A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Monday, Feb. 9, allowing federal immigration officials to continue wearing masks during California operations, while a lawsuit plays out between the Trump administration and the state.
U.S. District Judge Christine A. Snyder in Los Angeles granted the Trump administration’s request for a temporary order halting enforcement of SB 627, the No Secret Police Act, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September amid ongoing waves of federal immigration enforcements across California.
In court documents, Snyder said the federal government didn’t prove that banning face coverings would impede immigration officers’ work. However, the court granted the injunction because the facial covering ban doesn’t apply to all law enforcement officers across the state and therefore discriminates against federal law enforcement, according to court documents.
The injunction takes effect Feb. 19.
California State Sen. Scott Weiner, who proposed the original bill to ban facial coverings, said Monday he would immediately introduce new legislation to include state police in the law.
“ICE and Border Patrol are covering their faces to maximize their terror campaign and to insulate themselves from accountability,” Weiner said in a news release. “We will ensure our mask ban can be enforced.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department previously said they wouldn’t enforce the ban. At a news conference in January, McDonnell said he disagreed with the policy and said it could create conflicts between police and other law enforcement agencies.
“The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best or an infraction, it doesn’t make any sense,” McDonnell said. “It’s not a good public policy decision and it wasn’t well thought out in my opinion.”
In response, state lawmakers who introduced the bill encouraged residents to use videos and photos of immigration enforcements in the state to sue violators of the mask ban. Under the law, the civil penalty would start at $10,000.
Snyder denied the Trump administration’s request for a preliminary injunction against the SB 805, the No Vigilantes Act, which requires all non-uniformed law enforcement officers working in California to wear a visible badge that includes their agency and name or badge number.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.