The Trump administration sued New York state Monday over a law that would ban the use of masks by federal immigration agents and was set to go into effect this week.

In a 40-page lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued that New York’s mask ban, which was signed into law in May by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, was unconstitutional and put federal officers at risk.

The lawsuit also challenged two other measures enacted by Democrats in Albany, the state capital, as part of the state’s budget. One requires all law enforcement officers to display their agency names, as well as their own names or badge numbers. The other prohibits local jails and police forces in New York from entering into certain agreements to assist the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, argued that the state does not have the power to dictate how federal officers dress and identify themselves, and that the laws obstructed federal immigration objectives.

“Permitting officers and agents to cover their faces or remove visible identifying information from their uniforms helps to reduce the risk of doxing by limiting the ability of facial recognition technology to identify the officer or agent,” the lawsuit said.

The suit is the latest challenge by the Trump administration against Democratic states that have passed laws banning ICE agents from wearing masks, including California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Virginia. The Justice Department sued Philadelphia last week, too.

The mask ban in California was struck down by a federal judge who ruled that it was unconstitutional because state officers had been exempted. And the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also blocked California from enforcing a similar law that required both local and federal agents to display identification.

The rulings, which were cited in the lawsuit filed against New York on Monday, have emboldened the Department of Homeland Security, which sent a memo to its agents last month assuring them that they were not legally required to comply with state and local mask prohibitions.

New York lawmakers, with the California rulings in mind, sought to bolster their mask ban by having it apply to any law enforcement officer in New York, including local and state police officers.

Anticipating the action, New York filed a concurrent lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday in an effort to protect the measures. The 11-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albany, asks the court to declare the state laws lawful and constitutional.

The state suit argues that New York is within its right to pass laws that ensure public safety, arguing that the mask ban was necessary to shield citizens from federal overreach.

The state also contends that the mask ban, which is set to go into effect Friday, does not discriminate against ICE agents because it applies broadly to all law enforcement officers in New York.

“By hiding their faces and refusing to wear identification, federal immigration officers endanger New Yorkers and intentionally evade accountability,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Our communities should not have to live in fear of being disappeared by unidentified masked agents.”

In a statement, Hochul defended the state’s laws, saying, “We’re not going to let anyone bully us into abandoning them.”

The New York measure that appears to have most upset top ICE officials was the ban on counties’ striking 287(g) agreements, a powerful tool that allows ICE to use local law enforcement and jails to arrest and detain people suspected of being in the country illegally.

Tom Homan, one of Trump’s top immigration advisers, has repeatedly threatened to send more ICE agents to New York in recent weeks because the law, he said, had hamstrung the agency’s ability to find and detain immigrants in New York who lack legal status.

“You can expect more ICE agents to go to New York because Gov. Hochul signed legislation that ended our” 287(g) agreements, he said this month.

Several Republican strongholds in New York have such agreements, including Nassau County on Long Island, where ICE has been using the county jail to hold detainees.

Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, has said that he would not abandon his county’s agreement with ICE, setting up a potential legal showdown against Hochul. Blakeman, a Republican, is running to unseat Hochul, who is seeking reelection.

Under the new state law, counties have to terminate any 287(g) agreements by Aug. 25.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Luis Ferré-Sadurní/Madison Swart
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