STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1429-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: S.B. No. 3322

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Economic Development & Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 3322, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) By July 1, 2027, require each law enforcement agency operating in the State to establish and publicly post a written policy regarding:

(A) The use of facial coverings, visibility of badges, and conspicuous marking of law enforcement vehicles; and

(B) Civil immigration enforcement, including procedures governing a law enforcement officer's authority to make an inquiry into a person's civil immigration status;

(2) Prohibit law enforcement officers from initiating or prolonging a stop, detention, or arrest to determine a person's civil immigration status, with certain exemptions for reasonable suspicion;

(3) Establish as a policy of the Department of Law Enforcement that civil immigration activity involving state or county participation or facilities shall only proceed under certain conditions; and

(4) Establish criminal offenses for improper facial coverings and lack of visible identification and unauthorized civil immigration interrogation, arrest, or detention.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaiʻi System; UNITE HERE Local 5; Faith Action for Community Equity; Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigration Rights; Roots Reborn; League of Women Voters of Hawaiʻi; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi; Imua Alliance; The Legal Clinic; 50501 Hawaii and General Strike Hawaii; Kona Indivisible; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Kauaʻi Police Department and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the State of Hawaiʻi Organization of Police Officers.

Your Committee finds that law enforcement officers' use of masks and other methods to conceal their identity can lead to fear, intimidation, and public distrust. Your Committee further finds that the State is home to approximately two hundred fifty-eight thousand immigrants, with an estimated thirty thousand being undocumented. Your Committee recognizes that recent federal immigration enforcement activities have inhumanely targeted these communities and engaged in violations of due process and other constitutional rights. This measure establishes certain requirements for law enforcement officers' use of facial coverings and prohibits law enforcement from taking certain unauthorized actions related to immigration enforcement.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development & Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3322, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3322, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development & Technology,

____________________________

GREGGOR ILAGAN, Chair