A state lawmaker from Los Angeles County has launched laws meant to stop native legislation enforcement officers from being “commandeered” into serving to federal immigration officers perform President Donald Trump’s mass deportation program.
The Shield California Rights Act, launched by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, would make clear that state and native legislation enforcement companies can’t support federal brokers throughout operations involving what she described as racial or identification profiling, the criminalization of protected free speech or using “unauthorized army weapons” in opposition to Californians.
Not solely has the Trump administration focused individuals primarily based on how they give the impression of being or communicate; it has gone after U.S. residents for criticizing U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement brokers, Pérez mentioned Monday, Feb. 16, throughout a information convention on the Democracy Heart on the Japanese American Nationwide Museum close to downtown Los Angeles to announce SB 1105.
Her invoice goals to guard people who train their proper to observe or report legislation enforcement actions.
California’s sanctuary legislation was enacted in 2017 throughout Trump’s first time period to restrict state and native legislation enforcement companies’ involvement in federal immigration enforcement operations involving individuals and not using a violent prison report.
Nonetheless, Pérez mentioned, ICE has referred to as on native legislation enforcement companies to maintain members of the general public who’ve a proper to observe or doc ICE actions from doing so.
The senator described one incident by which she mentioned officers from the Los Angeles Police Division shaped a fringe round a manufacturing facility throughout an ICE operation final June to stop observers from documenting what was happening.
Whereas they might not have technically violated present state legislation as a result of they weren’t immediately concerned in arresting protesters, LAPD officers supplied back-up throughout that ICE operation, Pérez mentioned. Her invoice, she mentioned, would shut a loophole within the legislation.
“California’s legislation enforcement sources can’t be commandeered to undermine California legislation,” Pérez mentioned.
“We is not going to permit native officers for use to silence lawful observers,” she added. “And we is not going to permit constitutional rights to be chipped away underneath the guise of public security. It’s time to shut the door on federal overreach in our state.”
U.S. Division of Homeland Safety officers, whereas talking about defending federal immigration personnel, have prior to now mentioned ICE brokers have more and more encountered violence whereas doing their jobs.
“The women and men of ICE put their lives on the road daily to arrest violent prison unlawful aliens to guard and defend the lives of Americans,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has mentioned.
However those that oppose the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda say they don’t need state and native legislation enforcement companies to play a task in finishing up that agenda.
Representatives for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, often called CHIRLA, and the American Civil Liberties Union California Motion, that are co-sponsors of SB 1105, mentioned throughout Monday’s information convention that when native legislation enforcement is known as on to return to the help of federal immigration officers, it erodes the neighborhood’s belief in these native companies and make neighborhood members much less prone to report crimes once they happen.
David Trujillo, govt director of ACLU California Motion, mentioned the invoice would defend native legislation enforcement “from being pressured to function foot troopers for the federal authorities.”
In line with Perez’s workplace, SB 1105 is co-authored by Sens. Lena Gonzalez, D-Lengthy Seashore, and Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, in addition to Assemblymembers Sade Elhawary, Mike Fong and Mark González, all of whom signify L.A. County.
It’s considered one of a lot of immigration-related payments which have been launched this yr within the California Legislature.
