Come January, California is building a blue wall against Donald Trump’s immoral mass deportation force. ABC10 highlights three new immigration-related laws that are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2018, including Senate Bill 54, or the California Values Act. Signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October, immigrant rights advocates have called it “the most strident anti-deportation bill the country has ever seen”:
1. California is a 'sanctuary state.'
Under this law, state and local law enforcement agencies cannot use resources to detain someone on federal immigration laws. That means they can't inquire about someone's immigration status or detain someone on a hold request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE].
2. Landlords cannot report tenants to ICE.
This separate law means landlords cannot report their tenant's immigration status to ICE. They also cannot use their tenant's immigration status to threaten to evict them.
3. Workplace immigration inspections will be limited.
AB-450 bans employers from consenting to ICE workplace inspections without a warrant. Moreover, an employer has to let an employee know within 72 hours of receiving a federal inspection notice.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are not barred from conducting federal immigration enforcement in the state, blocking local resources from being used to sweep up undocumented immigrants is a vital step in preventing unjust arrests. California is home to both the largest population of undocumented immigrants in the nation, and the largest group of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in the nation.