St. Paul bans ICE face coverings, requires identifying badges

The St. Paul City Council voted Wednesday, Feb. 18, to require law enforcement officers – including ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents – to show their faces on the job.

The measure comes as immigration enforcement has slowed in the Twin Cities, but St. Paul leaders said they would keep working to pass city laws governing federal law enforcement.

“This is about the accountability and transparency our community deserves,” said Ward 6 Council Member Nelsie Yang.

The council also approved city ordinances requiring law enforcement working in the city to wear identifying badges or name tags and banning ICE from staging on city-owned property, and St. Paul is mulling more laws in response to immigration enforcement in the city.

“We know that our work is not anywhere close to done when it comes to addressing the presence of ICE and Border Patrol in our city, when it comes to cleaning up the wreckage,” said Ward 4 Council Member Molly Coleman.

Minneapolis has not required federal agents or police to show their faces, but the state could follow St. Paul’s lead.

After the opening of the legislative session Tuesday, state Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, and state Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, introduced bills that would make it a misdemeanor for law enforcement officers on duty to wear masks. However, Port has said she is not sure how the measure could be enforced, particularly if federal agents act outside the law or in defiance of court orders.

A similar law in California was struck down by a judge on Feb. 9.

The idea of outlawing the wearing of masks by agents surfaced during the Minneapolis mayoral election last year, with three prominent challengers to Mayor Jacob Frey signing onto a suite of restrictions, including a mandate for Minneapolis police to “immediately arrest” any law enforcement officer violating it. Frey, who won the election, refused to endorse the plan, saying it went too far.

In St. Paul, Mayor Kaohly Her is expected to sign the ordinance, which will take effect 30 days after her signature. The new law will make it a misdemeanor for law enforcement officers to wear identity-obscuring masks on the job.

Violations would mean a ticket, not an arrest. St. Paul police would be charged with enforcing the law, said Council President Rebecca Noecker.

But Noecker said it is possible that if St. Paul police inform federal agents that masks are against city law and ask them to comply, that could be enough for ICE to drop their masks.