiple times, the activists said, they noticed something else: Vehicles departing from Terminal Island were spotted with one license plate on the front and a different plate on the back.
"I've seen seven or eight different times that a car had a license plate that it didn't originally have," said Victor Maldonado, another of the group's activists. ICE did not respond to NPR questions about the allegations of license plate-switching near Terminal Island.
Mexican markings in Washington and Illinois
Some videos shared online appear to show federal agents making arrests using vehicles marked with Mexican objects or icons.
In the video recorded in Spokane Valley, Wash., where a car without license plates was used, another vehicle drew attention from bystanders. In front of the car without plates, two masked federal agents in tactical vests are seen entering a white Jeep SUV with a back license plate from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
"Tamaulipas on the license plate, can you believe this?" says a bystander, who can be heard on the audio in the clip.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment asking if this was their vehicle or operation.
A similar tactic was observed in a video that appears to be recorded in Illinois and was shared on TikTok in September. In the video, a man in a tactical police vest marked with the words "U.S. Border Patrol" is seen entering a silver Ford Explorer with a large Mexican flag across the hood of the car. Mexican flag stickers are seen stuck to the car's back and side windows.
"ICE using Mexican flag to target immigrants!!" read the words typed across the video, shared to TikTok, though it is unclear that anyone working for ICE is in the vehicle.
Another video shared the same day showed multiple men in tactical vests loading into a vehicle with a similar Mexican flag splayed across the hood.
When asked about whether Border Patrol agents were using a vehicle with Mexican flag decals, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated the agency believes its employees are not camouflaging their identities, though she acknowledged agents do wear masks to protect themselves from harm. ICE did not respond.
"DHS is not going to confirm our vehicles and put an even larger target on our officers' backs," McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions regarding current CBP policy for markings on cars including painted hoods and stickers.
Multiple agencies, few agency markings on cars
Involvement of other federal agencies in immigration activities further complicates the situation, said Reeves, the former ICE employee.
Employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Park Police have been involved with arresting migrants. But during arrests, the officers' clothing hasn't appeared to always match the cars they drive, according to media reports and NPR's own reporting.
In one instance, after President Trump deployed the National Guard to patrol D.C. in early August, a group of officers detained two migrants. The officers' clothing indicated some of them worked for the FBI, ATF and U.S. Park Police, reporters observed. One person wore a tactical vest labeled "police." Another wore a tactical vest with no description on it at all. A U.S. Park Police vehicle was the only car visible that was labeled with the name of a law enforcement agency.
Making arrests while operating cars that aren't clearly identified can erode the public's trust in local police, said Daniel Hodges, a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington D.C., which has also worked with ICE on immigration arrests in the city. Hodges was attacked during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"We've got to live with that destruction of trust after the feds go away," said Hodges. "Ethically and in terms of long-term effectiveness of our police departments, it's only detrimental as far as I can see."
David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that removing or switching license plates can be detrimental for another reason: It helps federal agencies avoid further scrutiny.
"It removes the opportunity for accountability if you don't know what officers were conducting an operation. There's no way to track back, 'This person was using this vehicle,'" Bier said. "It's unclear exactly how they track these actions. So it could genuinely be impossible to ever determine who was involved and in what operation."
Bier said not knowing which agency or people are involved in an arrest can make it difficult for Congress or lawyers to investigate specific claims if officers are accused of violating people's rights.
"Of course, if you're being charged with a crime or being arrested or detained, you have a right to know who is leveling this charge against you, who's claiming that you violated the law," Bier said. "These are all basic principles of liberal democracy that we've just taken for granted."
Nick McMillan contributed reporting.
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