On November 17, 2025, the Trump administration sued the state of California alleging its law banning federal immigration officers from wearing face masks is unconstitutional. The lawsuit says California does not have the authority to regulate ICE officers. The Trump administration accuses the state of “discriminating” against the federal government by imposing limitations on masks and says the law will make immigration agents and others vulnerable to potential harassment and violence. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the No Secret Police Act and No Vigilantes Act into law in September 2025. The pair of measures is set to take effect on January 1, 2026, and will ban federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks while carrying out operations in the state and require non-uniformed officers to visibly display identification while performing their duties, respectively. When signing the laws, Governor Newsom said federal agents had operated for years in the state unmasked and called masking “a new construct conceived to terrorize our diverse communities.” Attorney Rob Bonta pointed out that if law enforcement officials are not identified and obscure their faces by wearing masks, people will not be able to distinguish them from criminals. 

On February 9, 2026, a federal judge blocked the mask ban from going into effect because it exempted state law enforcement and only applied to federal agents; however, the court upheld a companion law requiring officers to be readily identifiable. On April 22, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction blocking the California law that requires federal immigration agents to wear identification.  

It’s problematic when Californians can’t tell the difference between a law enforcement officer who is charged with protecting them and a criminal who is attempting to cause them harm. The FBI itself has warned that the practice of ICE agents wearing masks to obscure their identity has led to a rise in copycats committing crimes, threatening public safety and eroding trust in law enforcement. Attorney General Rob Bonta

Photo: Masked federal agents wait outside an immigration courtroom on July 8, 2025, in New York. (Olga Fedorova/The Associated Press)