Sent 6/12/17
Dear Senate President pro Tempore de León,
Oakland Privacy writes in strong support of SB 54 (de León). Oakland Privacy is a citizen’s coalition that works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.
SB 54 will protect the privacy, safety and well-being of all Californians by ensuring that state and local resources are not used to fuel mass deportations, separate families, or divide Californians on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, or national or ethnic origins. Preventing the use of California state databases for immigration inquiries, as the legislation does, is important in maintaining individuals’ right to privacy, a special concern of our group.
SB 54, the California Values Act, upholds California’s core values of equal treatment, community, family unity, and common humanity by ensuring that California’s police departments, schools, hospitals, and courts remain accessible to Californians from all walks of life. Immigrants are part of California’s heart and soul and have deep roots in its neighborhoods and communities. At this time of rising national division and scapegoating of immigrant communities, the California Values Act reaffirms the state’s commitment to valuing and protecting its immigrant communities and sends a powerful message of inclusion across the nation.
California is already familiar with the harmful effects of entangling local law enforcement agencies with immigration enforcement. Prior to its termination, the discredited “Secure Communities” program (S-Comm) operated in California as an indiscriminate mass deportation program at great cost to California both financially and otherwise. According to a report prepared by Justice Strategies in 2012, under S-Comm, California taxpayers spent an estimated $65 million annually to detain people for ICE.
Continuing to tangle state and local public safety resources with the dirty business of deportations threatens the civil rights and safety of all resident of California. Such actions foster racial profiling, police mistreatment and wrongful arrests, further undermining trust between local communities and law enforcement.
For these reasons, Oakland Privacy is proud to strongly support SB 54. Thank you for your leadership on this matter.