WASHINGTON — Democrats at the federal and state level are pushing for stricter rules around officers’ abilities to conceal their identities when conducting immigration raids and other enforcement actions as President Donald Trump’s administration carries out its mass deportation efforts in cities across the country.
On the national stage this week, Trump slammed the effort to mandate more visibility, accusing the party of having “a lot of bad things going on in their heads” and becoming “somewhat deranged.”
The president’s comments on Wednesday were specifically in response to a question from a reporter about a bill introduced on Tuesday by Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey – who both hail from states that have been at the center of tensions between Democratic officials and the Trump administration over immigration – that seeks to require officers to clearly display identification when carrying out “public-facing” immigration enforcement actions.
Specifically, the bill would mandate that when conducting public immigration enforcement, officers – including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents – display their agency name or initials as well as either their name or badge number “in a manner that remains visible and unobscured by tactical gear or clothing.” It also bans non-medical face coverings – unless necessary for officer safety – and seeks to establish accountability measures within the Department of Homeland Security and Congress.
In their press release, the senators argued actions by unidentified federal agents has “stoked fear and uncertainty” in their communities, listing a few specific, recent instances in southern California, where protests swept the streets of Los Angeles last month over immigration enforcement actions.
“When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” said Padilla, who got in a high-profile clash with the Trump administration at Homeland Security Secretary Krisiti Noem’s press conference in his state last month.
The legislation followed a letter Padilla, Booker and a dozen other Democratic senators sent to ICE acting director Todd Lyons this week seeking more information about the federal immigration agency’s mask and uniform policies while agents are on duty. The Democrats requested answers by July 21.
Meanwhile, on the House side, New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng moved to introduce her own bill this week that similarly seeks to require ICE agents to display their badge, badge number, and law enforcement affiliation when conducting immigration enforcement.
When responding to the effort from Padilla and Booker on Wednesday, Trump argued that statements by Democrats in general have put immigration officers in “tremendous danger.”
He made that case that the same people who are pushing for this were not complaining that some people protesting on college campuses last year over the Israel-Hamas war were wearing masks. Last month, Trump called for protestors to be banned from wearing such face coverings.
The Democrats’ legislative pushes face tough odds on the federal level given Republicans’ control of both chambers of Congress. But the movement is also taking place on a more local level within Democratic-dominant areas, where lawmakers in New York and California have unveiled bills at the state level to similarly require more identification during immigration enforcement.