{"id":895346,"date":"2026-06-27T01:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895346\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:04:16","slug":"ice-mask-ban-takes-effect-in-n-y-amid-dueling-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895346\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE mask ban takes effect in N.Y. amid dueling lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s high-profile new law restricting mask use by\u00a0U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out their duties<\/a> went into effect Friday under the cloud of dueling lawsuits<\/a> between the Trump administration trying to stop it, and the state of New York filing its own to defend the law\u2019s constitutionality.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul posted on social media Friday morning that the law was now in place and provided a link allowing New Yorkers to report violations through the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of 12:00 AM, New York\u2019s law prohibiting most law enforcement officials from wearing masks while carrying out their duties is now in effect,\u201d she wrote. \u201cNew Yorkers have a right to know who is exercising law enforcement authority in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit argues that states do not have the authority to regulate the federal government\u2019s operations and that the laws put the lives of law enforcement officers at risk. The lawsuit also names Hochul, state Attorney General Letitia James and Michael Russo, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Buffalo Regional Office.<\/p>\n

The mask ban was part of a package of legislation that represented a compromise between Hochul and the state Legislature. The centerpiece of the legislation, which was passed as part of the state budget, banned formal cooperation agreements between ICE and state and local governments, or 287(g) agreements. It is also the subject of the Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul cannot tell Federal officers how to do their job,\u201d Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said.<\/p>\n

In filing their own lawsuit, Hochul and James this week vowed to defend the provisions that the Trump administration says are unconstitutional overreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Attorney General James, we are going to court to defend these laws and affirm what we believe is clear. They are constitutional and they make New Yorkers safer,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n

It comes as immigration enforcement takes center stage in the race for governor.<\/p>\n

Counties with those 287(g) agreements, which Hochul insists waste state local resources on federal activities and would keep those resources from assisting in an immigration enforcement program that she and other Democrats insist is out of control, are in the midst of a 90-day grace period to wind them down. The ban fully takes effect Aug. 25.<\/p>\n

Leading one of those counties is none other than Hochul\u2019s Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who has long promised legal action if the state passed the ban and indicated that remains the case in an interview with Spectrum News 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are in for a fight,\u201d Blakeman said, arguing that the agreement has helped the county weed out criminals in the country illegally. \u201cI\u2019m leaving it to my lawyers. We will fight it. We will do whatever we have to do to protect the people of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakeman, asked if the county has had any enforcement action taken, told Spectrum News 1 he has not spoken to state leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cKathy Hochul has not called me, nor has Letitia James. I don\u2019t think they have plans to call me. The fact of the matter is they have made our communities less safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hochul, too, is using the issue to capitalize on what she described as strong progressive momentum in Tuesday\u2019s primary election while insisting that the state will continue to assist in the apprehension of dangerous criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE agents would only go after the worst of the worst, we\u2019re seeing all of these promises broken and it\u2019s up to this party as well as all of this energy to get out there and make sure that all voters know what is at stake in this election,\u201d she said this week.<\/p>\n

The Hochul campaign responded to Blakeman\u2019s comments, accusing him of running the most \u201cpro-ICE ticket in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlakeman is showing New Yorkers exactly the kind of governor he\u2019d be: Donald Trump\u2019s puppet who hurts New York families instead of keeping them safe,\u201d said Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s high-profile new law restricting mask use by\u00a0U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out their duties…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":895347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[40737,5229,51754,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,17545,43431,5227,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-895346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-america","tag-jack-arpey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}