New America Media, News Report, Posted: May 15, 2012

California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, formally introduced a revised version of AB 1081, the TRUST Act, to reform California's participation in the controversial Secure Communities program. Under Secure Communities, police are required to share fingerprint data of anyone they arrest with federal immigration authorities.

As of March 31, more than 70,330 people were deported from California under the program. Nearly seven in 10 of those deported did not fall into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE's) most serious category.

Passed in the California Assembly (47-26) in 2011, the TRUST Act originally sought to modify California's agreement with the federal government over S-Comm. Last year ICE announced it was shredding all such agreements, and that all states were required to continue to send fingerprints.

Ammiano's new version of the TRUST Act sets a clear standard for local governments not to submit to ICE’s requests to detain people for deportation unless the individual has a serious or violent felony conviction; and guards against profiling and wrongful detention of citizens and crime victims and witnesses. It is expected to be heard in the Senate Public Safety committee in June.