Race In Focus
California Legislators Introduce Spate of Anti-Immigrant Proposals
MEMBERS OF the California State Assembly introduced a series of measures intended to punish undocumented immigrants. The bills vary in their focus and do everything from repealing SB 840 (Firebaugh) to punishing sanctuary cities to mandating that local police contact federal immigration authorities if they believe a dunk driver is undocumented.
These bills represent a push to expand institutional racism. From separating families to encouraging racial profiling and denying students an education, these bills will no doubt have a disproportionately negative affect on communities of color.
Several of the bills are listed below:
AB 1468 (Garrick) - Would require hospitals to report on the citizenship status of their patients
AB 1882 (Garrick) - would require police to contact immigration authorities when a person suspected of being an illegal immigrant is arrested for driving under the influence.
AB 2102 (Walters) - would require state agencies to check all new employees' work eligibility through a federal electronic database called E-Verify
AB 39 (Benoit) - would require the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to tally the cost of jailing undocumented inmates each year and bill the federal government
AB 1928 (Anderson) - would require local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities when they arrest suspected illegal immigrants
AB 2420 (Huff) - would prohibit cities from declaring themselves "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants and not allowing their police to cooperate with federal immigration authorities
AB 648 (Adams) - would add 10 years to the sentence of anyone convicted of a felony who has a previous felony conviction in California for which they were deported
AB 2812 (Silva) - would allow the governor to cite illegal immigration as a cause to declare a local or state emergency
For more information on the bills go to leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html and type in the bill number (e.g. AB 1882)
Please contact the authors individually as well as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez at (916) 319-2046, Assembly Majority Leaders Karen Bass at (916) 319-2047 and Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines at (916) 319-2029 and let them know your opposition to the bills.
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