OPINION:
One can only marvel at the liberal mind’s malleability. It wasn’t long ago that anyone without a piece of useless cloth stretched across his face was condemned as a dastardly villain spreading COVID-19.
On Saturday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the lockdown-era champion of compelling toddlers to wear masks, signed legislation banning federal agents from doing the same thing while arresting illegal aliens.
“Immigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back, and that’s what we’re doing here today. … I’ll be signing a bill, the first in the nation, saying, ‘Enough, ICE, unmask. What are you afraid of?’” Mr. Newsom said during the signing ceremony.
The Democratic chief executive is a master of performative gestures. He knows a state government can’t impose a dress code on Uncle Sam, but Mr. Newsom has his eyes on the White House. To win his party’s nomination in 2028, he must impress fellow leftists who don’t bother reading beyond the headlines.
Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, declared California’s No Secret Police Act dead on arrival. He instructed federal agents in his jurisdiction to ignore the inapplicable ordinance and said Mr. Newsom would have made his case on Capitol Hill if he were serious about the policy.
That’s good news for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operatives who conceal their identities to avoid being doxed by violent liberal groups such as antifa that are posting addresses and photos of agents, subjecting their families to harassment.
“When can we expect CA to pass a law banning Antifa members from wearing masks while committing state and federal crimes? I’ll wait,” Mr. Essayli mused on X over the weekend.
Had Mr. Newsom’s conceit been enforceable, ICE employees would risk $10,000 fines for operating masked while committing an “abuse of process.” Although the term is undefined in the statute, Mr. Newsom believes returning foreign intruders to their countries of origin qualifies as abusive.
“You’re going to go out and do enforcement, provide an ID. Tell us which agency you represent. Provide us basic information that all local enforcement is required to provide,” Mr. Newsom said.
ICE agents could, of course, elude the identification requirement by ducking into a polling booth, where the Golden State offers sanctuary for anyone unable to provide basic information. Or they might take advantage of the giant loophole allowing officers to cover up with N95 masks to protect against “transmission of disease or infection.”
The ease of evading the penalty underscores the synthetic nature of Mr. Newsom’s scheme, but he is not entirely off-base. His law “requires” federal agents performing ordinary duties to identify their employing agency, and they must at least display a badge number on their uniform.
That’s a reasonable suggestion, but it’s no more than that. In an ideal world, ICE agents wouldn’t need to disguise themselves, but they do so because left-wing extremists have increasingly turned to violence to achieve goals they can’t attain through reasoned argument or persuasion.
In January, Sen. Alex Padilla, California Democrat, introduced a proper bill in Congress that would outlaw all “non-medical face coverings” for immigration enforcers. It has gone nowhere because most lawmakers recognize it’s not a good-faith effort.
Rather, it’s a roundabout attempt to sabotage the choices voters made in November. Democrats want to restore the uncontrolled flood of illegal aliens over the border by discouraging anyone from joining ICE. It won’t work.
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