In California, ‘sanctuary state’ & other immigration bills face surprising opposition

In California, ‘sanctuary state’ and other immigration bills face surprising opposition

By KATY MURPHY | kmurphy@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: August 9, 2017 at 8:15 am | UPDATED: August 9, 2017 at 8:41 am

SACRAMENTO — Soon after President Donald Trump’s election, California lawmakers began rolling out legislation to fight the president’s promised crackdown on illegal immigration. They released bills to blacklist companies involved in Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall project, protect undocumented children in schools, and bar the use of local and state police resources for federal immigration enforcement.

But after a rapid-fire start, the Legislature’s Trump resistance has slowed to a plodding pace. Both border-wall bills died — the “Resist the Wall Act” never had a committee hearing — and with just four weeks left in the Legislative session, much of the immigration-related legislation is still pending. That includes the highly publicized Senate Bill 54 — better known as the “sanctuary state” bill — which a powerful law enforcement group is fighting hard.

The California State Sheriffs’ Association is pressing lawmakers to defeat the bill by Senate Leader Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, while urging Gov. Jerry Brown not to sign it if it passes in its current form, the group’s leaders told reporters Tuesday.

“This is not a fait accompli,” said Bill Brown, Santa Barbara County Sheriff and president of the state association, during the teleconference. “There are many members of the Assembly who are not comfortable with this legislation.” The bill has already passed the Senate.As the fate of immigration legislation comes down to the wire — and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ramps up pressure on so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, such as San Jose and Oakland, to cooperate with federal immigration agents — immigration advocates are watching closely, hoping that the proposals introduced with fanfare months ago become law. Those on both sides of the “sanctuary state” debate have been trying to read the tea leaves ever since Brown, who rarely discusses pending legislation, told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that he wanted changes made to SB 54, alluding to public safety concerns.

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Gov. Jerry Brown has demanded changes in the sanctuary state bill. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

“The goal here is to block and not to collaborate with abuse of federal power,” Brown said. “It is a balancing act. It does require some sensitivity. And that’s why I take a more nuanced and careful approach to dealing with what is a difficult problem. Because you do have people who are not here legally, they’ve committed crimes. They have no business in the United States in the manner in which they’ve come and conducted themselves subsequently.”SB-54 would limit communication between law enforcement officers and federal immigration agents, a step immigration advocates say is necessary to ease deportation fears and prevent the Trump administration from relying on local police to carry out the millions of deportations that the president has promised. The bill has been amended to create exceptions for serious and violent crimes, but opponents say it doesn’t cover enough offenses. They argue that California already places restrictions on such collaboration, and that the new bill would make it even harder for the feds to apprehend suspects before they are released from a county jail.

Brown’s office wouldn’t elaborate on the kinds of amendments he is seeking, and de León’s office declined to comment about the state of negotiations with Brown.

Jon Rodney from the California Immigrant Policy Center, which advocates for undocumented immigrants, said “the jury is out” on state leaders’ commitment to shield the undocumented from stepped-up enforcement activities. He accused the sheriff’s association of using “fear-mongering” against immigrants to make its case.

“I think it’s really an attempt to bully our governor and our leaders to weaken the bill,” he said, “and we have to stand up to bigotry and zealotry.”

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Assemblyman Rob Bonta thinks compromise on the sanctuary state bill is possible. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, a co-author of SB 54, said it could be an encouraging sign that the governor is involved in discussions about the bill, and that he is confident they will reach a good compromise. “I think there’s a sweet spot in there,” he said.

Bonta predicted that the Legislature will deliver on this and other bills that arose from fears of stepped-up immigration raids. They include: Assembly Bill 291, by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, which would prevent landlords from using a tenant’s immigration status against them; Assembly Bill 450, by Chiu, to provide workplace protections for undocumented workers; and Assembly Bill 699, by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, which would require schools to protect undocumented schoolchildren by requiring a judicial warrant from immigration officers, among other measures.

But bills that would have levied economic sanctions against companies that help build the border wall that Trump proposed erecting between the U.S. and Mexico will not become law.That’s not too surprising, said Louis DeSipio, a political science professor at UC Irvine.

“They probably very quickly found that those companies are pretty entangled with other business in the state,” he said.

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PENDING CALIFORNIA IMMIGRATION BILLSSenate Bill 54, by Senate Leader Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, limits cooperation between local and state police and federal immigration authorities and restricts the use of state resources to carry out immigration enforcement.

Assembly Bill 222, by Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, D-San Fernando, would ask voters to amend Prop. 187, passed in 1994, which imposed harsh penalties on the making, distribution and use of false documents to conceal immigration status.

Assembly Bill 291, by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, prevents landlords from harassing tenants over their immigration status or using it against them.

Assembly Bill 450, by Chiu, would provide workplace protections for undocumented workers.

Assembly Bill 699, by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, would require schools to protect undocumented schoolchildren by requiring a judicial warrant from immigration officers, among other measures.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/0...n-to-the-wire/

In a free country, a state considers black listing firms who accept a job building a wall on the border of the country.

Now give that some thought --

What right do they have to blacklist any company. If a company is doing something illegal, use the law to shut it down, but if it is operating legally, how in the world do they justify attempting to blacklist it.

A lot of people from California are coming to Texas, they say. I do hope it is people who disagree with this kind of thinking - not those who agree.

California exports its poor to Texas, other states, while wealthier people move in



http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/cal...tionmap_online

Every year between 2000 to 2015, more people left California than moved in from other states. This migration was not spread evenly across all income groups. This map shows the net migration to and from California among those near the poverty line from 2005 through 2015. The Sacramento Bee

Unfortunately, Texas has been the dumping ground for many years.

Even before we became a state, 'Gone to Texas' was a euphemism for running from the law or creditors.

California Today: Renewed Scrutiny of Sanctuary Bill

Mike McPhate
CALIFORNIA TODAY AUG. 11, 2017

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting an early morning raid in Riverside in June. CreditMelissa Lyttle for The New York TimesGood morning.

Last weekend, Gov. Jerry Brown suggested he was unhappy with the measure as is.

“We’re looking at it very carefully,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re having discussions with the author. There are some changes that I think would be very important.”

The renewed scrutiny of the measure, which would further limit cooperation between local police and immigration agents, comes amid rising tensions between California and the Trump administration.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned recently that the Justice Department would punish Stockton and San Bernardino if the cities failed to cooperate with deportation efforts.

According to a report by the Sacramento Bee and McClatchy, Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, is said to be preparing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over such threats.

The sanctuary bill, known as the California Values Act, would add a new element to the standoff.

California already curtails how police can work with immigration officials. But supporters say the new measure is needed to reinforce the division.

“The Trump administration’s immigration agenda depends on coercing local law enforcement to be their force multipliers,” said Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights for the A.C.L.U. of California. “This bill says that in California, ‘We are not going to be those force multipliers.’”

Some law enforcement leaders are warning about unintended consequences. A primary concern, they say, is that the bill blocks jails from telling immigration agents about inmates who have in some cases committed serious crimes.

As a result, said Cory Salzillo, legislative director of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, federal arrests of unauthorized immigrants could shift from the jails into the communities, a more volatile setting.

“They’re going to find them wherever they are,” Mr. Salzillo said. “If it’s in the jail you don’t have this potential for collateral impacts on other persons.”

On Sunday, Mr. Brown said California’s approach needed to strike a balance between people who arrived in the state illegally years ago and created productive lives, and others who had committed serious crimes.

He rejected the word “sanctuary” to describe that aim.

“As a former seminarian, I have a very clear image of the sanctuary,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd. “It’s in a church. It conjures up medieval sanctuary places. And it says more than a specific set of legislative requirements, which the goal here is to block and not to collaborate with abuse of federal power.

That’s the goal.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/u...uary-bill.html