Law Enforcement
‘No Secret Police’ legislation seeks to unmask, identify ICE officers
PA Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would require law enforcement to identify themselves and remain maskless
State Sen. Nikil Saval speaks during a rally opposing the tactics of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, held outside Philadelphia ICE headquarters. Harrison Cann
Democratic lawmakers are crafting legislation in hopes of keeping eyes on ICE.
State Sens. Amanda Cappelletti and Nikil Saval are introducing a “No Secret Police” bill that looks to keep law enforcement from concealing their identities – including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducting raids in the commonwealth.
Standing outside of the ICE office in Center City Philadelphia on Thursday, Saval affirmed that “all of us have rights to dignity, to safety and to due process.”
“To have heavily armed, masked, unidentifiable individuals roaming our public spaces, our work sites and our residential blocks, kidnapping people off the streets, disappearing our neighbors, terrorizes our communities and violates these basic, vital rights,” Saval, a Philadelphia Democrat, said at the press conference.
The legislation seeks to require law enforcement officials and agents to have clearly visible identification as well as to prohibit officials from wearing masks or face coverings to obscure their identity. It also allows for appropriate exceptions to the masking requirement, including for surgical or N95 respirators, as well as for undercover agents investigating serious criminal conduct.
The calls for greater transparency and accountability come after several communities around the state have dealt with ICE raids and in the wake of incidents where individuals impersonating law enforcement have committed crimes under the guise of a federal operation.
“Numerous constituents have reached out to my office and to me personally to not only express their outrage about ICE tactics and the use of our public resources, but to also rightly demand action as a legislator,” Cappelletti, a Democrat serving parts of Delaware and Montgomery counties, said Thursday. “The rise of this practice actively undermines public trust in our law enforcement agencies, but also encourages bad actors to impersonate law enforcement officers in order to commit crimes.”
One of the examples cited on Thursday described how in June, Robert Rosado, of Philadelphia’s Lawndale section, was arrested after impersonating an ICE agent during a robbery in Northeast Philadelphia. Rosado allegedly robbed an automobile shop on the 6500 block of Harbison Avenue in Mayfair, where he zip-tied a woman in the process.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who spoke at the press conference Thursday, said the impersonation incidents are unlike anything he’s seen in Philadelphia during his time as a prosecutor.
“Those are cases in which people who are not ICE agents impersonate ICE agents to carry out really serious crimes – one of them (with a) lengthy criminal record,” Krasner said, noting that federal code requires military and police to fully identify themselves during an event such as a civil disturbance. “We know this is a terrible idea to create confusion between law enforcement and criminals … My job will be a lot easier if we don’t have a crime wave of people pretending to be ICE.”
Erika Guadalupe Nuñez, executive director of Juntos, a community-led, Latino immigrant organization, emphasized the need for law enforcement officers to identify themselves and present a warrant when approaching people or businesses.
“Here’s what ICE looks like in our neighborhoods: agents covering their faces, in plainclothes, driving unmarked cars, kidnapping people in broad daylight, those taken or disappeared into the black hole of immigrant detention,” Nuñez said Thursday. “Masked agents are a symptom of a rotten system.”
State Rep. Rick Krajewski, a Philadelphia Democrat, plans to introduce companion legislation in the state House – a bill, he says, that is backed by his colleagues, including former police officer and Bucks County Democrat state Rep. Brian Munroe.
“This also makes legal law enforcement officers less safe,” Krajewski said Thursday. “In doing this bicameral approach, I think we can get this done.”
Several other states have introduced a form of “stop and identify” legislation to require law enforcement officials to identify themselves, including Louisiana, and a handful of state legislatures have similar “No Secret Police” proposals under consideration, including California, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
A “No Secret Police Act of 2025” has also been introduced by House Democrats in Congress. If enacted, law enforcement’s failure to identify or the concealment of identity may be grounds for a civil cause of action.