Every state is in charge of their own immigration laws, and can determine how harsh or light they would like to make their immigration legislation. Some states like Alabama and Arizona have severe policies that give police the right to check a suspicious person’s immigration papers whenever he or she is stopped for another offense. If the individual can’t produce legal documentation, then he or she can be arrested and sent back to his or her home country almost immediately. In California, lawmakers created a bill that would take the opposite direction. The bill would have blunted federal immigration immigrations laws through a variety of different methods.

First of all, the bill recommended that the state of California limit the cases in which police officers impound vehicles of drivers that are operating without a license. This means that when an illegal immigrant was arrested for a DUI or another traffic related offense, his or her vehicle may not be impounded as a part of the punishment. Governor Jerry Brown, who didn’t approve of the measure, recently declared that illegal immigrants who are protected under Obama’s new Deferred Action program have the right to apply for a driver’s license in the state. Brown also vetoed legislation on Sunday concerning detaining illegal immigrants.

The bill proposed that police have the right to detain illegal immigrants if they discover that they are in the country without a green card or some form of documentation. In states like Alabama, this is the way that things are done. An immigrant who snuck into the country and has hidden his or her illegal status from the police can be put in prison for his or her crimes. In many states, employers need to check a person’s immigration status before hiring him or her. When this law was issued in some southern states earlier this year, it resulted in a mass exodus of crop gatherers who were illegal and didn’t want their employers to turn them in.

According to another bill that was recently proposed, police would not be allowed to arrest an illegal immigrant and detain them for the possibility of deportation unless they committed a violent crime or a felony. The governor vetoed this bill on Sunday because he said it needed to include other crimes that are serious, like child abuse and drug trafficking. It would have been the first law of its kind in the nation had it been passed. While Governor Jerry Brown has shut down the anti-detainment discussion for now, he told politicians that he intends to revisit the issue in the future. While this act was not approved, low-level offenders that are illegal immigrants have gained a protection in the state.

On Thursday, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced that hundreds of illegal immigrants are arrested by officers every year and then turned over to the federal authorities when they are deemed illegal citizens. Now, the police are not allowed to do this. People who are arrested for misdemeanors like a DUI, petty theft, or something of the like are now required to serve the sentence for their crime but cannot be turned over to the authorities afterwards to face another court trial for their illegal immigration.

Instead, they will be released after their jail sentence and allowed to remain in the United States without prosecution. This will protect thousands of immigrants in the state from being sent to their home country because of a small mistake. If you have been arrested and were turned over to the federal authorities because you are undocumented, this new ruling in California may be able to help you. You will want an informed lawyer on your side to help battle for your right to remain in the United States if you are protected under a state law like this one!