Trump suit over CA face-coverings ban shows how much ICE has to hide | Opinion
President Donald Trump’s Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers are scared that they’ll be “doxxed, harassed or threatened,” according to a new lawsuit filed against the state of California, which recently banned federal agents from wearing masks and other face coverings while conducting operations in the state.
Good.
Trump’s increasingly rogue police force has every reason to be very afraid of the general public, which it is freely terrorizing with near-impunity. This lawsuit against California’s anti-mask law, also naming Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta, is a farce that should fail on merit in any just courtroom.
“The Trump Administration is once again proving that they care more about their own unchecked power to kidnap and intimidate than they do about lowering the cost of living, following the Constitution or releasing the Epstein files,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, in a statement.
Wiener co-authored Senate Bill 627, also called the “No Secret Police Act,” one of the state laws that is now being litigated by this federal lawsuit. SB 627 made it a misdemeanor to wear a mask or any personal disguise with the purpose of “obscur(ing) officer identity or hinder accountability, nor should those coverings be used in a manner that enables or conceals discriminatory or unlawful conduct.” Newsom signed the bill in September.
“Trump’s own FBI recently warned that ICE’s secret police tactics are undermining public safety and advised ICE to take the masks off and act like servants of the public instead of masked thugs preparing to rob a liquor store,’ said Sen. Wiener, who recently announced his candidacy to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress. “Despite what these would-be authoritarians claim, no one is above the law. We’ll see you in court.”
These federal agents do not wear body cameras, they are not required to identify themselves and they all too frequently behave however they wish while armed — all behind a literal mask to disguise their identities.
And now they’re saying they need those masks because they’re scared of being called out for their illegal actions? That’s precisely the point of SB 627.
ICE agents routinely use masks, writes the non-partisan policy institute, Center for American Progress, to hide their identity while they assault protestors, smash car windows, blow the doors off homes with children inside, emerge from unmarked vehicles with weapons drawn, shoot into family cars, and grab people off the streets from outside of schools, courthouses and churches.
The Trump Administration’s lawsuit against California’s law is proof that ICE has become a secret police force that needs masked anonymity only because their actions are constitutionally illegal and morally reprehensible.
“States cannot regulate the federal government if they are putting an undue burden on federal activity,” wrote constitutional scholar and UC Berkeley law school dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, in an email. “But federal officers must comply with state law unless it would unreasonably interfere with their duties. A federal officer can’t go through red lights unless it is necessary. Federal officers can be prosecuted under state law for excessive force.”
“I do not think wearing masks is needed to carry out the duties of ICE agents. I therefore think the state law is constitutional,” Chemerinsky said. It remains to be seen whether federal judges agree with him.
Additionally, California’s new law very specifically targets any law enforcement officers who use masks or other face coverings to prevent identification while committing a public offense, not while in the course of approved duties or during undercover activities. If Trump’s increasingly volatile ICE agents are acting within their rights, then there is no reason for them to fear California’s enforcement of that law, right?
What’s that phrase conservatives like to use? “If you aren’t committing a crime, then you have nothing to fear”? Seems pertinent here.
The American public has increasingly little faith in the federal administration to hold ICE agents accountable, and state laws such as SB 627 may be one of the few forms of legal redress available.
Since taking office last year, the Trump Administration has installed political loyalists in the positions of authority over these agents and at the Dept. of Justice, effectively abandoning any small dose of accountability that might have been held over federal agents.
So what else do Americans have left, but to make these Constitution-shattering collaborators feel the full weight of their moral decisions via the only means available to us?
We can still publicly name and shame these totalitarian thugs, and perhaps in time, with such virulent public dissent, these masked men and women will reconsider their choice to serve such a master.
This story was originally published November 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
