An appeals court on Wednesday blocked California from requiring federal immigration agents to display identification during operations, handing the Trump administration a legal victory over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found California overstepped its authority by trying to regulate Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, marking the latest flashpoint in a broader fight between blue states and the federal government over immigration enforcement operations.
The panel of judges, comprising two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee, found California’s No Vigilantes Act violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says that when a state and federal law are in conflict, the latter wins out.
“We conclude that [section 10] of the No Vigilantes Act attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” the panel wrote in an order. “The Supremacy Clause forbids the State from enforcing such legislation.”
APPEALS COURT BLOCKS ORDER LIMITING IMMIGRATION AGENTS’ USE OF FORCE IN CHICAGO
The decision came after Newsom signed into law a pair of bills last fall designed to address reports of unidentified federal agents, sometimes wearing masks and other gear, carrying out arrests and detaining illegal immigrants in California. The No Vigilantes Act and No Secret Police Act required ICE agents to display identification and banned them from wearing masks, respectively.
“Trump’s ICE agents need to be reined in and held to the same standards as any other law enforcement agency,” Newsom said in a statement in March. “Federal accountability and clear identification shouldn’t be optional.”
The Trump administration sued over the two bills and sought injunctions, arguing in court papers that “a state law that directly regulates the federal government’s operations is straightforwardly invalid, no matter the size of the burden it imposes.”
ICE has defended the practice of agents concealing their identities during operations, saying last summer as Trump’s intensifying immigration crackdown prompted anti-ICE protests and riots that rhetoric on the left had caused a spike in “threats and assaults against [agents’] families.”
TRUMP ADMIN URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS FOR MORE THAN 33K CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
A federal judge also blocked California’s mask ban in February, and state Democratic lawmakers responded by attempting to rewrite the bill, a process that remains ongoing.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche commended the DOJ Civil Division, which has been handling the ICE litigation, calling the 9th Circuit’s decision “another decisive victory in this administration’s effort to remove illegal aliens from this country.”
Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney in California, celebrated the win, calling it a “huge legal victory … where the court permanently enjoined California’s unconstitutional mask law targeting federal agents.”
DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said on X, “Told ya!”
Former DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf also weighed in, saying: “Finally – a good decision for common sense and strong immigration enforcement.”
California could appeal the decision. Asked for comment, a Newsom spokesperson told Fox News Digital undercover ICE agents were “terrorizing” people at the direction of Trump and his aide Stephen Miller, the architect of many of the White House‘s immigration policies.
“These laws shouldn’t even be necessary,” the Newsom spokesperson said. “We shouldn’t have unidentified, masked men terrorizing our communities. We will continue demanding federal accountability and fighting against Trump and Miller’s reign of terror against our communities.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
