{"id":58430,"date":"2025-11-18T12:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58430\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T12:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:10:11","slug":"trump-administration-sues-to-stop-californias-law-enforcement-mask-ban-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58430\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration sues to stop California\u2019s law enforcement mask ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration on Monday challenged in federal court California\u2019s ban on most law enforcement officers from wearing masks during operations<\/a>, a move the Department of Justice insisted was necessary to protect federal agents.<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, the Trump administration argued that California\u2019s law,<\/a> signed in September in response to immigration raids over the summer in Los Angeles, was an unconstitutional attempt to regulate federal law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

The move comes after months of immigration arrests conducted by masked federal agents who use aggressive tactics <\/a>across the country. California\u2019s ban was slated to go into effect in January next year.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted masks are an important precaution taken to maintain the safety of law enforcement officers. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press release<\/a> Monday that \u201cthey do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s anti-law enforcement policies discriminate against the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has insisted the ban pushes back against the federal government\u2019s use of masked agents without identification or badge numbers to detain people on the streets during immigration raids.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a dystopian sci-fi movie. Unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing,\u201d Newsom said at a press conference when he signed the law. \u201cImmigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law, the first of its kind in the United States according to the Associated Press, bars neck gaiters, ski masks and other facial coverings for local and federal officers who are conducting official business. There are exceptions for undercover agents, medical masks and tactical gear. The ban does not apply to state police.<\/p>\n

Currently, there is no federal policy dictating when officers can or should cover their faces during arrests. Historically, officers have almost always concealed their faces only while performing undercover work to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, law enforcement experts have told CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The practice of hiding of agents\u2019 faces, badges and identifying uniforms has made it difficult for members of the public to know whether the immigration arrests over the past several months are legitimate. John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama, told CNN in August that it was \u201cincredibly dangerous\u201d for the officers to make arrests without clearly identifying themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk is really obvious, right? You\u2019re sitting there and all of a sudden a bunch of masked men run out and are grabbing someone on the street,\u201d he said on the CNN One Thing<\/a> podcast. \u201cThere are good, well-intentioned bystanders who might think that they need to step in and help and that they\u2019re witnessing a kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Eric Levenson and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration on Monday challenged in federal court California\u2019s ban on most law enforcement officers from wearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,15325,1647,15609,7337,18580,457,734,12081,6151,35628],"class_list":["post-58430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-central-district-of-california","tag-downtown-los-angeles","tag-federal-agents","tag-federal-court","tag-federal-officers","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-law-enforcement","tag-law-enforcement-officer","tag-the-trump","tag-undercover-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}