SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom on Saturday will sign five bills aimed at protecting the state’s large immigrant population from President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda — including a ban on face coverings for federal agents.
California’s new laws will shield immigrants’ health care information, notify families of federal agents’ presence at schools and require officers to identify themselves. Several of the proposals came in response to an immigration crackdown that rattled Los Angeles this summer.
The governor returned to this epicenter of Trump’s deportation raids to sign the legislation, a rebuke of the president’s aggressive immigration sweeps in a state where more than a quarter of residents — 10.6 million Californians — are foreign born.
“Public safety depends on trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” Newsom said in a news release. “But Trump and [Stephen] Miller have shattered that trust and spread fear across America.”
In early June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers arrived en masse to Southern California and began arresting people at Home Depot parking lots, car washes, garment factories and other immigrant-heavy locations.
Los Angeles-area demonstrations in response prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard against Newsom’s wishes, a move that’s still being debated in federal court. The raids slowed in July after a federal judge ordered a halt to the “roving patrols” and other aspects of the Southern California immigration operation she said were unconstitutional, though the Supreme Court lifted those restrictions early this month.
In the aftermath, California’s legislative Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander caucuses led lawmakers’ efforts to move the immigration bills through the Capitol.
Legislation making it harder for federal agents to get access to California schools and health care facilities had a fairly smooth path to Newsom’s desk. But a bill banning certain face coverings for law enforcement drew more controversy, including from local police, who are included in the legislation.
The governor, himself, publicly questioned whether the state has the legal authority to impose such a ban.
But just days ago, the Department of Homeland Security snapped the bill’s original purpose back into focus by urging Newsom — a likely 2028 presidential contender who relishes a fight with the Trump administration — not to sign the legislation, saying it “puts [federal agents] and their families at risk of being doxed and targeted by vicious criminals.”
The governor ultimately indicated he will sign that bill, along with companion legislation requiring law enforcement to wear badges or name tags identifying themselves, which supporters argued was crucial to help the public distinguish between legitimate officers and impersonators.
The ID bill — along with the legislation dealing with educational and health care facilities — won support from two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses and will take effect immediately.