Health

Newsom signs bills, including one barring on-duty federal officers from wearing masks in California

By Austin Turner

Copyright cbsnews

Newsom signs bills, including one barring on-duty federal officers from wearing masks in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills in Los Angeles on Saturday, enhancing protections for residents as what he referred to as “secret police” continues to roam the streets for ongoing immigration enforcement operations at the direction of President Trump.The signing of five bills, all aimed at curbing the reach of federal officers toward potentially vulnerable populations, came as Newsom was joined by several members of the California legislature, LA Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.The headliner of the bills was the No Secret Police Act (SB 627), which will ban federal and local law enforcement, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from wearing face coverings while on duty. It goes into effect on Jan. 1 of next year.Officers must also be identifiable by name and badge number. “To ICE, [which is] unmasked. What are you afraid of,” Newsom said on Saturday. “You’re gonna do enforcement? Provide an ID.”Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco and penned the bill, called the presence of ICE in the state a “terror campaign.” “No one wants masked officers roaming their communities and kidnapping people with impunity,” he said. “As this authoritarian regime expands its reach into every aspect of daily life — including terrorizing people where they work, where they live, where they go to school, where they shop, where they seek health care — California will continue to stand for the rule of law and for basic freedoms.” The legislation comes after the Supreme Court ruled that immigration enforcement stops in Los Angeles can continue without officers needing reasonable suspicion that a person may not be in the U.S. legally. The ruling allows officers to question and detain people based on their skin color, accents and languages spoken.”It’s like a dystopian Sci-Fi movie,” Newsom said. “Unmarked cars. People in masks. People are quite literally disappearing. No due process … Immigrants have rights and we have the right to stand up and push back.”Other bills protect children from immigration enforcement operations while at school. Under SB 98, introduced by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena, and Assembly Bill 49 by Al Muratsuchi of Torrance, families will need to be informed when officers arrive at their children’s schools.Student information and classrooms are also protected under these new laws. Nonpublic areas of hospitals and emergency rooms are off-limits to officers who don’t have judicial warrants or court orders.Elected officials who spoke on Saturday viewed the bills as a resistance to “authoritarian tendencies” exhibited by the Trump administration.”I would characterize all of the bills as representative of legislative resistance,” said Bass. Mr. Trump says the push to conduct immigration enforcement is to “reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.”In a statement on Saturday, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the new legislation “despicable” and a “flagrant attempt to endanger our officers.””Sanctuary politicians’ rhetoric comparing ICE to ‘secret police’ — likening them to the Gestapo—is diabolical,” she said. “The men and women at CBP, ICE, and all of our federal law enforcement agencies put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens. Make no mistake, this type of rhetoric is contributing to the surge in assaults of officers through their repeated vilification and demonization.” According to the DHS, ICE enforcement officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them.A list of the signed laws on Saturday can be found below:SB 267: Bars local and federal law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings unless absolutely necessarySB 805: Requires law enforcement officials to identify themselves while conducting dutiesAssembly Bill 49: prohibits school officials and employees from allowing federal agents conducting immigration enforcement to enter school sites without a warrant, court order or judicial subpoena. Senate Bill 81: prohibits immigration enforcement officers from entering health facilities without a judicial warrant or court order. Senate Bill 98: requires schools to notify parents, teachers, administrators, and school personnel on the confirmed presence of immigration enforcement agents/activity on school campuses.