Safeguarding Civil Liberties 2.0: How Blue States Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Immigration Crackdown and SEcret Policing
What’s Happening?
Over the last six months, we’ve witnessed an alarming rise in disappearances, surveillance, and secretive operations targeting immigrants, international students, researchers, leaders of organizations, protestors, and even elected officials—often under the guise of federal law enforcement. Across the country, individuals have reportedly been abducted by masked, unidentified officers, taken without notice, and detained without immediate access to lawyers or families. In many cases, those targeted have not been accused of a crime, only of participating in protests, speaking out about U.S. foreign policy, or simply being present at immigrant-heavy protests and institutions like universities. In other cases, they are alleged to have obstructed or assaulted law enforcement, even when video evidence contradicts those claims.
This is part of a deliberate and escalating federal strategy under the Trump Administration to supercharge his anti-immigrant agenda by using fear, surveillance, and unchecked enforcement to target immigrant communities, dismantle protections, and send a message that no one, not even lawful residents or visa holders, is safe. This crackdown is especially aggressive in Democratic states and sanctuary cities that have chosen to welcome and protect immigrants, directly challenging local values and governance.
Some states have introduced legislation to prohibit law enforcement officers from hiding their identities behind masks and anonymous uniforms during public operations. The laws would require visible identification for all law enforcement, including federal agents operating within the state. And it couldn’t come at a more urgent time. This is the kind of effort we need to be seeing across the country.
Why Trump’s Secret Police Force is Dangerous
We’ve seen the use of anonymized or unidentifiable law enforcement, particularly in tandem with immigration enforcement and political repression, happen throughout history. Such tactics are recognized as a trademark of authoritarian regimes. Most notably, this happened during the post-9/11 era in the United States, where ICE and other federal agencies detained thousands of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians under secretive and unaccountable practices. These tactics have consistently been used to invoke fear, eliminate opposition, and strip communities of their rights under the cover of anonymity.
Here’s what we’re seeing happen now:
Masked federal agents, with no visible ID and no transparency, are planting fear in the most vulnerable communities and detaining/disappearing people without identifying themselves, all while evading accountability.
ICE and DHS targeting immigration hearings, immigrants awaiting their credible fear hearings are showing up for their scheduled check-ins with their immigration officers, as they’ve been instructed to do by the government, and are instead met with masked agents detaining them.
Politically motivated disappearances with students and visa holders detained under unclear legal circumstances, often due to their political views or affiliations.
Protestors, immigrants, and even bystanders are now at risk of being targeted for exercising basic First Amendment rights.
In one recent case, ICE agents arrested New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander outside an immigration court after he allegedly tried to escort someone out of the building. They later charged Lander with obstructing and assaulting a federal law enforcement officer, but you can watch the video below yourself to see how brazen this lie is. This is exactly how aggressive, politicized, and indiscriminate this enforcement has become. If a high-ranking elected official can be detained in broad daylight, no one is immune from this authoritarian overreach.
The use of face coverings and unmarked uniforms by law enforcement is designed to shield law enforcement from consequences, to silence resistance, and to instill terror. It is a calculated move to dehumanize the enforcers while rendering the victims invisible.
What Can State Officials Do?
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Ban the use of masks and anonymized uniforms for all state, local, and federal law enforcement operating within your state during public enforcement.
Require visible identification and agency affiliation during any public interaction or arrest.
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Enforce strict policies banning local law enforcement and public institutions from cooperating with ICE or other federal agencies involved in immigration raids or political targeting.
Prohibit state and local agencies from sharing license plate data, DMV info, and university records with federal agents.
Fully fund legal defense services for immigrants detained by federal agents.
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Require all universities, hospitals, and public institutions to adopt protocols that shield international students, visa and green card holders, and undocumented immigrants from warrantless federal enforcement.
Mandate training and legal support for campus staff to ensure no one is unlawfully turned over to federal authorities.
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Governors, AGs, and state legislators should use their platforms to condemn ICE disappearances, masked enforcement, and political retaliation.
Disclaimer: States and local governments may face limitations when it comes to mandating that federal agents wear identifiable insignia or unmask. The power to compel federal law enforcement may conflict with the prohibition of state interference with federal duties in certain circumstances. Although jurisdictions can lawfully decline to cooperate or share resources with federal officers (and they should), as sanctuary laws demonstrate, compelling those officers to do anything requires a different legal threshold—one that is likely to raise inevitable court challenges.
But the above doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. Despite these constraints, state and local elected officials should attempt to defy Trump’s secret policing tactics - and some already are. First, even if a court later challenges any state or local unmasking law that’s passed, officials can still enact it and, at a minimum, pair it with a clear directive for local and state enforcement agencies: “do not mask your faces or adopt anonymous tactics, and do not cooperate with ICE or any other federal agencies utilizing such practices.” This raises the political and reputational cost for abusive federal overreach, isolates federal agents as dangerously out of step, and sends a strong message that our communities expect transparency, accountability, and restraint from all law enforcement.. Second, elected officials should publicly assert their authority to reject and challenge federal overreach, both to pressure Congress (displaying the need and demand for federal legislation, such as the VISIBLE Act) and to galvanize public support. The point is, Democratic elected officials should be aiming to make ICE’s life, and Trump’s broader immigration agenda, as difficult as possible.
What You Can Do: Mobilize Your Governor, State Legislature, and City Council or County
If you live in a Democratic trifecta state or a city with Democratic leadership, you have a unique opportunity, and responsibility, to pressure your elected officials to act now. Following the example of leaders working to hold law enforcement accountable for such actions, you can help turn up the pressure on your governor, legislature, and city council to take concrete steps to stop Trump’s authoritarian immigration crackdown.
Reminder: You live in a Democratic trifecta if you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, or Washington.
