Federal Judge Guts New York's ICE Mask Law

New York's attempt to unmask federal immigration agents just hit a wall named the Supremacy Clause.

Judge Mae D'Agostino of the Northern District of New York blocked the state's law banning masked ICE agents and requiring them to display visible identification. Her reasoning left little room for argument: the statute "directly regulate[s] federal officers in violation of the Supremacy Clause." In other words, Albany doesn't get to write the rulebook for how federal agents do federal jobs.

Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James aren't backing down quietly. Their statement insisted "masked agents do not make New York safer" and promised they're "reviewing all legal options."

D'Agostino left one piece of New York's resistance standing: the state's separate ban on local police signing 287(g) agreements to cooperate directly with ICE.

Rhode Island's own move to bar ICE agents from polling places was built on the same theory — that states can hem in federal immigration enforcement through local statute. A federal judge just told New York that theory has limits.

Hochul and James can appeal. But for now, ICE agents in New York can keep their masks on and their badges wherever they like. The Supremacy Clause did in an afternoon what months of state legislating couldn't undo.