Brown approves California as ‘sanctuary state’
their permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects them from deportation.
California is home to an estimated 2.3 million immigrants without legal authorization.
The Trump administration said the sanctuary state bill will make California more dangerous.
The state “has now codified a commitment to returning criminal aliens back onto our streets, which undermines public safety, national security, and law enforcement,” Devin O’malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The measure came in response to widespread fear in immigrant communities following Trump’s election. He railed against immigrants in his campaign and promised to sharply ramp up the deportation of people living in the U.S. illegally.
Democrats hope blocking police from cooperating will limit the reach of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The bill, SB54, originally would have severely restricted the authority of police officers to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. At Brown’s insistence, it was scaled back to allow cooperation in jails.
Police and sheriff ’s officials, including jail officers, still will be able to work with federal immigration authorities if a person has been convicted of one of about 800 crimes, mostly felonies and misdemeanors that can be charged as felonies. But they will be barred from transferring immigrants to federal authorities if their rap sheet includes only minor offenses.
The changes convinced the California police chiefs association to drop its opposition, while sheriffs — elected officials who run jails — remained opposed. ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan has condemned the measure, saying California is prioritizing politics over public safety.