Bill Text: CA AB1282 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

California Assembly Bill 1282 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Immigration enforcement: private transportation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2020-01-21 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB1282 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB1282-Amended.html

Amended IN Assembly March 28, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1282

Introduced by Assembly Member Kalra

February 21, 2019

An act ~~relating to transportation of persons in custody.~~ to add Section 5026.5 to the Penal Code, relating to immigration enforcement.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1282, as amended, Kalra. ~~Transportation of persons in custody.~~ Immigration enforcement: private transportation.

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 aliens subject to deportation. Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service by providing the use of prison facilities, transportation, and general support, as needed, for the purposes of conducting and expediting deportation hearings and subsequent placement of deportation holds on undocumented aliens who are incarcerated in state prison.
This bill would prohibit an officer, employee, contractor, or employee of a contractor of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from facilitating, allowing entry to the department’s premises, or otherwise authorizing an employee or contractor of a private security company to arrest, detain, or take into custody, an individual in the department’s custody for immigration enforcement purposes.
Existing law, generally, regulates the rights and treatment of persons housed in jails and prisons. Existing law, generally, prescribes certain requirements for the transportation of passengers in a vehicle.
~~This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to improve the safety of persons in custody while being transported in vehicles.~~

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NOYES Local Program: NO

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

SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) In recent years, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increasingly relied on private contractors to carry out its extensive enforcement operations in the State of California, including in prisons. Many of these arrests for immigration enforcement purposes in state prisons are conducted not by ICE officers, but by employees of private security corporations.
(2) ICE contracts with G4S Wackenhut to transport immigration detainees. G4S is the largest private security company in the world, with over one-half million employees in 125 countries. In 2017, the company’s annual revenue was $9.8 billion. G4S is involved in managing prison and detention facilities around the world, transporting immigrants for ICE, and electronic tagging and monitoring. G4S is the subject of numerous complaints of physical abuse, excessive force, and sexual abuse against immigrants, youth, and other detainees.
(3) In California state prisons, G4S employees often conduct arrests on their own. ICE officers are routinely absent when immigrants leave state custody and are handcuffed by G4S employees. The immigrants are then transported by G4S employees to an ICE field office, often hours away, where they are met by ICE officers for the first time.
(4) ICE’s use of private contractors to execute immigration arrest warrants at prisons violates the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1423) and its implementing regulations because private contractors do not have authority to conduct immigration arrests.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that this act shall not be construed as providing, expanding, or ratifying any legal authority for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to participate in immigration enforcement.

SEC. 2.

Section 5026.5 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

5026.5.
(a) An officer, employee, contractor, or employee of a contractor of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall not facilitate, allow entry to the department’s premises, or otherwise authorize an employee or contractor of a private security company to arrest, detain, or take into custody, an individual in the department’s custody for immigration enforcement purposes.
(b) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Arrest” means taking a person into custody in a manner authorized by law.
(2) “Immigration enforcement purposes” 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 into, or employment in, the United States.
(3) “Private security company” means a privately owned business that provides armed or unarmed security services, including providing transportation, guard, and patrol services.

SECTION 1.
~~It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to improve the safety of persons in custody while being transported in vehicles.~~