President Donald Trump defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who cover their faces during operations, arguing on 9 July that critics apply a double standard by tolerating masked protesters on Ivy League campuses while condemning masked federal agents. Trump said Democrats object to the practice because “they have a lot of bad things going on in their heads.” The remarks rekindled scrutiny of immigration-enforcement tactics. Commentators across the political spectrum faulted ICE and Customs and Border Protection for allowing agents to operate in plain clothes and balaclavas, saying the anonymity undermines accountability and evokes images of secret police. That criticism intensified on 17 July when the United Church of Christ—one of the country’s larger mainline Protestant denominations—voted 627–8 to label such masked ICE raids “domestic terrorism.” The church’s resolution condemned the administration’s use of unidentifiable agents, called for divestment from private detention companies and urged greater protection of immigrants’ due-process rights. Separately, an investigation published 16 July by The Intercept revealed that CBP’s official grooming standards allow agents to keep gang-related tattoos, provided the markings are covered while on duty. Advocates said the rule illustrates a double standard, noting that several asylum-seekers were deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison partly because officials deemed their visible tattoos evidence of gang membership. The debate is feeding legislative proposals such as California’s “No Secret Police Act,” which would bar law-enforcement officers from concealing their identities. Civil-rights groups say federal agencies will face growing pressure—from lawmakers, churches and the public—to either drop the masks or adopt clearer safeguards for identifying officers in the field.