A day after ICE agents swooped into San Francisco Immigration Court to take four people into custody, the federal government sent an unusual email to The Standard.
“I have a request to ask if you would consider blurring the faces of our officers and agents,” ICE spokesperson Richard Beam wrote Wednesday. “Out of a concern for the safety of our personnel I wanted to simply ask.”
Beam was referring to photos and videos The Standard published Tuesday, showing ICE agents loading a handcuffed immigrant into a van along Montgomery Street in the heart of the Financial District. Experts have called the operation at the courthouse a significant escalation of federal immigration enforcement.
ICE would “normally not make such a request,” Beam said, adding that he “fully” respects the media’s right to take photos in public spaces.
The Standard declined to comply.
“While we always weigh legitimate concerns around privacy and safety, we believe that censoring images from this news event would set a harmful precedent for the media’s right to report and the public’s right to know,” managing editor Jeff Bercovici said.
ICE later defended the request, writing that the agency “takes the safety and security of its personnel as a priority.”
As mass deportations ordered by President Donald Trump reach a frenzied new stage, the ability of ICE agents to operate in relative secrecy has increasingly been at issue. ICE does not publish daily booking logs, as local law enforcement agencies do, nor does it always share where detainees are being held.
ICE did not respond to questions about why the four immigrants were seized in San Francisco court or identify the individuals.
Some ICE agents have opted to shroud their faces as they carry out deportations, prompting criticism from commentators and politicians.
“Masked ICE officers and agents without clearly visible identification as law enforcement have been arresting individuals on the streets,” Democratic Virginia Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine wrote in a letter last week to Department of Homeland Security officials. “Such actions put everyone at risk — the targeted individuals, the ICE officers and agents, and bystanders who may misunderstand what is happening and may attempt to intervene.”
The federal government has directly targeted the media in other ways when it comes to immigration coverage. In February, the Federal Communications Commission said it would investigate San Francisco’s KCBS radio station for reporting the locations and vehicle descriptions of ICE agents.
ICE has argued that agents face credible threats. Earlier this year, activists posted names, headshots, and phone numbers of ICE agents in Los Angeles. In April, a Texas man was arrested after allegedly threatening to “open fire” on ICE operatives in his neighborhood.
“Some ICE law enforcement personnel are certified undercover agents and may be actively participating in sensitive investigations that involve an undercover identity,” the agency wrote.
ICE added that it asks media to blur photos “as a matter of routine” — contradicting Beam’s earlier note about “normally not” making such a request.
@nbcbayarea Federal agents this morning detained at least two people at a #SanFrancisco courthouse and drove them away from the scene in a DHS vehicle. #immigration
♬ original sound – NBC Bay Area – NBC Bay Area
It’s unclear how often ICE actually makes the requests.
NBC Bay Area blurred footage of agents in a segment it posted Tuesday but did not in several others. The station did not reply to requests for comment.
Bettina Hansen, a photo editor at The Seattle Times, said she did not receive a request while covering ICE this week. KUOW’s Gustavo Sagrero, who also covered the Seattle arrests, said that while he did not receive a request to blur photos, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson took issue with images he published of agents.
The DOJ spokesperson said in an email that a policy prohibits the use of cameras inside the immigration court, but Sagrero said he was standing in a separate hallway of the federal building.
While ICE has celebrated the arrests of alleged sex predators and drug dealers, it has also posted the names and photos of undocumented immigrants who have no apparent criminal records. Families of detained immigrants have accused ICE agents of “mocking” and filming their loved ones on personal cellphones. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem staged a photo op in a Salvadoran prison to which detainees arrested in the U.S. had been sent.
The Society of Professional Journalists instructs reporters to “balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort,” and journalists accordingly tend to protect the identities of children and survivors of sexual assault.
“There is the idea that we want to minimize harm,” said Stacy Scholder, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. “We like to think that we’re serving the public good.”
Scholder said it’s not uncommon for news outlets to protect the identities of specific undercover agents who could be at risk. But that logic might not apply to ICE agents apprehending people in public, she said.
“I understand the safety of their personnel,” Scholder said. “I also understand the safety of the everyday person on the street. Every news organization has to make their own call on this, and whatever the call is, it’d be good to share that with your audience.”