Inset: Attorney General Letitia James talks to members of the press outside Brooklyn Hanson Place Seventh-day Adventist Church on Nov. 1, 2025, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. (Katie Godowski/MediaPunch/IPX). Background: President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as HHS Secretary in the Oval Office, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington (Photo/Alex Brandon).
New York Attorney General Letitia James says that her office “will fight tooth and nail” to stop the Trump administration from wiping out immigration protections that prevent ICE agents from committing “atrocities while wearing masks.”
James” office filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to protect a new package of state laws “establishing critical accountability measures” concerning immigration and law enforcement operations in New York after the federal government sued the state on Monday over its desire to ban the use of masks by ICE agents.
The Department of Justice argues that the mask ban is unconstitutional and puts ICE agents at risk. James says that “by hiding their faces and refusing to wear identification, federal immigration officers endanger New Yorkers and intentionally evade accountability,” according to a statement released by her office.
“Repeatedly, we have seen masked agents overrun cities in this country at the direction of the current federal administration,” James charges in her complaint. “Some masked officers have committed grave, violent acts against protesters and immigrants, including homicides and assaults so brutal that they have caused permanent harm.”
The complaint adds, “When agents commit such atrocities while wearing masks, it is more difficult to identify and investigate them, and ultimately to hold them accountable if warranted.”
James notes that in October, masked agents engaged in a “high profile and sudden operation” on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan that targeted street vendors and “terrified New York City residents,” according to the complaint.
“New York enjoys a sovereign interest in promoting transparency, and in ensuring that its residents (and all people within its borders) are able to identify law enforcement officials with whom they interact and, when relevant, are able to pursue actions against unlawful acts — including, and perhaps especially, any unlawful acts that may be perpetrated by uniformed officers,” the complaint says.
“The State of New York has every right as a sovereign state to require law enforcement officers acting within the state’s jurisdiction to be identifiable, and to choose not to use the state’s limited law enforcement resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement,” the document adds. “Now, despite New York’s sovereign right to codify these choices legislatively, the federal government has threatened New York with legal consequences.”
Laws are set to take effect Friday in New York prohibiting local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from concealing their identity with masks while interacting with the public and requiring all officers to display “clear identification.”
The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act also ensures that local law enforcement can “remain focused on local community safety issues” by prohibiting local governments and law enforcement agencies from entering into agreements to operate as immigration officers or to detain people “solely for federal civil immigration violations,” according to James.
“After New York enacted this comprehensive package, the federal administration vowed to attack the legislation, and, last week, notified the state it intended to sue imminently,” the AG’s office says, with the Trump administration filing its lawsuit on Monday.
“Our communities should not have to live in fear of being disappeared by unidentified masked agents,” James blasts in a statement. “If the federal government wants to brazenly defy our laws, then we will fight tooth and nail in court to ensure transparency and keep all New Yorkers safe.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says New Yorkers “deserve to know who is enforcing the law in their communities and have the assurance that local resources are being deployed to protect public safety, not to intimidate or advance the agenda of a rogue federal agency.”
Hochul adds, “These laws reflect New York’s values, and we’re not going to let anyone bully us into abandoning them.”
