Orange County’s Democratic State Assembly Representatives, Tom Daly and Sharon Quirk-Silva, did not vote for the “Trust Act,” which made its way once more through the California Assembly this week by a final vote of 44-22, according to Gabriel San Roman over at the OC Weekly.
San Roman reported that “The legislation was vetoed late last year when it reached the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. Supporters say the bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will limit deportations fueled by the fingerprint-sharing federal Secure Communities program while restoring confidence between law enforcement and largely immigrant, Latino communities. It heads to the Senate next.”
It should not come as a surprise that our Republican Assembly Representatives voted against the Trust Act, but Daly and Quirk-Silva have no excuse!
Daly represents the most Latino Assembly District in Orange County, the 69th Assembly District, which includes most of Anaheim and Santa Ana.
Quirk-Silva, who only beat Republican Chris Norby because of minority voter support, in the newly drawn 65th District, abstained. Why did she do that? Here is how she explained it:
“While I agree with some of the components of what Assembly Bill 4 is attempting to put into law, I ultimately abstained because I had concerns about gaps in the legislation that would allow some very serious criminals to remain in the country, possibly free, and take away some power from our police to detain them. Governor Brown had similar concerns when he vetoed similar legislation last year. Perhaps these concerns will be dealt with as it moves through the legislative process and I can reconsider.” “Immigration is ultimately a federal issue and I hope the U.S. Congress will finally pass comprehensive immigration reform to deal with such issues.”
As San Roman points out, Quirk-Silva sounds eerily like her mentor, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who offered similar excuses while not co-sponsoring the DREAM Act for many years. Sanchez was a Republican for most of her life. I am not sure what Quirk-Silva’s lame excuse is.
According to San Roman, “The overall vote was bolstered by a recently released survey noting that in four major cities, including Los Angeles, Latinos were 44% less likely to contact law enforcement in cases where they were victims of violent crime due to active collaboration with immigration enforcement. Among the undocumented, 70% said they were less likely to reach out to the police under similar circumstances. The reality of insecure communities couldn’t be any clearer.”
Governor Jerry Brown has promised to support the Trust Act with some minor changes we haven’t seen yet.
Do we need the Trust Act? Statistical analysis provided by the California Immigrant Policy Center shows nearly 5,000 deportations in California between January and March of this year alone. A majority of those weren’t for serious convictions.
