States rights when convenient.
A bill that would limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities has cleared the Legislature and is now on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
The measure, known as the Trust Act, won final approval in the Assembly on Tuesday. The bill, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would restrict law enforcement from detaining solely for immigration purposes people who had been arrested on minor offenses.
If the bill, AB 4, is signed into law, it would significantly curb California’s involvement in a federal immigration program called Secure Communities, which requires local law enforcement to share the fingerprints of people who have been arrested with immigration officials.
Arizona’s SB1070 was passed a few years ago to merely give the state the power to do what the feds were supposed to be doing and the Holder Justice Dept. sued the state. This bill expressly is basically the state giving the finger (but not the fingerprints) to federal immigration authorities. And it will get away with it.
This is why almost all discussions about new immigration laws at the federal level are a joke. Any laws that actually accomplish anything will be ignored by the very people sworn to uphold them.
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