The rules on how ICE agents operate, from masks to vehicle stops

Masks became a second fight. In March, as ICE agents began working at airports, President Donald Trump asked them not to wear masks there.^[10] New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a law limiting face coverings for law enforcement officers, including ICE agents, and requiring officers to show identification before detaining someone.^[11] Federal judges blocked similar laws elsewhere: Virginia's, signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, hours before it was set to take effect in July,^[2] and New York's in August, when Judge Mae D'Agostino ruled that its mask ban and identification rule were likely an impermissible regulation of federal activity, while letting stand a law that bars local governments from signing cooperation agreements with ICE.^[3] In October, a federal appeals court blocked California from requiring ICE agents to wear identification, saying the administration was likely to win its challenge.^[4]

In July, an ICE officer fatally shot a Colombian driver in Maine a week after an officer killed a motorist in Houston. ICE ordered its officers to pause most traffic stops, and the next day Trump directed them to resume.^[12] Border czar Tom Homan said ICE would require officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera.^[13] Dozens of Democratic senators, joined by Maine's independent Sen. Angus King, pressed ICE on how it vets new agents and conducts vehicle pursuits and demanded that body cameras be rolled out quickly.^[14] Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who had helped negotiate a budget bill that gave ICE $20 million for body cameras, said all ICE agents would wear them by the end of August.^[15]

The camera rollout came with limits. ICE's policy lets the agency release footage only when it decides that doing so is in its "best interests."^[16] In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents in the field were expected to have cameras by the end of that month.^[6] In October, the department and ICE rejected a government watchdog's recommendation that agents' body cameras activate automatically.^[17]

In August, ICE said it planned to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver painful electric shocks, drawing criticism from Democratic officials and civil rights advocates who called them unnecessary and cruel.^[18] Despite calls from senators to cancel the plan, it awarded a $16.7 million no-bid contract for 6,000 pairs to Compliant Technologies, a Kentucky company.^[19] On September 29, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning local, state and federal officers from using shock gloves, starting in 2027 and lasting until 2030.^[5] In October, reporting described an Army study that found the gloves caused intense pain, compliance and fear.^[20]

In October, an internal ICE memo barred high-speed car chases and allowed only officers who had completed specific training to make vehicle stops, in vehicles equipped with lights and sirens. Agents had fired their guns during more than a dozen ICE-initiated vehicle stops since 2025, killing at least four people.^[7]