As threats against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rise and fears over doxing grow, some officials say it’s safer for agents to keep their identities hidden.

Chris Cannon, an assistant field officer in ICE’s New Orleans office, said that while he personally believes in government transparency, the nature of the job makes anonymity a practical choice.

“Even though we are following a law codified and not generally changed since the Clinton administration, by enforcing those laws, we’re seen as imperial thugs,” Cannon said in an interview after speaking at the Alabama Sheriffs Association’s summer conference in Orange Beach on Tuesday.

“That impassions people,” he said. “They want to act because they feel there is an injustice. People get followed around. Now your kid cannot sit at the lunch table with other kids at school because of what I do for my job, which I think is very valuable.”

Unmasking efforts

Cannon’s comments come as lawmakers in several Democratic-run states are introducing legislation requiring ICE agents to remove their face coverings, called balaclavas. Bills for unmasking federal agents have been introduced in California, New York and Massachusetts.

In addition, California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla introduced federal legislation this week requiring that immigration enforcement officers be required to display “clearly visible identification” while engaging with the public.

The legislation, co-sponsored by 13 Democratic senators, is a reaction to reports in California in which immigration officials did not identify themselves as they went into neighborhoods searching for undocumented immigrants.

Similar masked scenes have played out during immigration raids nationwide, including in Alabama.

“All we are doing is arresting,” Cannon said during his stop in Alabama. “I am identifying and locating a fugitive alien in the United States … a final order is issued for removal. Either a government agency or judge said whatever path you are on, it’s over and you need to leave the country.”

Arrests have soared this year under Trump’s presidency, with numbers this fiscal year outpacing the arrests and deportations all of last year. The fiscal year runs until Sept. 30.

“You can see a significant uptick on what we are doing,” Cannon told the sheriffs.

Deputizing local officers

His presentation included a call for Alabama sheriffs to participate in the 287(g) programs, which creates agreements that allows local sheriffs’ deputies and police officers to be deputized to enforce federal immigration laws.

In Alabama, 13 counties have at least one agreement with ICE. They include Limestone, Franklin, Etowah, Lawrence, Lauderdale, Pike, Houston, Henry, Elmore, Crenshaw, Colbert, Cherokee and Marion counties.

The only municipality with 287(g) agreement is Level Plains in Dale County.

The 287(g) program allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE and grants state and local officers the ability to perform immigration enforcement functions.

While the program has been around for years, it’s gotten renewed attention in recent months as the Trump administration has ramped up interest in a mass deportation program.

Cannon, during his presentation to the sheriffs, said his ICE office needs personnel assistance. His office covers five states but has only 16 ICE officers in the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office in Alabama.

The state has four ICE offices statewide.

“We want to make one of your deputies and maybe more of them, mini-immigration officers,” Cannon said.

He later told AL.com that ICE does not have a large footprint in Alabama, citing the four offices and 25 employees.

“We don’t have a ton of actual law enforcement officers qualified,” under the 287(g) program, Cannon said, adding it’s important to get more counties involved. “A local county employee who is identified to take on that action speeds up our ability to remove the individual, which decreases the burden on the taxpayer we have to pay on feeding, detainment and medical care.”

The surging interest to deputize local law enforcement as immigration enforcers comes as ICE prepares for an infusion of new federal funding to support Trump’s immigration agenda.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, otherwise known as HR1, was signed into law on the Fourth of July and includes $170 billion in new funding to implement Trump’s immigration agenda. The vast majority of the money will go to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over four years.

The annual budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement alone will spike from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.