California bill would require parents be notified when immigration enforcement is at school

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools would have to create plans for notifying parents and teachers when immigration enforcement is on campus under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Legislature.

The bill would also require California State universities and community colleges, and request University of California campuses, to send alerts to students, faculty and staff when immigration enforcement is present. It now heads to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Oct. 12 to sign it into law. The legislation would remain in effect until 2031.

“Students cannot learn unless they feel safe,” Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi said. “For decades we had a bipartisan agreement to keep educational institutions, schools, campuses, free from immigration enforcement activities.”

The bill was part of a slate of proposals lawmakers passed Tuesday in an effort to protect families from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The Legislature also advanced bills banning immigration enforcement from entering nonpublic areas of school or hospital grounds without a warrant.

Other Democratic-led states introduced legislation this year aimed at protecting immigrants in their homes, at work and during police encounters amid Trump’s mass deportation plans.

At Los Angeles Unified, officials urged immigration authorities as the school year kicked off last month not to conduct enforcement activity near campuses during the school day. The school district, which is the nation’s second-largest, includes some 30,000 immigrant students, an estimated quarter of whom are without legal status, according to the teachers’ union.