New Jersey passes bills to prevent ICE, police officers from wearing masks on duty

Gov. Mikie Sherrill is poised to sign legislation banning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks when conducting arrests in the state.

The pair of bills passed the state legislature Monday and would require law enforcement officers to show their face during certain public interactions and provide valid identification before being arrested or detained. The legislation wouldn’t just apply to ICE agents, but also “a member of any federal, State, county, or municipal law enforcement agency, department, or division.”

However, the legislation won’t apply to an officer working undercover, or one wearing a medical mask, like an N95, to prevent disease transmission, or one wearing a mask to protect from cold weather or smoke. The legislation also protects officers from threats of retaliation related to their official duties.

This comes on the heels of ICE agents being deployed to airports across the country as Transportation Security Administration officers continue to go unpaid as the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down.

Sherrill has been critical of ICE operations in the state and voiced her support for a lawsuit against ICE and DHS to prevent them from converting a warehouse in Roxbury Township into an immigration detention facility. Earlier this week, Sherrill criticized the Trump administration’s move to install ICE officers in airports.

“Every time Donald Trump gets involved, he creates chaos for the American people,” Sherrill said in a statement Sunday. “This latest proposal is no different. Trump’s ICE has a track record of making communities less safe, and sending untrained ICE agents to staff our airports is not an acceptable solution. Instead, it’s time for Donald Trump and Washington Republicans to do their jobs and fund TSA.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that ICE officers would assist TSA by guarding exit lanes or checking passenger IDs, unless Democrats agreed to fund DHS, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of thousands of homeland security workers have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew DHS funding last month.