Trump administration sues Philadelphia over ‘ICE Out’ facemask ban for law enforcement

President Donald Trump’s administration sued Philadelphia and some its top officials Thursday over a new ordinance that bars law enforcement officers from concealing their identities and effectively bans federal immigration agents from wearing masks.

The law, part of City Council’s recently adopted “ICE Out” package of legislation imposing some of the nation’s toughest local restrictions on immigration agents, is “blatantly unconstitutional,” the lawsuit said.

“Such an ordinance also undermines the principles of federalism that underlie our entire constitutional order by seeking to prevent effective federal law enforcement within Philadelphia,” according to the complaint.

The ordinance makes it a crime for any law enforcement officer, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, to wear face coverings or conceal personal identifiers like badges and nameplates while carrying out their official duties in the city, and it requires officers to identify themselves. It also prohibits the use of unmarked vehicles .

The bill includes exceptions allowing officers to wear masks in certain circumstances, such as during medical emergencies or in SWAT operations.

An officer who violates this ordinance can be prosecuted, and risks up to 90 days in jail plus a fine.

The suit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, names as defendants the city, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and City Solicitor Renee Garcia. It asks a federal judge to find the bills unconstitutional, warning that federal agents could suffer irreparable harm if the policy remains in place.

“Protecting officers’ personal identities is particularly important during high-risk enforcement operations involving individuals with violent criminal history, gang affiliations, transnational criminal organizations, and known or suspected terrorists,” the suit says.

The lawsuit marks the Trump administration’s most significant action targeting Philadelphia’s immigrant-friendly policies to date.

“Today we regrettably had to sue the birthplace of this great Nation,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward in a statement. “But we will not sit by while Philadelphia flagrantly violates our Constitution, seeking to criminally punish our Nation’s law enforcement heroes merely for doing their job.”

Although Philadelphia has long been a “sanctuary city,” Parker has largely avoided direct confrontation with the White House over the issue, a reversal from former Mayor Jim Kenney’s combative stance.

Parker’s supporters credit her with careful, crafty management of Philadelphia’s relationship with Trump, noting Philadelphia has been spared from the surges of federal agents the president has sent to other cities. But immigration advocates say Parker has backed away from a fight at a time when strong action is most needed.

The tension surfaced when Parker decided to let the facemask bill became law without her signature, after Garcia warned the mayor that the provisions might not be legally enforceable.

Council members, however, wanted to take a more proactive stance against Trump’s nationwide deportation campaign. And they seem to have gotten his attention.

Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who co-authored the “ICE Out” package, said she “will not back down from this fight.”

“Philadelphia doesn’t like bullies. And we certainly don’t like masked PPD officers or ICE agents terrorizing our neighbors,” Brooks said in a statement. “The people of this city expected our leaders to fight back against Trump’s invasion. That’s what we did when we passed ICE Out.”

Brooks also noted that the federal government’s lawsuit cites the Parker administration’s publicly aired concerns about the bill, and said that other jurisdictions targeted by Trump after they passed legislation restraining ICE haven’t had to deal with that dynamic.

“Other lawsuits aren’t dealing with the City’s own words about the laws being used against them,” Brooks said. “That approach is being directly rejected by voters.”

The Parker administration declined to comment.

Councilmember Rue Landau, the legislation’s other co-author, criticized Trump for “targeting Philadelphia because our city dared to stand up and say that masked federal agents should not be able to operate in our communities and target our vulnerable neighbors without accountability.”

“This lawsuit is not about public safety,” Landau said in a statement. “It is about Donald Trump demanding that cities bow down and accept federal overreach without boundaries. Philadelphia has never been that kind of city.”

In addition to banning officers from concealing their identities, the “ICE Out” package, which in April passed Council with a veto-proof supermajority, prohibits federal immigration agencies from staging raids on city-owned property, bans discrimination on the basis of citizenship status, and prohibits the city from engaging in most forms of information-sharing with ICE.

The legislation also codified some of Philadelphia’s long-standing sanctuary city policies that were established only through executive order — most notably a ban on city jails honoring ICE detainers that are not accompanied by judicial warrants.

Parker signed six out of seven bills in May, and allowed the ban on agents hiding their identities to become law without her signature.

Parker didn’t sign the bill after Garcia expressed concern about the ban’s “significant legal and operational challenges,” the suit notes. The mayor’s signature would signal the Parker administration’s intent to enforce the requirement, the solicitor said, and would send an inaccurate signal to the public that the prohibition is enforceable.

While Parker might have attempted to distance herself from the requirement by not signing the bill, the lawsuit quotes Krasner threatening federal agents with prosecution.

“We will arrest you. We will put handcuffs on you. We will close those cuffs. We will put you in a cell,” Krasner said in January. “We will do everything in our power to convict you and we will make sure you serve your entire sentence because Donald Trump has no power whatsoever to pardon you.”

The complaint makes clear that by bringing this lawsuit, the Department of Justice isn’t closing the door on challenges to other ICE Out ordinances.

Around the country, more and more Democratic-led communities are attempting to regulate what ICE can and cannot do within their jurisdictions.

In March the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution that restricted the agency from using county property or resources for civil investigations.

Issues around masks and identification have been particularly contentious.

Activists in Philadelphia and elsewhere say ICE arrests often look like kidnappings or muggings, where men in ordinary clothes, with no visible identification, suddenly descend on their target. The people being arrested may think they’re being attacked by criminals.

Several states, including New Jersey and New York, have passed laws to ban law enforcement officers, including ICE, from wearing facial coverings while on duty.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld in April a lower court’s injunction to a California law that required federal agents to “visibly display identification.” The unanimous three judge panel ruled that the requirement violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause that bars the states from regulating federal government activities.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed bills in March that essentially banned ICE agents and police from wearing masks on the job, drawing pushback from Republican lawmakers. The Trump administration sued New Jersey in federal court in April, and the New Jersey Monitor and others reported how ICE agents continued to cover their faces during recent clashes with demonstrators outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark.

In a statement to reporters, the Department of Homeland Security called the New Jersey ban “despicable,” a flagrant and unconstitutional “attempt to endanger our officers.”

The department said officers would not abide, that “New Jersey’s sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement.”

The Trump administration says federal immigration officers wear face coverings to protect themselves and their families from anti-ICE activists who may seek to identify and harm them. Assaults and death threats are on the rise, the administration said.