Bill aims to make it harder for state officers to cooperate with immigration

The California Legislature spent four years squaring off against President Donald Trump on immigration policy. Though he is out of office, many of these efforts continue in Sacramento.

Witness Tuesday's debate in the Assembly Judiciary Committee over a bill that would further restrict the abilities of state law enforcement officers to cooperate with federal immigration officers. AB 937 "would prohibit any state or local agency from arresting or assisting with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose." It passed on a largely party-line vote.

"This bill would protect Californians who have been deemed eligible for release from being funneled into the immigration and detention system by California local jails and prisons," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles. She cited the case of an incarcerated firefighter who helped fight recent wildfires and was turned over to immigration authorities upon release from prison.

Several law enforcement groups oppose the bill. The California Police Chiefs Association submitted a letter stating the bill would interfere with multijurisdictional task forces that have been useful in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking. The California State Sheriffs Association objected to a provision eliminating a requirement that law enforcement agencies track a prisoner's place of birth because it would "make that information less accurate and less useful."

The bill would also bar the use of immigration status to deny probation or placement in a treatment or diversion program. It builds on SB 54, also called the California Values Act. Passed in 2017, it banned law enforcement in the state from sharing information and many other forms of cooperation with federal immigration officers.

That led to a protracted court battle between the state and the U.S. Department of Justice, which also challenged two other state laws delving into immigration. U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez struck down portions of two laws he said improperly interfered with federal regulations of employers and their employees.

Federal attorneys tried to continue that case through the last days of the Trump administration.

AB 937 would appear to place far greater limits on law enforcement within the state than SB 54. Just a few months ago, its passage would have meant litigation. But on April 5, U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Francesca Genova filed a joint stipulation with the California attorney general to drop the case against SB 54, signaling President Joe Biden's administration may not pursue similar cases. USA v. California, 2:18-cv-00490-JAM-KJN (E.D. Cal., filed March 6, 2020).

While immigration debates have traditionally focused on people from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, Carrillo and her supporters focused on the discrimination they said Asian Americans face in the immigration system.

"I'm going to speak today as an Asian-American," said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, the bill's co-author. "I know in society there are stereotypes that the folks who would be addressed by this bill are mostly from the Latino community. That is not true."