AB 937 (Carillo): The VISION Act
Position: SUPPORT
Background
Refugee and immigrant community members who have been deemed eligible for release from local jails and our state prison system are not, in fact, released, but are funneled to immigration detention. Immigrant community members can be incarcerated by ICE, often for prolonged periods and with no right to bail, and deported–permanently banishing them from the country, from their families, their homes, their livelihoods and all that makes life worth living. Community members transferred to ICE are refugees, lawful permanent residents, people who entered the United States as children, parents, caretakers, essential workers, or are otherwise valued California residents.
Racial Equity
California’s punitive carceral system unjustly and disproportionately harms Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian and Pacific Islander American communities. In recent years, the legislature and California voters have demonstrated a strong commitment to reforming our criminal justice system and ending mass incarceration. Prohibiting transfers to ICE would protect Californians from being subjected to inhumane and unsanitary conditions in immigration detention, would close the main pipeline filling immigration detention beds, and would reunite refugee and immigrant families and communities. Ending ICE transfers in California is a reflection of the state’s commitment to ending racial injustice and mass incarceration.
What the Bill Would Do:
AB 937 (Carillo): The Voiding Inequality and Seeking Inclusion for Our Immigrant Neighbors (VISION) Act would protect refugee and immigrant community members who have already been deemed eligible for release from being funneled by local jails and our state prison system to immigration detention. California should not subject these community members to a second, double punishment, and disregard their record of rehabilitation, stable reentry plans, and community support, purely because they are refugees or immigrants.