Assembly Standing Committee on Judiciary

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Assembly Judiciary Committee. In order for us to complete our agenda and allow everyone equal time, the the rules for witness testimony, each side will be allowed two main witnesses each. Witness will have approximately two minutes to testify in support of or opposition to the given bill. Additional witnesses or additional individuals just like who would like to state their position, state only their names, organization of any, and their position on the bill.

And as we proceed with witness public comment, I wanna make sure everyone understands committee has rules to ensure a fair and efficient hearing. And in order to facilitate the goal of hearing as much for the public within the limited of our time, the rules for today's hearing include we're talking without noise for the audience, public comment may be may be provided only at the designated time as stated, no engagement no engaging in conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impes the orderly conduct of this hearing.

And please be aware that violation of these rules may subject your removal from the hearing or other enforcement processes. We have two bills up today. We do not have a quorum, but we will proceed as a subcommittee and begin with item one, AB 1267, Assemblymember Pellerin.

I'll

avoid the step and we're out. We're out. We're out. We're getting better with steps, but we're not gonna avoid them. Very grateful for the ADA

for sure. Yes.

Good morning. Good morning. It's my witnesses. Okay. So thank you, Chair and members.

Great to see you. I would like to first thank the coauthors and joint authors of this measure who are on this committee for joining me in this effort. California, New Mexico, Mississippi are the only states that have no minimum age to marry. Under existing California law, a child may marry or enter into a marriage or domestic partnership with parental consent and approval of a court.

Research has shown that women who marry as children face lifelong consequences, including limited educational opportunities, lower economic mobility, and greater risk for violence and unwanted pregnancies.

Many organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the US State Department, consider marriage before 18 to be a human rights abuse and a form of child abuse. California statute sets the age of majority, meaning who is considered to be an adult at 18 years old. Although California grants minors certain rights, the age of majority plays a crucial role in determining when individuals are granted certain rights and responsibilities, including the right to vote, enter into contracts, and make important legal decisions.

Notably, the age of sexual consent in California is 18 without exception, meaning that an individual who engages in sexual intercourse with a minor

can be charged with

statutory rape unless that individual minor enters a marriage, a sexual relationship that would otherwise be illegal under California law is transformed into a legally recognized relationship. Even with judicial approval, child marriage can undermine statutory rape protections and has been documented as a tool used by abusers and traffickers to maintain control over minors. California must protect our kids and end child marriage once and for all. To achieve that, AB 1267 sets the minimum age for marriage at 18.

With me to testify in support are Darcy Trotton, the executive director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, and Christina Sutton as survivor of child marriage.

And for technical questions, I have Rosanna Cavacho Elliott, and she's here on behalf of Unchained at Last. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mister Chair and members. My name is Christina Sutton. I live in San Francisco. Some frame child marriage as a choice driven by love. That framing sidesteps a hard truth.

Adults who pursue children are not acting from love, and parents who hand their daughters to grown men are not acting in the child's best interest. AB 1267 would have protected me. I was 16 when a nearly 22 year old man began a sexual relationship with me within hours of meeting me. The legal term for that is statutory rape. Within months, I was faced with marrying him.

I had never wanted to date him. My parents knew this, yet he had their full support. When stuck between a rock and a hard place, California allowed me to be legally chained to that rock and called it a marriage. To this day, I wish I had had just a few more months to turn 18 and legally remove myself from both situations. I could have finished high school.

I could have attended college. Instead, I felt like a commodity valueless outside of that transaction. I remember sitting in a judge's chambers in Napa being asked point blank, are you being forced to do this? Like most abused children, I chose lying to a judge over risking escalation at home. I repeated exactly what my parents had coached me to say.

I am very mature for my age. I am choosing this. I carried that revictimization for years, believing that by speaking those words, I had somehow chosen what I was forced into. The failure of every adult around me is appalling. That the marriage was legal does not absolve California of responsibility.

Voting for AB 1267 is akin to supporting sorry. Voting against AB 1267 is akin to supporting child abuse and exploitation. Voting for AB 1267 is to protect children from those who wish to harm them.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Darcy Totten. I'm the executive director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. We are proud to cosponsor this, bill, AB 1267.

I wanna start with the heart of the issue today, which is that the bill is not really about sort of these Romeo and Juliet scenarios we've heard in the past. It's not about teenagers in love or pregnant teenagers. It's about marriage, which is a legal contract conferring roughly 1,138 federal protections, and that's before we get to the additional hundreds of rights conferred by the state. Specifically, I'm a queer person who's fought really hard for those rights.

I understand how important marriage is and how much it matters.

But a lot of those rights and responsibilities are not the things we would normally entrust to children. Marriage is about a lot of things. All of them requiring the capacity for adult decision making, so we wanna make sure we aren't conflating sort of teen teen relationships and then tying it to marriage. The age of consent, as mentioned, is 18 years old. Getting married at 13 or 15 does not suddenly turn that child into an adult in any other way under the law.

She can't suddenly vote or buy alcohol or a lottery ticket. More importantly, she can't seek protective orders or stay in most domestic violence shelters. Ultimately, in many ways, they become a ward of the spouse. They can't leave the marriage once they're in it in any sort of functional safe way. So what these marriages do in most cases is simply change the status of the adult man involved, because statistically, that's what we're dealing with, from a a rapist to a husband.

These are adult men involved with children. If a 15 year old doesn't have the capacity to withstand the social pressures of Instagram or some of the other things that we're working on here, pressures of grooming by a legal adult in the context of a relationship does not indicate that they had the capacity to consult consent to marriage.

Historically, girls are married off before the age of 18 in ways that are absolutely sort of either to evade accountability for statutory rape or domestic violence, human trafficking, other gender based violence. And they are at particularly high risk of experiencing domestic violence, homelessness, financial dependency, and abuse.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here in support of AB 1267? Please state your name, organization, if any, and your position on the bill. If you choose to just state your first name or no name at all, that's perfectly fine as well.

Good morning, chairperson and members of the Judiciary Committee. My name is Kaylin, and I'm a 14 year old girl scout. And I'm currently a freshman at Pioneer High School in San Jose, California. I enjoy editing videos, make us voicing my opinions on a lot of things, and watching movies. And when I grow up, I would like to be an actress in films, or I would like to work in sports media.

But when I but when people ask me what I wanna be when I grow up, I often change my answer a lot, and I'm still figuring out what I wanna be. And that is exactly the point. Kids should be thinking about schools, friendships, activities, sports, how to get to college, what kind of career they would like, and all the possibilities ahead, not thinking about getting married.

Kids should have the freedom to grow up before making a decision or being forced into a decision as serious as marriage. Globally, all marriage before the age of 18 is considered a forced marriage, which is a form of modern slavery.

And the US State Department calls marriage before the age of 18 human rights abuse. Yet, 318,000 children were being married in The US between the years 2000 and 2021. And those who marry before the age of 18 have a seventy to eighty percent chance of divorcing. On the 2020 US census, in the state of California, 8,800 children were being reported getting married in the previous year. Let let's not have any more child brides in California, please.

A B 1267 gives young people something incredibly important, which is time. Time to grow, time to learn, time to become independent, time to figure things out on their own, and time to choose their own future. Please vote yes on AB 1267 and make 18 the minimum age for marriage in California. Do it for the girls. Thank you.

Thank you. At this point, we're not supposed to allow statements, but I'm gonna make an exception for these Girl Scouts. It looks like they have prepared very well, and it's not just because they're from San Jose. So for these four the four scouts, go ahead and and read your statements. And then after that, we'll just take the positions that folks have.

Okay. Good morning, Chair and committee members. My name is Blaise, and I'm a freshman at high school in San Jose, California. I'm here to talk to you today about the dangers of child marriage. Some people picture child marriage as a Romeo and Juliet love story, when in reality, it is far from it.

Tragically, it's more often a young girl being forced to marry a much older man. That young girl will be 33% more likely to experience domestic and sexual abuse, thirty one percent more likely to live in poverty, and fifty percent more likely to drop out of high school. She is likely to develop lifelong men mental illness and or drug dependency due to the trauma of of getting married underage. As for the man, he will likely face zero repercussions. He will not be charged with statutory rape.

The law will not hold him accountable. That is unless this law this bill passes. Child marriage is not is not a solution to an unhappy home situation. It is a situation for child protective services and other social services, not for a marriage certificate. Pregnancy is is no longer a reason for marriage.

A pregnant teenager doesn't need a husband. She needs support, And today's society understands that. We can support teenage mothers without urging them towards marriage. In the past, people were a lot more judgmental about girls who got pregnant outside of marriage and parents trying to raise a child outside of marriage. That's not true today.

Children can be born into parents without a marriage certificate. Children can be raised by parents without a marriage certificate. Child marriage in this century causes problems. It doesn't solve them. Honor the victims, survivors, activists, legislator and legislators who were for over a decade to get this bill passed.

Vote yes on AB 1267.

Thank you.

Hello, chairperson and members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. My name is Madeline Prescott. I enjoy doing swim team, reading, and playing the flute. When I grow up, I wanna work at NASA. We know some people are opposed to this bill, but we don't agree with them.

The ACLU or the American Civil Liberties Union says that children should have the right to to make important decisions in their lives. However, these same children are often coerced into arranged marriages, which are still common. These kids aren't able to divorce until they're 18. Child marriage is a loophole for statutory rape laws, which outside of marriage would be a felony and would mean three years in prison. As of today, at age 14, I could be married in the state of California.

Being forced to do something you don't want to do is the opposite of freedom.

I hope you pass this bill to

protect children from marriage. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, chairperson and members of the Judiciary Committee. My name is Sofia. I'm 14 years old, and I'm an acrobatic gymnast, dancer, and a freshman at Valley Christian High School in San Jose. At school, I like to engage in clubs, hang out with my friends, and when I grow up, I want to be a teacher and a gymnastics coach. If you ask me what I want to be when I grow up a year ago, my answer would have been different.

That's because I'm still growing and changing my mind. I'm not ready for a commitment such as marriage. I'm a first generation Pakistani, and many of my family members from Pakistan, such as my aunts, cousins, and grandmothers have been have experienced forced child marriage. They felt like their freedoms were stolen and that they were trapped. I don't want this to happen to any other child again.

Kids don't have independent equal rights when they are underage and married to someone older. They are like property and they belong to their husband. While every girl may not have the opportunity to be a Girl Scout, we as Girl Scouts are standing up for all girls to have legal protection and not to be forced to grow up too soon. Right now, I would like you to take a look at us girls standing here. We are students.

We are daughters. We are friends. We are Girl Scouts. We all have our own dreams and hopes for our futures, and we're still in the process of growing up. We are not brides.

We handmade these bracelets to share a simple, but yet very important message. Kids are not brides. 18 kids are not brides. 18 to marry. Childhood first.

Those aren't just some slogans to us. They represent what we believe and know every child in California deserves. The chance to experience a childhood and decide what we want to do when we grow up. Girl Scouts teaches us to leave the world a little little better than we found it. Today, we're asking you to help us do exactly that.

Please stand with California's children and vote yes on AB 1267 because childhood only happens once. Let California's kids have theirs.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ladies, so much for taking the time to be here and for preparing those statements. And all from San Jose. I'll put that in there again.

Make I'm already proud for me to be from San Jose. I'm even more proud now this morning. Alright. So a name, organization, if any, and your position on the bill, please?

Hello, Chair Kalra. My name is Saratas Neem. And at 16 and pregnant, I was forced to marry my rapist. I'm here to support AB 1267. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Chair Colla. I am Frady Reese, a forced marriage survivor, founder and executive director of Unchained At Last, a proud cosponsor of the bill. Strongly support.

Thank you.

Alex Zuko from the Junior Leagues of California in support.

Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone here in opposition to AB 1267? We'll bring it back to the committee. Assembly member Dixon.

Thank you, Mister Chair. I want to begin today by thanking the Assembly member Pellerin for her leadership and courage to address this issue of child marriage. It's about time, long time past. I'm a proud joint author of AB 1267 and look forward to supporting the bill both in committee today and on the Assembly floor. I did want to take a moment today to address some misinformation that groups have propagated online regarding this bill.

As we know, this bill has been changed significantly as it got an amend after it went through an earlier process. So some individuals, whether intentionally or is that they're not aware of the legislative process, have shared votes on this bill in its previous form. I just want to be clear. I voted no on that previous bill, and I'm a strong yes on the bill in its current form.

I want to set that record straight and express how proud I am to stand shoulder to shoulder with Assemblymember Pellerin and the rest of the bipartisan coauthors of this bill.

As a Republican, it's important that we all stand up to end the reprehensible and barbaric practice of child marriage in California. This change is long overdue, and I want to thank the Assembly member again for carrying on the work of Assembly member Petrie Norris, who ran similar legislation in 2024. And I'm proud to support the bill today and encourage an aye vote from the rest of the committee and listening to our excellent young women from Girl Scouts. That's a wonderful example of future leadership.

So thank you very much.

Thank you. If we could establish quorum, please, madam secretary. Kalra? Here.

Masito, Mary Kehan, Brian Connolly?

Here.

Dixon? Here. Harabedian Pacheco? Here. Pappen Sanchez?

Stephanie?

Here.

Here.

Ziburr?

Here. Thank you. Assembly member Stephanie.

Thank you, Chair. I am a proud coauthor of this bill, and I wanna thank the author for moving it forward this session. I know we had a gathering with Unchained at last with Chelsea Clinton and all the women and men that were there, said now is the time. We're not gonna wait till next year when we get this done. And because of your hustle, we are here today.

And, of course, to miss Sutton for sharing your pain. And for those who have experience with child marriage that have used that pain and turned it into advocacy, you're making it possible to see what we saw with these Girl Scouts. And I just thank you from the bottom of my heart for not giving up. You know? And to the Girl Scouts, wow.

Thank you for being here. I was a Girl Scout in Morgan Hill, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and I'm so proud of you for using your voice and for helping to make change. This is a long time coming. When I was the county clerk in San Francisco in two thousand sixteen and seventeen, I could not believe that we allowed children to get married in our state, especially when so many other states have taken action on this.

And when we had a bill by, at the time, Senator Jerry Hill, and I I couldn't believe the opposition, and I still cannot believe the opposition to this.

I wanna thank you for using your voice and for every person involved in getting to where we are today. It is way past time that we pass this bill, and I am so excited that I get to be in the Assembly and, and today vote aye. So thank you to the author and to everyone who has made this possible.

Thank you. Assembly member Sanchez?

I wanna thank Assembly member Pellerin for your work and advocacy on this bill and your resilience. I would also, if possible, love to be added as a coauthor, and thank you for bringing this forward. Thank you.

Assemblymember Pacheco?

To the author, thank you so much for bringing this bill forward. To our amazing Girl Scouts that just spoke, you did such a wonderful job, and it's so wonderful to see you come up and speak for our girl scouts. I commend you ladies for coming up here to Sacramento and speaking on behalf of this important legislation for having your voices heard. And it's very endearing to see our future generation of leaders.

Because I know all of you will become our future leaders in whatever role or field you choose to to lead.

You will all be amazing leaders. And the fact that you were able to come here to Sacramento and give your speeches, that was extremely commendable because a lot of people come here and it's difficult for people to speak in public, but none of you showed any fear. All of you showed leadership, so I commend each and every one of you. And if possible, I would also love to be added as a co author. Already are.

I'm already there? Yeah. Perfect.

And I will move the bill. Second.

The motion is second. Assemblymember Sabir.

I wanna also echo the comments of my colleague from San Francisco and from Downey, and wanna thank you for being here today. It's it's I missed your your your speeches, but Aye, you know, just wanna thank you for participating in the process and moving helping with something that's so important and would love to be out as a co

author as well. Any other questions or comments from our colleagues? Assemblymember Connolly? I mean, as well. Okay.

And, I'm gonna I'm gonna start by saying I'd also like to be out as co author. It may be too late. We're gonna we're gonna take a look at it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I know that our the our our wonderful author doesn't mind. Absolutely. And at the very least, you know, we're coauthors in spirit. We're gonna try to formally get on there as coauthors.

And I also want to add, to the course of thanks to our author Assemblymember Pellerin, for being so persistent, not giving up. I I think it's emblematic of, Unchained at Last and the work that's happened over the last decade to to not give up, and I I think that's a great lesson for everyone here on on persistence. And I also wanna thank Senator Hill, Senator Petrie Norris. I know Senator Wahab, you know, push forward to make sure that, you know, we're getting data.

And, I mean, I think there's, but but ultimately, it really is about, the survivors and and the and the movement around that has made today possible, to get us here, the courage, that that so many have shown, which is incredibly commendable.

The of course, the Girl Scouts are wonderful. One of them, I hope, will have my job someday being San Jose San Jose leaders, but very well researched, not just your position, but you also clearly really really research really well as as was pretty evident by your your statements. Also wanna thank the Commission on Status Women and Girls, the other cosponsor of of this legislation, and you can see the numerous organizations that are in support.

And, you know, I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done in this space, and I think it starts by this bill in terms of making it very clear that we're not gonna allow children to get married under any circumstances as as was, you know, I I think very appropriately, laid out by our witness about even if you're in a court.

Like, there's some I I guess sometimes we get a sense that that'll protect people, and I think that all of us have had enough experience, but there's on this committee or other experience we've had where that's not always the case and especially when it comes to our young people.

I I think that, it's beyond airing on the side of caution. We we we should protect them. I know that there's some arguments on the constitutionality given the fact that marriage is a considered a fundamental right, but I think that there's a lot of other fundamental rights that, in in the interest of protecting our youth, may be either limit or curtail and told through the age majority.

So this is not unique, and I I think I think it will withstand any court challenge if if someone brings a court challenge on this. I I think it'll pretty convincingly, defeat any court challenge.

And so, I think, legally, it's in we're in a very comfortable place. A lot of their states have done it already, of course. But, that being said, I'm I'm I'm very grateful to the work that one's done. I have a bill regarding restraining orders that's also aimed the the same aim of ensuring that, that that that no that no one, regardless of age, is is forced into a marriage.

I think this pairs very nicely with that to continue to build a movement where we're gonna protect, everyone in our community, from these kinds of reprehensible this kind of reprehensible conduct that would force someone into a marriage.

And and we don't we don't want to have people to wait until they're in a marriage to have rights to protect themselves. And that's ultimately you know, what what it's about is really it's true self determination of individuals to give to empower them to make choices for themselves and not be forced, especially into something like marriage where, you know, where where there are so many examples of such horrific conduct that occurs once the forced marriage occurs. So that being said, again, very grateful to the author.

Would you like to close?

Thank you so much. Nobody does this work alone. And I am so incredibly grateful for those shoulders that I stand on today, including Senator Hill, including my colleagues, Assembly member Petrie Norris, Assembly member Dixon, Assembly member Quirk Silva, senators Menjivar, Wahab, Assembly member Erwin, Senator Rubio, and all the other coauthors, bipartisan, bicameral, the voices of survivors. Thank you so much for telling your story. You are brave and courageous.

The commission on the status of women and girls, you just keep rocking, and you keep representing those who need this strong voice, Unchained at Last, persistence, absolute persistence, and, and Chelsea Clinton for really giving us this, you know, national global perspective. My incredible team, Rhiannon Mulligan, who's here in the room that's worked many hours on this, and my chief, Thomasa Duenas, and and for our incredible Girl Scouts. Wow. I'm not I'm not looking at you as future leaders.

You are leaders right now, and you are changing the world with your voice.

And my daughter's calling. It's so funny. And she's getting married September 19. She's 28. And I'm getting emotional because this is a long time coming, and I am just so grateful to all of you for lending your voice, and I respectfully ask for your eye vote.

Thank you.

Motion is to concurrent Senate amendments. Kalra?

Kalra, aye. Masito Verkehan, Brian Connolly? Aye. Connolly, aye. Dixon?

Aye.

Aye. Dixon, aye. Harabedian. Hairbidian, aye. Pacheco?

Aye.

Pacheco, aye. Pappen. Sanchez? Aye. Sanchez, aye.

Stephanie? Aye. Stephanie, aye. Ziburr. Aye.

Ziburr, aye.

Alright. That bill is out. Congratulations.

We have we have bracelets here. We'll leave behind. Nice. Also. Excellent.

One.

Thank you. Alright. We have one more bill, and we're awaiting the author.

Thank you. Alright. We have one more bill, and we're awaiting the author.

Okay. If we add ons for item one AB 1267.

[roll call]

Yeah. Okay.

Oh, alright. Let's go ahead and proceed on item two, SB 957. Senator Perez, whenever you're ready.

Awesome.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and members. SB 957, the Protecting Vulnerable Immigrant Detainees Model Act, directs the Attorney General to develop a comprehensive oversight plan for privately operated civil detention facilities to better protect the health, safety, and welfare of individuals held in these facilities.

Private civil detention facilities, including privately operated immigration facilities. House individuals who depend on them for shelter, food, medical care, and basic safety. Because individuals in these settings cannot freely leave, the state has a responsibility to ensure that conditions are safe, humane, and consistent with basic health and safety standards.

Yet across the country inside private immigration detention centers, people are being denied their basic rights. The California Attorney General recently released the Department of Justice's 5th report and found conditions in these facilities to be cruel, inhumane, and unacceptable, citing issues such as undercooked food, limited access to clean drinking water, inadequate and delayed medical care, and six deaths in less than a year.

SB 957 is grounded in a simple principle. If privately operated civil detention facilities operate in California, they must meet California standards for safety, dignity, and human rights. To achieve that, SB 957 would direct the AG to work with relevant state agencies and departments to evaluate existing oversight requirements for comparable facilities and develop a proposed oversight plan for privately operated civil detention facilities.

This bill is sponsored by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights or CHIRLA, Public Council and South Asian Network.

Today with me to provide testimony in support of this bill is Ronald Coleman with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

Thank you. Morning, Chair and members. Ronald Coleman Baeza here on the behalf of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, CHIRLA. SB 957 investigates how California can develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for an oversight plan for private operated detention facilities to better protect health, safety, and welfare of detainees. CHIRLA's impact litigation team currently represents clients in Adelanto Detention Facility.

Clients often reference deplorable health and safety conditions. Detainees are often given raw or uncooked food, and medical neglect is rampant. Chronic pain is often treated with Tylenol for those who are lucky enough to get it. Diabetes is often mismanaged, and detainees are not getting the proper nutrition they need.

And chronic conditions often deteriorate, leaving individuals who are likely to be chronic conditions are often deteriorating, leaving individuals who are likely to be deported with long lasting serious health challenges.

This lack of basic health and safety standard has no place in California, and it must be ultimately addressed. We've appreciated that since 2017, the Attorney General has reviewed and reported on conditions and facilities. Those reports have detailed similar deficiencies related to health and mental health of detainees and have even uncovered deaths.

Given what the AG has already documented, we need a long term plan for detention oversight due to the changing legal landscape with the Federal Government now purchasing detention centers like California City.

Now is the time to ensure California has a consistent ongoing regulatory structure for inspections, compliance, and enforcement at the state level to protect all people held in detention.

SB 957 does that by directing the Attorney General to develop an oversight plan by the end of next year so that California policymakers can appropriately address this issue in the future. For those reasons, we thank the author for her steadfast leadership and ask for your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here in support of SB 957?

Is there anyone here in opposition to SB 957?

We'll bring it back to the committee.

We have a motion and a second. Any other questions or comments?

Thank you, Senator, for bringing this bill forward. Obviously, an issue of great concern, I think to not just us, but many of our of our residents have grave concern as to the conduct that's occurring in some of these facilities. So thank you.

We'll continue to amplify this issue. Would you like to close?

I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you.

Motion is due pass to Health Committee.

[roll call]

That bill is out. Thank you.

And then if we can do add ons for item one, AB1267 Pellerin.

[roll call]

Right. We'll hold we'll hold on a few minutes for add ons.

We can do add ons for items 1 and 2.

AB1267, Pellerin.

[roll call]

SB957 Perez.

[roll call]

No problem. No problem at all. We will do add ons for items 1 and 2.

AB1267, Pellerin.

[roll call]

SB957 Perez.

[roll call]

We're adjourned.