California bans most law enforcement officers from wearing masks during operations

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California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business under a bill signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The ban is a direct response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, where federal agents wore masks while making mass arrests. The raids prompted days of protest across and led President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines to the area.

Newsom said at a news conference in Los Angeles, where he signed the bill flanked by state lawmakers and immigrant community members, that California is unique in that 27% of its residents are foreign born.

“We celebrate that diversity. It’s what makes California great. It’s what makes America great. It is under assault,” he said.

The Democratic governor said the state is pushing back against the practice of masked agents without identification or badge numbers detaining people on the streets.

“The impact of these policies all across this city, our state and nation are terrifying,” Newsom said. “It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie. Unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing. No due process, no rights, no right in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back, and that’s what we’re doing here today.”

But it's unclear how — or whether — the state can enforce the ban on federal agents.

Trump administration officials have defended use of masks, saying immigration agents face strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they carry out enforcement in service of Trump’s drive toward mass deportation. Obscuring their identities is necessary for the safety of the agents and their families, officials contend.

Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, called it “despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers.”

“Sanctuary politicians’ rhetoric comparing ICE to “secret police” — likening them to the Gestapo — is diabolical,” she said via email. “While our federal law enforcement officers are being assaulted by rioters and having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at them, a sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers.”

The men and women of federal immigration agencies put their lives on the line to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens, she said, and rhetoric like Newsom’s has contributed to a surge in assaults.

Newsom countered that concerns about doxing, or publishing agents personal information online, are unfounded and unproven.

“There’s an assertion that somehow there is an exponential increase in assaults on officers, but they will not provide the data,” he said. “All they have provided is misinformation and misdirection.”

The new law prohibits neck gaiters, ski masks and other facial coverings for local and federal officers, including immigration enforcement agents, while they conduct official business. It makes exceptions for undercover agents, medical masks such as N95 respirators or tactical gear, and it does not apply to state police.

Democrats in Congress and lawmakers in several states, including Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, have also introduced similar proposals calling for mask bans.

The Department of Homeland Security said it sent letters Friday to the attorneys general in California, Illinois and New York reinforcing previous instructions that the Democratic-led states honor detainers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “criminal illegal aliens within their jurisdictions.” DHS said in a statement Saturday that if the states fail to comply, it would pursue “all appropriate measures to end their inadvisable and irresponsible obstruction.”

Proponents of the California law said it is especially needed after the Supreme Court ruled this month that the Trump administration can resume its sweeping immigration operations in Los Angeles. The law aims to boost public trust in law enforcement and stop people from impersonating officers to commit crimes, supporters said.

Constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky at the University of California, Berkeley, also defended the legislation. Federal employees still have to follow general state rules “unless doing so would significantly interfere with the performance of their duties. For example, while on the job, federal employees must stop at red lights,” he wrote in an opinion piece for the Sacramento Bee.

The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump’s administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict.

Newsom also signed legislation Saturday preventing immigration agents from entering schools and health care facilities without a valid warrant or judicial order and requiring schools to notify parents and teachers when immigration agents are on campus.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, said “students cannot learn if they live in fear of being deported. The California Safe Haven Schools Act is a clear message to Donald Trump: ‘keep ICE out of our schools.’”

Earlier this year the Legislature also authorized giving $50 million to California’s Department of Justice and other legal groups, which has resulted in more than 40 lawsuits against the Trump administration.