Amended  IN  Assembly  March 22, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 937


Introduced by Assembly Members Carrillo, Kalra, and Santiago
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Chiu)
(Principal coauthor: Senator coauthors: Senators Gonzalez and Wiener)
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Gipson)(Coauthors: Assembly Members Cristina Garcia, Gipson, Robert Rivas, Jones-Sawyer, Lee, and Ting)
(Coauthors: Senators Gonzalez, Durazo, Hueso, Newman, and Skinner)

February 17, 2021


An act to add Chapter 17.15 (commencing with Section 7282.7) to Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code, and to amend Section 13125 of, and to repeal Sections 5025 and 5026 of, the Penal Code Code, relating to immigration enforcement.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 937, as amended, Carrillo. Immigration enforcement.
Existing law, the California Values Act, prohibits a California law enforcement agency from providing a person’s release date, or responding to a request for notification of a release date, unless that information is available to the public, and prohibits the transfer of an individual to immigration authorities, as specified, unless the person has been convicted of specified crimes or arrested for a serious or violent felony.
This bill would prohibit any state or local agency from arresting or facilitating assisting with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose, as specified. The bill would additionally prohibit state or local agencies or courts from using immigration status as a factor to deny or to recommend denial of probation, probation or participation in any diversion, rehabilitation, mental health program, or placement in a credit earning programs or classes, or mental health program, credit-earning program or class, or to determine custodial classification level, or to deny mandatory supervision supervision, or to lengthen the portion of supervision served in custody. The bill would authorize a person to bring an action for equitable or declaratory relief in a court of competent jurisdiction against a state or local agency or state or local official that violates these provisions, and would make those agencies or officials liable for actual and general damages and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement and maintain procedures to identify inmates serving terms in state prison who are undocumented felons subject to deportation. Existing law requires the department to annually report to the Legislature the number of persons identified as undocumented aliens, as specified.
This bill would repeal those provisions.
Existing law requires all basic information stored in state or local criminal offender record information systems to be recorded in the form of specified standard data elements, including, among other things, place of birth.
This bill would no longer require that information to include place of birth.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California’s punitive carceral system unjustly and disproportionately harms Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian and Pacific Islander American communities. In recent years, with the passing of SB 260, SB 261, SB 1437, AB 1812, which amended paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code, and Proposition 47, the Legislature and California voters have demonstrated a strong commitment to reforming our criminal justice system and ending mass incarceration.
(b) Despite these reforms, when California’s jails and prisons voluntarily and unnecessarily transfer immigrant and refugee community members eligible for release from state or local custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration detention and deportation purposes, they subject these community members to double punishment and further trauma. Immigrant community members can be incarcerated by ICE, often for prolonged periods and with no right to bail, and deported, permanently banishing them from the country, from their families, their homes, their livelihoods and “all that makes life worth living.” Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276, 284 (1922). The Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged that for many people deportation is a more severe penalty than any jail sentence. See, e.g., Lee v. U.S., 137 S.Ct. 1958, 1968 (2017); Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 364 (2010).
(c) Community members transferred to ICE are refugees, lawful permanent residents, people who entered the United States as children, parents, caretakers, essential workers, or are otherwise valued California residents. California should not subject these community members to a second, double punishment, and disregard their record of rehabilitation, stable reentry plans, and community support, purely because they are refugees or immigrants. Ending ICE transfers in California is a reflection of the state’s commitment to ending racial injustice and mass incarceration.
(d) Moreover, incarceration and ICE transfers are harmful to public health. Countless studies document negative health impacts of incarceration in jails, prisons, and ICE detention centers. People who have been incarcerated have worse health outcomes and, overall, have lower life expectancies. Given the racial inequities plaguing the state’s carceral system, the significant health risks posed by incarceration and transfers weigh heavily on California’s Black, Latinx, and Asian and Pacific Islander American communities.
(e) The Constitutions of the United States and the State of California protect all persons present within our borders from unreasonable searches and seizures, from deprivations of life, liberty or property without due process of law, from being deprived of equal protection under the law, including from being targeted on the basis of race or ethnicity. This act embodies and protects these values by ensuring that all Californians, including refugees and immigrants, are not torn from their communities when they are eligible for release from state or local custody simply because they are not citizens of the United States.
(f) To ensure an equitable opportunity for noncarceral, rehabilitative and diversionary dispositions or custody status to all persons involved in the criminal legal system, irrespective of immigration status, it is the intent of the Legislature to abrogate case law that is inconsistent with this value, including, but not limited to, People v. Sanchez (1987) 190 Cal.App.3d 224; People v. Cisneros (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 352; People v. Espinoza (2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 1069; People v. Arce (2017) 11 Cal.App.5th 613.
(g) This act shall be known, and may be cited as, the Voiding Inequality and Seeking Inclusion for Our Immigrant Neighbors (VISION) Act.

SEC. 2.

 Chapter 17.15 (commencing with Section 7282.7) is added to Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code, to read:
CHAPTER  17.15. Voiding Inequality and Seeking Inclusion for Our Immigrant Neighbors Act

7282.7.
 (a) (1) A state or local agency shall not arrest or facilitate assist with the arrest, confinement, detention, transfer, interrogation, or deportation of an individual for an immigration enforcement purpose in any manner including, but not limited to, by notifying another agency or subcontractor thereof regarding the release date and time of an individual, releasing or transferring an individual into the custody of another agency or subcontractor thereof, or disclosing personal information, as defined in Section 1798.3 of the Civil Code, about an individual, including, but not limited to, an individual’s date of birth, work address, home address, or parole or probation check in date and time to another agency or subcontractor thereof. This subdivision shall apply notwithstanding any contrary provisions in Section 7282.5, subparagraphs (C) and (D) of paragraph (1) of, or paragraph (4) of, subdivision (a) of Section 7284.6, or subdivision (b) of 7284.6.
(2) This subdivision does not prohibit compliance with a criminal judicial warrant.
(b) A state or local agency or court shall not use immigration status as a factor to deny or to recommend denial of probation, probation or participation in any diversion, rehabilitation, mental health program, or placement in a credit earning programs or classes, or mental health program, credit-earning program or class, or to determine custodial classification level, or to deny mandatory supervision supervision, or to lengthen the portion of supervision served in custody.
(c) For the purposes of this section, all of the following definitions apply:

(1)“Arrest” includes assisting or facilitating an arrest by another agency or subcontractor.

(2)

(1) “Immigration enforcement” includes any and all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal civil immigration law, and also includes any and all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal criminal immigration law that penalizes a person’s presence in, entry, or reentry to, or employment in, the United States.
(2) “State or local agency” includes, but is not limited to, local and state law enforcement agencies, parole or probation agencies, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
(3) “Transfer” includes custodial transfers, informal transfers in which a person’s arrest is facilitated through the physical hand-off of that person in a nonpublic area of the state or local agency, or any coordination between the state or local agency and the receiving agency about an individual’s release to effectuate an arrest for immigration enforcement purposes upon or following their release from the state or local agency’s custody.
(d) In addition to any other sanctions, penalties, or remedies provided by law, a person may bring an action for equitable or declaratory relief in a court of competent jurisdiction against a state or local agency or state or local official that violates this section. A state or local agency or official that violates this section is also liable for actual and general damages and reasonable attorney’s fees.

SEC. 3.

 Section 5025 of the Penal Code, as amended by Section 5 of Chapter 565 of the Statutes of 1994, is repealed.

SEC. 4.

 Section 5025 of the Penal Code, as amended by Section 133 of Chapter 91 of the Statutes of 1995, is repealed.

SEC. 5.

 Section 5026 of the Penal Code is repealed.

SEC. 6.

 Section 13125 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

13125.
 All basic information stored in state or local criminal offender record information systems shall be recorded, when applicable and available, in the form of the following standard data elements:
The following personal identification data:
Name—(full name)
Aliases
Monikers
Race
Sex
Date of birth
Height
Weight
Hair color
Eye color
CII number
FBI number
Social security number
California operator’s license number
Fingerprint classification number
Henry
NCIC
Address
The following arrest data:
Arresting agency
Booking number
Date of arrest
Offenses charged
Statute citations
Literal descriptions
Police disposition
Released
Cited and released
Turned over to
Complaint filed
The following misdemeanor or infraction data or preliminary
hearing data:
County and court name
Date complaint filed
Original offenses charged in a complaint
or citation
Held to answer
Certified plea
Disposition
Not convicted
Dismissed
Acquitted
Court trial
Jury trial
Convicted
Plea
Court trial
Jury trial
Date of disposition
Convicted offenses
Sentence
Sentence enhancement data elements
Proceedings suspended
Reason suspended
The following superior court data:
County
Date complaint filed
Type of proceeding
Indictment
Information
Certification
Original offenses charged in indictment or
information
Disposition
Not convicted
Dismissed
Acquitted
Court trial
Jury trial
On transcript
Convicted—felony, misdemeanor
Plea
Court trial
Jury trial
On transcript
Date of disposition
Convicted offenses
Sentence
Sentence enhancement data elements
Proceedings suspended
Reason suspended
Source of reopened cases
The following corrections data:
Adult probation
County
Type of court
Court number
Offense
Date on probation
Date removed
Reason for removal
Jail (unsentenced prisoners only)
Offenses charged
Name of jail or institution
Date received
Date released
Reason for release
Bail on own recognizance
Bail
Other
Committing agency
County jail (sentenced prisoners only)
Name of jail, camp, or other
Convicted offense
Sentence
Sentence enhancement data elements
Date received
Date released
Reason for release
Committing agency
Division of Juvenile Justice
County
Type of court
Court number
Division of Juvenile Justice number
Date received
Convicted offense
Type of receipt
Original commitment
Parole violator
Date released
Type of release
Custody
Supervision
Date terminated
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
County
Type of court
Court number
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation number
Date received
Convicted offense
Type of receipt
Original commitment
Parole violator
Date released
Type of release
Custody
Supervision
Date terminated
Mentally disordered sex offenders
County
Hospital number
Date received
Date discharged
Recommendation