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Rep. Eric Swalwell has vowed to strip Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of their driver’s licenses for wearing masks if he becomes state governor.
“If the governor has the ability to issue driver’s licenses to people in California, if you’re going to wear a mask and not identify yourself, you’re not going to be eligible to drive a vehicle in California,” the Democrat politician told MS NOW.
A law banning ICE officers from wearing masks while conducting operations in California went into effect Thursday. Governor Gavin Newsom said the law would ensure ICE agents would no longer be “hidden from accountability.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has refused to comply with the law. The Trump administration has also filed suit against the law, claiming it is unconstitutional.
A District Judge ruled against the federal government three days before Christmas. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 12 January.
On Friday, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said on X that “California has no authority to regulate federal agents.”
The masking law came in response to President Trump’s law-enforcement “surge” to California. Federal agents, National Guard and US Marines were sent to Los Angeles and the surrounding area to aid with immigration enforcement operations after protests and riots.
Aat least 2.25 million illegal immigrants lived in California, the most of any state in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.
In September, a federal judge ruled the President’s surge was unconstitutional.
