California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills blocking federal immigration agents from wearing masks.
The bills explain that families must be informed when immigration enforcement agents come to school campuses, protect classrooms from ICE activities, make nonpublic areas of hospitals off limits from ICE, and asserts that officers must be “identifiable by name or badge number, and exceptions to that must be clearly established — masks are not to be worn except when absolutely necessary,” a press release on the legislative package states.
“Public safety depends on trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve — but Trump and Miller have shattered that trust and spread fear across America,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is putting an end to it and making sure schools and hospitals remain what they should be: places of care, not chaos.”
According to SB 627, the bill unmasking ICE agents, the “routine use of facial coverings by law enforcement officers has significant implications for public perception, officer-community interactions, and accountability.” Facial coverings may cause members of the public to “experience fear or intimidation when approached by officers whose faces are obscured” and “may lead to misinterpretation of tone or intent.”
Exemptions to the face covering policy include active undercover operations, tactical operations, laws governing health and safety, and protection of identity during prosecution, the legislation explains.
Newsom released a statement specific to SB 627, claiming, “It is unacceptable that government agents, guns in hand, have seized our neighbors while wearing masks under the pretense of protecting themselves when they are, in fact, hiding from public accountability and sowing fear to intimidate the American people.”
