SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ With minor changes to win over moderates, a polarizing California bill to keep California's law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration agents cleared a key hurdle Monday and will head to the full Senate for a vote.
The Senate bill is perhaps the Legislature's highest-profile act of defiance against the Trump administration, which is seeking to enlist local police to carry out its promised crackdown on illegal immigration. The proposal would prohibit local and state agencies from using state resources to communicate with federal agents, with a few exceptions _ such as task forces involving federal and local agencies.
"It's not a matter of ideology. It's a matter of common sense," said the bill's author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon. "Our communities will become more and not less dangerous when local police officers are pulled from their duties to pull otherwise law-abiding maids, bus boys, gardeners and day laborers for immigration violations."
The bill, titled the California Values Act, advanced Monday on a party-line vote, despite opposition from the California State Sheriffs' Association and other groups, at a testy Senate appropriations committee hearing.
The sheriffs' association remained opposed even after the recent amendments, such as one that would ensure that federal officials receive a 60-day notice before certain violent felons are released from state prison or local custody.
Previously, the bill wouldn't have allowed such explicit communication about an inmate's release.
While not enough to convert the sheriffs' association, the concession prompted Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a law enforcement veteran and moderate Democrat from Elk Grove, to sign on as a co-author.
The proposal was advanced as an "urgency bill," which means it will take effect immediately if it wins support from two-thirds of the Senate and the Assembly and is signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not indicated whether he would do so.
The bill has the support of labor, religious and civil rights groups but is sharply opposed by those who say it would protect criminals, or that the state shouldn't be going out of its way to shield those who entered the country illegally.
Republican Sen. Jim Nielsen suggested more amendments but said he doubted he would ever support such a measure, regardless of its final form. "This will set up a safe haven for criminals," he said. "They will come to California. Why? They will be protected."
