XPost: alt.society.anarchy, alt.anarchism.communist, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   California Democratic senators advanced a measure Tuesday that would   
   make it easier for people to sue federal agents over civil rights   
   violations, a bill shaped by fears of the Trump administration’s   
   immigration enforcement practices.   
      
   The bill from Sens. Scott Wiener and Aisha Wahab, both Bay Area   
   Democrats, took on additional significance after federal agents gunned   
   down Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and ICU nurse, in Minnesota last   
   weekend. Senators discussed the measure on the floor for more than 90   
   minutes before voting along party lines, 30 to 10, to send it to the   
   Assembly.   
      
   “It’s a sad statement on where we are in this country that this has to   
   be a partisan issue,” Wiener said just before the vote on his bill,   
   which is also known as the “No Kings Act”. “Red, blue, everyone has   
   constitutional rights. And everyone should have the ability to hold   
   people accountable when they violate those rights.”   
      
   It’s among several bills lawmakers are moving forward in the new year to   
   confront an escalation of aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and   
   to protect immigrant communities. They include bills that would tax   
   for-profit detention companies, prohibit law enforcement officers from   
   moonlighting as federal agents and attempt to curb courthouse arrests.   
      
   Those efforts follow a slate of legislation signed into law by Gov.   
   Gavin Newsom last year to resist the Trump administration’s mass   
   deportation campaign in California, including a first-in-the nation   
   measure to prohibit officers from wearing masks and others that limit   
   their access to schools and hospitals.   
      
   While some of those laws are facing legal challenges, the new batch of   
   proposals offer “practical solutions that are squarely within the   
   state’s control,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director at California   
   Immigrant Policy Center.   
      
   Here’s a look at some of the key bills lawmakers are considering:   
      
   No moonlighting as a federal agent   
   Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Culver City, authored a bill   
   that would prohibit law enforcement from taking a side job as a federal   
   immigration agent.   
      
   At a press conference in San Francisco earlier this month, Bryan said   
   the measure is especially timely as the federal administration ramps up   
   its recruitment of California’s local law enforcement.   
      
   “We don’t collaborate in the kidnapping of our own community members,   
   but there is a loophole in state law,” he said. “While you can’t   
   collaborate with ICE while you are working in your police shift, you can   
   take a second job with the Department of Homeland Security. And I don’t   
   think that that is right.”   
      
   In an interview with CalMatters, he said the legislation is intended to   
   bring transparency and accountability, and to close that loophole.   
      
   “The federal administration has created not just a secret police but a   
   secret military at the expense of health care, social safety nets, and   
   key benefits that the American people need and rely on to make it   
   through the day,” said Bryan. “All of those resources have been rerouted   
   to the unaccounted militarized force patrolling our streets and   
   literally killing American citizens.”   
      
   Keep ICE away from courthouses   
   Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino, introduced   
   legislation to prevent federal immigration agents from making   
   “unannounced and indiscriminate” arrests in courthouses.   
      
   “The issue is clear cut,” said Gómez Reyes in a statement. “One of the   
   core responsibilities of government is to protect people — not to   
   inflict terror on them. California is not going to let the federal   
   government make political targets out of people trying to be good   
   stewards of the law. Discouraging people from coming to court makes our   
   community less safe.”   
      
   The legislation was introduced nearly two weeks after a federal judge   
   ordered that the U.S. Justice Department halt civil arrests in   
   immigration courts across Northern California, ruling that its   
   deportation policies hadn’t addressed the “chilling effects, safety   
   risks, and impacts on hearing attendance.”   
      
      
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