ALBANY, NY—A federal judge has blocked a New York state law banning federal immigration agents from wearing masks and requiring them to identify themselves.

U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino wrote Monday that the state law regulating federal agents likely violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“New York cannot impose its own uniform requirements on federal agents simply because it disagrees with how the federal government is exercising its authority,” the judge wrote in a 51-page ruling. “The individual choices of some federal officers do not open the floodgates to direct state regulation of federal law enforcement operations and policy.”

D’Agostino issued an injunction blocking the mask and identification requirements, but declined to stand in the way of a separate law barring police departments from signing agreements to help enforce federal immigration law.

The Trump administration has won several court cases across the country challenging mask bans, including against the states of California and Virginia, and the city of Philadelphia.

The mask ban and other regulations were included in this year’s state budget.

Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed for the rules to try to curb what she described as “flagrant abuses of power” and “overreach” by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Public opinion has soured on the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigrants. Several people have been shot dead by federal agents, sparking protests across the country.

D’Agostino acknowledged in her ruling an unspecified list of “recent troubling events which loom darkly over the public perception of the manner in which federal immigration law is enforced.”

“However, the issue now before the Court is about constitutionality — not transparency or preferable policy decisions," she wrote. “Whether federal law enforcement agencies have chosen to carry out such operations in a sufficiently transparent manner is an important question. But that question is not for this court to answer at the present time.”

D’Agostino declined to immediately block a separate law barring local police agencies from helping the federal government with civil immigration cases. It also bans local jails from holding people on civil immigration charges.

The law is set to take effect later this month.

Hochul has touted the regulations as the “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.” She said local police officers should be focused on local issues, not federal matters.

About a dozen police agencies across the state have signed the so-called 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE.

One of them is the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.

Todd Hood, the county sheriff who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor this November, said he would end his cooperation agreement, as required by law.

But he said he still intends to work with the federal government and honor requests to detain and hand over any undocumented immigrants that come through the county jail.

“When somebody comes into my jail with a criminal charge, and they’re an illegal, they’ll still get notified,” Hood previously told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “They’re still going to come pick them up. The only thing is I can’t have a contract with them.”

The lawsuit challenging the New York regulations was previously filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, which is based in Buffalo.

A judge suggested the federal government went to court there in the hopes of securing a favorable ruling. He ordered last month that the case be transferred to D’Agostino, who is based in the federal courthouse in Albany.

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