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| Meta Title | Who Gets to Wear a Mask? - The New York Times |
| Meta Description | The tension over masked federal immigration agents expanded on Long Island, where police officers are now permitted to mask up — but no one else is. |
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| Boilerpipe Text | Although we are five years out of the Covid pandemic’s most desperate hours, debates about masking have clung to their fiery place in the culture wars. The context has shifted — from public health emergency to campus protests over Gaza to immigration raids on Home Depot parking lots. But the various arguments, deeply politicized, remain entrenched in a single question: Whose personal liberties ought to be sacrosanct? In the past few weeks there has been an expansion into new territory, perhaps the most contentious of which pits the rights of law enforcement against anyone immigration agents and police officers deems suspicious. Less than a year after signing into law the Mask Transparency Act , a statute more or less banning face coverings in the western half of Long Island, Bruce Blakeman, the Republican Nassau County executive, amended it via an executive order , creating an exception that allows police officers to wear masks on duty. This was necessary, he maintained, to ensure the safety of those executing the raids, as well as officers’ family members, who might be sought out and threatened. He signed the order the same day that the Department of Homeland Security issued a news release asserting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Portland, Ore., had been subject to a surge of assaults after their personal information was publicized. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. |
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Big CITY
# Who Gets to Wear a Mask?
The tension over masked federal immigration agents expanded on Long Island, where police officers are now permitted to mask up — but no one else is.
- Share full article

Masked federal agents have become a routine sight at immigration courts in Manhattan.Credit...Adam Gray for The New York Times
[](https://www.nytimes.com/by/ginia-bellafante)
By [Ginia Bellafante](https://www.nytimes.com/by/ginia-bellafante)
Ginia Bellafante writes the [Big City](https://www.nytimes.com/column/big-city) column, a weekly commentary on the politics, culture and life of New York City.
July 18, 2025
Although we are five years out of the Covid pandemic’s most desperate hours, debates about masking have clung to their fiery place in the culture wars. The context has shifted — from public health emergency to campus protests over Gaza to immigration raids on Home Depot parking lots. But the various arguments, deeply politicized, remain entrenched in a single question: Whose personal liberties ought to be sacrosanct?
In the past few weeks there has been an expansion into new territory, perhaps the most contentious of which pits the rights of law enforcement against anyone immigration agents and police officers deems suspicious. Less than a year after signing into law the [Mask Transparency Act](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/nyregion/mask-ban-nassau-county-allies.html), a statute more or less banning face coverings in the western half of Long Island, Bruce Blakeman, the Republican Nassau County executive, [amended it via an executive order](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/nyregion/nassau-county-police-officers-ice-masks.html), creating an exception that allows police officers to wear masks on duty.
This was necessary, he maintained, to ensure the safety of those executing the raids, as well as officers’ family members, who might be sought out and threatened. He signed the order the same day that the Department of Homeland Security issued a news [release](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/07/11/anarchists-and-rioters-portland-illegally-dox-ice-officers-and-federal-law) asserting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Portland, Ore., had been subject to a surge of assaults after their personal information was publicized.
[Subscribe to The Times](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=8WXW7) to read as many articles as you like.
[Ginia Bellafante](https://www.nytimes.com/by/ginia-bellafante) has served as a reporter, critic and, since 2011, as the [Big City columnist](https://www.nytimes.com/column/big-city). She began her career at The Times as a fashion critic, and has also been a television critic. She previously worked at Time magazine.
A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2025, Section MB, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: First, Immigration Agents. Now, the Police.. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY)
See more on: [New York Civil Liberties Union](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/new-york-civil-liberties-union)
- Share full article
***
## Our Coverage of U.S. Immigration
***
- **Afghan Visas:** After a fatal shooting, the Trump administration froze a visa program for Afghans that Republicans in Congress had championed. [The G.O.P. has not objected](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/us/politics/republicans-afghan-visas.html).
- **Palau Agrees to Take Migrants:** The Pacific nation [has signed a “memo of understanding”](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/us/politics/palau-us-migrants.html) with the Trump administration to take up to 75 “third country nationals” who cannot be returned to their home nations. In return, Palau will receive \$7.5 million and other aid.
- **Man Shot in ICE Confrontation:** A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer [shot an undocumented driver](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/us/immigrant-shot-maryland-ice.html) trying to evade arrest in Maryland, according to ICE and local officials, resulting in a crash that left the driver and a passenger hospitalized.
- **ICE Sweeps Into Ohio:** A surge of enforcement in Columbus by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [has created turmoil there and angered local leaders](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/us/ice-columbus-ohio-somalis-immigrants.html), who find their city the latest target of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
- **Stephen Miller’s Comments:** As it seeks to end birthright citizenship, the Trump administration [is arguing that immigrants bring problems that extend for generations](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump-immigrants.html). The data shows otherwise.
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