00:00California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a law banning immigration officers from wearing masks in his state.
00:07But can he do that?
00:10In a word, no.
00:13Newsom's bill would mandate that immigration law enforcement officers take off their masks during enforcement operations.
00:19However, those officers are under federal control, not the state.
00:23This has come up many times over the centuries, and the courts are very clear, state courts really, as well as federal courts, that the state cannot directly regulate federal agents in this way.
00:44The Trump administration will likely challenge this law in court and will likely have legal precedent to stand on.
00:50When we're talking about federal law enforcement officers doing what they're supposed to do according to their valid instructions, then they cannot be charged with a state crime for doing their job.
01:09So what could Newsom and the state argue?
01:12They might argue that this is a rogue conduct, and there are serious questions that might be raised about law enforcement officers being masked.
01:25Even if the law were to remain in place, compliance would likely to be hard to come by, as would enforcement.
01:31It is symbolic as much as anything else.
01:36I seriously doubt that we're going to see, you know, Los Angeles Police Department or Los Angeles Sheriff's Department officers trying to arrest ICE agents or Customs and Border Protection agents to charge them with violations of these laws.
01:59A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, quote, we don't need to abide by this garbage.
02:05For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.
02:07For more unbiased straight facts, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com.
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