BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1462
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1462 (Gonzalez) - As Amended April 30, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
The bill establishes a grant program for funding legal services
to assist undocumented immigrants in applying for relief
pursuant to federal deferred action programs. Specifically, this
bill:
AB 1462
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1)Requires a state department, as determined by the Governor, to
contract with qualified nonprofit or community-based
organizations to provide legal services to Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of
Americans (DAPA) applicants in this state, subject to the
availability of funding in the Budget Act.
2)Requires the department designated by the Governor to
establish, oversee, and implement regulations for the granted
contracts.
3)Makes all of the above operative upon a final judicial
determination that the Expanded DACA and the DAPA program may
be implemented.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Given that an estimated 1.5 million people in California are
eligible for the DACA and DAPA programs, a viable statewide
grant program would be at least in the low millions of dollars.
In addition, the designated department would require a few
hundred thousand dollars to develop regulations, solicit and
review grant applications, and award and oversee contracts.
[General Fund]
[The Governor's just-released May revision to his January budget
proposal includes $5 million from the General Fund, and an
associated budget trailer bill, for the Department of Social
Services to provide grants to legal service organizations to
assist with DACA and DAPA applications.]
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COMMENTS:
1)Background. On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced a
series of executive actions on immigration. According to the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS),
these initiatives include:
a) Expanding the population eligible for the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to people of
any current age who entered the United States before the
age of 16 and lived in the United States continuously since
January 1, 2010, and extending the period of DACA and work
authorization from two years to three years.
b) Allowing parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent
residents to request deferred action and employment
authorization for three years, in a new Deferred Action for
Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA)
program, provided they have lived in the United States
continuously since January 1, 2010, and pass required
background checks.
On February 16, 2015, however, a federal court in Texas issued
a preliminary injunction to temporarily prevent the federal
government from implementing the DAPA and expanded DACA
programs. The Department of Homeland Security is currently not
accepting requests for either DAPA, or the expanded DACA
programs, pending an appeal of the case.
2)Purpose. According to the author, DACA and DAPA, offer great
potential social, economic, and health-related benefits to
California if eligible immigrants were to gain relief from
deportation and work authorization under those programs. For
example, it is expected that earnings for these individuals
would increase overall, as they are able to move from the
informal to the formal labor market, in part because they
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would be able to find jobs that better match their skills and
would have a larger incentive to invest in job training.
Another study estimates that between 360,000 and 500,000
Californians currently lacking health insurance could be
eligible for comprehensive Medi-Cal coverage if between 50%
and 70% of Californians eligible for DACA and DAPA are granted
deferred action.
For these reasons, this bill seeks to expand the availability
of legal services to immigrants who may need help applying for
deferred action under DACA and DAPA, reflecting the author's
efforts to ensure that a large number of eligible applicants
benefit from the programs here in California.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081