Members of the General Assembly are about to consider a bill aimed at addressing some of the concerns about ICE raids across Virginia.
Delegate Mike Jones is a Democrat from Richmond who has a bill that would prohibit some law enforcement officials from wearing masks in certain circumstances.
"To have someone walking outside someone's house, someone's neighborhood and they have masks on, that doesn't bode well," Jones says. "Especially as an African American male of my age, folks running around in masks is not a good thing; that’s never been a good thing for us in our community."
Allie Preston is a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress who says Trump administration tactics are often designed to be cruel.
"We've seen all across the country masked figures outside of schools, graduations coming into schools and communities and harassing family members,” Preston says.
Officers who violate the provisions of the bill would be subject to disciplinary action. And the bill allows people to bring a civil lawsuit.
"It appears to say that people may sue law enforcement who unlawfully wear masks when those officers commit tortious conduct," says Jules Epstein, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. "In other words, when they do something else that they can be sued about it's like this is an added factor."
Jones is currently a candidate in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Ghazala Hashmi, so he's hoping he'll be able to move the bill out of the Senate as the chamber's newest member.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
