California Republicans Push Bill to Weaken State's Sanctuary Law

A group of Republican lawmakers are introducing a bill that would weaken California’s sanctuary laws, making it easier for law enforcement around the state to cooperate with federal immigration officials and overriding local laws in cities like San Francisco that go beyond the state protections.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican from San Diego, is leading the effort with support from several conservative Southern California elected leaders and law enforcement officials. He said his goal is to eliminate confusion and ensure that dangerous criminals are deported — not to target the broader undocumented community in California.

“We just need some standards across the state so that everybody knows what the playing field is, what the rules are. So that people that are here working hard, you know, they don’t feel like they’re under pressure, like they’re under threat,” he said. “But the people that are here illegally and committing violent crimes know that we’re going to deal with them to the fullest extent of the law that we can.”

The proposed legislation would need Democratic support to pass in the Legislature and the backing of Gov. Gavin Newsom to be signed into law. Jones said he thinks some Democrats are open to the bill, saying his initial conversations across the aisle “have been more positive than I expected.”

The proposal would change the state’s landmark sanctuary bill, SB 54, which prohibits state and local resources from being used to investigate or assist in immigration enforcement. It also dictates that most undocumented immigrants cannot be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, custody without a judge’s warrant.

The current law allows law enforcement to notify ICE about immigrants in their custody if they’ve been convicted of one of 800 specific crimes. Jones’ proposal would require law enforcement to provide ICE with an immigrant’s release date if they have one of those convictions.

Jones characterized the proposed change as narrow.

“If you have a violent criminal felon in your custody and the federal agencies call and ask about them, now you just have to say what’s going on and what the status is,” Jones said. “It’s not requiring felons to be turned over to ICE. It’s just requiring the communication between the local agencies and the federal agencies.”

Angela Chan, who helped write the state law as an immigrant advocate, disagreed. Now an assistant chief attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, Chan said the provision allowing law enforcement to provide ICE with someone’s release date would effectively “gut” the state law and would result in the broader undocumented community being targeted by ICE agents.

“It would make people extremely afraid of visiting loved ones in local jails,” she said.

The proposed law would also prohibit local agencies from having policies that go farther than the state law. That would override stricter local policies in counties like San Francisco and Jones’ home county of San Diego, which both have a narrower list than the state’s 800 crimes for when law enforcement can cooperate with immigration officials.

“This bill is not viable,” Chan said of Jones’ bill, noting that Republican lawmakers have made similar proposals in the past.

She called the bill a “desperate attempt to get attention. It’s about fear-mongering and scapegoating immigrants.”

“There’s no way this legislature goes for this,” she added.

Jones disagreed and said the politics around criminal justice and public safety have shifted in California. He noted the passage of Proposition 36 in November, which rolled back some criminal justice reforms, and said “sensible” Democrats are “‘looking for common sense, middle-of-the-road reforms that we can work on together.”

“And they’re looking at this as possibly one of those avenues to be able to do that,” he said.

Feb. 21, 12:25 p.m.: A previous version of this story said Jones’ proposal would erase exceptions and allow law enforcement to provide ICE with the release date of any immigrant, no matter what crime they were convicted of. It does not remove the exceptions but requires such notification for immigrants convicted of one of 800 specific crimes.