A federal judge on Monday blocked a California law from going into effect that would ban federal immigration agents from covering their faces, but they will still be required to wear clear identification showing their agency and badge number.
California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings under a bill that was signed by Gavin Newsom, the governor, in September, following last summer’s high-profile raids by ICE officers in Los Angeles.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in November challenging the law, arguing it would threaten the safety of officers who are facing harassment, doxing, and violence. The Department of Justice claimed the law violated the constitution because California would be directly regulating the federal government. The agency argued that federal officers should be able to choose a whether to wear a face covering.
“Denying federal agencies and officers that choice would chill federal law enforcement and deter applicants for law enforcement positions,” the justice department wrote in its lawsuit.
Judge Christina Snyder said she issued the initial ruling because the mask ban as it was enacted did not also apply to state and local law enforcement authorities, thus it discriminated against the federal government.
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, called the ruling a “key court victory” in a post on social media, saying federal agents are “attacked on a regular basis just for doing their jobs”. She added that the justice department “will ALWAYS have the backs of our great federal law enforcement officers”.
Scott Weiner, the California state senator who proposed the original bill to ban facial coverings, said he would immediately introduce new legislation to include state police in the law.
“ICE and Border Patrol are covering their faces to maximize their terror campaign and to insulate themselves from accountability,” Weiner said in a statement. “We will ensure our mask ban can be enforced.”
Snyder did allow a separate law to stand, which requires both state and federal law enforcement officers to display identification. Newsom’s office did not respond to questions about the mask ruling, but called the identification ruling a “clear win for the rule of law”.
The rulings could have national implications as states grapple with how to deal with federal agents enforcing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The widespread use of masks by ICE officers has been broadly criticized by state officials nationwide, who say the face coverings add to a climate of fear in local communities and a lack of accountability.
Democratic lawmakers across the US have argued that federal law enforcement officials should not be allowed to wear face coverings. Legislators in Massachusetts and New York have introduced bills that would ban federal agents from wearing masks while conducting immigration enforcement operations.
Last week, minority leaders for the House and Senate, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, wrote a letter to their colleagues demanding legislatives actionto rein in ICE. One of the reforms they outlined was to “prohibit ICE and immigration enforcement agents from wearing face coverings”.
Both of California’s laws were slated to go into effect on 1 January, but the California attorney general Rob Bonta’s office agreed not to enforce either law while Snyder was considering a ruling on the Trump administration’s lawsuit.
On Monday, Bonta criticized the administration, saying it had “stepped well outside the boundaries of normal practice, deploying masked and unidentified agents to carry out immigration enforcement”. But he commended Snyder’s ruling to uphold the law requiring agents to visually identify themselves, saying: “Transparency and accountability are the foundation of good law enforcement.”
Snyder’s decision left open the possibility to future legislation banning federal agents from wearing masks if it applied to all law enforcement agencies, with the judge writing “the court finds that federal officers can perform their federal functions without wearing masks”. Snyder stayed her ruling until 19 February, so the identification law won’t likely go into effect until then.
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