New Immigration Laws in California – At A Glance
The lawmakers of the California state have recently passed three new laws of immigration in December 2017 which will be effective from January 1, 2018. These new immigration laws include:
Law 1: California has a status of Sanctuary State
According to this new law any law enforcement agency, local as well as state-run, cannot use means to detain any immigrant on the basis of the immigration laws of Federal government. In other words, these agencies can neither take someone on hold nor can question the immigration status of any immigrant on the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement department of USA.
Law 2: Landlords are not allowed to report to ICE regarding their tenants
This law has been passed separately with an intention to restrain the landlords from reporting about the immigration status of their tenants to ICE. Moreover, the landlords are also not allowed to pressurize their tenants for eviction on the basis of their citizenship status.
Law 3: The inspections during workplace immigration will also be restricted.
This law restrains the employers from accepting unwarranted workplace inspections by ICE. In addition to it the employer has to inform the employee about the federal inspection notice within 72 hours of receiving it.
Expected implications of these new immigration laws in California
These laws were among several other bills passed by California government to prevent the effect of the policies of the administration of President Donald Trump.
By making California a Sanctuary state through these laws, police will not be able to ask about the status of immigration of an individual or be part of any immigration enforcement activity under the federal law. The jail officials are also guided by this law about the transfer of jail inmates to the authorities of federal immigration department only if they have been found guilty of the crimes of a particular type.
Moreover, the officials of immigration department must have a warrant before accessing the records of the employees and the workplace. Along with it, landlords are also banned to disclose the citizenship of their tenants. Even the officials of universities will be prohibited under one more new law for helping the officers of the ICE department.
The law enforcement officials will also be barred under another bill from keeping a witness or victim of a crime on hold or handing them over to authorities of immigration department without any warrant only because an immigration violation is suspected or actually done.
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