SB 554 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Law enforcement: immigration enforcement.

Summary

Existing law, the California Values Act, generally prohibits California law enforcement agencies from investigating, interrogating, detaining, detecting, or arresting persons for immigration enforcement purposes, including providing information regarding a person's release date or responding to requests for notification by providing release dates or other information, as specified. Existing law provides that responses are never required, but are permitted, provided that they do not violate any local law or policy. Existing law provides the above-described prohibition does not prevent a California law enforcement agency from performing certain limited exceptions to this prohibition that do not violate any policy of the law enforcement agency or any local law or policy of the jurisdiction in which the agency is operating. Existing law provides a law enforcement official with discretion to cooperate with immigration authorities only if doing so would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or local policy, and where permitted by the California Values Act. This bill would instead provide that responses relating to a person's release date, as described above, are required. The bill would instead require a California law enforcement agency to perform certain limited exceptions to the prohibition, as specified. The bill would instead require a law enforcement official to cooperate with immigration authorities only if doing so would not violate any federal or state law or policy, and where permitted by the California Values Act. By imposing new duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

04/21/25 - Amended Senate → SB554 · 1 edit

MINOR

This diff reflects a formatting and presentation change rather than a substantive policy change. The bill text of SB 554 (law enforcement: immigration enforcement) is identical in content between the two versions; the difference is that the 'from' version uses traditional legislative document formatting with line numbers and page headers, while the 'to' version is a web-based republication with navigation elements and different spacing. No policy provisions were added, removed, or modified.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted from a traditional legislative document layout (with line numbers, page headers like '97' and 'SB 554', and centered titles) to a web-based format with navigation links (home, FAQ, accessibility, etc.) and different paragraph spacing. The substantive legal text is unchanged.

03/24/25 - Amended Senate → 04/21/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Apr 21, 2025

MODERATE

The April 21 amendment to SB 554 makes three substantive policy changes that significantly reduce the ability of local governments and law enforcement agencies to use local policies as grounds for refusing cooperation with federal immigration authorities. First, it removes 'local law' and 'local policy' from the conditions that would prevent a law enforcement official from cooperating with immigration authorities. Second, it changes the provision on providing release date information from permissive ('permitted') to mandatory ('required'). Third, it removes the local law or policy exception from the list of duties that California law enforcement agencies must perform, making those duties unconditional.

SCOPE

Section 7282.5: The condition for cooperation with immigration authorities was narrowed from 'would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or local policy' to 'would not violate any federal or state law or policy.' Local laws and policies can no longer be cited as a basis for refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Section 7284.6(b): The introductory clause previously allowed agencies to skip duties that would violate 'any policy of the law enforcement agency or any local law or policy of the jurisdiction.' This exception was removed, making all listed duties (investigating reentry violations, responding to criminal history requests, participating in task forces, certifying T/U visa victims, and providing interview access) mandatory regardless of local policies.

REQUIREMENT

Section 7284.6(a)(1)(C): Providing release date information in response to notification requests from immigration authorities was changed from 'permitted' to 'required,' making it a mandatory duty rather than an optional one.

ELIGIBILITY

Section 7284.6(b)(3)(C): The condition requiring that task force participation 'does not violate any local law or policy to which it is otherwise subject' was removed, eliminating a local-policy-based opt-out from joint task force participation.

TECHNICAL

Section 5 (state mandates reimbursement) was renumbered as Section 3 in the amended version, and an empty subsection (b) in Section 7284.7 was removed as a drafting cleanup.

02/20/25 - Introduced → 03/24/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · Mar 24, 2025

MODERATE

The Senate amendment makes three major substantive changes to SB 554: it converts law enforcement cooperation with immigration authorities from discretionary to mandatory, converts permitted activities for law enforcement agencies from optional to required, and adds a provision that automatically voids conflicting local ordinances enacted before January 1, 2026. These changes significantly strengthen the state's preemption over local immigration enforcement policies.

REQUIREMENT

Section 7282.5(a) changed from 'shall have discretion to cooperate' to 'shall cooperate,' making cooperation with immigration authorities mandatory rather than optional for law enforcement officials when the specified conditions are met.

Section 7284.6(b) changed from 'does not prevent any California law enforcement agency from doing any of the following' to 'a California law enforcement agency shall perform all of the following,' converting previously permissive activities (investigating reentry violations, responding to criminal history requests, participating in task forces, making T/U visa inquiries, and providing interview access) into mandatory duties.

Section 7284.6(a)(1)(C) removed the condition that release date responses must not violate local law or policy, changing from 'Responses are never required, but are permitted under this subdivision, provided that they do not violate any local law or policy' to simply 'Responses are permitted under this subdivision.'

ENFORCEMENT

New Section 7284.7(b) provides that any ordinance enacted by a local agency prior to January 1, 2026, that violates the preemption provision shall be deemed void, creating an automatic invalidation mechanism for existing local sanctuary ordinances.

DEFINITION

Section 7282.5(a) added 'federal or state law or policy' as an additional qualifier alongside the existing 'federal, state, or local law, or local policy' language governing when cooperation is permitted.

Floor votes

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No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 30, 2025

Committee

April 29 set for second hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 1. Noes 5. Page 945.)

upper

Apr 21, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.

upper

Mar 19, 2025

Committee

Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and L. GOV.

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 8 co-sponsors