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"A California law aimed at prohibiting ICE agents from wearing masks was struck down in court earlier this year. The carve-out that led to the successful Trump administration challenge came out of negotiations between the offices of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Scott Wiener. Newsom and Wiener have said they were proud to pass the first attempt at an ICE mask ban, and efforts to pass a new version are underway."

"The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is investigating 17 incidents in which immigration authorities potentially violated the law — including one involving former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino — and is asking the public to submit evidence that could assist the investigations. "

From Portland to Minneapolis, aggressive actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents against citizens and noncitizens alike have been well documented. Many of these encounters raise grave constitutional concerns. Yet it may surprise—and alarm—many to learn that there is often no viable path to sue federal officers if they violate your constitutional rights, even egregiously.

“A U.S. citizen and Army veteran who was detained by federal immigration authorities for three days last summer in Southern California filed a civil rights suit against the federal government on Wednesday."

"If you're skeptical of states going after ICE agents in particular, ... there's a really strong originalist case that states have this power."

"Congress has never created an analogous version for federal agents, largely because it sort of didn't have to. The result is that you have federal agents who are behaving as if they know it is extremely unlikely that they will face any penalty for violating constitutional rights."

Horizontal, interbranch competition is only one species of checks and balances. Especially in moments of politically consolidated federal power, the Constitution’s structure offers another, potentially more meaningful safeguard: the states.

"'Because the legal doctrine is murky, it is difficult to predict how legal challenges to mask bans might play out,' according to the paper, 'Can States Prohibit Federal Law Enforcement From Masking on the Job?'"

"There is no structural or blanket barrier to states bringing a criminal prosecution against federal officials...If a state believes that a federal official has violated state criminal law, the state has broad Investigatory Powers to collect evidence, to explore that criminal action, basically in the same way they would against anybody else."

"A proposal in a 1987 law review article could address a gap that makes it all but impossible to sue federal officials for violating the Constitution." (References SDRI Research).