Good; now do the same to Murphy and his fellow Democrats

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will propose sweeping reforms to DHS, including requiring a warrant for arrests, banning masks during enforcement operations and requiring Border Patrol to remain at the border after an ICE officer killed a woman in Minneapolis this week, Axios has learned.

Driving the news: Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees DHS, is also trying to build a coalition of Democrats to insist on some restraints on DHS' authority as a condition of their support for a spending bill for the department — with funding set to lapse Jan. 30.

  • But Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have already taken a shutdown at the end of the month off the table after weathering a bruising shutdown fight last fall.

  • Murphy and his staff are in conversations about his new bill with lawmakers from Minnesota, California and Illinois, where DHS has deployed large contingents of agents, a source familiar with the talks told Axios.

  • "It's hard to imagine how Democrats are going to vote for a DHS bill that funds this level of illegality and violence without constraints," Murphy told Axios on Thursday. "There's gotta be some reasonable constraints."

Murphy's proposal also would limit the use of firearms by ICE when conducting civil matters and require agents to wear identification.

And from Google AI:

California, Washington, New Jersey, and New York are the states that have passed legislation prohibiting law enforcement, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, from concealing their identities with masks while on duty. [1, 2, 3]

Details for each state's legislation:

  • California: Enacted the "No Secret Police Act" (Senate Bill 627). This law initially applied specifically to federal and local officers, but a federal judge struck it down in early 2026, ruling that applying the ban only to federal officers was discriminatory. [1, 2]

  • Washington: Governor Bob Ferguson signed legislation in March 2026 that restricts facial coverings for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers on duty. [1, 2]

  • New Jersey: Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation into law in March 2026 prohibiting on-duty local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks that obscure their identity. [1, 2]

  • New York: Adopted legislation as part of the state budget deal in May 2026 that prevents federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from concealing their identities, which lawmakers adapted to apply to all officers equally to withstand legal challenges. [1, 2]

Because of the federal government's broad supremacy, the implementation of these state-level mask bans continues to face ongoing legal challenges from federal agencies and the courts. [1, 2]