Trump administration sues California over law that bans federal agents from covering their faces
Joining us now is the US Attorney for the Central District of California, Billa Saie. Thank you so much for joining California Politics 360 from LA. Thanks for having me, Ashley. So Mr. Attorney, first, what action has the federal government taken so far on this proposal? Well, we’ve taken no action other than directing our agencies that the state of California has no jurisdiction over federal agencies or regulating federal agents, so they’ve been told to basically disregard the law. It has no force or effect on the federal government. The ban is called the No Secret Police Act, with Democratic lawmakers raising concerns that those accused of either immigration or criminal violations don’t know who is arresting them with some instances of officers showing up in unmarked cars, them being masked, them not identifying themselves. I mean, how can people know for sure that it’s federal law enforcement when those operations are being conducted? Well, first of all, if anyone has Any questions, what they should do is call 911 and the local police will be able to confirm it. They’ve got channels to talk to the federal agencies, and they can confirm whether that is in fact ICE or Border Patrol or FBI or ATF. They’re in that location. That is the solution. You call 911, you make *** report, you do an inquiry. You don’t get in their face and try to interfere in *** federal operation. Um, but I don’t really think that’s what it’s about, Ashley. I think they know exactly who’s doing this. They just don’t like it. They don’t want. Our immigration laws being enforced, so they’re dehumanizing and they’re delegitimizing the federal government. They call ICE agents kidnappers. They’re saying they’re making people disappear. People are being arrested in compliance with federal law and the Constitution that has been challenged in court and it has been upheld. And all they’re doing with this bill and this rhetoric is putting the lives of our agents in danger. Just this week, you saw agents. Being shot at in Texas. Unfortunately detainees were hit and killed in that. That’s the type of violence that we’re seeing being motivated by the rhetoric coming out of Sacramento. Just piggybacking off of that, we’ve heard from you, the Trump administration over the last couple of months about an increase in federal officer assaults, but I want to play this clip from Governor Gavin Newsom in response to that. Take *** listen. There’s an assertion that somehow there is exponential increase in assaults on officers, but they will not provide the data. They will not provide that information. All they have provided is misinformation and misdirection. One agency is saying one thing, another agency saying something altogether different. Look at the data sets. They will not provide with transparency that information. Mr. US Attorney, how do you respond to that? I mean, is the Trump administration being forthcoming with that information? Um, so I don’t know what the governor’s talking about. He often peddles in dishonesty. I’ll say it nicely. You can just look at my office. Everything we do is *** matter of public record. We have filed almost 80 criminal cases for assault or for obstruction of *** federal agent. Those are public cases. That’s on public record. My office, the federal government has never filed that. Of cases at any one period of time, it’s an explosion of assaults and attacks on our agents. So the governor can just look at the record. He can look at the criminal records. He can look at the arrest of his friend, his buddy Mr. David Huerta, who’s the president of the SCIU, who went and deliberately obstructed *** search warrant being executed. So I just, you just cannot take the governor seriously on that rhetoric. This proposal takes effect in January. I mean, do you see the courts getting involved, whether that’s you, the federal government or the state filing the first lawsuit that could get judges to decide any of this? Well, I’m sure the governor will try to file *** lawsuit. That’s about all he’s good at doing is bringing, wasting California taxpayer dollars, tens of millions of dollars that could go to fiery victims. It could go to homelessness. It could go to *** bunch of other things, but he’s too preoccupied with attacking the federal government who’s trying to keep the community safe or trying to get criminal illegal aliens out of the community, but the governor and the attorney general. They are just hell bent on trying to obstruct us, so I’m sure he’ll file *** lawsuit, and I’m sure he’ll lose again as he did when he tried to do the TRO and the injunction to stop our immigration enforcement that was reversed by the Supreme Court. So he’s welcome to file whatever he wants wants. He will not be successful and if he wants to regulate federal activities, he needs to go win *** federal election, but he doesn’t get to do that from the state of California. Mr. US Attorney, you’ve been clear that you don’t believe this law could apply to you. State Senator Scott Weiner and the governor have noted that there are some state laws that federal officers do have to abide by. They’ve used traffic as an example among *** couple of others. Just your response to that? Yeah, they’re clearly uneducated on the law. When federal agents are engaged in official duties, they are not subject to state laws, not even traffic laws. So no, that’s just again not true, not accurate. Mr. US Attorney, my last one for you. There was another concern about this proposal specifically from local law enforcement that will be included in this proposal. State law enforcement, such as the California Highway Patrol is not there there’s *** concern from those who supported this proposal that local law enforcement could be influenced by federal officers. Asking, I mean, is that something that you see that could potentially happen? We have never, first of all, let me be clear, um, under state law, local law enforcement is not allowed to assist us in immigration enforcement operations, so they’re not involved in our immigration operations. Um, we’ve never asked them to be involved. We’ve never asked them to mask up. So again, I think this is unfortunate that local law enforcement is being dragged into this by the state of California, um, and I think it’s *** mistake and I think it’s very odd that he would exempt his own police force. The governor is exempting his police. Force which is the CHP from this law. He doesn’t want to, he doesn’t want to put the guys who are protecting him in jeopardy, legal jeopardy or financial jeopardy, but he has no problem throwing the men and women and local law enforcement under the bus and subjecting them to potential personal liability. I think it’s outrageous. And by the way, if, let me just say, if he had *** local agency stand up to him, the way that California is trying to stand up to us, I do not think he would tolerate for one bit. I think he would send in his, his. Goons he would send in state law enforcement and he would shut them down very quickly. So I think again he’s he’s *** huge hypocrite because when you have sheriffs and local law enforcement saying we want to work with the feds, we want to clean up our communities, he won’t allow it. So I just think he’s very, he’s *** hypocrite in the way he operates and how he picks and chooses which laws can and should be followed and which laws are moral and not moral. That’s *** very dangerous slippery slope. All right, Mr. US Attorney Billa Saley, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
Trump administration sues California over law that bans federal agents from covering their faces
Updated: 1:01 PM PST Nov 17, 2025
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has filed a federal lawsuit against California over the state’s new law that bans most law enforcement officers, including federal agents, from covering their faces while on duty.The “No Secret Police Act” law is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. It was passed as a response to immigration raids in California where federal agents wore masks while making arrests. The law includes some exceptions for California Highway Patrol officers and for the use of motorcycle or other safety helmets.Read the lawsuit here. (Previous coverage of the issue in the video above: U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on mask law | California Politics 360.)U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced on Monday the federal lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney Rob Bonta are listed as plaintiffs. Essayli said on X that California’s law would lead to federal agents being “doxed” with their personal information released. “Assaults against federal agents have exploded over the last few months, thanks in part to recklessness political rhetoric aiming to delegitimize our brave agents,” he wrote. “Unconstitutional laws such as this one further endanger our brave men and women protecting our community.”Essayli previously said on California Politics 360 that federal officers planned to ignore the state’s mask ban. (See that interview in the video above.)KCRA 3 has reached out to Newsom and Bonta’s offices for comment, along with state Sen. Scott Wiener, the author of the bill. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has filed a federal lawsuit against California over the state’s new law that bans most law enforcement officers, including federal agents, from covering their faces while on duty.
The “No Secret Police Act” law is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. It was passed as a response to immigration raids in California where federal agents wore masks while making arrests. The law includes some exceptions for California Highway Patrol officers and for the use of motorcycle or other safety helmets.
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(Previous coverage of the issue in the video above: U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on mask law | California Politics 360.)
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced on Monday the federal lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney Rob Bonta are listed as plaintiffs.
Essayli said on X that California’s law would lead to federal agents being “doxed” with their personal information released.
“Assaults against federal agents have exploded over the last few months, thanks in part to recklessness political rhetoric aiming to delegitimize our brave agents,” he wrote. “Unconstitutional laws such as this one further endanger our brave men and women protecting our community.”
Essayli previously said on California Politics 360 that federal officers planned to ignore the state’s mask ban. (See that interview in the video above.)
KCRA 3 has reached out to Newsom and Bonta’s offices for comment, along with state Sen. Scott Wiener, the author of the bill.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel