A group of immigration bills was signed off by California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday, including one that bars local law enforcement agencies from deporting people if they're arrested for a petty crime.
Illegal immigrants who commit minor crimes will also have an easier time getting released from custody under the new legislation, according to the Associated Press.
San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano came up with a standard applying to the entire state that concerned how local agencies work with the federal Secure Communities program - an organization that requires law enforcement officials to look at the immigration status of a person who has been arrested. Anyone that federal authorities chose to detain could be kept for up to 48 hours.
But the new bill that Brown signed lets police and sheriff's departments keep illegal immigrants in custody only if the detained have been previously arrested or convicted of certain felonies of a particularly serious or violent nature. People who have been indicted for misdemeanors that are equivalent to felonies, along with registered sex offenders, can also be held for the 48-hour time period, AP reported.
A previous draft of the bill was vetoed by the California governor because it didn't allow officials to detain people who had committed child abuse or drug trafficking-related crimes.
The California District Attorney's Association maintained that it did not support the bill, because it "could result in the inappropriate and untimely release of potentially dangerous offenders," and "would frustrate local cooperation with federal officials who maintain exclusive province over the enforcement of immigration law."
The association also wrote that the bill "would permit a local policy to trump federal law, and it is not clear how such a provision would pass constitutional muster."
This piece of legislation was one of eight measures pertaining to immigration that Brown signed, as the Oct. 13 deadline for approval or veto of the bills fast approaches.
