A panel of top Maine lawmakers declined Thursday to consider next year a proposal to ban police officers and immigration enforcement agents operating in the state from wearing masks that conceal their identities.
The bill request from Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, was among a ream of proposals from both Democrats and Republicans that the Legislative Council mostly turned down Thursday after hearing brief appeals for them to be considered during next year’s session that begins in January. The text for each request is often not yet fleshed out, but Lookner’s bill title said it would “increase accountability of law enforcement by prohibiting the use of masks that conceal the identities of law enforcement officers.”
Lookner’s effort relates to debates happening around the country over President Donald Trump’s aggressive and controversial deportation agenda since he returned to office this year, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing masks in viral videos of them hauling people away or clashing with protesters in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.
The Legislative Council that is made up of top lawmakers from each party voted 6-3 without any discussion to reject Lookner’s appeal to have his proposal heard next year, when the Democratic-led Legislature is slated to hold a shorter session that typically ends around April.
House Majority Leader Matt Moonen, D-Portland, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jill Duson, D-Portland, and Assistant House Majority Leader Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, voted in favor of considering Lookner’s proposal. Three Democrats — House Speaker Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford, Senate President Mattie Daughtry of Brunswick and Senate Majority Leader Teresa Pierce of Falmouth — and three Republicans — Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart of Presque Isle, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington of Sanford and Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith of Palermo — opposed considering it.
California legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, approved in September a first-of-its-kind law banning most law enforcement officers from wearing masks during operations. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit Monday to try to halt California’s law. Newsom defended it as pushing back against a “dystopian sci-fi movie” of masked agents without identification or badge numbers detaining people on the streets, while U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said ICE agents “do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties.”
Still, Trump’s FBI reportedly issued a memo in October that urged officers to identify themselves in response to criminals posing as ICE agents and carrying out robberies, sexual assaults and kidnappings in several states.
Lookner, who has been in office since 2020, cited the September incident in which unidentified agents in unidentified vehicles and vests marked “police” detained a parent while they were dropping off their child outside Portland’s Gerald E. Talbot Community School.
The agents reportedly refused to tell school officials which agency they represented, but a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said they were ICE agents detaining a man whom Portland police had arrested a day earlier on domestic violence charges. An ICE official later said the Portland man was deported to his native Honduras in October.
In making his case for the bill to be considered Thursday before the Legislative Council, Lookner described how Portland school officials said the incident had “a chilling effect” and added how many people whom ICE agents have detained in Maine have legal status in the U.S.
“The state of Maine has both the right and the duty to fully unmask citizen kidnappers and ICE agents who operate with impunity in our state,” Lookner said. “When the people cannot see the faces of those who hold the power to detain, it shatters the foundation of public trust.”
Lookner added his bill would have drawn “a clear line” by targeting masks used for “concealment” rather than “protective equipment used for legitimate safety reasons.” He said Maine law enforcement agencies “understand this distinction” but acknowledged the legal uncertainty of whether federal agents would comply with the state’s ban on masks.
Immigrant rights groups in Maine launched last month a statewide “ICE watch hotline” to provide real-time information about immigration enforcement activity and connect families to various resources. Other immigration-related debates will crop back up in Augusta, as Gov. Janet Mills delayed her decision this past summer on a bill from Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, that would limit Maine police and jails from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement officials in certain circumstances.
Mills, a Democrat who is seeking to win the 2026 primary for the chance to unseat U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, next November, has three days at the start of the upcoming session to either veto the bill or let it become law without her signature. The Legislature has yet to overturn any of the governor’s vetoes by reaching the necessary two-thirds majority in both chambers.
