As more cities and states prepare for the next wave of immigration crackdowns from the Trump administration, a cadre of San Jose councilmembers has joined the fight, calling on the city to prohibit law enforcement officers from concealing their identities.
San Jose Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Rosemary Kamei, David Cohen and Pamela Campos have authored a memo set to be heard at Wednesday’s Rules Committee that directs the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that prevents all law enforcement officers, including federal agents, from wearing masks or concealing their faces and requires them to wear visible identification.
“Every San Josean should be able to trust that when an officer approaches them and know exactly who that person is and which agency they represent,” Campos told The Mercury News. “This ordinance requiring the unmasking of law enforcement is about transparency, accountability, and public safety. My District 2 neighbors are making clear that concealing identities already undermines trust, strips away civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent. Our community sees it as the beginning of dismantling our democracy and American values, where abuse of power can be exercised without consequence.”
Through the first seven months of Trump’s presidency, immigration and customs enforcement officials reported the deportations of nearly 200,000 people in the country illegally, putting the administration on track to conduct the most aggressive operations in almost a decade and fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge on tightening border security.
Trump has been particularly at odds with sanctuary cities and states, with his administration seeking to withhold funding from them. Federal courts, however, blocked the action last month.
Even so, the Republican-controlled Congress and conservative majority on the Supreme Court have handed Trump key victories over the past two months in his quest to achieve his immigration goals.
In July, Congress passed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which added $170.7 billion in funding for immigration and border enforcement. This week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to continue its sweeps in Los Angeles after it put a halt to a restraining order from a lower court that questioned the government’s tactics and prevented agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion.
While Democrats have used protests and the court system to primarily challenge Trump’s agenda, representatives at the local, state and federal levels have proposed legislation to limit their impacts, citing the harms they say have been caused by masked federal agents snatching people off the streets during raids and the growing number of reports of ICE impersonations.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act, asserting it would “place a critical check on the government’s power, ensuring basic transparency safeguards that protect public trust and legitimacy in immigration enforcement operations.”
At the statewide level, Sen. Scott Wiener and Sen. Renée Pérez have introduced two companion bills — SB 627, the No Secret Police Act, and SB 805, the No Vigilantes Act — that hope to achieve the same effect.
“The ICE masked secret police are raining terror on communities across California, and it has to stop,” Wiener said in July. “Law enforcement should never be easily confused with the guy in the ski mask robbing a liquor store, yet that’s what’s happening with ICE’s extreme masking behavior. ICE’s brazenly illegal conduct — including straight-up racial profiling by masked, unidentified agents — is undermining public safety, creating extreme fear, and destroying confidence in law enforcement.”
Lawmakers in states like New York and Illinois have also introduced similar legislation.
Meanwhile, at the local level, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an executive order and cities like Los Angeles are drafting their own ordinances to protect constituents after reports of disturbing encounters with masked agents or those who refuse to identify themselves.
With a significant portion of Santa Clara County households coming from immigrant backgrounds, the aggressive immigration agenda has had an impact on school attendance and businesses, particularly in East San Jose, where some have reported a 30-40% drop-off in sales.
Although San Jose is not specifically a “sanctuary city,” it is a “welcoming city” and has approved allocating $1 million, with the potential to rise to $1.5 million, for immigration support services during this fiscal year. Its police department has reiterated that it does not enforce immigration laws or ask about a person’s legal status.
Along with requiring disclosure of agency affiliation and prohibiting all law enforcement officers from concealing their identities, with a few exceptions, the group of San Jose city councilmembers has asked the police department to report on when they respond to incidents involving immigration activities.
“We are calling on every leader to join this fight,” Campos said. “San Joseans expect their local leaders to stand up for their rights and values now. We are heartened by the legal challenges being brought against these abuses of power, and San José has been proactive in signing onto amicus briefs to combat them.”
But while local and state public officials are trying to stand up to federal immigration enforcement, questions have swirled over whether their proposed legislation is purely symbolic because it may not be enforceable.
An analysis by legal counsel for the Assembly Committee on Public Safety found that Wiener’s bill faced legal vulnerabilities on several grounds, including the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution and the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, which requires that “the activities of the Federal government are free from regulation by any state.”
The Peace Officers Research Association of California, the largest law enforcement organization in the state, also has come out against Wiener’s bill, saying the bill risks safety while solving “nothing.”
“California already has robust oversight measures to ensure that officers can be identified and held responsible for their actions, including language in our penal code which requires uniformed officers to wear a badge, nameplate or other device which clearly displays their ID number or name,” President Brian Marvel said. “Moreover, California lacks the authority to regulate federal officers’ attire or operations, a fight better suited for Washington, D.C., where a bill has already been introduced to prevent ICE agents from concealing their identities.”
