US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been accused of wearing Halloween-style face masks while carrying out immigration enforcement activities in Los Angeles, according to local reports. The news site LA Taco published images of agents wearing masks modelled after the horror movie character Chucky, among others. When approached for comment, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security replied: “Happy Halloween!”
The incident comes as part of a wider crackdown ordered by President Donald Trump, which has seen federal agents deployed to multiple Democratic-led cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. In Chicago, protesters clashed with ICE agents on Halloween night, with several people arrested during the operation. Video footage from the Chicago suburb of Evanston showed officers pinning two people to the ground and shouting at others to leave the area.
Evanston’s mayor, Daniel Biss, condemned the actions of ICE agents, accusing them of assaulting residents. “Just today, ICE agents have assaulted Evanston residents, beaten people up, grabbed them, abducted them, taken people off the street,” he said at a news conference. The scuffle occurred near a middle school and an elementary school.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker had written to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, requesting a pause in immigration enforcement over the Halloween weekend. “Illinois children should not be robbed of their innocence,” he wrote. Noem refused, stating: “We’re absolutely not willing to put on pause any work that we will do to keep communities safe.”
In a separate incident in Washington DC, police and national guard troops dispersed a group of people described as “disorderly” in the Navy Yard neighbourhood. Five individuals aged between 14 and 18 were arrested.
