By Joshua Arnold

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Saturday signed a bill designed to hamper federal immigration enforcement efforts in California, including a prohibition on law enforcement officers wearing masks. Of the many obvious flaws in this scheme, the most obvious is its rank reversal of Newsom’s own draconian mask mandates imposed a mere five years ago. But for a certain politician, the performance is more important than the policy.

California law now requires, “Law and immigrant enforcement officers must be identifiable by name or badge number, and exceptions to that must be clearly established — masks are not to be worn except when absolutely necessary,” the governor’s office summarized.

California officials explicitly framed the bill as a counter to the aggressive tactics employed by officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. This is consistent with their general position as a sanctuary state, a policy that effectively nullifies federal immigration law, so far as California is concerned.

Thus, in the play that Governor Newsom has written for himself, which he hopes will raise his star all the way to the White House, he has cast himself in the role of a modern-day John C. Calhoun. This obligingly leaves the role of President Andrew Jackson to President Trump, a fan of the seventh president. If Newsom has thought of a way to distinguish his philosophical position and political fate from that of Calhoun, he has not revealed it to the world.

Acting Attorney General Bill Essayli was not impressed by what he interpreted as Sacramento’s rhetorical bluster. “The State of California has no jurisdiction over the federal government. If Newsom wants to regulate our agents, he must go through Congress,” he responded. “I’ve directed our federal agencies that the law signed today has no effect on our operations. Our agents will continue to protect their identities.”

Due to the astonishing hostility they face in the state, ICE officers have faced increasing harassment, threats, and assaults — not only on-the-job but also at home, after their home addresses were published on left-wing websites. ICE officers began to wear masks and other face coverings while on duty as a necessary measure to protect themselves and their families at home.

“You have the state imposing restrictions on the federal government, and those restrictions can really unduly interfere with their law enforcement functions,” argued former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. “The state is saying that unmasking these federal officials is necessary to restore public trust, but really it’s a safety issue, right? They can be doxed. Their families can be put at risk, so I can easily see this specific regulation being struck down by the courts.”

While the Trump administration remains intent about expelling millions of illegal immigrants, the Newsom administration has focused instead on putting on a show. Even the Saturday bill signing presented a spectacle, as Newsom signed the bills “standing alongside leaders of communities terrorized by Trump’s lawless raids,” his own press release began.

Of course, those legally present in the United States should have nothing to fear from ICE agents. One supposes that the only “communities” who live in terror of ICE are those illegally present in the country. One wonders what Newsom hopes to gain by sticking up for this group, who are theoretically not his constituents because they are ineligible to vote.

But one needn’t wonder what type of play Newsom has staged. It’s a comedy, soaked to bursting in intoxicating irony. For, among other ironies, Newsom has now turned governing inside-out. While law enforcement officers may not wear masks, everyone else can. Why any honest citizen (without health reasons) would want to is anyone’s guess; this permissive approach seems mostly to benefit prospective criminals, who can more easily conceal their identity from the very law enforcement agents, whose identities cannot be hidden. “When can we expect CA to pass a law banning Antifa members from wearing masks while committing state and federal crimes?” Essayli asked rhetorically.

“I’ll wait…”

Above all, Newsom has adopted the persona of an ancient Greek actor, who donned different masks for effect, thereby earning (and creating) the designation “hypocrite.”

Inconveniently for Newsom, most Californians still remember an earlier, tragic act in the play when Newsom championed masking requirements and other draconian rules as a public health response to COVID-19. They remember this act most of all for its grating injustice, which prevented them from visiting loved ones, attending religious services, or even social distancing on the beach — restrictions that far outstripped their justification.

Californians also remember the injustice of Newsom’s last act for his own failure to follow the rules he imposed on others. In 2020, news reports exposed that Newsom enjoyed a maskless, private dinner with a table full of guests in an exclusive restaurant.

Five years later, Newsom has signed a mask ban instead of a mask mandate. His defenders may argue that circumstances have changed and that the public health circumstances no longer dictate the mask mandates of 2020. But this is not entirely true. On September 3, 2025, The Los Angeles Times warned that “a COVID wave is washing over California,” and “the extent of the recent increases has prompted some county-level health officials to recommend that residents once again consider wearing masks” in certain settings. What changed was not the presence of COVID, but the politics of the moment.

In essence, Newsom exchanged the masks of a tragic actor, serious about the ravages of disease, for the masks of a comic, eager for his slapstick routine with President Trump. Whether ordering others to mask-up or mask-off, Newsom is an actor who wears many masks. That is, to refurbish the ancient Greek concept, he is a hypocrite.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.