California lawmakers continue their push to undermine immigration enforcement in a move that could potentially jeopardize the safety of law enforcement officers.
Last week, the California Legislature passed a pair of bills that prohibited local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks and required them to identify themselves.
Senate Bill 627, dubbed the “No Secret Police Act,” bans law enforcement officers from wearing masks while on duty. The legislation applies to any officer of a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency.
If enacted into law, the measure would expose U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and their families to even more threats and doxing by anti-ICE activists, California’s “rapid response” networks, terrorist sympathizers and criminal illegal aliens.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto the legislation. Based on Newsom’s track record, it seems unlikely he will listen.
“Once again sanctuary politicians are trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers, DHS shared on social media.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 16, 2025
Forcing officers to show their full faces puts them and their families at risk of being doxed and targeted by vicious criminals, including gang members, terrorists, cartel members, and murderers, DHS said.
Newsom has until Oct. 12 to sign the bills into law, which would make it a crime for law enforcement to conceal their identity with limited exceptions. In July, Newsom questioned if the bill would be constitutional and said his office was looking into it and hasn’t said whether he will sign it, KUSI Fox 5 in San Diego reported.
Newsom, who regularly trolls the Trump administration on social media, hasn’t said much about ICE on his X account in recent weeks, but he has launched his own “patriot” shop with red and white merchandise.
THE PATRIOT SHOP IS NOW OPEN!!!!
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
MANY PEOPLE ARE SAYING THIS IS THE GREATEST MERCHANDISE EVER MADE.
PLEASE ENJOY, AMERICA! https://t.co/H9wbcXdNhb pic.twitter.com/dWlKGq23eq
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 24, 2025
DHS said the masks are necessary to protect themselves against violent radicals, gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, organized crime rings and criminal offenders.
The agency added: “When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs.”
Officers also wear vests marked with ICE/ERO or Homeland Security and travel in vehicles marked with the name of the department, DHS said.
Democratic state Sens. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Jesse Arreguin of Berkeley introduced the legislation in June in response to immigration enforcement efforts in southern California, KCAL News in Los Angeles reported.
“Sen. Scott Wiener’s legislation banning our federal law enforcement from wearing masks and his rhetoric comparing them to ‘secret police’—likening them to the Gestapo—is despicable,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “We urge Governor Newsom to condemn this rhetoric and veto this bill.”
DHS has blamed violent political rhetoric, viral social media posts, organized rioters and biased news media coverage for the demonization of ICE officers.
In recent months, they have experienced a 1000% percent increase in attacks, including being assaulted with rocks, bricks, commercial fireworks, bicycles and vehicles.
Protestors in Los Angeles, Portland and elsewhere have surrounded and defaced ICE detention facilities, and illegal immigrants have assaulted officers with knives, vehicles and weed whackers while resisting arrest.
Weiner argues the goal of the bill is to increase transparency and public trust in law enforcement. California’s bill has inspired similar bills in other states, including Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. It passed the Senate floor with 28 votes to 11, KCAL reported.
California had some of the longest and most stringent mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now masks are a problem.
“We have to stand up and say no to the secret police raining fear and intimidation on communities across California,” Wiener told KCAL. “Law enforcement should never be easily confused with the guy in the ski mask robbing a liquor store, yet that’s what’s happening with ICE’s extreme masking.”
Alan Wayne Barcelona, president of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, opposes the bill and wrote a letter to Weiner’s office when the bill was initially proposed. He said it undermined the safety of officers and ignored operational realities, KCAL reported.
“It disregards everyday scenarios where anonymity is not just helpful but essential: undercover assignments, organized crime surveillance, narcotics investigations, and even some patrol or crowd control work,” Barcelona said.
A separate bill, Senate Bill 805, known as the No Vigilantes Act, also passed the California Legislature. The bill was introduced by Democratic state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena and supported by other community leaders in June.
If signed into law, it would require law enforcement officers in California to “clearly display identification featuring either their name or badge number.”
