Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell is in a war of words with U.S. Attorney Leah Foley over ICE agents wearing masks on the job, a concept that Gov. Maura Healey says “doesn’t make sense.”

The governor’s comments come as Foley finds herself on the defensive after Campbell said banning federal agents from wearing masks should be a priority of the federal office.

Appearing on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, Healey said that she’d fully support ICE and President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda if it were “actually about going after violent guys and taking them off the streets.”

“But that’s not what is going on,” the governor said on Wednesday. “This is what I encourage people to do: Continue to film, continue to document, continue to share the stories about what’s happening. People are fed up with 
 how Trump is abusing ICE.”

Healey’s radio appearance came just over 12 hours after Foley released a scathing statement on social media following Campbell’s own appearance on the same show the day before.

The AG said she believes a proposed law at the State House that seeks to ban federal immigration agents from wearing face coverings while on duty is better left up to the federal level.

“Why? Because to 
 implement that against ICE officials, [it is] nearly impossible,” Campbell said on Tuesday. “And I don’t mince my words there.”

Campbell added that her office is tracking ICE activities for “possible racial profiling” with the “hopes that maybe if there’s something that we can hold them accountable for, we will.” She called on Bay Staters to seek accountability of ICE from the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney.

“That’s your U.S. Attorney’s job,” Campbell said. “They’re not doing that. It’s just very difficult to enforce. My thing is, we don’t want to just be passing things for the sake of passing things.”

“Even if we were to try to hold them accountable in attempting to even do that, if we were to arrest an ICE official, it’s very difficult,” the AG added. “The judge might even throw it out because of federalism. But what’s worse is retaliation and retribution coming from this federal administration is very real.”

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have said that ICE officers are grappling with a massive increase in assaults against them, around 830%.

“I would hope that the Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell understands that it is the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution that prohibits her from arresting federal officers for doing their jobs,” Foley said in a statement posted on the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s social media pages Tuesday night. “It is disappointing to hear her say that our country’s Constitution is not on her ‘side.’

“I have stated repeatedly that ICE agents are masked due to incidents of doxing and threats against them and their families,” she added, “The attorney general apparently is less mindful of these documented significant threats than she is of murky, unverified accounts of retribution.”

The war of words between Campbell and Foley also comes as the FBI has urged partner agencies to “adequately identify themselves” amid a stretch of incidents where impersonators pretending to be ICE officers have committed crimes.

California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business under a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September.

The ban is a direct response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, where federal agents wore masks while making mass arrests. The raids prompted days of protest and led President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines to the area.

Senate President Karen Spilka said late last month that she backs the proposed ban on federal agents wearing mask coverings, equating the practice to “almost like the 1930s Germany.”

Healey said on her monthly radio appearance that she wants Bay Staters to be aware that local police and the Massachusetts State Police do not wear masks. She added that she wishes officers at the local, state, and federal levels were all held to the same standards.

“They wear a badge, they are identified by name and number,” Healey said of local and state police. “It doesn’t make sense to a lot of people that (the feds) are somehow allowed to have a different standard.”

Foley slammed Campbell for going public with a story about Healey thanking airport workers for working without pay during the government shutdown, which the AG claimed sparked a “union meeting 
 where they were maybe chastised or something.”

“In defense of my federal partners,” Foley said, “I can say that her version of what happened is completely false and the facts will come out.”

“The attorney general is welcome to share her opinions and tall tale stories (even she admits she does not know all the facts and conveniently maligns to fill the voids),” Foley added, “but her overtly political and inaccurate statements only fuel the misinformation and fear that she purportedly seeks to quell.”

Earlier this year, Foley slammed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for “reckless and inflammatory statements” about federal immigration authorities in an interview in which Wu equated agents to “secret police.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.