BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AJR 38|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AJR 38
Author: Eduardo Garcia (D)
Introduced:4/27/16
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-1, 6/28/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NOES: Anderson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 61-9, 6/13/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Foreign nationals: CHANGE Act
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This resolution urges Congress to pass, and the
President to sign, the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names
in Government Expression (CHANGE) Act to prohibit federal
executive agencies from using the derogatory term "alien" to
refer to individuals who are not a citizen or national of the
United States.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Includes numerous references to "alien," to describe
noncitizens, including but not limited to the following code
sections: Business and Professions, Civil, Education,
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Page 2
Government, Health and Safety, Health, Insurance, Labor,
Military and Veterans, Penal, Probate, Public Contract, Public
Resources, Revenue and Taxation, Unemployment Insurance,
Vehicle, Welfare and Institutions, and article XIII of the
California Constitution relating to taxation.
2)Includes references to "illegal aliens" in various federal
laws, including, but not limited to the following:
Section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of
1986 (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1365);
Section 421(5)(A)(ii)(II) of the Congressional Budget
and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. Sec.
658(5)(A)(ii)(II));
Section 432(e) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6
U.S.C. Sec. 240(e));
Section 439(a) of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1252c(a));
Section 280(b)(3)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1330(b)(3)(A));
Section 286(r)(3)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1356(r)(3)(ii));
Section 332 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations
Act, 1997 (8 U.S.C. Sec. 1366);
Section 411(d) of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. Sec.
1621(d)); and
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Section 106(e) of the Public Works Employment Act of
1976 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 6705(e)).
This resolution:
1)Declares, among other things, that:
California has over 10 million immigrants, coming from
more than 60 countries, who are projected to make up 27
percent of the state's population in 2030;
Immigrants are a keystone of our culture, politics, and
society, and have helped shape the identity of California;
More than a third of the working-age adults in the state
are immigrants, contributing to the state's entrepreneurial
and economic success;
Immigration remains at the center of national debate,
and that the terms "illegal" and "alien" when used in
reference to people have undergone demeaning and derogatory
connotations and are increasingly associated with racist
sentiments;
The legitimacy of the word "alien" as a legal definition
is being called into question with the state's passage of
SB 432 (Mendoza, Chapter 160, Statutes of 2015), and there
is a growing trend among prominent media and newspaper
organizations to stop using the terms "illegal" and "alien"
to describe people immigrating to, and residing in, the
United States; and
States that H.R. 3785, also known as the Correcting
Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government Expression
(CHANGE) Act, has been introduced in the 114th Congress to
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Page 4
prohibit federal executive agencies from using the
derogatory term "alien" to refer to individuals who are not
a citizen or national of the United States.
1)Urges the United States Congress to pass, and the President of
the United States to sign, the CHANGE Act.
Background
This resolution is part of a growing movement to eliminate the
terms "alien" and "illegal alien" as they refer to immigrants in
state and federal laws, as well as in journalism. According to
the author, the use of such terms is outdated and derogatory,
and should be eliminated from official government usage. In
early 2013 several media outlets, including the Associated Press
and the Los Angeles Times issued guidelines that "illegal
immigrant" would no longer be used to label a person, and that
articles should instead describe the individual's circumstances.
Likewise, in March 2016 the Library of Congress announced it
would be removing the term "illegal alien" as a bibliographical
term. Last year, California enacted SB 432 (Mendoza) to
eliminate references to "alien" throughout the Labor Code. The
Senate recently approved legislation that would remove the term
of "alien" from a Civil Code statute that provides for equal
property rights for all people regardless of citizenship status.
(SB 1351, De León, 2016.)
Of particular relevance to this resolution, the 114th U.S.
Congress has introduced H.R. 3785, the CHANGE Act, which
prohibit federal executive agencies from using the terms "alien"
and "illegal alien" to refer to immigrants and, instead, require
usage of the terms "foreign national" and "undocumented foreign
national," respectively.
This resolution seeks to urge the federal government to enact
the CHANGE Act.
Comments
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As stated by the author, "[t]his measure would urge the United
States Congress to pass, and the President of the United States
to sign, the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in
Government Expression (CHANGE) Act. Current law uses the term
'illegal alien' to describe a person who is not a citizen or
national in the United States. This language is derogatory and
antiquated and this bill would seek means to remove and replace
this word with the word 'foreign national.' This resolution
would help complete the effort made by the legislature to
completely remove the term "illegal aliens" from the California
code and to move society forward away from this term."
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/29/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/29/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 61-9, 6/13/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau, Chávez,
Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman,
Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
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NOES: Brough, Beth Gaines, Grove, Harper, Melendez, Obernolte,
Steinorth, Wagner, Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Travis Allen, Bigelow, Campos, Dahle,
Gallagher, Gipson, Hadley, Jones, Mathis, Patterson
Prepared by:Ronak Daylami / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
6/29/16 15:56:35
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