BILL ANALYSIS
AB 132
Page A
Date of Hearing: April 1, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 132 (Mendoza) - As Amended: March 23, 2009
SUBJECT : School safety: immigration investigations
SUMMARY : Requests immigration agents to contact a school or
district office prior to appearing at a schoolsite and requires
school officials to follow specified procedures for federal
immigration agent visits to schools. Specifically, this bill :
1)Finds and declares that pupils are entitled to public
education while in the United States (U.S.), regardless of
immigration status. The Legislature further finds and declares
that immigration agents should not be impeded in their work to
maintain public safety.
2)Requests immigration agents to follow the procedures
prescribed by this bill while conducting investigative
activities at schools relating to immigration.
3)Requests immigration agents, prior to appearing at a
schoolsite or entering a school, to contact the school or
district office and, if applicable, to arrange an appropriate
time to meet with a pupil.
4)Requires school officials to request the agents to first meet
with the principal to discuss the nature of the visits.
5)Requires school officials to request that immigration agents
neither enter a classroom while instruction is taking place,
nor remove a pupil from his or her classroom, except as
necessary for public safety.
6)Requires school officials to request immigration agents,
during any meetings with a pupil, to allow the pupil's parent
or guardian or appropriate school personnel to be present.
7)Encourages schools to immediately contact the regional office
of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to alert
the office of the arrival of any immigration agent.
8)Requires schools, to the extent permissible under federal law,
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to maintain the name and contact information of a person
responsible for each pupil in the event that a pupil's parent
or guardian is taken into custody by immigration agents.
9)Encourages schools to provide appropriate counseling services
for each pupil who may be affected by immigration
investigations at his or her school, home, or parent's or
guardian's place of employment.
10)Provides that nothing in this bill shall be construed to
restrict or impede any lawful authority of immigration agents.
EXISTING LAW :
1)The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that
no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
2)States that the Legislature recognizes that all pupils
enrolled in the state public schools have the inalienable
right to attend classes on campuses which are safe, secure,
and peaceful.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill was introduced in response to a series of
immigration raids that took place between 2007 and 2008.
In 2007, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal
agents raided the town of Mendota in Fresno County under
"Operation Return to Sender" targeting individuals with
deportation orders. The ICE officers arrested an estimated 200
people.
In 2008, school and local elected officials attempted to
alleviate fear by children in schools that they would be
detained following the arrest of five individuals in Berkeley
and Oakland by ICE agents.
In 2007, a six-year-old U.S. citizen, Kebin Reyes, and his
father were apprehended at their San Rafael home and kept in
detention for 10 hours. The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) filed a lawsuit on the child's behalf. In a 2007 press
release, staff attorney Julia Harumi Mass with the ACLU of
Northern California, said, "ICE's treatment of children is not
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in line with American values of decency and fairness. In
addition to Kebin's case, we have heard reports of children left
without care after their parents are detained, immigration
agents targeting areas around elementary schools, and children
too upset to participate in class after witnessing early morning
raids in their communities. The human cost of these tactics is
unacceptable." Co-counsel Howard Slavitt added that "Kebin
thought he was in jail - this was clearly a traumatic incident
for him. There was no reason for his arrest, and no explanation
that Kebin's family can offer him. That's because the arrest
was arbitrary and irrational. Over six weeks have passed, and
Kebin is still having nightmares." The ACLU reported similar
raids in Marin, Contra Costa County, San Francisco, Redwood
City, Van Nuys, and Santa Cruz.
Impact on children and schools . An October 2007 report
commissioned by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)<1> states
that in 2007, almost 5,000 arrests were made nationally in
connection with worksite enforcement investigations. These
arrests impact not only the children of those detained, many of
whom were born in the U.S. and are citizens, but also the
surrounding communities where the arrests took place. When
parents are detained, schools and social service systems must
find caregivers for the children.
The NCLR states that there is growing alarm in the community
that ICE engages in intimidation and enforcement tactics near
public schools and Head Start programs. Head Start staff in
other states has reported sightings of federal agents parked
near migrant Head Start centers during drop-off and pick up
times. Parents become fearful of leaving their homes to take
children to school or to child care centers. In other
incidences in other states, NCLR reports of ICE agents removing
children from schools following arrests of their parents.
The Board of Education of the San Rafael City Schools, in a
letter to Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (Sonoma and Marin) in 2007,
wrote that "The ICE raids sent our schools into a state of
emergency. Teachers, support staff, principals, and district
administrators were placed on buses and at bus stops to make
sure children connected safely with adults in their
homes?.Absentee numbers spiked as high as seven times the usual
amount in one school and four times the normal rate at another
school. Parents were afraid to walk with their children to and
---------------------------
<1> "Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on
America's Children," The Urban Institute, October 2007
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from the bus stops. Older siblings skipped sports, work and
homework to tend to their brothers and sisters. Many students
were and remain distracted from school work as they worry about
their loved ones."
Federal policy . Since 1993, the ICE, formerly called the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, has had a policy to
"attempt to avoid apprehension of persons and to tightly control
investigative operations on the premises of schools, places of
worship, funerals and other religious ceremonies." Following
the 2007 ACLU lawsuit, the ICE issued a memorandum with
guidelines that directed agents not to take legal permanent
residents or U.S. citizen minor children into custody; to
coordinate the transfer of a minor child to the nearest child
welfare authority or local law enforcement agency (if not
feasible, then document the parent's request for the transfer of
the child to a third party); and to the greatest extent
possible, coordinate with child welfare authorities prior to an
enforcement operation. NCLR expresses concerns that as
guidelines, these directives are not binding, and that there is
no mechanism to hold ICE accountable for compliance.
The sponsor of the bill, the California Teachers Association
(CTA), states that the bill is intended to help ameliorate the
effects on public school students from immigration raids by
federal agents. AB 132 requests federal agents to contact the
school or district office prior to visiting a schoolsite. This
provision states legislative intent; however, federal agents are
not required to abide by state law. The bill also establishes
statewide protocols for school staff during visits by federal
agents (e.g., school staff shall request federal agents to first
meet with the principal) and encourages schools to provide
counseling services to impacted students.
Right to public education . The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1982
decision, Plyler v. Doe, upheld the right of undocumented
children to free public education. The lawsuit stemmed from
1975 Texas law that authorized school districts to deny
enrollment of children and withhold state funds for the
education of children not legally admitted to the U.S. The
Supreme Court argued that the denial of public education would
be a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment,
which does not allow states to deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
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laws.
In 1994, Proposition 187 was a statewide initiative that would
have prohibited public health, social services, and education to
undocumented immigrants and would have required law enforcement,
teachers, social service and health care workers to verify a
person's immigration status. A federal judge found the
initiative unconstitutional.
Arguments in Support . The author states, "There have been
significant increases in immigration enforcement operations
throughout the country by the US Department of Homeland Security
in the last couple of years. These raids have had adverse
affect on schools, churches and the community in whole. There
are approximately 5 million children in the country that have an
undocumented immigrant parent, the majority of these children
are US citizens and under the age of ten. The Urban Institute
researchers found that, for every two immigrants detained as a
result of work place raids, approximately one child is left
behind.
There are currently not any California laws that provide
protection for children. There are also not any policies in
California law that outlines how a school should deal with ICE
raids in their communities and the impacts to local schools.
There are negative consequences to these children such as:
depression, loss of sleep, loss of an appetite, fearfulness,
mood swings and feelings of abandonment by their parent(s).
Schools can play a role of first responders in these situations,
and AB 132 seeks to provide them some support in protecting
their students."
Arguments in Opposition . The Capitol Resource Family Impact
states, "AB 132 is an attempt to use public schools to impede
immigration investigations. While it is crucial that each
campus maintain peace for the most conducive learning
environment, public schools should not insert themselves into
immigration investigations conducted by law enforcement. By
prohibiting law enforcement from entering classrooms and talking
with students, teachers and principals will be forced to choose
between upholding our nation's immigration laws and California's
attempt to subvert those laws. Students will be taught that
public schools are havens for those violating our immigration
laws."
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Prior Legislation . AB 1012 (Steinberg), introduced in 2003,
requires an elementary school principal to take immediate steps
to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian of a pupil before
making that pupil available to a peace officer for questioning
and requires that, before making a high school pupil under age
18 years available to a peace officer for the purpose of
questioning by the peace officer, the secondary school principal
or his or her designee to inform the pupil that the pupil has
the right to request that his or her parent or other adult
selected by the pupil be present during the questioning.
Governor Schwarzenegger's veto message in 2004 in part said that
"while well intentioned, the practical effects of AB 1012 would
be devastating to school-based law enforcement officers and
school administrators responsible for keeping students and staff
safe in the school setting."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Antioch Unified School District
California Teachers Association (sponsor)
California Catholic Conference
California Communities United Institute
California Rural Legal Assistance
San Francisco Unified School District
Opposition
Capitol Resource Family Impact
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087