BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 365
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Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
365 (Cristina Garcia) - As Amended March 11, 2015
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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
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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
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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
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participate in their children's custody cases because of
deployment.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081