The Trump administration doesn’t plan to adhere to California’s new law demanding that federal immigration agents remove face masks during enforcement operations.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Saturday that largely bans face coverings for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other law enforcement authorities operating in the state, igniting another fight between the Trump administration and California’s pro-sanctuary leaders. However, California residents should not expect face masks for federal agents to disappear any time soon.
“Governor Gavin Newsom is fanning the flames of division, hatred and dehumanization of our law enforcement,” Assistant Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Monday in a statement exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“At a time that ICE law enforcement faces a 1,000% increase in assaults and their family members are being doxxed and targeted, the sitting Governor of California signs unconstitutional legislation that strips law enforcement of protections in a disgusting, diabolical fundraising and PR stunt,” McLaughlin continued. “To be crystal clear: we will not abide by Newsom’s unconstitutional ban.”
Newsom signed into law the “No Secret Police Act,” which prohibits local and federal law enforcement officers in California from wearing face coverings, such as ski masks or neck gaiters, while conducting enforcement activities, according to the legislation. There are exceptions, such as for SWAT teams or officers needing medical masks or respirators.
The law, set to go into effect in January 2026, is in response to escalated immigration enforcement activity across California, particularly the ICE and Border Patrol crackdown in Los Angeles earlier this year. Proponents of the law argue that law enforcement agents should be clearly identifiable in public to be held accountable and allow subjects to know who they are.
The “No Secret Police Act” was first introduced by California State Sen. Scott Wiener, the lawmaker behind another state law that reduced the penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV to another individual. In a public statement after Newsom’s signing, Weiner referred to the Trump administration as an “authoritarian regime” that “engages in a straight up terror campaign.”
However, the Trump administration and law enforcement leaders say such laws put officers at increased risk at a time when attacks against agents are at an all-time high.
“During enforcement operations, all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Officers and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents wear badges designed to be easily identifiable and to signify their authority as law enforcement officials,” an ICE spokesperson previously stated to the DCNF. “If an ICE officer or agent chooses to wear a mask to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement.”
Numerous high-profile threats have been made against ICE in recent months. A Texas man was arrested in April after allegedly threatening to open fire on any ICE agents he caught in his neighborhood, while a New York man was arrested and charged in July for allegedly making online posts threatening to kill ICE agents.
The threat against federal immigration agents significantly escalated when nearly a dozen violent assailants, equipped with tactical gear and weapons, ambushed an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, resulting in one local police officer being shot in the neck after they unloaded rounds of bullets at agents.
The legality of California’s anti-face mask law is also under scrutiny.
While state lawmakers can regulate the conduct of state and local law enforcement, they have no jurisdiction over federal agents. The Supremacy Clause in the Constitution explicitly states that federal law supersedes any conflicting state law, ostensibly meaning California lawmakers cannot regulate how federal law enforcement officers, such as ICE agents, conduct their duties authorized by federal law.
“Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America,” Newsom’s press office posted on X shortly before he signed the bill into law. The public statement drew outrage from the Trump administration, with acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli declaring that he has “zero tolerance” for direct or implicit threats against government officials and would be referring the comment to the Secret Service.
“He signed this piece of legislation the same day his team made a menacing threat against Secretary Kristi Noem online,” McLaughlin stated to the DCNF. “The violent rhetoric and demonization must stop.”
Since Trump returned to the White House and embarked on a large-scale arrest and deportation operation, federal immigration officials have apprehended many criminal illegal migrants across California, according to a list shared first with the DCNF.
Illegal migrant criminals apprehended by DHS in the state include David Rodriguez-Veliz, an MS-13 gangbanger convicted of manufacturing and selling a dangerous weapon and wanted in El Salvador for the disappearance of persons, Tren de Aragua gangbanger Rawy Javier Mogollon-Morillo, Surenos-13 gang member and convicted kidnapper Chamil Machado-Gonzalez and Phoxay Souvannarath, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and allegedly affiliated with the Oriental Killer Boys gang.
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