New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a law on Wednesday that restricts law enforcement officers, including federal ICE agents, from using face coverings while on duty.
Under the new rule, officers must show proper identification before detaining anyone. The move comes at a time when some federal agents have been conducting immigration raids while keeping their identities hidden, raising concerns in several communities.
Sherrill, who assumed office in January, said the step is aimed at improving transparency and making residents feel safer across the state.
“I can’t believe we have to say this, but in the United States of America, we’re not going to tolerate masked roving militias pretending, pretending to be well-trained law enforcement agents,” Sherrill said.
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The measure is part of a broader set of bills that, as the governor put it, will “protect people’s privacy and their rights” and “strengthen trust between law enforcement and our communities.”
It also reflects a wider push by Democrats at both the federal and state levels, who have spent months trying to pass laws that would bar immigration agents from wearing masks to conceal their identities, arguing that such steps are essential for transparency.
New Jersey is not alone in this approach. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, also a Democrat, signed a similar law earlier this month that places limits on face coverings for ICE agents.
The Department of Homeland Security, however, has pushed back strongly against these efforts, criticizing moves to unmask ICE agents and calling Washington state’s law “irresponsible, reckless and dangerous.”
The response from federal authorities has been blunt. “To be crystal clear: we will not abide by this unconstitutional ban,” the department said at the time.
Sherrill’s decision on Wednesday is also part of her broader pushback against the Trump administration’s immigration raids. Earlier this year, she introduced a public portal where residents can upload photos and videos of ICE agents carrying out operations, an effort to bring more visibility to how these raids unfold.
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Making her position clear, Sherrill urged residents to document what they see. “If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out, we want to know,” she said. “They have not been forthcoming. They will pick people up, they will not tell us who they are, they will not tell us if they’re here legally, they won’t check. They’ll pick up American citizens. They picked up a five-year-old child. We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.”
The standoff has already spilled into the courts. The Trump administration is suing New Jersey over an executive order Sherrill signed last month that bars federal immigration agents from carrying out arrests in nonpublic areas of state-owned property, including courthouses and correctional facilities.
The order also prevents federal authorities from using state property as a staging ground or processing site for immigration enforcement operations.