AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law the No Secret Police Act, banning all law enforcement, including ICE agents, from covering their faces while conducting raids. The ban is a response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles and other areas where ICE officials made mass arrests while heavily masked. This is Governor Newsom speaking before signing the legislation.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM: The impact of these policies, all across this city, our state and nation, are terrifying. It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie — unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing, no due process, no rights, no rights in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights. And we have the right to stand up and push back.

AMY GOODMAN: The new California law was quickly denounced by Trump administration officials, including Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security. She said, quote, “A sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers,” unquote.

The acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, didn’t just denounce the law, but said ICE agents should not follow it. This is U.S. Attorney Essayli during an interview with KCAL News.

BILL ESSAYLI: We’re not going to follow it. The law has no force or effect on federal agencies. The state of California has no jurisdiction to regulate anything that we do in the federal government. And I’ve instructed our agents to disregard it. So we will continue doing our operations as we have been doing them. The reason the officers wear face masks…

AMY GOODMAN: We’re now joined by two guests. Eva Bitran is the director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California, joining us from Riverside, California. And in Harlem, we’re joined by New York Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, who introduced the No Masks for ICE Act in Congress, which would bar agents nationally from wearing facial coverings during enforcement actions and require them to wear clothing displaying their name and affiliation with iCE.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Eva Bitran, let’s begin with you in California. The significance of the No Secret Agents Act being signed into law, and yet Trump officials saying, “Do not follow the law,” to ICE agents? Talk about where this law came from.

EVA BITRAN: This law came from the enormous siege of our immigrant people here in Southern California that we have seen the federal government, beginning in June, carry out all the way until now. What we saw were bands of masked, powerfully armed and really swiftly moving federal agents kidnapping our community members. And that’s what prompted California to react, to say this is not how we handle our immigrant people. For us, it is important that due process prevail, that transparency prevail, and that we free our people from the kind of siege of kidnappers that’s come out to Southern California.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Eva, some people have criticized this law because it has loopholes, that it allows mask exceptions for SWAT teams and undercover operations. How do you respond to those concerns?

EVA BITRAN: My understanding is that what this law is trying to do is to take us back from the era of routine sort of masking based on completely foundationless officer claims of fear, and back to sort of the technical necessities that officers would claim in previous years or previous administrations. And the loopholes are designed to sort of protect for that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d like to bring in U.S. Congressmember Nydia Velázquez. Welcome back to Democracy Now! I wanted to ask you about the legislation that you’ve introduced. What are the specifics of the legislation, and also your hopes, your expectations of whether it can pass or not?

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Good morning, and thank you for having me, Amy and Juan.

So, as you can — as you see, the Trump administration is already saying that they are not going to comply with the law passed by California. And this is why we need to have a federal solution, that it will apply nationwide, and it will ban the use of masks, and it will require for any ICE agent to wear a uniform that clearly has their names and badge numbers, so that there is transparency and accountability.

AMY GOODMAN: Eva Bitran, I just wanted to ask you: What does this mean? As Congressmember Velázquez tries to introduce a federal solution, which would require these federal agents, on the ground, what is this now going to look like? First of all, it doesn’t go into force, the No Secret Police Act, for — until next year. Is that right? And how do you get ICE agents to comply, if the No Masks bill is not passed in Congress?

EVA BITRAN: So, that’s right that the bill does not go into effect until next year, but what we are really seeing is our communities coming out to demand an end altogether, masked or unmasked, to the lawless and unconstitutional raids that we have seen ICE carrying out here. We’ve seen people in the streets peacefully asking for ICE to leave our community neighbors alone. We’ve seen Rapid Response Networks. We’ve seen community defense initiatives to keep people safe. And we know that’s the path forward, whether or not legislation is in effect.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and I’d like to go back to Representative Velázquez. The ICE data shows, for instance, in New York, that there’s been nearly a sixfold increase in immigration detentions, going from 500 last year to almost 2,800 in the first seven months of this year. What is — what has been your experience as these ICE dragnets have spread across the country and even in your state?

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Well, people are terrorized. Families do not want to — parents do not want to go to bring their children to school, to take the subway, to even be — appear before an immigration judge, because they know that they could be ambushed by ICE agents in those federal courts. People are terrorized. And this is the whole purpose of this mass deportation. It’s just to terrorize, to instill fear.

And my message to America is that we live in a country with laws. And everyone, every person, whether you are undocumented or not, you have a right to due process. And this is — this use of police tactics, of agents wearing masks, of ambushing people in the streets in front of school children, is undermining safety and security in our communities. And we have to have a federal response.

This administration is out of control, and it’s affecting everyone, not only — not only undocumented, bystanders, who sometimes when they witness on masked — not only masked agents, but cars that are not identified, they think that a kidnap is taking place, but also it incentivizes criminals to wear masks so that they could commit crimes and assault immigrants in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Federal Plaza, 26 Federal Plaza, Congressmember Velázquez. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to improve the conditions at this notorious ICE jail inside this federal building in Manhattan. Immigrants have described being imprisoned for days or weeks at a time in overcrowded cells, without access to medication or proper sanitation, forced to sleep on the concrete floor, left hungry, without outside contact. In the last week, something like 11 of your fellow Democratic elected officials were arrested. Does ICE’s use of masks, do you think, directly connect to their refusal to allow transparency in these facilities, that now a federal judge is saying must be scrutinized? You just — most recently, City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is campaigning around the city with Zohran Mandani, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were among those arrested. Lander was arrested again.

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Yes. You know, I have attempted three times — two times, twice, with Jerry Nadler, Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, to enter 26 Federal Plaza. And every time, they have not allowed us to go into the 10th floor. Adriano Espaillat and myself, we forced ourselves to get into the 10th floor, but not into the detention facility itself, because they prevented us.

They keep lying. They’re saying that there is not a detention facility, that it’s a processing center. Yet we have seen videos that shows how crowded they are, and it is, and the unsanitary conditions, the lack of meals, showers and so on. So, the judge instructed them to improve the conditions. But not only do they lie, they are in violation of the statute, because we are within our legal right as members of Congress to go there and inspect the conditions of those facilities, and time and again, they prevent us from exercising our oversight responsibility.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I just have one more question for —

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: And so, again, this is —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’m sorry, I just have one more question for Eva before we break. There have been —

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Sure.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As the congresswoman said, there’s been numerous arrests, up to more than 80 arrests, of people who have been trying to assist these migrants when they’re being rounded up by ICE. What is the ACLU’s recommendation to people who are trying to support immigrants in these crises?

EVA BITRAN: Yeah, we are really thankful to community members, immigrant and otherwise, who are coming out to give real testimony and witness to what’s happening here. We continue to recommend that community members, if it is safe to do so, show up and record with their phones the interactions that are happening around them, to really give witness and also to force some transparency on what have been incredibly secretive operations. We also know that it’s important for people to have Know Your Rights information. And we’ve seen our community members, Rapid Response Network members shouting out Know Your Rights information to people as they are being detained, which has also been really powerful.

At the ACLU, we have litigation that’s been defending the rights of protesters who have been outraged about what’s happening to immigrant neighbors here in L.A., as well as litigation both about the conditions at the short-term holding facilities and as well as at the sort of conduct of these unconstitutional operations.

So, we are watching. Community is watching. Our neighbors are looking out for one another. We know that what happens in L.A. becomes the blueprint for the rest of the country with these enforcement operations, and we’re also trying to model how to mount a proper civil response.

AMY GOODMAN: Eva Bitran, I want to thank you for being with us, director of immigrant rights at the ACLU of Southern California. And thank you to Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, who introduced the No Mask for ICE Act in Congress. We just mentioned Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani. She has endorsed Zohran Mamdani. We’re hoping to have the New York City mayoral candidate on Democracy Now! tomorrow.

Next, we go to Chicago, where ICE agents threw a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground. Back in 15 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed on Freedom),” the Resistance Revival Chorus, performing at Town Hall on Sunday for Voices for Gaza.