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New York Governor Kathy Hochul has banned Federal Immigration Agents operating in her state from wearing masks.
Hochul, who is also a leading Democrat opponent of United States (US) President Donald Trump and his immigration policies, made this order on Thursday, a move likely to be challenged by Trump’s administration after courts overturned a similar effort in California.
Since the beginning of Trump’s controversial mass deportation campaign, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have covered their faces, to avoid being identified and potentially threatened outside of work.
“For ICE, wearing masks without good cause is nothing short of an intimidation tactic, a cowardly attempt to evade responsibility”, she said.
Images of heavily armed, masked, plainclothes officers marauding around US cities, including Minneapolis, brutalising citizens and non-citizens alike, amassed international attention earlier this year, peaking when ICE officers shot dead two Americans in the Midwestern city.
The New York Governor announced that ICE agents would no longer be permitted to enter schools, libraries, community centres, polling sites, and other sensitive locations without a judicial warrant.
She also disallowed local police from cooperating with the agency in any operation conducted exclusively on immigration grounds.
“Our officers, paid for by local taxpayer dollars, were hired to protect their communities…they’re not there to do the federal government’s bidding,” the governor said.
Trump’s immigration pointman Tom Homan recently warned that “what’s going to happen with places like New York, and (if) people pass ridiculous legislation not to work with us, we’re going to flood the zone.”
A law passed by California’s legislature requiring federal agents to show their faces was blocked by a district court earlier this year, and an appellate court later ruled against the measure.
