Swalwell: When we’re in majority, ICE masks coming off

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Democrats are discussing ways to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from covering their faces when carrying out enforcement operations — should the party retake the majority in the 2026 midterm elections.

“When we are in the majority, the masks are coming off,” the California Democrat told The New Republic’s Greg Sargent, in a report published Wednesday.

Swalwell said Democrats are exploring ways to tie funding for ICE to legislation that would bar officers from wearing masks — an issue that has galvanized Democrats amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in U.S. cities.

Senate Democrats recently introduced legislation that would require Homeland Security officials to wear visible ID cards and to prevent them from wearing face coverings that obscure their faces.

But Swalwell said the ongoing discussions he’s having with other Democrats would go further than that, making ICE funding contingent on first prohibiting masks.

“We cannot have a budget that allows them to wear masks,” Swalwell told Sargent. “We’re not going to fund a department that does that.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, has defended officers who opt to wear masks, saying they provide protection for law enforcement officers who have experienced a sharp rise in attacks in recent months.

But Democrats have pushed back on concerns over potential retaliation against ICE officers, noting local law enforcement don’t wear masks and are more engrained in the community — and therefore face a potentially greater risk of retaliation.

They also have pointed to reports of alleged criminals shielding their identities to falsely claim to be ICE officers as a means of gaining their victims’ trust before carrying out assaults and kidnappings.