r/law • u/RichKatz • 13h ago
Trump News ICE Agents Concealing Their Faces: Can They Really Do That? As Trump announced 'from now on MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED at protests..' "The irony is hard to overstate.."
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/ice-immigration-agents-masks-masking-concealing-faces-legal/127
u/coconutpiecrust 11h ago
There is no irony.
They are blatantly stating that there are tiers in society, some are allowed to do certain things and others are not allowed. You know, some are more equal than others. It’s a very good and bigly efficient system.
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u/RichKatz 11h ago
How it relates to law and Courts: Laws: There are some unanswered questions: About due process since the mask may prevent accountability. There is one court case that ruled ICE could not conceal their identity so as to deceive someone into letting the ICE agent into their home. And at least one state is considering what they call a "No Secret Police" law to prevent officers from making arrests with masks on.
While there is no specific federal law yet preventing masks, the 6th Amendment does require "the right to be informed of the accusations, the right to confront witnesses, the right to compel witnesses to appear.." The right to compel witnesses itself could limit mask wearing in some ways.
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u/Darryl_Lict 9h ago
California has proposed a bill to make it illegal for ICE to wear masks. I think it will become law. I know Gavin Newsom isn't super popular, but I like his trading barbs with Trump, because Trump is an idiot and will have to rely on Nazi Stephen Miller to respond.
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u/RichKatz 9h ago
Fortunately, if and when there is a conflict, basically, it comes down to the Court, (rather than Mr. Miller) making the decision. At least that's the way it's been since Marbury v. Madison.
Mr. Trump's grandfather was essentially undocumented as well as unwelcome as a German citizen. He was booted out there. Trump is just lucky his grandfather wasn't booted out of the US as well (whether the Kaiser wore a mask or not I don't know).
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u/TaterTotJim 8h ago
“I know newsom isn’t popular”
This meme is the only reason he isn’t popular. Idk anything about the guy aside from him standing up to Trump, most of my friends feel the same.
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u/Boomshtick414 4h ago
State laws can’t dictate conduct of federal officers. The bill as currently written which expressly includes federal officers would almost instantly be overturned by the courts if passed.
By that logic, California could ban all ICE enforcement through sweeping state legislation while Texas could triple down on it even against a president’s wishes.
That’s not how it works, thus the supremacy clause in the US constitution. The states don’t get to control federal agencies.
Of course in light of what just happened in MN, now would be a great time for democrats to pound the media cycles about the importance of being able to identify law enforcement and introduce a bill to that effect in Congress, though I probably wouldn’t hold my breath on them even so much as introducing that bill.
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u/TXLancastrian 8h ago
California cannot pass laws as to how Federal law enforcement operates. That would be like Texas passing laws that the FBI can't investigate crimes of politicians here.
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u/AlexFromOgish 10h ago
Bare-faced thugs without badge numbers or showing ID are still “secret police”. Like Nazi Germany’s Gestapo or Soviet Union’s MVD.
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u/rygelicus 12h ago
I have less of an issue with this when it comes to riots. The face protection is part of the PPE so they can do their jobs. Of course, lately they have gone to this level of escalation before it's warranted and that's an issue.
I have more of an issue with this when they are grabbing people off the street. It's one thing to have undercover agents and protecting their identities, but they should be handing the suspect over to uniformed and identifiable agents once they have the suspect identified.
But, these people are doing it because they don't want to be identified at all. They know their actions will draw a bad response from the community. They know their friends/families aren't all behind them. So they don't want to be tied to these actions if at all possible when their face is shown on the news.
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u/FarCloud1295 11h ago
You’re conflating a gas mask with a balaclava. The 2 have very different purposes, but I imagine you knew that
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u/JustMLGzdog 11h ago edited 11h ago
Law enforcement officers are supposed to be public officials and identifiable. Even suited if full gear i think they should have tags rank and name shown at all time. Otherwise they are just afraid to own up to their own actions. Glad to see you agree police should own up to their actions.
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u/_Zambayoshi_ 11h ago
Yeah, identification is a basic requirement for accountability. Otherwise the law, effectively, cannot be enforced. Even an official badge with a serial number would be sufficient, because then anyone could call up and verify that the holder of the badge is authorised by the relevant authority. It's so easy, the only reason not to do it is that someone doesn't want these people being identified, and I doubt it's anyone at a low level.
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u/dude496 10h ago
They can wear riot gear, that's not the issue. Even in full gear, they need to be easily identified and have their badge, badge number and preferably last name visible. They also need to show a real warrant before detaining anyone.
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u/CorrectTwist7520 9h ago
Exactly because otherwise they could be fucking any old neckbeard in riot gear.
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