Local Democratic lawmakers gathered Thursday outside ICE’s Philadelphia field office to advocate for a proposal to ban immigration agents – and all other law enforcement officers – in Pennsylvania from wearing masks to conceal their identities.
The measure, initially floated last month, is being crafted amid a proliferation of images showing masked, plainclothes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting raids across the country. It’s part of a broader effort, led by Democrats in Washington and state capitals, to respond to President Donald Trump’s escalating deportation campaign.
“These practices are designed to spread fear and chaos in our communities with the aim of dividing and distracting us,” state Sen. Nikil Saval, a sponsor of the legislation, said. “They are abhorrent, they are dangerous, they are shameful and they are deeply unpopular.”
Law enforcement, under the proposal, would be required to wear a uniform with a badge and prohibited from utilizing facial coverings, according to a legislative memo circulated in late July. Exceptions are carved out for surgical or N95 masks to prevent the spread of disease and officers participating in undercover operations.
“We will not allow our community members to be disappeared by federal vigilantes who don’t even have the courage to identify themselves,” said state Rep. Rick Krajewski, who is backing a similar bill in the House. “We must use every tool in our toolbox to hold them accountable. This fight will be in Harrisburg, it will be in City Hall, and it will be on our blocks.”
The measure, entitled “No Secret Police: Unmask ICE” in the state Senate, is designed to make interactions safer for officers and the public while enhancing transparency and accountability, supporters argued.
“If they’re so proud of what they’re doing, they should let the world see who and what they actually are,” state Rep. Joe Hohenstein, a former immigration attorney, said at Thursday’s news conference.
ICE’s reliance on masks has spurred bad actors to impersonate agents during crimes, the lawmakers said. Locally, a man claimed to be a federal immigration officer during the June robbery of a Mayfair automotive shop, and ICE impostors caused a disturbance at a business and tried to enter a Temple University residence hall in February, according to authorities.
“This law is absolutely necessary,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said. “My job will be a lot easier if we don’t have a crime wave of people pretending to be ICE, and it’s already started.”
An ICE spokesperson told Metro that the agency does not specifically comment about pending legislation. However, officers do wear badges and marked vests and verbally identify themselves, federal officials said. Masks are optional.
ICE leadership has defended masking as necessary for agents to protect themselves and their families from harassment and ‘doxxing,’ or having their identities, home addresses and contact information posted online.
“If an ICE officer or agent chooses to wear a mask to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by highly sophisticated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. “Attacks and demonization of our enforcement have contributed to our officers facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults.”
Legislation regulating mask use among law enforcement has not yet been formally introduced in Harrisburg, and its prospects appear dim, with a GOP majority in the state Senate.
“At its very basic core, this is about law and order, and that’s something I have heard my Republican colleagues pound their desks about up in Harrisburg,” said state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Delaware and Montgomery counties.
Erika Guadalupe Nuñez, executive director of Juntos, a Philadelphia-based immigrant advocacy organization, said the bill is “a critical step towards building local opposition to ICE’s unlawful tactics in our city and across our state.”
Juntos has been documenting ICE arrests and recently posted a video clip on social media showing agents taking a person into custody Monday, Aug. 11, inside the Justice Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice.
“This is not the first time this year that masked unidentified agents have kidnapped someone in broad daylight with no response from city leadership,” Nuñez told reporters.
Labor representatives, including Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO President Danny Bauder, showed up to support the proposal.
“The Trump administration is trying to remove as many non-white people from this country as quickly as they can, before anyone with a conscience can organize a real resistance to it,” he said. “If we don’t stand our ground right now at this time, we will not have ground to stand on.”
Anuj Gupta, president and CEO of the Welcoming Center, a nonprofit serving immigrants, recalled visiting Dachau, the former Nazi concentration camp, and wondering what action, if any, residents of the nearby town took in the midst of atrocities.
“Now, that question arises in my own city and my own country every day,” Gupta added. “We are seeing institutions, corporations, (and) elected officials who are allowing democracy to dissipate at a precipitous rate. We are delving into authoritarianism, and we are allowing it to happen.”
