(a) Immediately upon the effective date of the amendments to this section made at the 1993–94 First Extraordinary Session of the Legislature, the Department of Corrections and the Department of the Youth Authority shall implement and maintain procedures to identify, within 90 days of assuming custody, inmates serving terms in state prison or wards of the Department of the Youth Authority who are undocumented felons subject to deportation. The Department of Corrections and the Department of the Youth Authority shall refer to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service the name and location of any inmate or ward who may be an undocumented alien and who may be subject to deportation for a determination of whether the inmate or ward is undocumented and subject to deportation. The Department of Corrections and the Department of the Youth Authority shall make case files available to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service for purposes of investigation.
(b) The procedures implemented by the department pursuant to subdivision (a) shall include, but not be limited to, the following criteria for determining the country of citizenship of any person serving a term in the state prison:
(1) Country of citizenship.
(2) Place of birth.
(3) Inmate’s statements.
(4) Prior parole records.
(5) Prior arrest records.
(6) Probation Officer’s Report (POR).
(7) Information from the Department of Justice’s Criminal Identification and Information Unit.
(8) Other legal documents.
(c) Within 48 hours of identifying an inmate or ward as an undocumented felon pursuant to subdivision (a), the Department of Corrections and the Department of the Youth Authority shall cause the inmate or ward to be transferred to the custody of the United States Attorney General for appropriate action. Once an inmate or ward has been identified as an undocumented felon by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, the inmate or ward shall not undergo any additional evaluation or classification procedures other than those required for the safety or security of the institution, the inmate or ward, or the public.
(d) The Department of Corrections shall report quarterly to the Legislature the number of persons referred to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service pursuant to subdivision (a). The report shall contain the number of persons transported, the race, national origin, and national ancestry of persons transported, the offense or offenses for which the persons were committed to state prison, and the facilities to which the persons were transported.
(Amended (as amended by Stats. 1994, Ch. 567) by Stats. 1995, Ch. 91, Sec. 133. Effective January 1, 1996. Amendments not operative until enactment of federal legislation, as provided by Stats. 1994, Ch. 567, Sec. 6.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018