Gustavo Solis

The Desert Sun

A Los Angeles legislator is trying to keep private prison companies out of the immigration detention business in California.

Senator Ricardo Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, introduced a bill that would prohibit cities and counties from entering or renewing contracts with private companies to detain immigrants who face deportation.

Lara introduced a similar bill last year but the Governor vetoed it.

At the time of the veto, The Obama Administration had instructed the Department of Justice to phase out the use of private prisons in the federal court system and the Department of Homeland Security announced a reevaluation of their own use of private prisons to hold immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

“I have been troubled by recent reports detailing unsatisfactory conditions and limited access to counsel in private immigration detention facilities,” Gov. Jerry Brown wrote in his veto statement last fall. “The Department of Homeland Security, however, is now considering whether private contracting should continue for immigrant detention, and if so under what conditions. Their recommendations are expected in November.”

Since then, Donald Trump moved to the White House, and DHS has said they will continue to use private prisons. The stock of private prison companies has doubled as they invest in more space to detain immigrants.

READ MORE: As feds phase out private prisons, companies turn jails into immigration detention centers

Lara introduced the current bill, SB 29, in December. It is now in committee.

“With Trump proposing a massive expansion of deportation, California will be ground zero for private detention,” said Michael Soller, Lara’s spokesman.

The bill would prohibit cities and counties from entering into or renew(ing) a contract … with a private corporation, contractor, or vendor to detain immigrants in civil immigration proceedings for profit,” according to the current draft.

There are four privately-owned immigration detention centers in the state, including ones in Imperial, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. Orange, Yuba, and Contra Costa counties have contracts with ICE to use their facilities to detain immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally, according to ICE.

Groups who oppose Lara’s bill include the City of Adelanto in San Bernardino County, which has one privately-owned immigration detention center, and the California State Sheriff’s Association.

The association says it is primarily concerned with a section in the bill that raises the standard of care in all jails, not the termination of contracts with private companies.

SB 29 would require immigration detention operators to meet the Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) enacted by ICE in 2011.

The PBNDS establishes standards on access to legal counsel, health care, solitary confinement, and sexual assault prevention. However, the measures are not legally binding and there aren't federal or state laws forcing jails to adhere to them.

SB 29 would allow the state’s Attorney General, any district attorney or city attorney to sue facilities that violate these standards.

The Sheriff’s Association fears that the bill would leave counties and sheriff’s departments vulnerable to lawsuits.

“The reasons the sheriff opposed the bill last year and oppose it this year is because it creates a public right of action,” said Cory Salzillo, policy director for association. “Basically another way for a county or a sheriff’s department to be sued over alleged violations of rights created by the bill or federal status.”

The association is also concerned that if there are no detention centers in the state, federal authorities will just transport immigrants to facilities out of state, moving them farther away from their families.

READ MORE: Iowa sheriffs dispute claim they're not cooperating with immigration officials

The White House has been going after jurisdictions they believe limit the cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE when it comes to enforcing immigration laws.

On Wednesday, ICE released a list of cities and counties they accuse of not cooperating with their detainer program – the program ICE uses to ask local jails to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally so that federal agents can question them and arrest them.

The list includes the entire state of California and 36 of the state’s 58 counties. Some of the reasons given for limiting cooperation is that sheriff’s departments require the federal government to submit a warrant or court order with their detainer request.

Lawyers have argued that if a jail holds and inmate longer than their sentence without a warrant, it violates that inmate’s civil rights.

Immigration Reporter Gustavo Solis can be reached at 760 778 6443 or by email at gustavo.solis@desertsun.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @journogoose.