{"id":313933,"date":"2026-08-05T01:12:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313933\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T01:12:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:12:38","slug":"officials-condemn-ruling-that-blocks-ice-mask-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313933\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials condemn ruling that blocks ICE mask law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Masked federal agents have become a familiar sight inside 26 Federal Plaza, ICE’s New York City headquarters.<\/p>\n

Across the street on Tuesday, elected officials and immigration advocates condemned a judge’s decision allowing federal agents to remain masked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Nowhere in America should we have secret masked police, unidentifiable, unaccountable, not engaging in due process to our fellow immigrants and New Yorkers,” State Assemblymember Tony Simone said.<\/p>\n

Simone sponsored the MELT Act, short for “Mandating End of Lawless Tactics.” It generally requires law enforcement officers to uncover their faces and display identification, with exceptions for medical and tactical needs.<\/p>\n

“You know there is no statute of limitations. There will be a day after Donald Trump and Stephen Miller where they will be held responsible for breaking the law,” Simone said.<\/p>\n

But the Trump administration argued that the state cannot tell federal officers how to perform their federal duties. The judge found that the argument was likely to succeed and blocked the state<\/a> from enforcing the mask and identification rules against federal agents, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Since the law went into effect in May, officers have been seen in the city still wearing masks.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security said its officers will not comply. In a statement, the agency said, “To be crystal clear: we will not abide by unconstitutional bans. The Supremacy Clause makes it clear that New York’s sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement.”<\/p>\n

For supporters of the law, the bigger issue is not the masks themselves; it’s knowing who’s behind them.<\/p>\n

“Anonymity isn’t officer safety; it’s impunity. And New Yorkers are living with those consequences every single day,” New York Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh said.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Letitia James said, “While the court enjoined enforcement of New York’s mask ban, we stand firm in our belief that masked agents do not make New York safer and our offices are reviewing all legal options at this time.”<\/p>\n

“We’re a nation of laws and at the end of the day what the Trump administration continues to do is flout the law and what ICE continues to do is operate in a rouge and lawless manner, which we are trying to reign in,” Awawdeh said.<\/p>\n

Unless the injunction is overturned, the state cannot enforce the requirements against ICE, and DHS said it would not comply, regardless.<\/p>\n

“If these agents are doing nothing wrong, if they’re following due process and the law and a judicial warrant, there’s no need to hide behind a mask,” Simone said.<\/p>\n

Simone said he plans to meet with the governor and attorney general to discuss and appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masked federal agents have become a familiar sight inside 26 Federal Plaza, ICE’s New York City headquarters. Across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[109,387,25,388,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,87,308,27],"class_list":["post-313933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-louis-finley","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}