The Division of Homeland Safety on Monday stated it will not adjust to California’s new regulation that bans regulation enforcement officers from overlaying their faces whereas conducting operations.
California’s regulation is about to take impact in January. However DHS, which oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Safety brokers who’ve been conducting immigration raids, stated it will not observe the regulation.
Immigration advocates protest current detentions by ICE exterior the immigration court docket in San Antonio, Texas, on July 1.
Individuals largely oppose the concept of immigration brokers carrying masks. Forty-nine % of American adults assume brokers shouldn’t be allowed to hide their faces whereas making arrests, in accordance with a YouGov ballot carried out for The Economist earlier this month. In the meantime, 37% say brokers ought to be capable of put on masks, and 15% are not sure.
California, for its half, is the primary state to cross a masks ban for regulation enforcement officers.
However lawmakers in different states, together with Massachusetts and New York, have launched comparable laws to bar regulation enforcement from concealing their identities with masks whereas conducting operations.
A number of payments have additionally been launched in Congress. Virginia Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner launched a invoice to ban federal immigration brokers from carrying masks in all states. And in July, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California launched the Seen Identification Requirements for Immigration-Primarily based Regulation Enforcement Act of 2025.
Critics of masked brokers say it raises the chance of misconduct since brokers could really feel they’ll act with impunity if nobody is aware of who they’re. It additionally might result in regulation enforcement imposters kidnapping folks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks throughout a rally on Aug. 14 in Los Angeles.
“When police wear masks, democracy loses its face,” New York Democratic Assemblymember Tony Simone, who launched a masks ban within the Empire State, instructed CBS New York. “I introduced the MELT Act to stop unmasked agents from terrorizing our communities. No badges, no names, no rules—this must stop.”
Scott Shuchart, a former ICE and DHS official, instructed Padilla and Booker that banning regulation enforcement from concealing their identities is nice coverage.
“Masked, plainclothes officers create an unreasonable risk of escalating violence and unnerve everyone who sees them,” Shuchart stated. “As much as the cop in blues is a staple of American life, the masked bandit is a symbol of fear, and having government agents dressed like paramilitaries is un-American. Based on my experience in government, the VISIBLE Act makes good sense and would be straightforward for DHS officials to implement.”
The Trump administration, nevertheless, has proven it would not care about following the regulation.
Earlier this yr, the administration ignored a federal decide that ordered DHS to halt deportation flights to El Salvador. And Republicans have gone so far as calling for judges who rule in opposition to Trump’s actions to be faraway from their positions.
It’s unclear, nevertheless, how the Trump administration will ignore California’s regulation. Up to now, they haven’t filed a lawsuit difficult it on constitutional grounds.
It’s additionally unclear whether or not police in California will implement the regulation and arrest federal brokers who put on masks whereas conducting immigration raids.
