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EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is firing back at a Democratic Bronx congressman who offered a new-age way for civilians to identify immigration enforcement agents who obscure their identity with masks or lack of names on their uniforms amid civil unrest around the country.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said he is introducing the Quick Recognition Act next week, which would require ICE and CBP agents to wear uniforms that feature QR codes – the two-dimensional offshoot of barcodes that can link a concrete item to a website or information portal.
At sporting events or in restaurants, they often use QR codes to draw customers to scan them and open webpages to enter contests or access menus. In Torres’ case, scanning the QR code on an officer’s uniform would return their name, badge number and agency that employs them.
The White House said Torres’ bill would spur a “widescale doxxing campaign” and encourage protesters to “approach and interfere with law enforcement operations.”
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“This is all because Democrats want to defend criminal illegal aliens,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital.
“Surely this cannot be a serious proposal,” she added.
The administration cited DHS data showing ICE officers facing a 1,300% increase in assaults because of Democrats’ “dangerous and untrue smears.”
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Torres’ office, by contrast, was defiant when asked about such concerns.
“There is nothing the Trump administration fears more than transparency and accountability,” Torres spokesman Benny Stanislawski told Fox News Digital.
Torres also told the Big Apple outlet AMNewYork that the need is “urgent” to “unmask ICE not only physically but digitally.”
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While Torres told the paper he predicts some pushback from law enforcement, he said that scanning QR codes is safer than asking for an officer’s ID.
He noted that most other agencies require officers to identify themselves in their line of duty, calling ICE a “systemically corrupt institution” and added he will oppose any future congressional appropriation that funds ICE more than $1.
A Democratic congressman from Detroit who previously called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment upped the ante this week with his own effort to abolish ICE.
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Rep. Shri Thanedar said that the death of Renee Good in an ICE-involved shooting proves the agency “cannot be reformed and must be abolished.”
Thanedar said in a statement that since its inception in 2003, some legal experts have also argued its duties can be fulfilled more “justly” by other federal agencies.
“When an agency’s structure consistently produces harm instead of justice, there is no way to reform it. We must fundamentally change the way we approach immigration,” Thanedar said.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.
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