Sacramento — State lawmakers pressed ahead with controversial immigrant-rights legislation Monday, including a measure that would open up jury pools to non citizens who have proof of residency and a separate bill to protect unauthorized immigrants when they seek legal help to stay in the U.S.
The full Senate vote approved permitting non citizens to serve on juries as long as they are legal residents. If signed into law, California would become the first state in the nation to take such a step.
Supporters compare the existing ban to long-discarded policies barring women, nonwhites, older citizens and gays from the jury box. Noncitizens can serve as judges and lawyers, they add. Critics called it premature and unnecessary.
The 25-11 vote sends Assembly Bill 1401 back to the full Assembly for concurrence with Senate amendments.
Separately, the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee unanimously passed legislation carried by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, that would impose standards on lawyers and consultants who work with immigrants seeking legal status as Congress debates the “pathway to citizenship” and other immigration reforms.
Gonzalez said her Assembly Bill 1159 is aimed at pre-empting what she already sees as unscrupulous practices by lawyers and consultants advertising they can help those in the country illegally comply — even before the federal law is enacted. Billboards advertising such services are already up near the border with Mexico.
“This is a problem today,” she said.
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