Oregon lawmakers heard testimony on a bill Wednesday that seeks to prohibit any law enforcement officer from wearing masks, the latest state salvo against federal immigration tactics.

Masked federal agents have for months been detaining people on the premise that they are in the United States illegally, causing upheaval in immigrant communities and raising concerns about civil liberties.

States and local governments have struggled to find ways to push back against federal officers’ behavior. A tactic some Oregon lawmakers hope could make a difference would be to require that all officers show their faces and be readily identifiable.

One proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 203, would ask Oregon voters to approve a change to the state’s constitution to say that police can’t wear masks and must wear identification. Another proposal, House Bill 4138, would immediately prohibit law enforcement from wearing face coverings and make it a crime for an officer to refuse to say what agency he or she is working for.

Both proposals would apply equally to local, state and federal officers, though it’s not immediately clear whether Oregon could enforce a state law on federal police.

Oregon Rep. Tom Andersen, D-Salem, said at a public hearing for the senate resolution on Wednesday that Oregonians can’t sit by like a “deer-in-the-headlights” while “we stare at the masks that are the symbol of the anonymous face of secret police tactics.”

“Given the chance, we believe that Oregonians will soundly reject secret police tactics,” Andersen said, testifying in support of the measure.

In a July letter to members of Congress, attorneys general from New York and Michigan argued that ICE agents making arrests while masked and without identifying themselves “has the effect of terrorizing communities rather than protecting them.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced a bill that would require ICE agents across the nation to wear identification and ban them from covering their faces while on duty.

The key question hovering over any proposal that would limit what federal agents can do is whether any local or state authority could ever enforce it, given the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says that when state and federal laws conflict, the federal ones take precedence.

Whether Oregon could enforce requirements on federal agents would depend on how lawmakers draft that proposal, said Jenny Hansson, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice.

That question of authority is already being tested in the courts with mixed results. On Monday, a federal judge struck down a California law prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks. The same judge upheld a California law requiring the agents to display identification.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But leaders at the agency have argued that masks prevent ICE officers from being doxed. They have also said that immigration agents carry badges and “will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the joint resolution in Salem Wednesday featured largely supportive testimony, with apocalyptic language of impending authoritarianism by the federal government. One speaker compared ICE operations to the German Nazi paramilitary wing that targeted political opponents and Jews with violence.

“We know where this leads,” the speaker said.

To get the mask-banning proposal on the November 2026 ballot, Anderson and co-sponsors Sen. James Manning, D-Eugene, and Rep. Cyrus Javadi, D-Tillamook, have to convince their colleagues in the Legislature to pass the bill — first out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, then through the House and the Senate. The committee is scheduled to vote on the bill next week.

The alternate proposal in the House is also scheduled for a committee vote on Feb. 16. Unlike the Senate proposal, it wouldn’t require a vote of the people. If passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor, it would go into effect immediately.

The issue of masking has become a national flashpoint. Right now, Democrats in Congress are holding up a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security to demand changes in ICE operations and oversight.

Among their demands has been a prohibition on masks. How that political back-and-forth will play out is anybody’s guess. But Republicans have concerns.

“Taking the masks off ICE officers and agents, the reason we can’t do that is that it would subject them to great harm, their families at great risk because people are doxing them and targeting them,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R.-La., said Monday. “We’ve got to talk about things that are reasonable and achievable.”

This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and is reprinted with permission.

Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905 or by email.

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