A suburban New York county that recently barred residents from wearing masks is now making an exception for police officers so they can obscure their identities while helping the federal authorities detain immigrants.
Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, announced the new policy at a news conference on Friday, saying he had signed an executive order amending a county law that bans the wearing of masks in public except for religious or medical reasons.
Under the amended law, all federal, state and local law enforcement officers operating in Nassau County will be allowed to wear facial coverings when “deemed necessary to protect their personal safety, the personal safety of their families or the integrity of the operation.”
Mr. Blakeman, a Republican, said the change did not apply solely to immigration actions, and he cast it as a safety measure meant to keep protesters from targeting police officers and agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and tracking down their personal information.
Nassau County’s move comes as Democratic lawmakers in California and New York are pushing to ban the wearing of masks by federal agents, including those working for ICE, in many circumstances.
The issue of ICE agents taking people into custody while wearing unmarked uniforms and balaclavas to conceal their faces has become a major point of conflict amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with critics saying it smacks of authoritarianism.
Mike German, a retired F.B.I. agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, said he had not heard of other local police departments allowing officers to cover their faces. Doing so, he said, puts the officers at greater risk rather than protecting them.
“If people in the community don’t know who these masked people are, using force against people that they know, obviously there is a reaction to resist that kind of force,” Mr. German said.
That the masks provoke public resistance, he added, “should be a clue for officials who are genuinely concerned with public safety and officer safety to understand that that’s not helpful, it’s provocative.”
The mask ban that Mr. Blakeman’s order amended was adopted by Nassau County last summer in response to the face coverings worn by many protesters at demonstrations across the United States prompted by the war in Gaza.
Mr. Blakeman, a close ally of President Trump, justified the ban at the time by saying protesters’ wearing of masks or facial coverings was “often used to predicate harassing, menacing or criminal behavior.”
Nassau adopted its mask ban, the first by a U.S. county since the coronavirus pandemic, around the time Gov. Kathy Hochul suggested she might pursue some form of statewide ban. She ultimately backed off the idea in favor of supporting the creation of a criminal charge for those who wear masks during crimes.
A request for comment emailed to Ms. Hochul’s office was not immediately returned.
Nassau County said in February that its Police Department had formed a partnership with ICE, making it among the first to sign on to the administration’s effort to enlist local law enforcement to assist in its mass-deportation efforts.
Last month, the New York Civil Liberties Union said it was suing the county and the Police Department, calling the partnership a violation of state law that would undermine protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and that would promote racial profiling.
Patrick Ryder, the Nassau County police commissioner, said at the news conference on Friday that mask use would be reserved for “specific investigations” related to things like immigration and drugs. He also said officers would continue to identify themselves by name, rank and badge number in accordance with state law.
Mr. German said that historically, the wearing of masks by officers was “a hallmark of a police state” where the goal was to sow terror.
“So when we adopt those kinds of methods,” he said, “it’s going to have the same effect on the public.”
Taylor Robinson is a Times reporter covering the New York City metro area.
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