New York state’s war on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement suffered a setback on Monday.
A federal judge threw out a state law that sought to ban ICE agents from wearing face coverings and making them wear ID that would ensure the public knew who they were, according to the Associated Press.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino of the Northern District of New York wrote that while the state “appears to be well-intentioned in its pursuit of transparent policing,” that is not the issue.
“The issue now before the Court is about constitutionality — not transparency or preferable policy decisions,” she wrote.
D’Agostino said that “face covering and identification acts directly regulate federal officers in violation of the Supremacy Clause,” according to The New York Times.
She said that New York officials “may be correct that federal immigration officers wearing masks and not displaying viable identification creates certain dangerous situations that the face covering and identification acts remedy.”
In issuing a preliminary injunction to pause enforcement while court arguments continue, the judge wrote that “settled law establishes that federal, not state, authorities make the policies that animate the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
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The state legislature passed the anti-face coverings measure with the state budget, which Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in May, according to the Associated Press.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement after the ruling that state officials “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.”
The law took effect in June.
A California law had tried to stop ICE agents from wearing face coverings, but it was blocked. In May, the Department of Justice sued Connecticut over a similar law.
The New York Times noted that D’Agostino allowed a state law banning formal agreements with ICE to proceed. That law takes effect later this month.
Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood has said that the law will not change how he protects residents, according to WSYR-TV.
“I’m still going to contact ICE when we have somebody come in here that’s illegal and committed a crime. They are going to come get them, and we’re going to hand them off, and they are going to go with them and get the issue that they have with ICE taken care of,” he said.
“A rape in the first degree. Imagine something like that happening to one of your family members. You would want the police working together, and there’s the divide where they aren’t allowing that to happen in New York state,” he said, noting that he has honored seven detainers from ICE since September in cases that involved rape, robbery, DWI, and weapons offenses.
“When somebody comes into my jail with a criminal charge, and they’re an illegal, they’ll still get notified,” Hood said of ICE, according to Syracuse.com. “They’re still going to come pick them up. The only thing is I can’t have a contract with them.”
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