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The California Public Defenders Association is deeply engaged in legislative advocacy at the State Capitol. CPDA not only supports and opposes legislation, but sponsors bills and works directly with lawmakers and staff to draft statutory language, ensuring that reforms are thoughtful, workable, and grounded in the lived realities of our clients and practitioners. We champion measures that reduce our reliance on jails and prisons, expand due process and equity, and strengthen community-based solutions. At the same time, we actively oppose proposals that expand criminalization or deepen dependence on carceral responses to social problems. CPDA Sponsored Legislation 2026SB 873 will prohibit ICE or others from making arrests without judicial warrants in our courthouses. CPDA is working with co-sponsors on this bill that will further strengthen the Racial Justice Act. "This bill would prohibit a law enforcement officer from seeking statements or information while working undercover, or by individuals working in collaboration with, or acting as agents of, law enforcement, from a person who was 17 years of age or younger during the commission of crime and who is in custody. The bill would direct a court to consider any willful failure of a law enforcement officer in violation of these provisions in determining the credibility of that law enforcement officer." This bill requires prosecutors to work with the defense during plea negotiations to try to avoid immigration consequences for the defendant. If the defendant can show that they offered to plead to a more serious charge in order to avoid those consequences and the prosecutor said no, the court must hold a hearing. At that hearing, the prosecutor must show a good reason for refusing the immigration-neutral plea. If they can't, the court must impose a remedy.
CPDA Positions on 2026 LegislationWant to weigh in on any of these bills? Find your California legislator here and let them know where you stand. |