Feds ask judge to reject NJ law restricting ICE agents from wearing masks

The federal government is urging a federal judge to toss a new state law that limits when law enforcement personnel can wear face coverings while interacting with the public, arguing New Jersey cannot limit how federal agents identify themselves.

In a Monday filing, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that requiring federal officers not to wear masks would severely hamper their operations.

“If New Jersey wishes to change the conduct of federal officers, its officials should win federal elections, not try to criminalize federal law enforcement,” federal attorneys said in the filing.

The legal brief is the latest in an April lawsuit that alleges a law Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) signed in March violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which broadly says valid federal law prevails over state law.

The lawsuit is one of numerous where the Trump and Sherrill administrations are on opposite sides. Last week, a federal judge dismissed a separate Trump administration lawsuit that sought to overturn a Sherrill executive order largely barring immigration agents from some state property.

In Monday’s filing, the Department of Justice argued that enforcing the state’s new face mask restrictions would obstruct federal law enforcement operations and that obstruction would justify striking the statute.

New Jersey has previously argued that the law, which is written to apply uniformly to federal, state, and local law enforcement, was a response to unsafe conditions created by masked law enforcement.

Federal immigration authorities frequently operate masked and often do not identify themselves when interacting with the public, even when making arrests or detaining individuals.

Their masking caused a surge in law enforcement impersonations, including in the aid of kidnappings, New Jersey has argued in its own filings, and created risks for the public and, by spurring a rise in hostility, for masked officers.

But more fatal, the state argued, was that the federal government failed to identify any instances in which its officers needed to be masked but were blocked by the law, which includes exceptions for cold weather and undercover work, among others.

The White House has previously said that it will not adhere to the law. Monday’s filing indicates agents have indeed been ignoring it.

“Federal agents have and will continue to wear masks and refrain from providing identification in ways that Defendants apparently find objectionable based on the plain language of the state law and the explicit rationale for its passage,” the filing says.

A federal judge in New York last month blocked a similar law in New York, arguing that the Trump administration is likely to succeed in its arguments that the law violates the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

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