Archive

Today, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 60: The Safe and Responsible Driver Act. Starting in January 2015, California residents who learn the rules of the road and pass a driving test will be eligible to obtain a driver's license regardless of immigration status. The Safe and Responsible Driver Act is an important step forward for over one million undocumented drivers who live in California... Read More

For years, we at the ACLU have been warning that the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative – a vast information sharing program that encourages the collection and sharing of “suspicious activity” among private parties and local, state and federal law enforcement – would lead to violations of our privacy, racial and religious profiling, and interference with constitutionally... Read More

Today, 51 leading legal scholars issued a detailed letter to California Governor Jerry Brown regarding the TRUST Act, a bill that seeks to limit deportations and rebuild community confidence in law enforcement.In the letter, the experts urge the Governor to uphold a key feature of the bill as currently written by ensuring that prior brushes with the nation's broken immigration system do not cause ... Read More

Solitary confinement completely isolates immigration detainees: They are generally confined to a small jail cell for twenty-three hours a day, with little to no human contact, and a slot in the door through which officers pass their meals. In some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, their one hour of daily “rec” time takes place in a human-size cage or in a narrow concrete yard o... Read More

As an organizer with the ACLU, I can't help but feel immensely proud to see people participating in civic engagement and advocacy for the very first time. The power of that experience felt particularly real as I read the news of AB 60 passing the California Assembly last week the bill that would make obtaining a driver's license more accessible for all people living and working in California, rega... Read More

The ACLU of California welcomes the federal comprehensive immigration reform bill announced late Tuesday night by the Senate Gang of 8. This historic bill has the potential to advance the civil rights and liberties of all Californians and to set the stage for a roadmap to citizenship for the nearly 2.6 million undocumented immigrants who currently live in our state.From the lumber mills of Ukiah t... Read More

This week a federal judge ordered a bond hearing for a woman who has been detained without due process by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly a year and a half. Bertha Mejia, a grandmother with deep family ties in California and with no violent criminal history, was classified by ICE as a "mandatory detainee" because of misdemeanor convictions for stealing groceries. That cla... Read More

On Feb. 6, 2013 the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, along with Bertha Mejia Espinoza's immigration attorney Rosy Cho, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking Ms. Mejia's release from Yuba County Jail.On the basis of minor, nonviolent offenses primarily petty theft of food items, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security (ICE) has... Read More

Bertha Mejia is a 53-year-old grandmother who fled political violence and sexual abuse in her native El Salvador as a girl. She has four U.S. citizen children and is the primary caretaker for her 9-year-old grandson, Pablo. The victim of rape at the hands of her employer, Ms. Mejia has a strong case for a "U-visa," a type of visa for victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement. The police ... Read More

For the first time yesterday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris publicly weighed in on the hotly-contested federal immigration program, Secure Communities (S-Comm).In an information bulletin to local law enforcement agencies, she provides much needed clarification to these agencies about the parameters of their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Her statement should finally ... Read More