Feds butt heads with California over law unmasking ICE

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday asked a federal judge to stop California from enforcing a new law that make it a crime for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agents to wear face masks when stopping and detaining people in public.

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder didn’t rule at a hearing in Los Angeles on the Justice Department’s motion for preliminary injunction to block California’s so-called No Secret Agents Act as well as the No Vigilantes Act, which was enacted at the same time and requires federal law enforcement to wear an ID with their name and agency during operations if they’re not in uniform.

Snyder indicated that she wasn’t convinced by the “parade of horribles” that the Justice Department claims federal law enforcement agents will face if they have to perform their duties without face masks. On the other hand, the Bill Clinton appointee worried that law against wearing face masks could be discriminatory because it doesn’t apply to California law enforcement personnel.

“It seems the United States has a stronger argument on discrimination,” Snyder said, adding that she didn’t see much distinction between the functions federal law enforcement and California law enforcement performs.

Tiberius Davis, an attorney with the Justice Department, argued that ICE agents wear face masks because they risk being identified and “doxed” by activists who put their personal information, including their home address, on the internet.

ICE agents have been followed home and their families have been harassed and threatened by, ironically, masked activists, according to Davis.

Moreover, he argued, the California laws are unconstitutional insofar as they seek to regulate the federal government in violation of the supremacy clause, which prohibits states from enacting laws that conflict with applicable federal laws and regulations.

By the same token, states can start requiring that ICE agents wear pink uniforms to make them more easily recognizable, Davis said.

“If states can require federal agents not to wear masks, or pink uniforms, that’s a huge impediment on the supremacy clause,” he told the judge. “It puts the Constitution on its head.”

Deputy Attorney General Cameron Bell responded that the California laws only “touch” upon federal law enforcement activity and don’t seek to regulate it.

The new laws were prompted, she said, by the unprecedented immigration raids that President Donald Trump unleashed in California last year and were a modest attempt to secure the safety of the state’s residents who can’t tell whether they are being lawfully detained or kidnapped by masked men who refuse to identify themselves.

“It’s obvious why these laws were made,” Bell said.

In addition, she said, there are both state and federal laws against doxing and threatening law enforcement personnel that the Justice Department can use to protect their agents through prosecution and sentences that deter people from doing this.

The Justice Department sued California last year after Governor Gavin Newsom signed the two laws.

“Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe, and they do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “California’s anti-law enforcement policies discriminate against the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents."

The Justice Department claims that the laws unlawfully regulate the federal government, arguing that only the federal government can dictate the uniforms and policies of federal agents. They also claim that the laws unlawfully discriminate against the federal government, as they only apply to federal law enforcement officers and agencies, and not state authorities.

The bills Newsom signed in September 2025 were part of a package of legislation that, the governor said, push back at Trump’s “secret police” tactics in California.

“For Trump and Miller, the only metric is mass arrests, detentions and removals — even at the expense of Americans’ constitutional rights,” Newsom said at the time. “ICE agents have wrongfully arrested citizens, concealed their identities and undermined transparency.”

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