BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 365 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 365 (Cristina Garcia) - As Amended March 11, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Judiciary |Vote:|9 - 1 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill requires the court to allow immigrant parents who have been detained or deported to participate in their children's custody proceedings through electronic means. Specifically, this bill: AB 365 Page 2 1)Provides that if a party is either detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or has been deported and that such detention or deportation will have a material effect on that party's ability to appear in person at a child custody proceeding, the court must allow that party, upon motion of the party, to present testimony and evidence, and participate in mandatory child custody mediation by electronic means, as defined, if the technology is reasonably available to the court, and the due process rights of all parties are protected. 2)Specifies that this bill does not authorize the use of electronic recording for purposes of taking official record of the proceedings. FISCAL EFFECT: Minor and absorbable General Fund court costs. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, immigration laws attempt to keep families together, whether or not parents are deported. Child welfare policies also strive for family reunification. This bill helps to ensure that child custody proceedings can do the same, by reducing barriers faced by detained or deported parents who are involved with a family law case in California. AB 365 Page 3 2)Background. This bill is modeled after AB 2416 (Cook), Chap. 466, Stats. 2010, which, in part, allowed for electronic access to family law proceedings by deployed military members who, because of their deployment, might not otherwise be able to participate in their children's custody cases. Existing law provides that if a parent cannot participate in a child custody proceeding because he or she has been detained or deported, the proceedings can either occur in the parent's absence or be postponed or, if the court allows, proceed via telephone. This bill provides an additional alternative similar to the one currently available to deployed military parents. In order to ensure that the courts can comply, this bill, like the deployed military parent statute, only permits participation by electronic means to the extent the technology is reasonably available in the court. Also consistent with the deployed parent statute, this bill requires that the alternative electronic participation method must protect the due process rights of all parties. 3)Prior Legislation. a) SB 1064 (de Leon), Chapter 845, Statues of 2012, created uniform statewide policies and practices that sought to eliminate family reunification barriers in the child welfare system for immigrant families. b) AB 2416 (Cook), Chapter 466, Statutes of 2010, allowed for electronic access to family law proceedings by deployed military members who might not otherwise be able to AB 365 Page 4 participate in their children's custody cases because of deployment. Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081