California Democrats try to thwart Trump’s immigration policies

December 5, 2016

California Democrats are introducing a host of bills aimed at stopping President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies, real or perceived, from taking effect in the state.

One package of bills consists of urgent measures that, if passed, would take effect immediately. Those bills include proposals to create a public fund to pay for illegal immigrant’s legal bills during deportation proceedings; provide immigration law training to public defenders; and prohibit state and local law enforcement from responding to the requests of federal immigration authorities. [New York Times]

Other legislation includes a bill that would require California voter approval for Trump’s planned border wall. Likewise, a bill would bar state agencies from providing information that would end up in a so-called Muslim registry.

“Throughout the presidential campaign and since, the president-elect has made many troubling statements that run counter to the principles that define California today,” said Kevin de Leon, the Senate president pro tempore. “There is no greater policy area than immigration where the comments run headlong to the values we share as Californians.”

De Leon said the bills proposing the legal fund, the public defender training and the ban on cooperation with immigration authorities would be introduced on Monday, the first day of the legislative session.

The legal fund would be used mostly to finance grants for nonprofits that defend illegal immigrants during deportation proceedings. The fund is expected to receive contributions from private parties, as well as from other government agencies. San Francisco’s public defender, Jeff Adachi, has proposed setting aside $5 million from the city’s budget to go toward the defense of illegal immigrants.

About two-thirds of all detained immigrants in California do not have attorneys. Illegal immigrants are more likely to successfully challenge deportation if they have an attorney, several studies show.

California has spent $33 million on legal assistance for immigrants over the past two years.

The public defender training proposal calls for setting up facilities throughout the state where the lawyers would learn about immigration law. De Leon said the training would better able public defenders to convey to immigrants the impact their criminal offenses might have on their deportation cases.

Trump has said he would focus on deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes in the United States and that there are probably 2 or 3 million of such people in the country. California Democrats say there is not that high of a number of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and that Trump plans to deport many immigrants who are not criminals.

“If the president-elect has identified two to three million criminal immigrants, we can only assume it’s a pretense to open up criteria to deport mothers who are pulled over for a broken tail light,” de Leon said. “We want to ensure that those facing deportation are afforded due process, so that the most vulnerable are protected.”

The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, said there are about 820,000 undocumented immigrants in the country who have been convicted of crimes.

De Leon said the proposals on financial aid for immigrant legal services and training for public defenders would be voted on next month. That legislative package includes the proposal to prohibit all state and local law enforcement agencies from responding to requests from immigration authorities.

Since the bills are urgency measures, they require a two-thirds vote to pass. Thus, the bills will test the Democrats new super-majority in the Legislature.

In a separate proposal, State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) said he is introducing a package of bills called Fight For California. Lara’s proposals include the bill that would require Trump’s proposed border wall to be approved by California voters, as well as the bill that would bar state agencies from providing information to federal entities that are compiling a so-called Muslim registry. [LA Times]

“We’re not going to allow a wall that harms our environment and our economy,” Lara said in a statement. “We’re not going to allow personal data on individual Californians’ religious beliefs to be used to compile an unconstitutional database.”