Hundreds rally against CA bill that would allow short-term guardianship for children of immigrants

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A controversial bill that would allow short-term guardianship for children whose parents are deported or detained by ICE led to pushback from hundreds of people at the state capitol on Tuesday.

"'The Family Preparedness Plan Act' creates a new joint guardianship process allowing parents facing any long-term separation to designate a joint guardian while preserving their parental rights upon their return," said the author of AB 495, Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez.

As AB 495 continues to move forward in the California legislature, on Tuesday hundreds of people rallied on the steps of the Capitol against the bill.

AB 495 is aiming to expand authorization of who can become a child's caregiver to "... any adult caregiver who has an established familial or mentoring relationship with the child.."

Language that is concerning other assemblymembers.

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"It does not just pertain to children who are here with undocumented parents that have been detained. Instead, it applies to all children, in any circumstance, where a complete stranger can simply claim authority over a child, and then start making all sorts of decisions for the child's welfare, for health treatment. This is just insane," said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio.

Under this legislation, simply checking a box that says the person was "unable to contact the parent(s) or other person(s) having legal custody of the minor at this time, to notify them of my intended authorization" would allow someone to make major decision for a child.

"This bill does not have any verification, it doesn't need parent consent, it doesn't have any safeguards whatsoever. We already have child welfare laws in the state of California so if a parent does disappear, if a parent is hidden from ICE or they are picked up by ICE guard so we know where they are and its tracking," said Erin Friday with the nonprofit Our Duty.

Sharon Cartagena is the directing attorney of the Child, Youth, and Family Advocacy Project at Public Council. They support AB 495 and helped write it. She said their focus is to help children who are left behind during detentions.

"The guardianship process isn't specifically tailored for short-term separations. And so we wanted to come up with a solution so that parents could make a plan for their child if they were not going to be around without fully suspending their parental rights," said Cartagena.

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Cartagena said a caregiver affidavit, if signed by somebody it does not give anyone guardianship or legal custody of a child.

"It's really important to know the difference between the limited consent that allows folks to take children to the doctor, and allows folks to enroll kids in school, and the transfer of legal custody. And caregivers' affidavits absolutely do not give anyone custody of a child," said Cartagena. "In the 30 years that caregivers' affidavits have been around, and folks have been using them, the people that I work with use them, you know, all the time. We have a guardianship clinic in downtown LA, and we give caregivers affidavits out for folks who don't want to proceed with guardianship. We haven't seen cases where folks have been kidnapped or trafficked or otherwise harmed, based on the use of a caregiver's affidavit. So, certainly a very scary prospect, but it's not something that we're seeing happening in the 30 years that caregivers' affidavits have been around."

Assemblymember DeMaio is concerned this bill could be exploited, "We find it to be nothing more than a human trafficker's dream. It will lead to all sorts of endangerment of children; it undermines parents' rights."

Assemblymember DeMaio is calling for this legislation to be stopped.