“Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today,” exclaimed Gavin Newsom‘s press office X feed this morning, calling out the South Park–parodied Homeland Security Secretary by name. “You’re welcome, America.”
The taunting post came just a few hours before the California Governor Saturday put pen to paper on Senate Bills 627, a.k.a. the “No Secret Police Act” and 805 a.k.a The “No Vigilantes Act” in a public ceremony in LA.
“ICE, unmask, what are you afraid of?” said Gov. Newsom in Sat, surrounded by Mayor Karen Bass, LA County Supervisor (and ex-Labor Secretary) Hilda Solis, LASUD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho and others. “This is not about the pronoun police, this is about the secret police,” Newsom added, quoting The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart.
Among the dangers of the newly enlarged ICE is that they are becoming a private police force, the term special Newson stated, “that it appears to many of us have sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not the Constitution …this is not America.”
Even with a bill in Congress and similar actions in other states, the California legislation is the first in the nation put into law the unmasking and identifying of ICE agents and others. “It’s the hunting of Latinos in Los Angeles, it is the hunting of Haitians in Florida,” Mayor Bass bluntly said Saturday of the stakes before Newsom signed the bills. “As Angelenos we will never allow this to be normalized.”
Unsurprisingly, as some wonder how the new laws can be actively enforced, the Trump administration is opposed to the measures. “Once again, sanctuary politicians are trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on September 16 of the recent enacted masking policy when it started to become clear that Gov. Newsom was likely to sign the bills into law.
The signing of SB 627, 805 and three other related bills Saturday by the Trump-trolling Newsom (who was full of his immediately usual swipes at the former Apprentice host and best aide Stephen Miller today) comes against the additional backdrop of a redistricting campaign to prevent Trump from rigging the 2026 midterms and increased attacks from the White House and the FCC on free speech and the First Amendment — which the governor highlighted online today too.
With a number of Trump payoffs and ring kissing having already occurred, and promises of more to come from Trump himself and FCC chair Brendan Carr, those attacks directly anthem one of Hollywood most powerful corporations once again this week. On Sept. 17, Disney suddenly announced Jimmy Kimmel‘s long-running and MAGA-critical Live! would be “preempted indefinitely” after remarks the host made a couple of days before about the MAGA response to the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk sent Carr and affiliate owners blood boiling.
As Disney endure the fallout, the newly signed SB 627 would ban local, state and federal law enforcement from covering their faces during operations, including immigration raids. Expecting court challenges, the law takes effect on January 1, 2026 with more provisions taking place later.
SB 805, which goes into effect immediately, requires all local, state and federal law enforcement, like ICE, operating in the Golden State to be identifiable with a name or badge number, whether they are in uniform or not. Passed by a strong majority in Sacramento along with SB 627 earlier this month, SB 805 also bans bounty hunters from participating in any and all immigration related activity in California and permits police to demand to see ID from anyone they believe is cosplaying at being local, state or federal law enforcement.
Reminiscent in more ways than one of the yellow masked police in HBO and Damon Lindelof’s Emmy-winning dystopian Watchmen, the masked ICE agents and seemingly bonus-paid surrogates were unleashed on LA earlier this summer as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Originally promised to be targeted at those with criminal records, the policy turned into snatching people off the street, out of cars and churches, and from Home Depot parking lots indiscriminately with a number of U.S. citizens and children being abducted in the process.
immediately spreading to other blue states and cities, the LA abductions saw heavy protests in DTLA and Trump federalizing the state’s National Guard and hundreds of Marines to clamp down. Though the military presence in LA has dimmed, the intense ICE raids returned as the conservative majority Supreme Court on Sept. 8 halted a temporary restraining order stopping people being spotlighted for their race, skin color (Brown and Black), language or location (like waiting at a bus stop).
Just before SCOTUS stepped in, after numerous setbacks, Gov. Newsom and state AG Robert Bonta had a belated victory in the battle for LA on Sept. 2, when a federal judge ruled the Trump administration actively violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of the military to execute domestic law.
The Trump admin is set to appeal that ruling and will surely try to find ways around or through the bills Newsom signed today.
BTW – as talks continue between much-reviled Disney brass and Kimmel’s team over a possible return by the host, Damon Lindelof has said he will not work for any Disney-owned entity until the later-nighter is back on air. Other best talent has expressed similar sentiments, some publicly, some privately.
On the other hand, the acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli calls Newsom’s Noem-taunting tweet a “direct or implicit threat” and is pursuing it with the Secret Service:
In case, you missed it, here is the original post:
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