New Law Barring ICE from Posing as Local Law Enforcement Could Be Just a Symbolic Gesture

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill this week that prevents federal immigration officials from masquerading as local police in California.

Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) penned the bill to curb the tactic reportedly used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Media reports about ICE officials posing as local cops to induce compliance prompted Kalra to introduce the legislation.

AB 1440 notes that federal immigration agents are not licensed peace officers.

“I am pleased that Gov. Brown has signed AB 1440 into law, upholding the trust and faith our local law enforcement work to develop with local communities every day to provide for the public’s safety,” Kalra said in a statement. “Under the new federal administration, ICE and CBP are undertaking unprecedented and aggressive tactics to identify, monitor and detain undocumented immigrants for deportation. This bill sends a clear message—that in California, law enforcement officers are sworn to protect all residents, regardless of their immigration status.”

Analysis of the bill noted that immigration officials tend to detain people without warrants. To get around their warrantless searches, ICE and CBP agents tell people they’re police officers to get them to open the doors into their homes and businesses.

Officers have a legal right to mislead the public about their identity, but the practice is viewed as unethical. Inducing compliance to gain entry into a person’s property is viewed as coercion and a violation of Constitutional rights, according to immigrant advocates.

Because federal law overrides state law, the bill could be viewed as symbolic. However, the law provides a way for California and its local governments to send a message to residents that it does not condone President Trump’s immigration policies, which have quickened the pace of deportations that were already at a record clip under the previous administration.


  1. What cops posing as other cops? How about all the illegals and legals receiving state and federal
    benefits? How did this become so prevalent? So very many here in CA receive all kinds of state and
    federal monies yet have NEVER paid into it.

  2. Ash and the whole troop of progressives whom we must perpetually endure, enthusiastically come up with one reason after another for confounding our ability to enforce our immigration laws. Examined individually there is some legitimacy to each of their arguments. But curiously their arguments always seem to go in one direction. They’re deaf to any counter position. Just once I’d like to see some acknowledgement from these politicians that there are profound consequences, many of them negative, for enabling unrestricted immigration and that it’s a conversation we ought to be able to have and I don’t mean by simply bleating, “But we’re a nation of immigrants.”

  3. I governor Moonbeam doesn’t like federal law he should contact his state senators to write legislation more to his liking, not writing a stupid local law in defiance of, after all it is the almighty federal government alter that his party worships at.

    Instead he is falsely telling people that ICE is not a police agency, and that they may resist. This will likely enhance any crime they may have committed that is under investigation, and might even get them shot.

  4. AB 1440 states that ICE agents are not CALIFORNIA peace officers. Huge distinction. There is no such thing as a “licensed” peace officer. A “peace officer” is anyone with statutory law enforcement powers. Police officers, deputy sheriffs, constables, and ICE agents are all peace officers. ICE agents carry SIG Sauer P229R 40 caliber pistols. They are authorized to enforce over 400 federal statutes. They can take people into federal custody. They cannot enter a home without permission or a warrant, but the same is true of all peace officers. It is not common knowledge that cops are allowed to lie to suspects they are questioning. That has long since been determined to be Constitutional. Illegal immigrants rights folks want to carve out an exception that says an ICE agent cannot tell a person he is a “police” officer. Ash Kalra is simply grandstanding to get the votes of illegal immigrant supporters. Pursuant to the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, AB1440 is worthless.

  5. Test it; arrest an ICE agent for violating the law–see what the Courts say.

  6. ICE agents who violate the law can be arrested. Officers who break the law can also be arrested. Think of Oakland and San Francisco Police who were with the young prostitute. Think of our lying President and his family who soon will be facing criminal charges. People who lie and cheat and act like criminals generally get caught no matter who they are.

  7. Pretty dangerous stuff, when you have elected state officials deliberately passing laws that conflict with federal law only to “send a message.”

  8. Should undercover officers be arrested for posing as criminals? I mean they are doing this to gain entry into criminal’s houses, businesses and organizations. Oh wait, there is no political Agenda there. Take his unwanted Federal Fundings

  9. What he actually meant to say was: “law enforcement officers are sworn to protect all residents, regardless of their gang affiliation.”

  10. You voted for this idiot Gov and legislative fools. Welcome to CA. ICE is a great POLICE UNIT and do their jobs well. If you are ILLEGAL then you need to go home or will be sent home.

  11. As always, Ash Kalra is deliberately misrepresenting the situation when he says that “ICE and CBP are undertaking unprecedented and aggressive tactics to identify, monitor and detain undocumented immigrants”.

    “Undocumented”?? But why would that be?

    Could they be “undocumented” because they are ineligible to obtain documents showing that they’re in this country LEGALLY?

    That’s why Kalra misprepresents these citizens of foreign nations as being merely “undcumented”.

    But if Ash Kalra (D-Ofcourse) talked straight, and admitted that he was supporting ILLEGAL ALIENS over the American citizens and legal residents who pay the freight, folks might get a tad upset at being made second-class citizens in their own country—and by their putative “representative”.

    All those illegals cost taxpayers a ton of money. They also commit crimes out of all proportion to their numbers, and most of them are illegally on the taxpayer dole one way or another.

    Any questions, Ash?

%d bloggers like this: