News & Commentary

It looks like a scene out of a movie — men toting shotguns and wearing tactical gear marked "POLICE" suddenly storm into an auto repair shop in South Los Angeles, aiming their weapons at the car mechanics inside, forcing them to stand with their hands on top of cars and then handcuffing them.

California is known for being a leader in protecting the rights of LGBTQ people, women, people of color, immigrants, and members of other marginalized communities. And while we already have great laws in place, there is still much work to be done — especially now as the Trump Administration attacks the most vulnerable among us.

The LGBTQ Rights movement burst into the American public consciousness more than 50 years ago, when people living at the intersections of race, poverty, and criminalization fought back against police brutality – not only at the Stonewall Inn, but also here in California at the Black Cat Café and Compton Cafeteria. Many of those pioneering activists were women working in the sex trade, including movement mothers Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. Today, LGBTQ people have made tremendous progress toward formal legal equality, but our liberation is far from complete. Police treatment of people selling sex or perceived as doing so continues to be a major problem for our community.

In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that students in public schools do not have to participate in patriotic exercises like saluting the flag or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

In April, President Trump had a message for the 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who were given permission to live in the U.S. under President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program: "The dreamers," he said, "should rest easy."

The Inland Empire region, made up of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, may be in California, but more often than not lands closer to Texas or Arizona when it comes to local immigration policies. Unlike other parts of the state, many of the region's officials often do not reflect the views and needs of the almost four million people living here. There are not many "sanctuary cities" for immigrants in the Inland Empire. In fact, some local law enforcement agencies are eager to use local resources to make it easier for the federal government to carry out deportations that harm our communities every day. That's why the passage and signing of the California Values Act (SB 54), a bill that limits local police's involvement in deportations, is a huge victory for our local communities.

Today the Supreme Court will hear Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case that will decide the fate of thousands of men and women locked up in immigration prisons across the country. The federal government is challenging a 2015 Ninth Circuit ruling, in which the American Civil Liberties Union secured the right to a bond hearing for people in deportation proceedings after six months of detention.

The Anaheim Police Department spent years secretly acquiring and deploying intrusive cell phone surveillance technology. Then they spent years fighting the ACLU's efforts to learn more about it. Today, we are releasing the complete set of documents that a court ordered Anaheim to release. Those documents show that Anaheim used a little-known "covert purchase" procedure to hide acquisitions valued at approximately $700,000, loaned its surveillance equipment out to jurisdictions all over Orange County and neighboring Riverside County, and claimed it would use the devices to catch "terrorists" when in fact they were later used to investigate a much broader array of crimes.

California is on the verge of passing Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), a strong bill that, in its current form, would help empower communities and their local elected officials to stop secret and discriminatory use of police surveillance technologies. Making sure state lawmakers enact robust surveillance reform laws is all the more important right now as the Trump administration equips its deportation force with surveillance capabilities, aggressively pursues political activists, and escalates pressure on sanctuary cities. Now is the time to make sure a strong SB 21 — with no further amendments — gets across the finish line.