Governor signs bill letting relatives care for children if parents are deported

Gov Gavin Newsom delivers the - state budget File photo courtesy of the Governor s office This story was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters Gov Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a bill allowing a broad range of relatives to step in as children s support workers if their parents are deported a measure that had provoked a firestorm of conservative criticism Assembly Bill will also bar daycare providers from collecting immigration information about a child or their parents and allow parents to nominate a temporary legal guardian for their child in family court We are putting on record that we stand by our families and their right to keep their private information safe maintain parental rights and help families prepare in occurrence of emergencies Newsom mentioned in a press release It was one of several measures the Democratic-dominated Legislature pushed this year in response to the Trump administration s aggressive deportation crackdown in Los Angeles and across California Newsom a Democrat signed several of those other bills banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks in the state and requiring schools and hospitals to require warrants when officers show up in a ceremony in L A last month He left AB undecided for weeks prompting a flurry of advocacy by immigrants rights groups to secure Newsom s signature in the face of intense pushback from conservative activists The governor broadcasted his decision the day before his deadline to sign or veto the over bills lawmakers sent to his desk last month The the greater part controversial aspect of the bill concerns an obscure decades-old form called a caregiver s authorization affidavit Relatives of a child whose parents are temporarily unavailable and with whom the child is living can attest to being the child s caregiver the designation allows the adult to enroll the child in school take them to the healthcare provider and consent to anatomical and dental care The new law will broaden who is allowed to sign the caregiver affidavit from more traditional definitions of relatives to any adult in the family who is related to the child by blood adoption or affinity within the fifth degree of kinship which includes people like great aunts or cousins Parents can cancel the caregiver designation which is intended to be a temporary arrangement and does not give that person custody Proponents announced parents at pitfall of deportation should get to choose someone trusted to care for their children if ICE detains them Expanding who is eligible for the caregiver form they mentioned gives immigrant parents more options because they may not have close relatives in the country but benefit from strong ties with extended family or informal area networks The statute was backed by immigrants rights groups and children s advocates such as the Alliance for Children s Rights and First California I introduced this bill so children do not have to wonder what will happen to them if their parents are not able to pick them up from school bill author Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez an Arleta Democrat announced at a current press conference Critics claim strangers could get custody But Republicans the religious right and parental rights activists argued the bill would instead endanger children They claimed it would allow strangers to sign the affidavit and claim the child into their care Hundreds of opponents manifested up at the Capitol by busload to rally against the regulation organized by Pastor Jack Hibbs of the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills megachurch who called it the the greater part dangerous bill we ve seen in Sacramento Selected of the blowback stemmed from false contends that the bill would allow strangers to get custody of children to whom they re not related Assemblymember Carl DeMaio a San Diego Republican called the statute a human trafficker s dream In an email Greg Burton vice president of the California Family Council took issue with the fact that parents might not be there when the affidavit form is signed What are parental rights he wrote These rights are nothing if someone else can claim them by purely signing a form Over the summer Rodriguez narrowed the decree to exclude nonrelative extended family members but it was not enough to quell the debate The decree passed along party lines In comparison to a fairly progressive Legislature the governor has often positioned himself as a moderating force on child custody and protection issues which regularly galvanizeconservative activists and put California Democrats on the defensive In he vetoed a bill that would have required family court judges to consider a parent s advocacy of a child s gender transition in custody disputes At a press conference last week where activists urged Newsom to sign the bill Angelica Salas executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights Los Angeles required the governor to not listen to the lies to not listen to all the other stuff that s being commented about this bill Newsom announcing his decision quietly acknowledged the disagreement in a press release He included statements he revealed were correcting the record on mischaracterizations and announced the new law does not change the fact that parental rights and legal guardianships must be decided by family court judges CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable