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The Trump administration says it will not comply with California’s new law barring law enforcement officials from wearing masks, which goes into effect next year. Over the last several months, masked immigration officers have abducted people from courthouses, their cars, on the street, and at their workplaces.
On September 20, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the No Secret Police Act, which bars, with limited exceptions, local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from wearing “a facial covering that conceals or obscures their facial identity in the performance of their duties,” including a balaclava, tactical mask, gator, or ski mask. The prohibition does not apply to medical masks worn to prevent transmission of disease. Violation of the law is a misdemeanor and the officer is liable to the victim for no less than $10,000.
California is the first state in the country to ban the practice, although similar legislation has been introduced in Illinois and New York, as well as at the federal level.
“No one wants masked officers roaming their communities and kidnapping people with impunity,” State Sen. Scott Wiener (D), the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement. “As this authoritarian regime expands its reach into every aspect of daily life — including terrorizing people where they work, where they live, where they go to school, where they shop, where they seek health care — California will continue to stand for the rule of law and for basic freedoms.”
The Trump administration has indicated that it has no intention of complying with the legislation.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X: “Good news for Americans and public safety: @ICEGov and @DHSgov law enforcement are part of the federal government. We don’t need to abide by this garbage.”
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli posted on X that he had “directed our federal agencies that the law signed today has no effect on our operations” and that “[o]ur agents will continue to protect their identities.”
“The State of California has no jurisdiction over the federal government,” Essayli said. “If Newsom wants to regulate our agents, he must go through Congress.”
The federal government is expected to challenge the law.
In an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, argued that the legislation was constitutional. State and local governments, he wrote, “can require that federal employees comply with general laws unless doing so would significantly interfere with the performance of their duties.”
“ICE agents wearing masks is meant to evoke the terror of being kidnapped,” he continued. “It serves no law enforcement purpose.”
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