A new push by Washington state Democrats to bar most law enforcement officers from wearing face-covering masks during public operations has ignited a fierce backlash from federal officials, who warn the move would put officers and their families at greater risk amid a surge in threats and violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
According to The Post Millennial, Senate Bill 5855 would forbid local, state, and federal officers, including ICE agents, from wearing masks that conceal their identities during public interactions, with narrow carve-outs for undercover work and specific tactical missions. The proposal received its first hearing on Tuesday before the Washington Senate Law & Justice Committee, immediately drawing a sharp divide between progressive lawmakers and federal law enforcement leaders.
This is about making sure people know who is exercising government power in their neighborhoods, insisted Sen. Javier Valdez (D-Seattle), the bills sponsor. Valdez told lawmakers the measure was prompted by public concern over ICE agents wearing masks during immigration operations, arguing that such practices erode community trust and transparency.
Federal officials counter that the bill is dangerously out of step with reality on the ground, where immigration officers are increasingly being singled out for harassment, threats, and physical attacks. They urged legislators to slow down and consider the rapidly worsening security climate for ICE agents, who are often vilified by activists and progressive politicians for simply enforcing existing federal law.
The bill recklessly endangers the lives of members of our law enforcement community and their family members, warned Pete Serrano, First Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. Serrano stressed that the legislation ignores the escalating campaign of intimidation against officers, both in the streets and online, where anonymity can be a critical safeguard.
Were seeing increasing instances of doxing members of law enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that as of last fall, doxing incidents increased by more than a thousand percent, Serrano said, underscoring how personal information about officers is being weaponized by activists and extremists.
His warning is backed by newly released Department of Homeland Security statistics showing a dramatic spike in violence targeting ICE agents in recent years. According to DHS, assaults against ICE officers increased more than 1,300 percent during the first year of the Trump administration, rising from 19 reported assaults in 2024 to 275 assaults between January 20 and December 31, 2025.
Vehicular attacks have surged even more sharply, with 66 incidents recorded between January 21, 2025, and January 7, 2026, compared to just two during the same period the year before, a staggering 3,200 percent increase. DHS has also reported an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against ICE personnel, a trend that makes the push to strip officers of basic protective anonymity appear, at best, reckless.
Federal officials point to an increasingly hostile political climate around immigration enforcement, fueled by left-wing rhetoric that routinely paints ICE agents as villains rather than public servants. DHS leaders note that ICE personnel are being targeted not only during enforcement actions, but also in their private lives, as online activists circulate personal details about officers and their families.
That hostility was on full display in Seattle over the weekend, where Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson addressed a large anti-ICE rally and openly flirted with the idea of non-citizen voting. She told the 6,500 people that attended, Whatever the status of your immigration paperwork, this is your city, adding that residents deserve to be safe, to live a dignified life and to have a say in your government.
An image posted by Wilson from the event shows the mayor posing with two individuals, one wearing a shirt emblazoned with "FIGHT ICE" and holding a sign bearing a sticker that reads "Nazis own flammable cars." For critics, the imagery and rhetoric reflect a broader progressive effort to delegitimize immigration enforcement and normalize hostility toward federal officers.
Wilson has also escalated her attacks on ICE in recent days, denouncing recent enforcement actions in Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma. Last week, she accused masked ICE agents of kidnapping people in unmarked vans, language that mirrors activist talking points and further inflames public sentiment against law enforcement.
She pledged expanded legal support and protections for illegal immigrants and urged residents to enroll in ICE Mobilization Alerts, a system that notifies activists of enforcement activity. Opponents argue the alert network is tied to national Soros-funded leftist organizations and is designed to obstruct lawful immigration enforcement while placing additional targets on the backs of ICE officers.
As Washington Democrats move forward with SB 5855, the clash between progressive demands for transparency and the basic safety needs of law enforcement is coming into sharp focus. With doxing, death threats, and physical assaults against ICE agents skyrocketing, the debate over whether to strip officers of face coverings is no longer a theoretical civil-liberties exercise, but a real-world test of whether lawmakers will prioritize ideological signaling or the security of those tasked with upholding the law.
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