In viral videos of ICE raids over the last two weeks, many agents cover their faces, don’t provide identification, and don’t wear uniforms. SB 627 — “The No Secret Police Act” — is a new bill in the California State Senate that would require law enforcement (at all levels) to show their faces and be identifiable via uniforms when interacting with the public.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguin (D-Berkeley) introduced the bill. Wiener tells KCRW that what’s happening now is terrifying: “These individuals who we think may be ICE or other law enforcement, but could be vigilantes or bounty hunters, we just don't know, they're going around, essentially with ski masks on, or something approaching a ski mask, no identification, no badge, sometimes in military fatigues; and then grabbing people and putting them into unmarked cars and taking them away. That's not how things should ever work in a free society, in a democracy.”
Just the idea of law enforcement covering their whole faces is unacceptable, he adds.
“We want to make sure that people have trust in law enforcement, that they know who they're dealing with, and that they have confidence that the person detaining them is actually law enforcement. So that's why we introduced the bill.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also described last week, “They show up completely masked. They refuse to give ID. The vest that they have on look [sic] like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they're federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?”
Wiener emphasizes that bounty hunting is illegal in California, “except for apprehending someone who jumped bail, and even then, you have to have a special license.”
He says he has no hard proof of ICE hiring bounty hunters. But he says people in Trump’s orbit have discussed creating a private army, and there’s been talk about ICE employing other people for help (because not enough ICE agents exist to deport individuals at the scale that the Trump administration wants).
“It would not in any way be surprising that they are hiring people or that vigilantes are involved. And the fact that they are wearing essentially ski masks, not identifying themselves in any way, and using unmarked cars only lends credence to that.”
Some individuals claiming to be ICE also have the word “police” stitched onto the front of their clothes. Wiener says that’s not only insufficient ID, but impersonation of local police officers, which is worse.
“Our local police work very hard to build a relationship of trust with the local community. … They work together. [Residents] feel comfortable reporting crimes, working with the police to keep the community safe. … Now people think, ‘Wait, the police are involved in … grabbing people and deporting them. And so I don't want to deal with the police in any way.’ So this is just one added layer of harm that they're inflicting on the community.”
If SB 627 becomes state law, enforcement still won’t be easy, Wiener acknowledges. “But when you have a situation like we have now, where it's this sort of fascist attempted takeover of our entire society, and they're sending these masked unidentified officers, vigilantes, whatever they are, into communities to grab people — undocumented, but also people who are here legally — we have to be willing to try new things, even if they are difficult.”
The Department of Homeland Security responded to SB 627, saying the legislation would endanger ICE officers. At a press conference in early June, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said, "ICE officers were doxed. … People are out there taking photos of [agents'] names, their faces, and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves. So I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is."
Wiener says he does not condone doxing, having been the victim of it many times. “We don't want people to be doxed, but that transparency about ‘who are you, like are you an actual ICE agent, who do you work for, what are you doing?’ The public is entitled to know that.”
Wiener adds, “To just be clear … the way they're acting right now … is harming people in profound ways. When you have children who do not know where their parents are because their parents have been disappeared, when you have people who are just pulled off of work sites, when you have people who are legal residents of this country, who are taken into custody and we do not know where they are, that is very deep harm to the community.”
Looking ahead, SB 627 will head to the Assembly Public Safety Committee for a hearing, Wiener says, and he’s working with State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (from the Pasadena area), who has a companion bill.