Professor Chin Talks to HuffPost About Federal Agents and Masks

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin spoke to the HuffPost for a Jan. 30 story in which reporter Brittany Wong posed the question of whether unmasking federal immigration agents would make them less aggressive.

Wong posed the question after a second Minneapolis resident, Alex Pretti, had been fatally shot by federal agents.

Chin discussed the legal history of officers being compelled to reveal their identities. He concluded that masks federal agents wear are just part of the story.

“Masking may play a role in the overall approach and aggression,” he said, “but many other factors matter as well — including leadership decisions about operations, guidance the officers are given about the scope of their authority, the unpopularity of their work, and the force they’re permitted to use.”

Chin is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and holder of the Edward L. Barrett Jr. Endowed Chair at UC Davis School of Law. He is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.