California has become the first state to ban most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while doing official work. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill on Saturday in Los Angeles alongside state lawmakers, education leaders, and immigrant community members. The move was quickly met with fierce pushback from Trump administration officials.
The new law came in response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, where masked federal agents carried out mass arrests. Those raids triggered days of protest and led President Donald Trump to send National Guard troops and Marines into the area. Newsom framed the mask ban as a way to stand up for immigrant communities in a state where 27 percent of residents were born abroad.
“We celebrate that diversity. It’s what makes California great. It’s what makes America great. It is under assault,” Newsom said at the signing ceremony. He argued that detaining people by masked officers with no clear identification undermines trust and due process. “The impact of these policies all across this city, our state and nation are terrifying,” he said. “It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie. Unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing. No due process, no rights, no right in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back, and that’s what we’re doing here today.”
Trump administration officials defended the use of masks, saying agents face harassment both in public and online as they carry out enforcement. They argue covering identities protects agents and their families. Bill Essayli, acting U.S. attorney for Southern California, posted on X that the state law has no power over federal operations. “Our agents will continue to protect their identities,” he wrote.
Essayli also criticized Newsom after the governor suggested Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was “going to have a bad day today.” Essayli called that statement unacceptable and said there is zero tolerance for “direct or implicit threats against government officials.” He added that he referred the matter to the Secret Service, which confirmed it reviews potential threats as standard procedure.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security, issued a sharp rebuke in an email, calling the law “despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers.” She added, “While our federal law enforcement officers are being assaulted by rioters and having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at them, a sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers.”
According to McLaughlin, officers face real dangers in the field, and Newsom’s rhetoric has fueled an increase in assaults. Newsom rejected that claim, saying federal officials had not provided data to back it up. “There’s an assertion that somehow there is an exponential increase in assaults on officers, but they will not provide the data,” he said. “All they have provided is misinformation and misdirection.”
The California law bars officers from using face coverings such as ski masks or neck gaiters while on duty, including immigration enforcement. Exceptions remain for undercover operations, medical masks like N95s, or tactical gear. It does not apply to state police.
Lawmakers in several other states, including New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, have introduced similar proposals. Supporters say the bans are needed not just for accountability but also to prevent impersonation crimes, where people disguise themselves as officers to target victims.
Legal scholars also weighed in. Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Berkeley, argued that federal employees are still subject to state rules unless those rules block them from doing their jobs. “For example, while on the job, federal employees must stop at red lights,” he wrote in an opinion piece for the Sacramento Bee.
With California setting the stage, the clash over mask bans is now positioned to ripple into other states, Congress, and the courts. For Newsom, the law was a symbolic stand against raids he described as un-American. For Trump allies, it was another battle in a broader fight over immigration enforcement and state authority.