Dems Unveil Anti-ICE Face Mask Bill Immediately After Coordinated Attack Against Agents

Democrats are doubling down on legislation forcing immigration agents to show their faces in public, even as the attacks against them pile up.

Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California introduced a bill Tuesday that, if passed and signed into law, would prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal immigration authorities from wearing face masks during most enforcement operations. Their legislation was introduced just four days after armed men allegedly orchestrated an attack against an ICE facility. (RELATED: Trump Admin Moves To Pull Plug On Deportation Protections For Thousands Of Migrants)

“For weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country,” Booker said in a press release about his legislation, dubbed the “Visible Act.”

“The VISIBLE Act is a necessary response grounded in law enforcement best practices that will prohibit immigration enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and require them to display their name or badge number and the agency they represent,” Booker continued.

Neither Padilla’s or Booker’s office responded to requests for comment from the DCNF.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 20: Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on June 20, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Booker and Padilla’s legislation is just the latest in a growing slate of bills by Democrats across the country who wish to leave ICE agents unmasked during raids or other enforcement actions.

In the lower chamber of Congress, New York Democrat Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat in June introduced the “No Secret Police Act,” legislation prohibiting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents engaged in border security and civil immigration enforcement from using homemade, non-tactical masks. Just days earlier, New York Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez introduced the “No Anonymity in Immigration Act,” which virtually makes the same demand of federal immigration agents.

Similar legislation is being pushed by Democrats at the state level as well — despite questions over whether the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution would even allow state laws to dictate federal law enforcement operations.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener — the lawmaker behind the California law that reduced the penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV to another individual — introduced the “No Secret Police Act” in June, legislation that demands law enforcement “at all levels” refrain from wearing face masks while conducting enforcement operations in California. Similar legislation has since been introduced by state Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee and Massachusetts.

Democrats claim enforcement actions by masked agents stokes fear and emboldens impersonators. However, ICE has pushed back on these mask bills, pointing out that it’s an optional practice by agents that protects their identity at a time when threats against them and their families are sky high.

“Every day the brave men and women of ICE go out into local communities across the country and put their lives on the line to bolster public safety and national security by apprehending transnational gang members, foreign fugitives and other dangerous criminal aliens who are in the country illegally and preying on law-abiding citizens,” an ICE spokesperson previously stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“During enforcement operations, all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Officers and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents wear badges designed to be easily identifiable and to signify their authority as law enforcement officials,” an ICE spokesperson stated to the DCNF. “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.”

ICE noted that assaults against its agents have increased by nearly 700%. The agency attributed this sharp rise to the recent demonization of ICE.

Several high-profile threats have been made against ICE agents in just the past few months. A Texas man was arrested in April after he allegedly threatened to open fire on any ICE agents he sees in his neighborhood. In a social media post, he allegedly referred to deportation officers as the “secret police.”

A New York man was also arrested and charged in July for allegedly making online posts threatening to kill ICE agents. In one post about an ICE raid, he allegedly said he could’t “wait to put a bullet into this guy’s brain, but first his children” and in another post, he allegedly said “Kill them all, ICE is the new age gestapo, stop them.”

The threat against ICE agents became all the more real when nearly a dozen violent assailants, equipped with tactical gear and weapons, ambushed an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, resulting in one local police officer getting shot in the neck after they unloaded rounds of bullets at agents.  Authorities have since arrested and charged at least ten suspects in the apparent coordinated attack.

“This escalation in violence is incomprehensible, and those responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a prepared statement. “This is precisely what we have been warning against, as disinformation and dangerous politically-motivated rhetoric spreads.”

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