NDLON in the News

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Gov. Jerry Brown Misses by Vetoing TRUST Act – latimes.com

This year’s legislative battle over immigration seemed to come to a draw when Gov. Jerry Brown signed one key bill but vetoed another. Immigration rights advocates, however, said Monday that the political give-and-take was largely an illusion. They lost. The bill that Brown signed, which lets some young immigrants have driver’s licenses, allows nothing beyond what is permitted under a new federal program granting a two-year reprieve from deportation. But the bill that Brown vetoed — the Trust Act — was among the most closely watched pieces of immigration legislation in the country. It would have barred local law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal authorities in detaining suspected illegal immigrants, except in the cases of serious or violent crime.

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Loas y críticas al gobernador de California – laopinion.com

El veto del gobernador de California Jerry Brown al proyecto de ley TRUST, que hubiera limitado la cooperación de la policía local al programa federal Comunidades Seguras, ha logrado que sus usuales amigos en las agrupaciones proinmigrantes lo llamen traidor y que tradicionales críticos, como la organización antiinmigrante FAIR, lo elogien calurosamente. “El veto del gobernador es una rara victoria para los ciudadanos amantes de la ley sobre el poderoso ‘lobby’ (cabildeo) de los protectores de los ilegales”, dijo Dan Stein de FAIR, organización que lucha contra cualquier semblanza de reforma migratoria. “Por una vez, el sentido común ha prevalecido sobre un acto sin consciencia de la Legislatura que hubiera puesto en peligro la seguridad pública de California”. Para Pablo Alvarado, director de la Red Nacional de Jornaleros (NDLON), el veto de Brown al proyecto de ley AB1081 fue una “traición” a los grupos proinmigrantes y latinos que lo han apoyado en sus campañas.

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Mistrust in California – NYTimes.com

Gov. Jerry Brown of California dropped the ball on Sunday when he vetoed the Trust Act, a bill aimed at keeping harmless immigrants out of the deportation dragnet — not out of misguided compassion, order but to bolster public safety. The police in immigrant communities depend on the cooperation of witnesses and victims; when local officers become federal immigration deputies, fear overrides trust and crime festers. Mr. Brown’s late-night veto bitterly disappointed immigrant advocates, law-enforcement officials, religious leaders and others who had urged him to take a stand against pressure from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is deporting people at a blistering pace and wants to keep doing so. The agency’s Se Communities program has turned local police into handmaidens of federal immigration policy; people arrested are automatically subjected to immigration checks, leading to the deportations of tens of thousands who have no criminal records or are only minor offenders.

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Jerry Brown disappoints – laopinion.com

Governor Jerry Brown’s veto of the TRUST Act means political considerations triumphed over protecting California’s immigrant community from the arbitrary enforcement of federal law. The enactment of the state law would have probably led to a confrontation in court with the Justice Department, since it established state regulation of a federal program, Se Communities. The governor apparently did not understand that this was a fair battle, one worth fighting. From the beginning, the federal program-intended to detain and deport dangerous undocumented immigrants-was disorganized and confusing about aspects of its implementation and rules establishing the duties and responsibilities of cities, counties and states. The situation worsened when some law enforcement agencies interpreted the program strictly, contradicting the idea of focusing on the most dangerous individuals, and wasted time and resources on irrelevant cases.

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Brown misses opportunity with TRUST Act

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law that will allow hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and vetoed another that would have restricted sheriffs from helping federal authorities detain undocumented Californians for potential deportation. His actions, announced Sunday as the deadline neared to finish work on nearly 1,000 bills sent to him by the Legislature this year, followed an intense week of protests, prayer vigils and lobbying by immigrant advocacy groups. The governor also revived a tax break for Hollywood, allowed juvenile killers serving life in prison a chance for release and outlawed intended to turn gay children straight. The laws take effect Jan. 1. The immigration bills sparked the most controversy.

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Calif. gov. OKs driver licenses for illegal immigrants, rejects ‘anti-Arizona’ legislation – The Washington Post

Meanwhile, Brown vetoed AB1081, which could have protected illegal immigrants from deportation if they committed minor infractions. The bill has been dubbed “anti-Arizona” legislation, a reference to that state’s immigrant identification law. The so-called Trust Act would have let California opt out of some parts of a federal program that requires local law enforcement officers to check the fingerprints of people they arrest against a federal immigration database and hold those who are in the country illegally. It would have barred local law enforcement officers from detaining suspects for possible deportation unless they are charged with serious or violent felonies.

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