California seems to do something pretty frequently to annoy the White House.
The Street Vendor Protection Act blocks federal agencies from accessing information from vendor permits.
This week’s West Coast affront is the Street Vendor Protection Act, authored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo and passed by the California legislature on October 8th. The measure essentially discourages at least some official snooping; it will block federal immigrant enforcement agencies—ICE comes to mind– from accessing information that cities or counties collect in the course of processing a vendor’s permit.
It’s as if someone else had done the agency’s homework, so The Department of Homeland Security can track people down by using a variety of fronts—and all detailed tracking information they comb through was included for an application for a vendor’s permit.
But that changed under the recently passed California law. Now the local governments that process the vendor permits are blocked from inquiring about vendors’ immigration status, name, address, birth date, driver’s license and Social Security numbers, unless they present a judicial subpoena for the information.
Earlier this year, Newsom signed another measure that that was not applauded in the White House. California’s No Secret Police Act bans most face coverings for federal immigration agents—that means no balaclavas, ski masks or that kind of action-spy equipment to hide your face as you carry out your duties that by many accounts get violent and may be outside the law.
Wearing masks, critics say, protects ICE agents against the consequences of breaking rules or abusing detainees. And it doesn’t take a deep look to see it’s also a pretty obvious bullying tactic when you see those masked men on the nightly news grabbing a young mother and tossing her to the floor or otherwise bursting into someone’s kitchen.
Newsom signed another measure that that was not applauded in the White House. California’s No Secret Police Act bans most face coverings for federal immigration agents.
The ICE mask law isn’t set to be enforced until January 1st, 2026, but U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told the BBC that California “has no jurisdiction over the federal government”, adding the law has “no effect on our operations” and agents “will continue to protect their identities”. See you in court, ICE!
But California isn’t the only state busy with ICE procedures and operations. In Illinois, there’s a lot of energy focused on stopping ICE and the potential agency overreach they have already demonstrated in Chicago.
Earlier this month, a federal Judge in Illinois granted the state a temporary restraining order against the deployment called Operation Midway Blitz, which has netted 1,500 persons in the Chicago area.
Judge April Perry, in her oral ruling, granted Illinois and co-plaintiffs an emergency motion to stop the president from deploying troops in the state but that the National Guard troops will remain under federal control.
In Portland, where 200 National Guard troops were federalized in order to assist with law enforcement, Portland-based U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee from his first term, extended a restraining order prohibiting the deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon. She issued the first order earlier this month.
A federal Judge in Illinois granted the state a temporary restraining order against the deployment called Operation Midway Blitz.
The actions to protest ICE incursions in our cities have caught fire, so to speak, because it’s hard for people to watch other people get hauled away, maybe disappeared, if not ultimately, at least for an agonizing length of time until an attorney can track the person down. The brutality of some of the apprehensions is obvious on film.
In South Chicago, the community brought the thunder last week after federal agents chased a car through a heavily-Latino neighborhood. The migra SUV collided with the car they were chasing, which then crashed into a vehicle parked nearby.
Then dozens of masked agents showed up, and that was when the locals came out to the streets and threw objects at the masked immigration agents while shouting “ICE go home!”
Watching community pushback is inspiring, but since we have been keeping tabs on the judiciary while discussing the occupations of American cities, it’s worth a moment to start thinking about the Supreme Court again.
Justices Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel Alito, 74, may be contemplating stepping down; with replacements picked by the President they can rest easy that who ever replaces them will carry their ideological torch, maybe conservatives that are on the young side so they join the current conservative coterie can crank out conservative opinions for decades.
On Wednesday U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut did extend by another 14 days the restraining orders that blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland.
Temporary restraining orders can expire unless extended. On Wednesday U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut did extend by another 14 days the TROs that block the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard troops to police Portland– part of the campaign to dispatch military forces to cities the Presidents says are at war.
Anyway, you are probably putting together your ensemble for the October 18th No Kings Day event near you and haven’t time to read any more. The national event is predicted to be a stemwinder—organizers told USA Today that the No Kings Day turnout across the nation will make up the largest day of protest in modern American history—that would be something to see.
It’s taken so many a long time to acclimate to this vicious era under this Administration. So many people express a sense of exhaustion with no way to move forward. That’s even among those of us that aren’t being menaced by ICE or don’t know where the rent is coming from because the Feds stopped payroll during the budget shutdown.
It’s been 10 months since the Administration rolled out the shock and awe, stunning us as a deliberate tactic. It appears that many of us who felt paralyzed by the sudden, cruel policies may be coming around a little psychologically these days and adjusting to the grim times through action—standing with day laborers; shopping and delivering food for families too terrorized by the ICE presence to go out themselves; showing up at demonstrations, working the phone banks that mobilize people to the streets.
We’ll do a head count on No Kings Day this Saturday and see how we’re feeling.
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Copyright 2025 by Bobbi Murray. All photos in this blog are in the public domain.