Protesters wearing masks at an ICE demonstration in Manhattan on June 9, 2025.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law legislation on Friday that prohibits any law enforcement officer — federal, state, or local — from wearing a mask or face covering of any kind while on duty. The measure was a long time in coming.
While it applies to all law enforcement agents, the governor and sponsors acknowledged that the new law came about largely due to the actions of ICE agents over the past year. Masked federal agents have trolled the halls of Federal Plaza and the streets of the city arresting detainees with impunity, and with little way for anyone to know who the officers are and hold them accountable for any violations of constitutional rights.
But the job is only half-done. It is not enough for New York to ensure that no law enforcement agent masks up on the job and conceals their identity to do whatever they want.
New York state’s long-standing ban on wearing masks in public, a statute that dated back decades before it was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, must be fully reinstated, with exceptions made for individuals with specific medical conditions that require them to wear a face covering.
We have seen in recent years people take to the streets wearing masks, bandanas, keffiyehs and other coverings to protest and lash out at those with whom they disagree. The facial coverings allow the protesters to act in near total anonymity, making it difficult for anyone to hold them accountable for shouting hateful slogans or vandalizing property.
Those who defend masked-up protesters say the coverings are necessary to ensure the protesters’ First Amendment rights to protest are fully protected from retribution. That argument, however, is nonsensical.
Over the decades, tens of thousands of American citizens have taken to the streets to demonstrate for causes they believe in without having to hide their identities. Entire civil rights movements that made fundamental changes to society were driven by people who took to the streets to speak, unafraid of the consequences for their actions, and proud to show their faces.
People who choose to mask up and lash out at demonstrations undermine the cause they advocate. Most reasonable people do not support people who shout racial epithets, hold up offensive signs, or vandalize property — actions that instill fear and tension into a community rather than inspiring change.
Because protesters won’t police themselves just as ICE agents have not, then New York state government must act to reinstate the mask ban of old.
Again, someone with a legitimate medical condition that requires wearing a face covering in public should be able to do so. But healthy people have no excuse to mask up in public, especially at protests.