Signs laws targeting ICE with shock glove ban. Good!

Newsom signs laws targeting ICE with shock glove ban, detention center tax

Democrats rushed to outlaw shock devices after reports that ICE planned to purchase gloves for officers.

By Lindsey Holden and Nicole Norman

Gavin Newsom signed laws on Tuesday that take aim at President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda — barring law enforcement from using shock gloves, banning the use of state property for immigration operations and taxing detention centers.

The new laws are likely to draw legal blowback from the U.S. Department of Justice, which has previously been successful in blocking state laws meant to rein in a federal immigration crackdown.

“California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities.”

Lawmakers introduced some of the legislation early in the year, after federal agents killed two people while conducting an immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis. Democrats rushed to pass the shock glove ban more recently, after the Associated Press reported in August that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to buy the gloves for its officers.

That ban applies to all law enforcement officers in California, including federal immigration agents. The legislation sunsets on Jan. 1, 2030, and it also requires the California Department of Justice to complete a safety study on shock devices by Jan. 1, 2029.

Two other laws Newsom signed will make state property off limits for immigration enforcement activities and will require the California Department of Justice to investigate incidents in which immigration officers fatally shoot civilians.

In addition, California will prevent the hiring of former federal immigration officers who have engaged in serious misconduct by law enforcement agencies. It’s a narrower hiring restriction than the one advanced by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, which would have screened or outright banned former federal immigration officers from a wide range of public-sector positions in California.

Newsom also signed AB 1633, which attempts to stymie immigration detention by placing a 25 percent tax on the gross receipts of private facilities in the state.

The governor’s signature on the bills could open the state to legal action from Trump’s DOJ, which has gone to court to fight other responses to last year’s sweeping immigration raids. Earlier this year, federal courts blocked one law forbidding federal and local law enforcement officers from using masks to conceal their identities and another requiring all officers to wear visible identification during operations.

In direct response, Newsom on Tuesday signed SB 1004, which will expand the ban on masks to state law enforcement agencies in an attempt to make it stronger legally.

Another bill the governor signed, titled the “No Kings Act,” gives Californians the right to sue government officials — including federal immigration agents — if they feel their constitutional rights have been violated.

The Department of Homeland Security slammed the new laws, saying “enforcing federal immigration laws is a clear federal responsibility.”

“No tax will stop ICE from deporting criminal illegal aliens to make California safe again,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “... ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country. Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards.”