Why won’t anyone stop ICE from hiding?

Americans don’t like disguised secret police. There’s really no other way to put it. The reasons are multiple: accountability, trust in law enforcement, and clear public sentiment. More specifically, the inability to know who is a cop and who is not is dangerous. A killer disguised as law enforcement killed a Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman And her husband last year. How is anyone supposed to tell if They are dragged from their home in their underwear By ICE or just amateur thugs?

Last year, California passed a “no police” law, which restricts the wearing of masks for federal law enforcement, along with a “no escort” law, which requires law enforcement to wear some form of identification. Department of Homeland Security File a lawsuit immediately The law was banned on constitutional grounds; The judge has not yet decided whether to issue a preliminary injunction.

Bills banning masks for ICE agents have been introduced in Congress — of the same name There is no secret police law At home to Visible law In the Senate — but with Republican majorities in both chambers, neither bill is expected to become federal law. State legislatures moved forward without waiting for Washington, D.C. Even after the Department of Homeland Security sued to block California’s law, state legislatures across the country continued to introduce their own anti-mask bills.

State legislatures that introduced bills last summer have slowly begun moving on them; Just last month, like the states Maryland, Vermont, Washingtonand Georgia Submit new invoices. Los Angeles passed City ordinance; city Saint Paul Studying one as well. One Minnesota lawmaker says she will Its invoice When the course opens in February. Besides California, at least 15 state legislatures have their own anti-mask bills pending.

For its part, ICE clung to the gaiters like life support. in interview on Facing the nation Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused mediator Margaret Brennan of “investigating” Jonathan Ross, the man identified as… The ICE agent who shot Renee Good Despite his use of face-obscuring gaiters in several videos taken during the shooting.

“Don’t say his name, for heaven’s sake. We shouldn’t have people continuing to enforce the law when they have an 8,000 percent increase in death threats made against them,” Noem scolded Brennan. When Brennan pointed out that his name was public knowledge, Noem responded: “I know that, but that doesn’t mean we should keep mentioning it.”

In its lawsuit to ban the No Secret Police Act, the US Department of Justice claimed that “threats to federal officers are serious and potentially deadly.” The list of these threats includes “taunting” and “online collection of personal information.”

A press release on the Department of Homeland Security’s website claims that death threats against ICE agents have increased by 8,000 percent, and assaults have increased by 1,300 percent. the web page It consists mostly of a lot of grainy screenshots of X’s posts. There are a few photos of injuries supposedly sustained by ICE agents — two photos of a hand bleeding from what’s supposed to be a bite, and another photo (partially obscured face) of an agent with a busted lip.

This 1,300 percent increase in the kind of blood loss you would experience from a minor injury while skiing isn’t a particularly compelling reason to allow law enforcement officials to wear masks. Noem sounds like a clown when she talks about ICE agents being investigated. But she is a clown and the law is on her side.

California’s “No Secret Police” law faces an uphill battle in the courts. For one thing, the law Targets federal law enforcement But it does not apply the same requirements to local police. If this were the only problem it would just be a matter of fixing the wording. But unfortunately for 15 similar bills pending in other state legislatures, the core issue at hand—the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause—gives the feds an advantage. States have very limited ability to influence how the feds do their work: that’s kind of the point of federalism, after all. One legal expert He claims it is “clear” that the no-secret-police law is constitutionally invalid; last The most optimistic assessment is that “under current precedent, mask bans are neither clearly prohibited nor clearly permitted.”

But that this is an open legal matter is a strange affront to conscience. Not only is it perfectly legal for ICE to conceal itself; It would actually be illegal for the state of California to try to stop them.

Ordinary people despise masks. only 31 percent of Americans believe ICE agents should be allowed to wear them. Even protected Shrink The Republican bubble — whose approval of ICE floats somewhere in between 70 and 80 Percent – stumbles over enthusiasm when it comes to what ICE agents wear. (63% of Republicans approve of masks, but a majority of Republicans believe customers should wear uniforms.) After a federal judge appointed by Reagan heard the reasons behind the masks, he called them “Deceptive, dirty and dishonest“, saying that “ICE is being hidden for one reason – to terrorize Americans into quiet.”

When justices confront the Trump administration’s deliberate obsession with “collecting personal information,” they are often either confused or angry. Part of this may be because most judges are not weird Internet forum trolls who consider the collection of personal information to be the biggest threat anyone can face. But more importantly, a federal judge — whose name and face are a matter of public record — often makes decisions that are likely to anger very dangerous and violent people. The idea that a legal employee must be anonymous to do their job is an insult to their field.

Cops also aren’t entirely sold on masks — the International Association of Chiefs of Police has issued a resolution warning against the use of face masks. in Interview with National Public Radio Last year, the organization’s president described face coverings as a “real slippery slope,” saying masks undermine police legitimacy. “We feel strongly that face coverings are inappropriate in most cases in policing in a democratic society in 2025,” he said.

This comes in California’s defense of its no-undercover police and no-escort law — where showing a face and badge has long been standard police practice at both the federal and local levels. “Prior to January 2025, when the practice of enforcing civil immigration enforcement with masks and without IDs began, officers generally wore an ‘ICE’ or ‘ICE POLICE’ badge with a visible badge and number,” the state of California wrote in its response to the Department of Homeland Security’s lawsuit.

The state acknowledged that “although all law enforcement personnel should be protected from harassment and collection of personal information,” it accused DHS of presenting “no evidence that concealing or refusing to wear a badge or identification number — practices that were virtually unheard of before 2025 — does anything to mitigate these risks.”

Masks are not normal. Americans don’t like them. The fact that California’s attempt to ban it falls into risky legal territory is a strong indication that things have gone seriously wrong.

Politics should reflect the will of the people in a democratic society. California should not have to be in court defending its law from the Supremacy Clause, because it never should have been forced to pass the law in the first place. In a more rational world, Congress would have approved a federal version of the No Secret Police Act; In a more rational case, the executive would have been completely responsive to voters’ objections and would have stopped the practice entirely.

Unidentified officials carrying weapons and body armor cry about how afraid they are to have their names appear online, while shooting unarmed Americans in the face. The American system of government was not meant to be so divorced from reality; Ordinary constitutional acts are under pressure because the federal government is so addicted to the Internet that it cannot distinguish between collecting personal information and murder. California’s undercover police law is a backup generator that is turned on because the entire grid collapsed. If she can stay on the court, it will not be enough to save our democracy. And if it gets hit, well, there’s no backup to the backup generator.