AJR 21: Immigration policy: priority enforcement program.

This measure would state the Legislatures opposition to the federal Priority Enforcement Program.

WHEREAS, The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intend to rollout a new program dubbed the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) upon the termination of the Secure Communities Program (S-Comm); and

WHEREAS, Under PEP, ICE plans to institute a request for notification in lieu of a request for detention (detainer) system vis-a-vis local law enforcement; and

WHEREAS, Like S-Comm, PEP will shift onto local law enforcement the burden of federal immigration policy enforcement by requesting local law enforcement to perform federal immigration enforcement duties; and

WHEREAS, This program will incorporate a three-tiered system of civil enforcement priorities for the removal of undocumented immigrants. Community members, advocates, and media reports indicate that ICE has failed to apply or has inconsistently applied the exceptions within each of the three enforcement priorities. In some cases, it is reported that ICE has targeted individuals who fall outside of the enforcement priorities; and

WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 4, Chapter 570 of the Statutes of 2013, also known as the Trust Act, prohibits California law enforcement officials from detaining an individual on the basis of an ICE hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody, unless certain conditions are met, including, among other things, that the individual has been convicted of specified crimes; and

WHEREAS, Proposition 47 approved at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, which requires a misdemeanor sentence instead of a felony sentence for certain drug and property offenses, is inapplicable to persons with prior conviction for serious or violent crime and registered sex offenders, thus serious criminal offenders are being incarcerated; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 174 of the Statutes of 2014 (Senate Bill 1310 of the 2013-14 Regular Session), reduced the maximum sentence for misdemeanors to 364 days; and

WHEREAS, All of these actions by the voters and Legislature seek to ensure our state also prioritizes its resources and prevents unintended immigration consequences deriving from minor offenses; and

WHEREAS, In order to ensure that immigration enforcement is just, fair, and takes into account the qualities of each individual case, PEP must contain robust mechanisms for ensuring accountability when law enforcement engages in questionable enforcement operations or abusive tactics; and

WHEREAS, By deporting parents and children, PEP will lead to the separation of mixed-status families, which represent up to one-third of Californias families, and cause well-documented psychological trauma, especially to the children; and

WHEREAS, Requests for the application of prosecutorial discretion should not summarily be denied, more information needs to be made available about the weight that ICE allocates to positive equities and negative factors, safeguards need to be in place so that erroneous criminal history information can be contested and excluded, and statistics and information documenting the number of cases in which ICE has exercised prosecutorial discretion and has denied such requests must be made available; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of California opposes the Priority Enforcement Program and any local law enforcement involvement with federal immigration enforcement; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Minority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.