An anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bill failed to proceed to the Senate floor in one of the first highly contentious committee hearings of the 2026 legislative session. Senators from both parties agree that the bill, which aimed to prevent law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings, is dead.
On Thursday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee hearing room filled with law enforcement officers from counties around the state, as well as dozens of members of the public there to testify both in favor of and against the bill.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, aimed to ban — with some exceptions — local, state and federal law enforcement officers, including ICE agents, from wearing masks. It also sought to prevent state and local law enforcement officers from assisting federal agents in carrying out immigration enforcement operations in “sensitive” locations, including churches.
“SB136 is a bill that reaffirms Utah’s position as a place that welcomes people who are seeking a better life,” Blouin told the committee while presenting the bill. “They deserve to be able to worship, to seek care and to exist in public without … fear.”
A similar California bill banning most law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings was recently signed into law and is already being challenged in court.
Earlier Thursday, Blouin substituted the bill to reference the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act, which Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law in 2024. The recent law allows the Legislature to pass a concurrent resolution to prohibit the “enforcement of a federal directive within the state by government officers if the Legislature determines the federal directive violates the principles of state sovereignty.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, speaks before the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee about SB136, a bill that looks to ban law enforcement, including federal immigration officers, from wearing face coverings in Utah, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
The committee, however, voted down the substitute version of his bill that included references to the Constitutional Sovereignty Act. Before that vote, committee chair Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, paused to ask the Democrat how he voted on the measure. Blouin noted he had voted against it at the time, and the committee ultimately considered only the original version of the bill.
Though the bill inspired significant discussion in the early days of the legislative session, lawmakers largely agreed the bill had no chance of a floor vote.
“I’m surprised this one did [get a hearing], to be honest,” Blouin said during an interview ahead of the meeting. But, he added, ”People are focused on this. I look at this as a proactive issue for us here in Utah that would potentially prevent harm from being done here in the state.”
“I don’t think it’ll come out of committee,” Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, the majority assistant whip, said of Blouin’s bill during a news conference earlier Thursday.
“One of the concerns I have in the bill is just the lack of coordination with locals and the feds,” McKell, a member of the committee, said Thursday. “Whether you like ICE or not, we are a state that collaborates with our federal partners.”
Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, who also sits on the committee, said she supported the legislation.
“I think the communities are asking for protections, and very, very, very basic protections of civil and constitutional rights,” she said. “To me, it’s a good start, and we should be at least giving it a chance for this bill to move forward.”
‘Heaven has an immigration policy’
Though the hearing was scheduled to end at 5:00 p.m., it ran until nearly 5:30 as members of the public testified in front of the committee.
En Canada, a Utahn who testified in favor of the bill, invoked the Bible and read from Matthew 25:35, which reads, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in.”
“The stranger is the undocumented. The stranger is the immigrant. Are you inviting him in? Are you doing the Christly thing?” Canada asked. “It seems much of this legislature is blaspheming against Jesus, not living in a Christ-like way.”
When Canada concluded their testimony, Weiler responded, “Just want to say, I’m pretty sure that heaven has a immigration policy, but that’s just my belief.”
Kane County Sheriff Tracy Glover, the president of the Utah Sheriffs Association, encouraged the committee to vote down the bill.
“As federal and state law enforcement partners in Utah, we have a long and rich history with being skeptical of federal overreach,” Glover said. “We’ve taken action against that from time to time, and what we found through those processes is we are better when we do coordinate.”
Members of the public who testified online were asked to turn their cameras on when speaking, and when one member of the public noted the irony, Weiler said, “I just want to remind everyone I’m following the legislative rules, but your point’s well taken.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, left, and Duchesne County Sheriff Travis Tucker attend a hearing at the Utah Capitol on SB136, a bill that proposed preventing law enforcement officers from wearing masks and to prevent local and state officers from coordinating with federal immigration enforcement on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
‘This is as dead as we can kill it’
On the merits of the bill itself, however, the Republican majority on the committee remained unswayed. Rather than vote down the bill, the committee moved to table it, setting the bill aside and requiring a two-thirds committee vote to revive it.
The committee voted 6-3 to freeze the bill, with Weiler joining Democrats to vote against the motion to table, but only, he said, because he wanted to simply vote the bill down.
Republicans on the committee, who make up seven of the nine members, say they have no intention to allow Blouin to revive the bill.
“It’s actually more dead [than if we’d voted it down],” Sen. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, said after the meeting. “This is as dead as we can kill it.”
Blouin, who is running for Congress and wore an “Abolish ICE” pin on his suitcoat during the meeting, said in an interview following the committee vote that he wished the members had simply voted it down.
“I wished they’d just killed it, because the optics are nicer,” he said.
Despite the bill’s failure, Blouin said he felt the hearing was a success, and that he was heartened by how many people came to speak in favor of the legislation.
But, he said, “It’s dead either way.”
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