A federal immigration enforcer’s tattoo that matches the description of a symbol used by white supremacists has caused some Vineyarders to sound alarm bells.
Islanders reviewing a video posted on social media by Charlie Giordano — who confronted federal agents while they detained immigrants on Martha’s Vineyard — have pointed to a tattoo of three interconnecting triangles on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent’s right tricep: a valknot.
The Anti-Defamation League characterizes the valknot as an “old Norse symbol that often represented the afterlife in carvings and designs.” While not a racist illustration on its own, the league states the symbol has been appropriated as a racist symbol by “some white supremacists, particularly racist Odinists.”
“Often they use it as a sign that they are willing to give their life to Odin, generally in battle,” the league’s definition reads, referring to the Norse god Odin. “Nonracist pagans may also use this symbol, so one could carefully examine it in context, rather than assume that a particular use of the symbol is racist.”
According to the league, Odinism is a “term frequently given to a racist variant of the Norse pagan religion known as Asatru,” which “attempts to revive ancient Norse religious beliefs and practices of pre-Christian Europe.”
The same tattoo gained notoriety following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Far-right activist and so-called QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley, famous for his outfit that included a fur hat and horns, boasts the same tattoo on his chest.
Reached this week, an ICE spokesperson said the officer in question had the tattoo before joining the agency. According to ICE, the agent was a combat veteran, although they couldn’t immediately say which branch. The spokesperson said that the symbol was used by some service members as a “tribute to fallen warriors,” but acknowledged the symbol had been co-opted by racist organizations.
“[The agent] is absolutely not connected with white supremacism in any way. ICE has no tolerance for racism,” an ICE statement reads.
While ICE has no written tattoo policy, the ICE spokesperson said the agency doesn’t allow its personnel to have gang-related or racially motivated tattoos. According to ICE, those hired by the agency undergo a “very intensive” background check through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
The Times could not reach the officer.
The tattoo on the agent’s arm caught the attention of several Islanders. West Tisbury resident Henry Tynes told The Times he recognized the tattoo as being similar to one worn by a Jan. 6 insurrectionist. Tynes acknowledged the valknot tattoo didn’t confirm an agent had white supremacist associations, but he felt it was important to note the “data points” of “dog-whistling white pride” symbols that appear around the Trump administration.
“The context for me is where he’s completely anonymous, but willing to have that symbol out there,” Tynes said.
When participating in the federal raid on Tuesday — where some 40 people were detained across the region — ICE and other federal agents concealed their faces with masks, hats, and sunglasses. The Department of Homeland Security, which ICE is a part of, had stated on X earlier this month that agents wore masks to avoid being targeted.
Dan Waters, another West Tisbury resident, said the agents concealing their identities and having “paramilitary” gear, in addition to the tattoo, “adds up to an alarming picture.” Waters compared the ICE arrests to the Ku Klux Klan’s abductions of minorities that occurred decades ago in Southern states, saying in those situations, people also took individuals off the street while wearing masks to hide their identities. Waters said he’s not trying to make connections between the two, “but you begin to see a pattern.”
Waters and Tynes approached the West Tisbury Select Board last Wednesday about the ICE operation on the Vineyard, asking town officials to address the broad-stroke arrests that took place. The board agreed to put the issue on a future meeting agenda, potentially on June 4.
Waters told The Times some Island immigrants are “desperate for hope,” and that he believes the select boards could make a difference.
“It was about the climate of fear that now exists on the Island,” Waters told The Times. “Our friends and neighbors from other countries are afraid, and this is not the community that we have built.”
Tynes said conversations are needed between Vineyard residents, police officers, and select boards to protect the Island community, particularly immigrants like Brazilian Islanders.
“Brazilians are as much a part of the Island community as anyone else is,” Tynes said.
Having lived on M.V. since 1973, I have experienced a few interactions with Island law enforcement, most because I needed help, some because of my own bad judgment. Except for a couple of bad apples, the majority of the time, officers clearly identified themselves, with names and badge numbers in view, treated me with respect, and offered a clear explanation for their actions. As a taxpayer , this is what I expect from law enforcement. I would personally be terrified if a masked, armed, man with no I.D. showing and no warrant or cause had pulled my car over, and tried to ask me questions, and I think it would violate my constitutional rights, which , as far as I know, extend to all human beings in the United States, regardless of their immigration status.
The MVTimes editor should not be doing a story like this. Pure conjecture, pure speculation and not reflective of good journalism. Furthermore one should study Odinism and Norse Mythology to understand what it means. ICE also told you he was a combat soldier in a previous life and the tattoo is dedicated to fallen soldiers. Stoking fear in Islanders is sophomoric. Walking downtown Detroit at midnight would you rather confront this man or an MS13?
This would all be fine if ICE wasn’t using immigrant tattoos as open-and-shut “evidence” of gang affiliation/grounds for immediate deportation.
If a tattoo means Juan is a gang member, then a tattoo also means Bubba is a white supremacist.
As a Black military veteran who lives on Island, I would like to point out how the media has hand picked the photos that they have run of the agents that were on island to selectively exclude the photos that have the at least three Black agents and the many others that appeared to be Latino to me. The narrative of ‘white racists came to our island to abduct’ our illegal workers has to be called out but the media refuses to do it.
Just because you’re black or latino doesn’t mean you aren’t supporting racist efforts or institutions. *turns up KRS-One’s ‘Black Cop’* up to 11* though I’m sure it falls on willingly deaf ears.
when their masks are off they are just vets who we “thank you for your service” – they served in a misquided racist war (afghanistan) and learned to kill, hate and get tattoos. sorry for them, sorry for us. the military trains you to kill, not think. this is where we are.
take the masks off.
So let me get this straight – an immigrant is identified as a member of a violent gang and taken away largely because of a tattoo that was not, in fact, related to that gang, while an armed, masked government agent clearly sports a tattoo that HAS been related to white supremicist ideology and we’re supposed to just ignore that? It may be that, as stated, the agent has other reasons for the tattoo, but c’mon guys, at least try to avoid the appearance of fascism. Bad enough that they don’t show their faces or identify themselves in any way…
Dissect it however you want. That dude is sporting a dark, violent, racist tattoo, and he is wearing a mask, and he is armed. I should think this has gone far beyond stoking fear.
Why is this person’s name being withheld? I don’t trust a single thing the federal government says.
This article is nonsense. The ICE agents are here to protect the public. You have completely turned the attention in the wrong direction. Shame on you for pointing out insignificant tatoos to men who have served our country. Did you even ask him about the rest of the tattoos that signifies the lives of his fallen brothers?? Shame on you for this article.
please see my comment: ed grazda
ICE is not protecting the public. The goal is to stoke fear and make everyone, including citizens, afraid to stand up for due process and the proper enforcement of laws. Our government under Trump has moved toward authoritarian rule. Anyone who challenges Trump becomes a target. People are being taken by masked and armed agents in unmarked vehicles and held without fair hearings. You think you’re safe; you’re not.
Just another fake news story. Come on Times, yo can do better than this.
Shameful fear mongering that does more damage than good. Why don’t outraged liberals put their money where their mouth is, instead of spreading conjecture and what-ifs. How about immigration lawyer consults using citizen liaisons, to start?
I don’t buy this liberal hand-wringing, moral outrage hysteria anyway. It’s all about a tourist economy dependent on immigrant labor servicing the seasonal wealthy, and also about hating anything associated with Trump dealing with our immigration issues. The Egyptian national apprehended after burning people in Colorado for walking peacefully to support hostages tortured and starved in Gaza, was here illegally after his visa expired. He came to this country during Biden’s term, after having returned to the Middle East prior to that after serving 2 years in a federal prison here for violating gun laws. Immigration laws matter, so stop making up stuff about due process, tattoos, and exaggerated fear mongering.
Respectfully disagree.
Liberal-leaning here and supportive of removing known criminals and deporting them to where they came/escaped from….
NOT supportive of the random grabbing of brown-skinned persons and deporting non-criminals without due process. This is happening.
There’s a lot to hate about Trump, but many of us are able to find some balance in these equations.
ICE agents sometimes wear masks for safety reasons, particularly when facing threats or during operations where their identity might be a risk. Some agents have been “doxed” and received death threats, leading to the use of masks and protective gear. The masks are also seen as a way to conceal identity, which can be particularly useful in undercover operations or when dealing with violent individuals or cartel gangs. You have no reason to call it ”brown persons” and illegals and known criminals are rounded up and taken to detention centers where they are due processed. Do you really believe due process should be done on the street while grabbing them? Do you even know what is involved in due process?. I was forced to wear a mask during parts of COVID and even entered a bank with a mask on. What is the aversion to a mask.? Do you understand about ”warrants and when they are needed and not needed. Do you understand grabbing criminals in public places vis private spaces? If 15 criminals descended upon MV in the form of a gang and visited destruction upon the community would you object if 15 tattooed police with masks tried to apprehend them?
Sorry Jackie, this isn’t about hand-wringing liberals, nor really is it about tattoos. It is about armed, masked men throwing people in vans. The Odinist tattoo just offers a clue as to why masks are being worn and it’s not because these agents, or whatever they are, are worried about retaliation against their families. Police and prosecutors in this country have been arresting violent criminals and gangs for centuries without wearing masks. You, of all people, should be able to see where this is going. And you should be worried now.
Scott. I am a proud Jew who is fighting antisemitism, one who does not quake in her Birkenstocks when liberal left Democrats dare to tell me that I, “of all people… should be worried now”.
Taken into custody yesterday by ICE were Mohamed Solimon’s wife and their 5 children. Hallelujah for all the goons with tattoos. Every last one of them, on Martha’s Vineyard, too.
If the radicalized Islamist illegally in this country had targeted ANY group other than Jews in Boulder, Colorado, every island liberal I know would have already changed their Facebook profile photo from 🇺🇦 to a horrified and mourning, “Je suis Boulder”. Instead, it’s just another day for liberals not to care about the their Jewish neighbors and instead be preoccupied with masks, Viking symbols, and who’s going to mow the lawn. Someone lights on fire an 88 year old Holocaust survivor while screaming, “Free Palestine”. 20 undocumented island immigrants, most with criminal backgrounds according to officials, are detained and may be deported, while slanders scream “gestapo”. Why doesn’t it register on Martha’s Vineyard that an 88 year old Holocaust survivor was LIT ON FIRE FOR BEING JEWISH?
Who are the Nazis?
Jews, of all people, know we are not safe and have few friends, but we have little time to worry over who will betray us next. You see, we already know.
Why is this behavior on the rise?
https://apnews.com/article/nazi-white-supremacist-guns-fbi-washington-2246cf68af02d592d192a9b52d8941e3
Why did trump pardon known white supremacists?
Like I said, Mary, Jews have few friends. Virtually everyone betrays us sooner or later. Surely, your link is not to defend your inappropriate comparison of a German being “gunned down” for “miniscule” reasons to arrests by ICE within the Brazilian immigrants?
Whataboutism does not excuse the rampant antisemitism among liberal left dems who continue to deny their own antisemitism in their ongoing false comparisons of politics they don’t like to Nazis. You do this frequently and I wish you would stop. It is wrong and morally so, as I have explained many times. The other day a liberal on here suggested that the 88 year old Holocauset survivor lit on fire in Colorado, and other victims of Jew-hatred in this country may not all be American citizens or without a criminal history, so he just wanted to point that out. Is there any length a liberal will not go to minimize and deny Jewish suffering? I couldn’ty make that one up if I tried.
And indeed, with all their bravado, where were members of ICE *before* the Egyptian national whose visa ran out in February as he prepared for a year to fire-bomb the elderly folks protesting the continued holding of the prisoners in Gaza? Seems they’re not as swift as they think, and perhaps not so color blind, either. He should have been arrested long before he was able to accomplish this act of terror.
Sara, Solimon entered this country on a work visa in 2022, under the lax, immigration-challenged Biden administration. The Egyptian national illegally overstayed that visa which he never should have been granted because he had a criminal history. ICE cannot possibly know all lone wolf radicalized jihadists with expired visas, but like you, I wish they did and wish the criminals had never been let in at all. It’s harder, close to impossible, to go after low-profile individuals than it is to target known hot spots for illegal immigrants, many with traceable criminal histories, like on MV. (I also approve the revocation of student visas of the foreign student terrorist-supporters who are inciting violence and illegal takeovers at our colleges.)
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There was nothing racist about having facts beforehand of which businesses have vehicles used by the illegal undocumented workforce on the island. ICE did their homework and we should be glad, not hysterical. Help impacted families with GoFunMe donations for their immigration lawyers. Americans, as imperfect as we are, don’t seem to know the basic difference between good and evil, right and wrong. Even the most horrendous atrocities are called “justified resistance” these days.
It’s horrible,. Accept that as is the hundreds of businesses paying cash wages at less than half the COL,no taxes except sales, non payment of hospital bills and sending most of their income to Brasil. Employers say Americans don’t want these jobs. Why should they when the wages on mv are no higher than most of the US. The optics are bad but this must be done.
The president used tattoos to show that his illegally deported illegals were gang members, even though his example proved untrue…see how it starts, metastasizes…There are tattoos for both scenarios. Pick your complaint, both sides can use the tattoos.
Republicans are in a position to try and pass any legislation they want to help the illegal Im migration problem.
Instead they throw away money to ICE, who is illegally pulling over citizens based on race, and then immediately arresting them.
This isn’t a solution. Throwing out a few throws and people here illegally changed nothing. It’s fascism. It’s a way to tighten control. It’s sickening. Any other country did this to American tourists and you’d be calling it a dictatorship.
Wake up, Trump cultists. This isn’t the answer. This isn’t American.
Just wait until all the Federal grants and funding dry up for ” sanctuary ” states. Then the real wailing and gnashing of teeth will begin.
I am horrified by the haters here on this island.
Protecting aliens that entered our country illegally while simultaneously threatening to dox law enforcement officers/former veterans is both immoral and insane. Criminals have no rights. LEO’S deserve our support and respect. Pray for LEO’S and their families.
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