{"id":429147,"date":"2025-12-06T16:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429147\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T16:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:33:13","slug":"l-a-countys-effort-to-unmask-ice-is-on-a-collision-course-with-feds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429147\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County’s effort to unmask ICE is on a collision course with feds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

L.A. County is gearing up for another fight with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

This year has given the supes no shortage of opportunities to go head-to-head with the federal government: homeless funding<\/a> cuts, revoked health grants and the much-decried deployment of National Guard troops into the city, to name a few.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the county arrived at a new proposal that sets yet another collision course with the Trump administration. This time, the dispute is over masked immigration agents.<\/p>\n

Supervisors voted 4-0 on a law barring immigration officials from wearing masks when conducting raids in unincorporated parts of the county. The rule would also require all law enforcement officers, including local ones, to clearly identify themselves.<\/p>\n

No longer, supervisors say, will immigration enforcement be able to keep their faces hidden by balaclavas, neck gaiters and ski masks.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u201cIt\u2019s a fundamental right of everybody to know who is arresting you,\u201d said Supervisor Janice Hahn<\/b>, who spearheaded the ban, at a news conference Tuesday. \u201cWe need them to unmask.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ICE has shown zero interest in complying. The day after the board\u2019s vote, U.S. Border Patrol agents raided a La Puente food stand, capturing three workers and sending a woman fleeing into a nearby fire truck, according to an account from L.A. Taco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The event had all the signatures of the raids that have become routine across the county: An unmarked van. Masked agents. In other words, everything the supervisors are asking ICE to stop doing.<\/p>\n

The mask ban still has a bit to go before it reaches the finish line. The supes will have another perfunctory vote next week. Assuming it passes, the ban will take effect in early January.<\/p>\n

Even then, legal scholars and the county\u2019s own lawyers say the federal government is almost certainly not going to listen \u2014 and they likely don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Under the supremacy clause of the Constitution, legal scholars say federal law takes precedent when there\u2019s a conflict with local law. That\u2019s no shock to the supes, the majority of whom seem to be relishing another fight with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit, Hahn said, is almost inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, this is going to be argued in court. Yes, we will have the judge ultimately decide the legality of what we\u2019re asking,\u201d said Hahn, who added she felt the court fight was worth it to stop the masked agents, whom she described as \u201csecret police.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone\u2019s chomping at the bit for another costly legal battle. Supervisor Kathryn Barger<\/b> has questioned the wisdom of passing a rule the county has no clear way to enforce. She abstained from the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a false sense of \u2014 and I don\u2019t even want to use the word security \u2014 because I don\u2019t think anybody feels secure,\u201d said Barger this summer as the board debated the merits of a mask ban almost certain to be challenged. \u201cI know that people have asked who\u2019s going to enforce it? I honestly don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin <\/b>already told reporters she believes the ban is invalid under the supremacy clause, teeing up a likely challenge.<\/p>\n

The legal battle looming in L.A. County is already playing out at the state level.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the California Legislature passed a similar bill requiring agents to identify themselves and barring on-duty officers from covering their faces.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice moved swiftly to block it, arguing officers needed the masks to \u201cprovide an extra layer of security\u201d given the \u201cpersonal threats and violence\u201d they face on the job. The government has claimed that assaults against ICE officers jumped by more than 1,150% compared to last year.<\/p>\n

But recent Times reporting<\/a> suggests the severity of those threats may be dramatically overstated. The Times reviewed thousands of pages of court records and found most officers were not injured by alleged assaults. <\/p>\n

In more than a third of those cases, federal law enforcement officers were either shoved, spat on, flailed at, or the target of a hurled water bottle, The Times found.<\/p>\n

State of play<\/p>\n

\u2014 WAGE WAR REIGNITES: <\/b>The battle over a $30 per hour minimum wage for L.A.\u2019s hotel and airport workers looked like it had been put to rest earlier this year. But the debate was ripped back open on Friday,<\/a> when City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson <\/b>introduced a motion to slow down the implementation of the wage law, spreading it out over two additional years, or to 2030. Labor leaders immediately denounced the move.<\/p>\n

\u2014 CANDIDATE CAMPOUT: <\/b>One of the candidates running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez<\/b> said this week that he\u2019ll live in a trailer<\/a> next to MacArthur Park if he is elected next year. Community organizer Raul Claros<\/b> said he would stay there until things got better at the park, which has been plagued by crime, homelessness, drug addiction and other problems.<\/p>\n

\u2014 DSA DELIVERS:<\/b> Organizers with Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles announced this week that they have endorsed<\/a> Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy <\/b>in her race against City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto<\/b>. As we\u2019ve previously reported, DSA is running a number of candidates and hoping to secure six council seats<\/a> by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

\u2014 THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS: <\/b>Appalling as it sounds, we\u2019re now less than six months away from the June 2 local elections<\/a>, where L.A. city voters will select their candidates for mayor, city attorney, city controller and in some areas, council members. Candidates for county supervisor will also be on the ballot, along with Sheriff Robert Luna<\/b>. <\/p>\n

\u2014 NO MORE COAL: <\/b>The Department of Water and Power ended its reliance<\/a> on coal this week, with that particular fossil fuel no longer being used for L.A.\u2019s energy needs at the Intermountain Power Project in Utah. \u201cThis is a defining moment for the city of Los Angeles,\u201d Mayor Karen Bass <\/b>said. One of Bass\u2019 opponents, former First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner<\/b>, also took a victory lap, saying his work in 2010 under then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa <\/b>\u201claid the foundation for this milestone transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 FIGHTING CITY HALL: <\/b>Attorney Robert P. Silverstein <\/b>battled the city<\/a> over Hollywood development for roughly two decades, racking up wins against the Millennium skyscraper project<\/a>, a 20-story residential tower on Hollywood Boulevard and a three-story Target shopping center<\/a>. Silverstein\u2019s death on Nov. 13 at the age of 57 spurred an array of recollections from friends and foes alike about his legal work.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2018LESS-LETHAL\u2019 WEAPONS: <\/b>The City Council rejected an effort<\/a> to bar the Los Angeles Police Department from using tear gas and weapons that launch hard-foam projectiles. The proposal, defeated on an 8-4 vote, comes at a time of heightened concern about the LAPD\u2019s responses to anti-ICE protesters.<\/p>\n

\u2014 GO OFF, GONDOLA:<\/b> Metro\u2019s 13-member board signed off the latest environmental review for the proposed gondola linking Union Station with Dodger Stadium, despite some boisterous protests<\/a> in the audience.<\/p>\n

\u2014 FUNDING FALLOFF: <\/b>Officials are deeply worried that more than 14,500 formerly homeless households in the county could be forced back<\/a> onto the streets<\/a> or into shelters over the next year, in large part due to a loss of federal funding.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A MODEST DROP: <\/b>Hate crimes in L.A. County remained near record-high levels<\/a> in 2024, despite slight decreases in several types of violent incidents, according to a report released Thursday. The findings from the Commission on Human Relations identified 1,355 reported hate crimes, a 1% decrease from the prior year.<\/p>\n

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