A Hawai‘i senator has introduced a measure requiring immigration enforcement officers to display clear identification.
Sen. Mazie Hirono co-introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement Act — also called the VISIBLE Act — on Thursday, July 10, alongside 12 other senators.
The bill requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, or U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, to display their agency and name or badge number while conducting public-facing actions. The display of the agency must be legible from 25 feet away and not be obscured by other equipment.
The bill also prohibits officers from wearing “non-medical face coverings” unless those masks are operationally necessary.
Officers conducting covert operations are exempt from the bill’s requirements.
“Dangerous individuals are increasingly impersonating federal immigration officials, and yet masked immigration agents continue to grab people off the streets with no visible identification,” Hirono said in a statement. “This legislation is a necessary response to these dangerous, draconian tactics. By bringing much-needed transparency and accountability to immigration enforcement activities, this bill will help protect immigrant communities and all Americans.”
The bill comes less than a month after a man impersonating a police officer shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in their homes, killing Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman.
Hirono also co-signed a letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons on Monday, July 7, decrying the agency’s tactics.
“Storming courthouses, grabbing students off the street, raiding places of work, and sweeping through restaurants at prime dining hours are in and of themselves tactics clearly designed to engender fear and sow chaos in the population,” read the letter. “Doing so in plainclothes, with no identification of their name or agency, while wearing a mask designed to obscure the agent’s face, represents a clear attempt to compound that fear and chaos – and to avoid accountability for agents’ actions.”
The letter also requested that Lyons clarify ICE’s policies on masks, uniforms and identifiable markers by July 21.
Military funding secured
Hirono also touted more than $1 billion in funding for Hawai‘i-specific military projects she secured through the Senate Armed Services Committee.
During that committee’s discussion of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, Hirono added $35 million for Red Hill environmental restoration and remediation, $146 million for the water treatment plant at Join Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, and millions for various construction and upgrade projects and military facilities statewide.
“Military readiness and support for our servicemembers are crucial to national security, and my provisions investing over $1.1 billion for military construction projects in Hawai‘i, increasing pay for military servicemembers and DOD civilian employees, and securing an additional $20 million to support sustainability and military resilience, will help strengthen our force,” Hirono said in a statement.
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