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Thursday August 30, 2012

Immigration Debate Heats Up in California

Posted by AAI at 10:45 am

Last Friday, the California legislature sent the newly-passed Trust Act to Gov. Jerry Brown. Detractors say the Trust Act provides shields illegal immigrants, preventing police from enforcing Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests for detention unless the immigrant in question has been charged with a serious or violent crime. 

Officials in Los Angeles, Marin, Riverside, and San Diego Counties are vocally opposed to the act. Sheriff Robert Doyle (Marin County) said “[my] gut reaction would be to ignore it. If someone comes to the county jail and he is not here lawfully, I think he should be turned over." A spokesman for Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca said that Los Angeles County will continue to enforce federal policy, rather than upholding the Trust Act. “It’s pretty simple,” he said. “Federal law pre-empts state law.”

Gov. Brown has not yet weighed in on the Trust Act, which must be signed into law or vetoed by September 30. 

Tagged as Issues, Immigration Reform, State Specific, California

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