California leading the way for sanctuary states across the country

One huge success for Sanctuary cities occurred today on the floor of the California’s state senate building where the “sanctuary state” bill passed today with a vote of 27-12. The bill, also known as Senate Bill 54 was a huge victory for undocumented activist all over the country, who have fought hard for the rights of the undocumented immigrants in the United States. The author of this bill, Senator Kevin de León had this to say about the significance of the bill’s passing “[this was] a rejection of President Trump’s false and cynical portrayal of undocumented residents as a lawless community”. If put into action this sanctuary state bill would bar California state and local law enforcement from using their resources, including money, facility, property, equipment or personnel to help immigration enforcement . It also prohibits them from asking about a person’s immigration status, giving the federal immigration authorities access to interview someone in custody or assisting them in immigration enforcement. In addition to this bill, the California state senate also passed Senate Bill 6, which would provide money for a fund so that undocumented immigrants up for deportation would have access to a good lawyer. This action obviously ruffled a few republican feathers, one republican senator said that the passing of this bill was like a kick in the groin to President Trump, and that the president will strike back.

In other immigration news, the visa application known as the H1-b has had many struggles with the new president. This visa allows for foreign born people to work for a tech company for 3 years, and also allows them to apply for a green card. However, in this new political climate the future of this program is very uncertain. So, this year hundreds of thousands of applications arrived of the first day of this process, as to give them the best chance possible of being accepted. Some hail this program as a keystone to American innovation, but others see it as a ploy to replace American workers with cheaper foreigners. Either way you look at it, the future of this program is uncertain.

Our Verdict: This is a huge step in a positive direction for California, and hopefully other states will follow their lead and propose similar bills in their senates. However, whether their bill will actually become law is still up for debate because the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, hasn’t spoken out publicly about whether or not he will sign the bill. The same uncertainty seems to be the future for H1-b visa.