Gov. Newsom Thinks He Can Order Federal Officers to Remove Masks

California will be the first state to ban most law enforcement, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday.

Immigration officers have clear identifying tags on their uniforms. No one needs to see their faces or get their names unless something goes wrong unless, of course, they want to dox them.

The ban is California’s direct response to a recent series of immigration raids in Los Angeles where federal agents wore masks while making mass arrests. The raids prompted a dayslong protest across the city and led President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines to the area.

The new law prohibits neck gators, ski masks and other facial coverings for local and federal officers, including immigration enforcement agents, while they conduct official business. It makes exceptions for undercover agents, medical masks such as N95 respirators or tactical gear. It doesn’t apply to state police.

Federal agents are already instructed to identify themselves and wear vests with ICE or Homeland Security markers during operations, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement this week.

Democrats in Congress and lawmakers in several states, including Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, have also introduced similar proposals calling for mask bans for law enforcement officers. The only people in Tennessee who want to ban masks for law enforcement are the Democrats in the legislature but it’s not going anywhere.

This is strictly a Democrat political issue, and the officers’ safety is a non-issue for these people, and they continue to protect their illegal alien criminals.

Enforcement Operations

The Department of Homeland Security said it had sent letters Friday to the attorneys general in California, Illinois and New York reinforcing previous instructions that the Democrat-led states honor detainers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “criminal illegal aliens within their jurisdictions.”

DHS said in a statement Saturday that if the states failed to comply, it would pursue “all appropriate measures to end their inadvisable and irresponsible obstruction.”