On Sept. 20, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a package of bills that seek to counter the impacts of the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown on immigrant communities.
California became the first in the country to ban local and federal law enforcement agents, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from wearing face coverings, and it now requires them to identify themselves by name or badge number during operations. The new laws also limit federal immigration agents’ presence in hospitals and schools.
The governor moved to pass these laws in the wake of President Donald Trump’s early flurry of executive orders and policy rules that authorized immigration authorities to conduct arrests in or near schools and hospitals—areas that federal immigration agents previously avoided because they were considered sensitive. The Trump administration has also tried to access immigrants’ health and personal data, and it has allowed raids and arrests in which immigration agents, dressed in plainclothes and wearing masks, don’t need to disclose their identity.
“The impact of these policies all across this city, our state, and nation are terrifying,” Newsom said in Los Angeles, where he signed the legislation. “Immigrants have rights, and we have the right to stand up and push back.”
Here’s what you need to know about the new laws:
Law enforcement mask ban
Local, state, and federal law enforcement, beginning January 2026, will be prohibited from wearing face coverings, such as ski masks, balaclavas, and neck gaiters, during most operations. The law exempts officers conducting undercover operations, and does not prohibit the use of clear riot shields, surgical masks, respirators, or eye protectors.
Another law will require agents to wear identifying information such as their name or badge number. Law enforcement can also ID anyone claiming to be an officer if there’s suspicion of a crime, like impersonation or kidnapping.
Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena, who authored the measures, said in hearings that they did so in response to the wave of immigration raids in California that have been conducted by masked agents, who cannot be clearly identified and who often do not identify themselves or their agency. They also wanted to address concerns about unknown individuals impersonating immigration officers to target immigrants, cases of which have been documented in California and other states.
“ICE, unmask, what are you afraid of?,” Newsom said at the signing’s press conference.
At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, emergency room physician and faculty member of the UCSF Action Research Center, Dr. Melanie Molina, said the law is a sign of relief after months of fearful encounters with masked agents.
Molina said her hospital deals frequently with ICE agents who bring people from all over the state who are in their custody to check their health status before they are transferred to a detention facility. Agents often wear civilian clothes, ski masks, carry weapons, and sometimes refuse to identify themselves, which, she said, has created an atmosphere of fear.
“What’s to say that some random person doesn’t show up in civilian clothes with a ski mask and a weapon and refuse to identify themselves? And who’s to say they’re ICE?,” said Molina, who added that the recent national incidents of gun violence have exacerbated concern.
Although the hospital established protocols for when immigration agents enter the facility, “[the law] will definitely help contribute to a feeling of safety knowing that we’re not just allowing masked people who have weapons and are dressed in civilian clothes [into] our hospital,”said Molina.
Opponents of the mask ban law, including law enforcement advocacy groups, said the the state can’t regulate the federal government. It’s unclear whether this measure could be challenged, but soon after Newsom signed the bill, the Department of Homeland Security posted on the social media platform X that it will not comply with the law, saying it is unconstitutional. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has said that his office is ready to defend the law in court.
Immigration agents in schools
Effective Sept. 20, two new laws now require all public K-12 schools and higher education institutions to notify their school communities if immigration agents are present on campus, and will prohibit immigration enforcement officers from entering school premises, unless they have a signed warrant or court order. They were authored by Sen. Pérez of Pasadena and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi of Torrance.
These new laws add legal protections to protocols Oakland schools already have in place, said Nicole Knight, executive director of the Oakland Unified School District’s English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement program. The program helps more than 3,300 unaccompanied minors, refugees, and asylum seekers improve their language proficiency. The vast majority of these students are from Guatemala, and after Spanish, Mam is the second most common language spoken, according to the district’s most recent data.
“[This] is another layer of protective legal grounding for what we are doing in Oakland, so if it were to be challenged by anybody, we have many laws that we can stand on,” Knight said.
She also said she hopes this law gives families some peace of mind that schools are safe places. “We know that getting to and from school can be scary, but once a child is in the school building, they are going to be safe,” she said.
California is home to the second-largest population of unaccompanied minors released to a sponsor, according to the most recent data, and at least 12% of K-12 students have an undocumented parent.
The district, which covers 80 district-run elementary, middle, and high schools, also helps parents and families connect to legal representation. It has trained all staff on protocols which stress that non-public areas start at the school’s front door, where immigration agents are not allowed to enter without a warrant.
Teachers and other school staff know they are not authorized to review judicial warrants, Knight said, and all school buildings have signage directing law enforcement authorities to the district headquarters in West Oakland.
“We don’t want them even making it to a front office,” she said.
They also have a system in place to send alerts to staff and families if ICE is in the community. Although agents have not tried to enter their campuses, false reports of immigration activity proliferate, making it difficult to verify the information fast enough, Knight said.
“We want to make sure that anything we’re communicating we have confirmed and verified, so that we’re not creating panic and fear,” she said.
ICE and healthcare facilities
Hospitals, clinics, community-based organizations, and private practices that receive public funding will be required to designate areas where patients are receiving medical care or are discussing protected medical information as non-public or private. This is one component of a multi-part health law authored by Sen. Jesse Arreguín of Berkeley that went into effect immediately.
The law will also now classify immigration status and place of birth as medical information, which is protected and private under current state law.
With these new provisions, immigration authorities will only be able to access designated private areas or retrieve patients’ personal information with a signed judicial warrant or court order.
“This is in direct response to the escalation of immigration raids that are happening in California, which are terrorizing communities and making people afraid to get medical care,” said Arreguín.
Roughly 90% of all health care providers in the state, including those who serve Medi-Cal patients, are required to comply with the new law, said Arreguín.
In January, the Trump administration lifted a policy that had avoided immigration arrests in or near sensitive areas, like clinics and hospitals. The decision sparked widespread concern among healthcare providers who said the presence of immigration agents could disrupt their work and cause immigrant patients to forgo critical medical care for themselves and their loved ones.
In addition to that, the revelation that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had agreed to give the DHS access to patient’s personal health data exacerbated concerns among advocacy groups that personal information could be used to arrest immigrants or restrict access to health care services.
Soraida Chavez, a medical assistant in the pediatric department at Kaiser in Richmond, said that after the federal policy protecting sensitive areas from arrests was lifted, some of her colleagues didn’t know what protocols to follow if ICE came to their facility, and the parents of their patients, many of whom are immigrant children, were asking whether it was safe to come to their appointments.
“Everybody was uneasy and upset and afraid of what could happen,” Chavez said.
Although Kaiser has policies in place that prohibit law enforcement from entering private areas like examination rooms, the new law gives providers more clarity of what state rules are in place, Chavez said. Most importantly, she she said she hopes additional safeguards can help rebuild trust with immigrant patients.
“The trust is not there,” she said. “This [law] is a start, and it’s going to help us try to rebuild that trust back.”
Two other immigration-related bills are still awaiting Gov. Newsom’s signature. If passed, one measure will allow extended relatives to act as caregivers in the event that a parent is deported, and another will eliminate background checks and fingerprinting for street vending permits. Newsom has until October 12 to sign or veto them:
- Child guardians: This bill, AB495, would allow relatives who are related to a child “by blood, adoption, or affinity within the fifth-degree of kinship” to act as caregivers in the event that immigration agents detain or deport a parent when their children are at school or in childcare. These guardians would be able to make medical or school decisions on behalf of absent parents. Families could also designate a guardian for their children in family court.
- Street vending permits: Some counties and cities require street and sidewalk vendors to submit a criminal background check or fingerprinting when applying for a license or permit to do business. SB635 would prohibit local authorities from collecting this information as well as immigration or citizenship status and place of birth.
