California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law on September 20 that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing face coverings on duty. The law, in a package deal, was introduced in response to Trump-sanctioned immigration sweeps in Los Angeles.
S.B. 627 or “The No Secret Police Act,” makes it a misdemeanor crime for law enforcement officers to conceal their identities by wearing masks while performing their duties. It was passed with A.B. 49, S.B. 805 and S.B. 81 — bills that require officers to identify themselves and prohibit ICE officers from entering schools and restricted areas in health facilities without a warrant. Also signed into law on September 20 was S.B. 98. Known as the SAFE Act, this law requires schools to report the presence of immigration enforcement on K-12 campuses.
“Since the beginning of the Trump administration, we’ve seen nothing less than some of the most inhumane operations throughout Southern California,” Hector Pereyra, the Political Manager of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said. IC4IJ was one of three organizations that co-sponsored the bill.
He described S.B. 627 as “the first tool of accountability against the Trump administration’s regime of mass deportations and these inhumane operations.”
“[S.B. 627] has really great meaning for our communities on the ground who are experiencing a daily threat,” said Pereyra. “This is really about providing life-saving protections for those communities.”
The Department of Homeland Security indicated resistance to Newsom’s legislation in a post made on X: “To be clear: We will NOT comply with Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional mask ban,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS Secretary for Public Affairs. “The sitting Governor of California signed unconstitutional legislation that strips law enforcement of protections in a disgusting, diabolical fundraising and PR stunt.”
“The legislature has made significant efforts to fully fund the Attorney General’s office so that he is well equipped to protect the laws of the state of California,” Pereyra continued. “We believe that we are on firm legal and constitutional ground … and that S.B. 627 will be upheld.”
Immigration courthouses are seeing an uptick in lawsuits for unlawful arrests made by ICE agents. According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, immigrants and their advocates are fighting for the due process rights that were “stripped” away from them.
Professor Jean Reisz, a clinical associate professor of law and the co-director for the USC director for the USC Immigration Law Clinic, said he “believes that the federal government is going to argue that states…can’t interfere with federal operations” and “the decision to wear a mask or not wear a mask is within the purview of the Department of Homeland Security.”
“The counterargument to the idea of federal preemption is that states have the absolute right to police their own state and to keep their residents safe, and this is part of their peacekeeping duties,” Reisz said.
Senior Public Policy student Michelle Xuan thinks that the bill is a “great step towards protecting community members.”
“We’ve all seen really horrifying videos of these masked agents and unidentified cars, no badges on them, dragging them on the street, and not giving them the due process that they deserve as human beings,” Xuan said. “It is something very important to residents that live here, and should be important to USC students as well.”