SACRAMENTO, California — California lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom legislation that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing masks while conducting raids throughout the state.
The legislation, passed by Democrats over Republican objections in this deep blue state, would prohibit ski masks, balaclavas and other face coverings for local and federal law enforcement, as well as officials from other states operating in California.
Another bill that would require law enforcement to wear badges or name tags identifying themselves was also on track to advance from the Capitol on Thursday.
Newsom now has about a month to decide whether to sign or veto the mask bill. The Democratic governor has publicly questioned whether the state has the authority to regulate federal law enforcement, although he’s railed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents covering their faces while arresting Californians on the street, in Home Depot parking lots and at car washes.
“It appears we don’t have the legal authority for federal agents, but we do for other law enforcement authorities,” he said in July.
Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate cast the mask bill as a defense of democratic norms and public safety amid a heated debate with President Donald Trump’s administration over immigration.
“It is our duty in California to defend our rule of law,” said Assemblymember Juan Carrillo, who represents a Southern California district northeast of Los Angeles. “If we want to support public safety, if we want the public to trust law enforcement, we cannot allow them to behave like secret police in an authoritarian state.”
Republicans opposed the face covering legislation, and some moderate Democrats declined to vote on it, citing concerns from law enforcement lobby groups who said they objected to local police and sheriff’s deputies being lumped in with federal officers.
