The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department said his agency will not enforce a state law backed by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans federal agents from wearing masks during law enforcement operations.
“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,” Chief Jim McDonnell said in a video posted to X.
“It’s not a good public policy decision and it wasn’t well thought out in my opinion,” he said.
🚨BREAKING: LAPD will not enforce California’s radical ICE Agent mask ban.
Chief McDonnell said that the federal mask ban, signed into law as the “No Secret Police Act” is not a good public policy decision, and it wasn’t well thought out — a big 🖕🏻to @GavinNewsom. pic.twitter.com/yhETVBFF2f
— Dapper Detective (@Dapper_Det) February 1, 2026
“From a practical standpoint, our role when we get to a scene is to de-escalate the situation, not to ramp it up,” McDonnell said, according to Fox News.
“Trying to enforce a misdemeanor violation on another law enforcement agency, that’s not going to end well. And that’s not going to be good,” he added.
“From a public safety standpoint for anybody in that environment. Potentially you have a crowd that could be agitated and trying to get their point across,” McDonnell said.
“And then you have the ICE agents who are doing their job. And for us to come in then and try and create an enforcement action for wearing a mask, it’s not a safe way to do business.”
As noted by KABC-TV, Newsom signed the “No Secret Police Act” this past September in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in the state.
The editorial board of the New York Post wrote that the California law comes at a time when “radical activists have been stalking and targeting ICE agents — and people they wrongly believe to be ICE agents, like the air marshals that a mob trapped in a restaurant in Lynwood this week.”
The New York Post wrote that the law “was always terrible policy, and put law enforcement officers — local and federal — in danger.”
“It is just the latest example of bad law, passed for symbolic or ideological reasons, or for short-term political expediency,” the article added.
“California has enough real problems for legislators to deal with, rather than passing pointless and even dangerous laws.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department likewise said it will not enforce the ban, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
“Federal law governs civil immigration matters, and under the U.S. Constitution, federal authority supersedes state and local laws. As a local law enforcement entity, we do not create federal policy, but we are required to operate within the legal framework it establishes,” the department said in a statement.
“Current federal law will not allow us to enforce the proposed ordinance on federal agents, should the courts decide differently we will adjust accordingly,” the department said.
The law took effect on Jan. 1, and is currently facing legal challenges as the Trump administration fights it in court.
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