05 Dec Attorney General Updates Recommendations for Public Institutions to Protect California’s Immigrant Communities

California Attorney General Rob Bonta. (Photo courtesy Office of the California Attorney General via Bay City News)

By Ruth Dusseault
Bay City News

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is considered a potential candidate in the 2026 governor’s race, held a press conference in San Francisco on Wednesday announcing his plan to safeguard the rights of California’s immigrant communities over the next four years.

Bonta stood in front of a wall of new books at the Bernal Heights Public Library located in the diverse neighborhood south of San Francisco’s Mission District. He held up a printed set of updated guidelines for public institutions to use in response to immigration enforcement agents.

“We’ve all heard President-elect Trump’s calls for mass deportations,” he said. “He’s been loud and clear about that, that he’s going to use the military, he says, to execute his plans, the National Guard. It’s inhumane. It’s illogical. It’s fiscally irresponsible, and it’s against what this state and, frankly, what the country stands for.”

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Separate guidelines were published for libraries, California college and university campuses, healthcare facilities, shelters, labor agencies, K-12 public schools and courthouses.

“Our guidance will help staff at public institutions develop practical plans to protect the rights of immigrants and their families by outlining steps they can take to ensure they are not using state or local resources to support immigration enforcement,” he said.

The guidelines outline California laws that prohibit the unauthorized collection or disclosure of a person’s citizenship or immigration status. They instruct institutions on how to identify nonpublic restricted physical spaces in their buildings, how to notify people of their privacy rights and how to find legal representation. They also include instructions on how to train workers to handle immigration enforcement questions and how to document immigration enforcement activities.

Bonta referenced the 2017 California Values Act, or Senate Bill 54, which prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement, with limited exceptions. It was passed during the first Trump administration and used to defend the state against attacks by Trump’s U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he said.

“It is rooted in the law,” Bonta said. “It is rooted in the 10th Amendment. The authority of states to exercise their state’s rights to not be commandeered or conscripted by the federal government to do the job of the federal government. It is our right to take the position that we have in SB 54.”

The California Department of Justice’s Office of Community Awareness, Response, and Engagement will be hosting an online community briefing on Jan. 10 at 11 a.m. on immigrant rights resources.

Registration for the briefing can be found at https://doj-ca.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_Yo8VOINUTsGXsdeubOgtlg#/registration.

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