A Democrat and a Republican will team up to try to ban masked law enforcement in Oregon

An Oregon Republican and Democrat are teaming up to push a law enforcement accountability bill, they announced Sunday.

Cyrus Javadi, a Tillamook Republican, and Tom Andersen, a Salem Democrat, hope to get fellow state lawmakers to refer a proposed constitutional amendment to next year’s ballot that would ban what the lawmakers describe as “secret police.”

Their proposal would prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and would require them to wear “official uniforms” with badge numbers and names. It would not apply to SWAT teams or undercover police officers as they currently operate.

“Oregonians shouldn’t have to wonder who’s knocking on their door in the middle of the night,” Javadi wrote in a news release. “In a free society, the people who enforce the law should never be faceless or unaccountable.”

Andersen pointed to arrests by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to underscore the urgency of the bill.

In 2025, ICE agents have frequently worn masks when conducting immigration raids, including during recent raids in Oregon. Some of the agents who in July detained Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a Beaverton father who was driving his child to preschool, were masked, dashcam video shows.

“When I see masked, anonymous quasi-law enforcement ICE employees out on our streets, making violent warrantless arrests, I am aghast and angry,” Andersen wrote. “Secret police have no place in a free and democratic society because public trust in government erodes when you don’t know who’s enforcing the law.”

Leaders of the customs agency have argued that masks prevent ICE officers from being doxed or having their identities exposed in a way that puts them and their families “at risk.” They have also said that immigration agents carry badges and “will identify themselves when required for public safety or legal necessity.”

Some members of Congress and attorneys general have pushed for a change. In a July letter to members of Congress, attorneys general from New York and Michigan argued that ICE agents making arrests while masked and without identifying themselves “has the effect of terrorizing communities rather than protecting them.”

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, one of the nation’s largest police organizations, warned last month that when agents cover their faces it can, quote, “create confusion, fear and mistrust among community members and responding agencies.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced a bill that would require ICE agents across the nation to wear identification and ban them from covering their faces while on duty.

To succeed in putting that question before Oregon voters, Javadi and Andersen have to win over the majority of their colleagues.

The proposal will need a majority vote in both the Oregon House and Senate during the 2026 short session to get on the fall 2026 ballot. Then, in next fall’s general election, a majority of Oregon voters would have to agree to ban masked law enforcement.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.