Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has said he will sign a hotly contested and heavily altered bill making California a “sanctuary state” in which immigrants without documentation have some protections against the Trump regime’s rancid deportation orders.
California is estimated to be home to 2.3 million undocumented people, the vast majority from Mexico and points further south. The bill, SB 54, cleared the state Senate early Saturday morning. It had passed the state Assembly Friday. Its provisions will make undocumented immigrants in hospitals, schools, and courthouses safe from federal agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
Taryn Luna and Angela Hart at The Sacramento Bee report:
The legislation by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), the most far-reaching of its kind in the country, would limit state and local law enforcement communication with federal immigration authorities, and prevent officers from questioning and holding people on immigration violations.
After passionate debate in both houses of the Legislature, staunch opposition from Republican sheriffs and threats from Trump administration officials against sanctuary cities,
Senate Bill 54 was approved Saturday with a 27-11 vote along party lines. But the bill sent to Gov.
Jerry Brown drastically scaled back the version first introduced, the result of tough negotiations between Brown and De León in the final weeks of the legislative session.
“These amendments do not mean to erode the core mission of this measure, which is to protect hardworking families that have contributed greatly to our culture and the economy,” he said. “This is a measure that reflects the values of who we are as a great state.”
Lawmakers, immigrants’ advocates, and other activists have pointed out that the effect of the Trump regime’s stepped-up deportation policies and practices have scared undocumented people. Their children are afraid to attend school and their older siblings and parents are afraid to interact with the police even when it would be to their advantage were it not for the actions of ICE. For instance, police have reported that reports of sexual assault and domestic violence have fallen.
Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, a former criminal prosecutor, said from “first-hand experience” that fear of deportation among immigrants actually makes cities less safe.
“I know, from speaking to hundreds of victims of crimes, witnesses of crimes, that if you’re a victim or a witness, it’s difficult to trust working with law enforcement if you think there’s a chance that your immigration status might be passed along to the federal government,” he said.
Approval of the bill came just hours after federal Judge Harry D. Leinenweber issued a temporary injunction against the Trump regime from withholding federal grants to any cities that adopt sanctuary policies. That will last while a lawsuit brought by Chicago authorities objecting to the threatened withholding makes its way through court. If the court rules in Chicago’s favor, the injunction will become permanent.
When it was first proposed, the California Values Act would have barred state and local law enforcement from cooperating at all with ICE agents by holding, questioning, or providing information about people’s immigration status unless they had convictions for serious crimes. Jazmine Ulloa at the Los Angeles Times reports:
After talks with Brown, amendments to the bill made this week would allow federal immigration authorities to keep working with state corrections officials and to continue entering county jails to question immigrants. The legislation would also permit police and sheriffs to share information and transfer people to immigration authorities if they have been convicted of one or more crimes from a list of 800 outlined in a previous law, the California Trust Act.
Some immigrant rights advocates who were previously disappointed with the
list of offenses under the Trust Act, were dismayed to see the same exceptions applied in the so-called sanctuary state bill. The list includes many violent and serious crimes, as well as some nonviolent charges and “wobblers,” offenses that can be charged as a felony or misdemeanor, which advocates said has the potential to ensnare people who do not pose a danger to the public.
Despite their disappointment over the way negotiations had changed the original bill, immigrant advocates continued to support SB 54. And the California Police Chiefs Association changed its stance on the bill from opposed to neutral. The California Sheriffs Association maintained its opposition, however.
Once signed, the law takes effect Jan. 1. Before then, the state attorney must come up with standards for limiting ICE agents’ access to personal information.
This is one of those instances when other states should follow California’s lead.