BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1850
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 1850
(Eduardo Garcia) - As Amended April 7, 2016
PROPOSED CONSENT
SUBJECT: EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: FEDERAL IMMIGRATION REFORM AND
CONTROL ACT OF 1986
KEY ISSUE: SHOULD the potentially derogatory term "illegal
alien" be replaced by the more neutral term "foreign national",
or other appropriate term, wherever it appears in the education
code?
SYNOPSIS
This noncontroversial bill seeks to remove the term "illegal
alien" from various sections of the Education Code where it
appears, and replaces it with the term "foreign national," or
other more appropriate term, depending on the context. While
the numerous changes sought by the bill are not particularly
substantive in nature, they do serve an important purpose,
according to the author, by updating the Education Code to
eliminate a term that is considered by many to be offensive and
even derogatory. While the bill originally amended only a
handful of sections related to the federal Immigration Reform
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and Control Act, more instances of the term "illegal alien" were
identified in the Education Code, and the bill was subsequently
amended to correct those instances as well. This bill
previously passed the Education Committee by unanimous consent,
and has no known opposition.
SUMMARY: Strikes the term "illegal alien" in multiple locations
where it appears in the Education Code, and replaces it with
term "foreign national" or other term in an appropriate context.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Replaces the word "alien" with the term "foreign national" and
"illegal alien" with the term "undocumented foreign national"
in sections related to the federal Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986.
2)Makes many of these changes operative only if the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) certifies, in
writing, to the Secretary of State of California on or before
January 20, 2017, that House Resolution 3785 of the 114th
United States Congress, or an equivalent measure, has been
enacted and the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in
Government Expression (CHANGE) Act has become law,
accomplishing both of the following with respect to an
executive agency of the federal government:
a) the replacement of the term "alien" with the term
"foreign national" when used to refer to an individual who
is not a citizen or national of the United States;
b) the replacement of the term "illegal alien" with the
term "undocumented foreign national" when used to refer to
an individual who is unlawfully present in the United
States or who lacks a lawful immigration status in the
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United States.
3)Provides that if the SPI makes the above certification, then
Section 32400 of the Education Code would use only the term
"undocumented foreign national" and not the term "alien" to
refer to people who were previously referred to as "illegal
aliens."
4)Replaces the word "alien" with the term "foreign national" in
other sections of the Education Code relating to determination
of a student's residence and the Immigrant Workforce
Preparation Act, among other things.
5)Strikes the term "alien" and replaces it with "resident alien"
or "permanent resident", as appropriate, in several sections
of the Education Code where reference is made to persons of
Japanese ancestry who were interned by the United States
Government during WWII.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Makes certain findings and declarations relative to the
federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Public Law
99-603) (the Act), including stating that as many as 1,700,000
illegal aliens could be granted amnesty and would seek
permanent residency in California under the Act. Further
states Legislative intent to establish a state test for use by
eligible aliens to attest to their understanding of English
and understanding of the history and government of the United
States, to meet the requirements of the Act. (Education Code
Section 32400.)
2)Uses the word "alien" or "resident alien" in several unrelated
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sections of the Education Code, including sections pertaining
to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II,
determination of a student's residence, and adult education,
among other things. (Education Code Sections 13000, 52613,
52651, 68062, 68130.5, and 69505.)
FISCAL EFFECT: As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS: This bill seeks to remove the term "illegal alien"
from various sections of the Education Code where it appears,
and replaces it with the term "foreign national," or another
more appropriate term, depending on the context. While the
numerous changes sought by the bill are not particularly
substantive in nature, they do serve an important purpose,
according to the author, by updating the Education Code to
eliminate a term that is insensitive to many and even considered
derogatory. The author states:
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 would
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.
Recent movement away from the use of the term "illegal alien" by
journalists and government institutions when referring to
immigrants. This bill is another step in a growing movement to
eliminate customary usage of the term "illegal alien" in state
and federal laws, as well as in journalism and library practice.
The Pew Research Center noted in 2013 that several news
organizations, including The Los Angeles Times and The
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Associated Press, announced a ban on the term "illegal
immigrant" because they said it lacked precision and broadly
labeled a large group. Their analysis of terminology used by
the news media in stories about immigrants found that the use of
the term 'illegal alien' reached its low point in 2013, dropping
to 5% of terms used-in contrast to the other periods studied,
where its use had consistently been in double digits (peaking at
21% in 2007). According to the Pew Center study, this
corresponded with increased use in the press of alternative
terms such as "undocumented immigrant" or "undocumented person"
over that time period. (Available at:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/17/illegal-undocumen
ted-unauthorized-news-media-shift-language-on-immigration/ .)
Last year the Legislature approved and the Governor signed SB
432 (Mendoza), Ch. 160, Stats. 2015, which eliminates references
to "alien" throughout the Labor Code. In a Los Angeles Times
editorial, Sen. Mendoza was quoted as saying: " 'Alien' is now
commonly considered a derogatory term for a foreign-born person
and has very negative connotations. The United States is a
country of immigrants who not only form an integral part of our
culture and society but are also critical contributors to our
economic success." (See:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0814-vargas-illegal-al
ien-20150813-story.html .)
Finally, even the Library of Congress has taken steps to
eliminate the term "illegal alien" by announcing in late March
that it would no longer use that term as a bibliographical term.
According to a recent article in the L.A. Times, the Library of
Congress has used the term "illegal aliens" as a catalog subject
heading since 1993, and before that they had used the term
"aliens, illegal" since 1980. ("Library of Congress to stop
using term 'illegal alien'"; Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2016.
Available at:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-library-congress-alien-201604
03-story.html .)
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Contingent provisions to maintain consistency with federal law
where appropriate. Legislation pending in Congress, titled the
"Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Government
Expression (CHANGE) Act" (H.R.3785, Castro) would make changes
in federal law similar to those in this bill. H.R.3785 would
prohibit an executive agency from using "alien" and "illegal
alien" in any rule, regulation, interpretation, publication,
other document, display, or sign issued by the agency, and
replace the term "alien" with "foreign national," and "illegal
alien" with "undocumented foreign national."
This bill replaces the word "alien" with the term "foreign
national" in specified provisions of the Education Code only if
the Superintendent of Public Instruction certifies to the
Secretary of State of California that this terminology has been
changed in federal law. For purposes of consistency, these
specified provisions, because of their relation to the federal
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, are thought best to
leave unaltered unless identical changes are also enacted in the
federal statutes. At this time, however, the CHANGE Act has not
yet advanced in the House of Representatives.
Reference to Japanese residents of the U.S. who were interned
during WWII. Education Code section 13000, the California Civil
Liberties Public Education Act, uses the term "resident alien"
to describe legal permanent residents of Japanese ancestry who,
along with American citizens of Japanese ancestry, were interned
during World War II. This section quotes Congress' and the
President Reagan's apology for the internment, the federal Civil
Liberties Act of 1988, which described those interned as
"citizens and permanent residents" of Japanese ancestry.
Due to the particular historical context of the Japanese
American internment, and the fact that the legal permanent
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residents who were interned were ineligible for citizenship
until 1952, the author recently amended this section, as well as
Section 69505 of the Education Code (on financial aid
calculations related to reparations from the internment) to
maintain use of the terminology used in the federal Civil
Liberties Act of 1988 ("citizens and permanent residents"), and
make these changes not subject to a change in federal law.
Unlike other sections of the Code which use the term "illegal
alien" as an operative term for some rule of law, this
particular use of the term is to characterize a group of persons
in relation to an historical event, and do not relate to
immigration status, or any requirements or eligibility under the
law.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Immigrant Policy Center
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
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