URGENT: DEADLINE EXTENDED! Support TRUST Act California

Background

The California TRUST Act (AB 1081) is on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk after being passed by both Houses of the California Legislature. The Act addresses harms caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) "Secure Communities" (S-Comm) program.  It directs local governments to respond to ICE’s detainer requests only if a person has been charged with a serious or violent crime.  The TRUST Act’s impact would be significant, because less than one-third of S-Comm deportations from California are of people ICE classifies as “Level 1” most serious offenders (more than half of S-Comm deportees had no criminal record or one or two misdemeanors). 38% of S-Comm’s deportations are from California, with 80,000 residents deported since S-Comm started four years ago. 

Governor Brown has an opportunity to lead the nation in stopping needless family separations resulting from S-Comm’s illegal detentions and unjust deportations. So far the Governor has been silent on the TRUST Act despite broad and growing support that includes numerous mayors and other local elected officials, all of California’s Catholic bishops, the Episcopal Church, the state Democratic party, the police chiefs of Palo Alto and Oakland, and the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Please consider signing on to the attached national letter to Governor Brown urging him to sign the TRUST Act into law.  Please reply no later than COB on THURSDAY September 6th by completing this form.

Thank you for supporting immigrant communities in California as they seek to counter S-Comm’s effects and bolster resistance to S-Comm in states and localities across the country.