SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KABC) — California schools would have to create plans for notifying parents and teachers when immigration enforcement is on campus under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Legislature.
The bill would also require California State universities and community colleges, and request University of California campuses, to send alerts to students, faculty and staff when immigration enforcement is present. It now heads to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Oct. 12 to sign it into law. The legislation would remain in effect until 2031.
“Students cannot learn unless they feel safe,” Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi said. “For decades we had a bipartisan agreement to keep educational institutions, schools, campuses, free from immigration enforcement activities.”
The bill was part of a slate of proposals lawmakers passed Tuesday in an effort to protect families from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“No one should ever be afraid to go to school,” California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said. “But that’s what’s been created in this climate.”
Others expressed support for Trump’s immigration policies.
“I don’t think they should be alerting parents about ICE being in the area, because they’re interfering with the law,” Rialto resident Horatio Gonzalez said. “If you’re an illegal here in America, I don’t think you should be here.”
The Legislature also advanced bills banning immigration enforcement from entering nonpublic areas of school or hospital grounds without a warrant.
“The presence of immigration enforcement officers can have detrimental effects on students — especially those who may be undocumented or otherwise without permanent status,” said state Sen. Sasha Renee Perez of Pasadena, who authored the California bill.
Other Democratic-led states introduced legislation this year aimed at protecting immigrants in their homes, at work and during police encounters amid Trump’s mass deportation plans.
Los Angeles Unified School District students and teachers returned to class for the new academic year Thursday with new measures in place after a summer filled with immigration raids.
“We parents are the ones protecting our children,” Hindera Angel of Riverside said in a Spanish-language interview. “With these kinds of alerts, we can spread the word about what is happening.”
At Los Angeles Unified, officials urged immigration authorities as the school year kicked off last month not to conduct enforcement activity near campuses during the school day. The school district, which is the nation’s second-largest, includes some 30,000 immigrant students, an estimated quarter of whom are without legal status, according to the teachers’ union.
“We all deserve the opportunity to pursue our education free from fear, terror and intimidation,” said Esther Mejia, executive officer of the UC Student Association.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
