California's Senate Defies The Trump Administration's Immigration Policies By Passing "

Apr 4, 2017
2 min read

[San Francisco, CA] On Monday, Senate Bill 54, which has been deemed the "sanctuary state" bill, passed by a 27-12 vote. The legislation bars local agencies from cooperating with federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials.

Local law enforcement in California will be restricted from using any resources, including equipment, personnel, property or finances, to help with immigration enforcement. Furthermore, they will be prohibited from asking suspected illegal immigrants about their citizenship status. Federal officials will be denied access to interview or investigate any persons in local custody who are believed to be illegal immigrants.

SB 54 heads to the California State Assembly next, where Democrats hold a majority. If the bill passes there, it would finally go to Governor Jerry Brown's desk, where he is expected to sign it.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León celebrated SB 54's passage by saying, "[The passing of this bill marks] a rejection of President Trump's false and cynical portrayal of undocumented residents as a lawless community."

The following excerpt was taken directly from the bill's text on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov:

"This bill would, among other things and subject to exceptions, prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies, including school police and security departments, from using resources to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes, as specified. The bill would require, within 3 months after the effective date of the bill, the Attorney General, in consultation with the appropriate stakeholders, to publish model policies limiting assistance with immigration enforcement to the fullest extent possible for use by those entities for those purposes."

Under Section 1, Chapter 17.25 it states:

"This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Values Act.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Immigrants are valuable and essential members of the California community. Almost one in three Californians is foreign born and one in two children in California has at least one immigrant parent.

(b) A relationship of trust between California’s immigrant community and state and local agencies is central to the public safety of the people of California.

(c) This trust is threatened when state and local agencies are entangled with federal immigration enforcement, with the result that immigrant community members fear approaching police when they are victims of, and witnesses to, crimes, seeking basic health services, or attending school, to the detriment of public safety and the well-being of all Californians.

(d) Entangling state and local agencies with federal immigration enforcement programs diverts already limited resources and blurs the lines of accountability between local, state, and federal governments.

(e) State and local participation in federal immigration enforcement programs also raises constitutional concerns, including the prospect that California residents could be detained in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, targeted on the basis of race or ethnicity in violation of the Equal Protection Clause, or denied access to education based on immigration status.

(f) This act seeks to ensure effective policing, to protect the safety, well-being, and constitutional rights of the people of California, and to direct the state’s limited resources to matters of greatest concern to state and local governments."