Yes to the Trust Act

LOS ANGELES TIMES (Opinion)

By Cardinal Roger M. Mahony

September 28, 2012

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mahony-california-trust-act-20120928,0,6019973.story

The last time our nation's immigration laws got a major overhaul was in 1986, one year after I became the archbishop of Los Angeles. Since then, federal immigration policy has drifted far from the realities facing Americans.

Instead of solutions that advance our shared needs and recognize that we are all part of the same human family, we've seen a steady uptick in measures that dehumanize our neighbors and separate parents from their children.

In some ways, this month has represented a low point on the long road toward creating more just policies.

Last week, a court ruling allowed Arizona to implement a shameful part of its immigration law, unleashing profiling and discrimination across that state. Meanwhile, a federal deportation program — the misnamed Secure Communities — that mostly sweeps up the innocent and those with minor convictions is hurting our immigrant brothers and sisters across the country.

But if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the Trust Act, which the Legislature passed and sent to him, this month would instead be a turning point.

Under the bill, local authorities cannot hold an arrestee under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request unless the person has either a serious or violent felony conviction, or has been charged with a serious or violent felony. For example, we would no longer see parents, who were arrested for nothing more than selling tamales or ice cream to support their children, held far beyond the time they would be otherwise in local jails and turned over to ICE for deportation.

Secure Communities, sometimes called S-Comm, has gotten completely off track from its original, sensible goal of focusing on people with serious convictions.

The program runs the fingerprints of every person arrested through ICE's database, citizen or immigrant. If ICE believes someone is "deportable" — in some cases, mistakenly — it requests localities to hold that person for additional time so ICE can pick him or her up for deportation. To date, S-Comm has led to the deportation of more than 200,000 people across the nation, nearly 80,000 just from California. About 7 in 10 of those deported either had no convictions or had only minor offenses.

And a report last year from UC Berkeley's Earl Warren Institute estimates that some 3,600 U.S. citizens nationally were wrongly detained under the program.

All of this has badly damaged the confidence of immigrant community members in our local law enforcement and put an added strain on space in our already crowded jails.

It also runs counter to Americans' deeply held values that remind us of our own immigrant experiences and call on us to love newcomers. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us, "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in."

The Trust Act would defend those values while rebuilding trust between immigrants and police and easing the burden on local governments.

The bill has amassed tremendous support, including two sheriffs, five police chiefs, 22 members of California's congressional delegation and a broad alliance of religious leaders.

It is true that there are many things states cannot do in the field of immigration, such as granting legal status to residents. Such concern about potential conflict with federal law seems to be the cause of some opposition to this bill. But more than 30 top legal scholars have made it clear that it is entirely within California's power to determine how to respond to these ICE hold requests because they are wholly optional.

Our national conversation about immigration should be driven by thoughtfulness, compassion and, ultimately, love. Not hate.

I am praying that the governor chooses the side of love by signing the Trust Act.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles.