State Rep. Paul Friel is calling for a ban on federal agents and law enforcement officers wearing masks during operations, following a high-profile immigration raid in Montgomery County.
The Chester County Democrat introduced the Officer Visibility Act this week, which would require law enforcement officers—including federal agents operating in their official capacity—to display clearly visible identification. That includes a name or badge number, the agency or department name, and a uniform or clothing consistent with agency protocols.
The legislation would also prohibit officers from covering their faces unless they are involved in a sanctioned undercover operation or responding to a declared public health emergency.
Friel announced the bill just days after agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raided a Montgomery County grocery store on July 16, taking more than a dozen workers into custody for suspected immigration violations.
Video footage released by Project Libertad, a Delaware Valley-based immigrant advocacy group, showed agents wearing masks as they carried out the arrests.
“The recent practice of federal agents—most notably Homeland Security and U.S. Border Patrol—concealing their identities while performing official duties has created an unsafe environment,” Friel wrote in a co-sponsorship memo circulating in the state Capitol.
Friel said the current federal policy undermines public trust and safety, calling it a contradiction of “core public safety principles” that blurs “the line between lawful authority and unlawful coercion.”
The use of masks by ICE agents has become a flashpoint for Democrats as immigration enforcement ramps up across the Delaware Valley. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker has reaffirmed the city’s status as a sanctuary city, vowing that local police would not participate in ICE-led task forces. Meanwhile, Radnor Township commissioners passed a resolution instructing local police to disregard ICE requests related to “non-criminal administrative enforcement activities.”
ICE officials, however, say masks are necessary for officer protection. “If that’s a tool that the men and women of ICE need to keep themselves and their families safe, then I will allow it,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told CBS’s “Face the Nation”
Lyons cited rising threats against agents—including assaults, doxing, and a 2019 attack on a detention facility in North Texas—as reasons for continuing the mask policy. ICE often blurs officers’ faces or shows them masked in official photos of arrests posted on social media.
“What really keeps me up at night is making sure the men and women of ICE stay safe and go home to their families,” Lyons said.
Friel disagrees. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Federal practices involving masked or unidentifiable personnel erode trust and compromise the essential pillars of a secure community.”
Six other Democratic lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors, including Reps. Chris Pielli (Chester), Greg Scott and Joe Webster (Montgomery), Joseph Hohenstein, Rick Krajewski, and Ben Waxman (Philadelphia). The bill has not yet been assigned a number, and the full text has not been released.
A companion measure is expected to be introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate.