SAN DIEGO - The California State Senate has passed Assembly Bill 4 – better known as the TRUST Act. If signed into law, the bill will protect many immigrants arrested for minor crimes in California from deportation.
Specifically, the TRUST Act would prohibit local police and sheriffs from turning over many immigrants in their custody to federal immigration agents.
Under the Federal Secure Communities program, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, is notified any time someone is arrested. If the agency believes someone may be deportable, it asks the arresting jail to hold that person for up to two days until an immigration agent arrives.
The TRUST Act would prohibit local jails from honoring that request.
Last year, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a prior version of the bill over concerns that some violent offenders could be released. This year lawmakers revised the bill to address those concerns in the hopes of earning the governor's signature.
