Help us shut down AB379

California is about to make it a deportable crime to smoke a cigarette outside of a strip club or circle the block looking for parking on the way to a porn set!

California’s leadership in the state legislature is supporting a bill, AB 379, that would create a new deportable crime in California, and harm immigrants and people of color.  AB 379 would criminalize “loitering with intent” to purchase sex, a vague crime that creates opportunity for biased enforcement.  Now is not the time to give law enforcement any more tools to rip immigrants from our community. 

Please call your California State Senator and Assemblymember and encourage them to put pressure on Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire to remove the loitering provision of AB 379!

If you live in Speaker Rivas’ or Pro Tempore McGuire’s district, please do call them directly and demand they remove the loitering provision from AB 379! And if you have friends who live in their districts, please ask them to call in, too! <3

  • How to call your Assemblymember and state Senator
    • https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
    • Enter your address and zip code (can be approximate, if you’re paranoid like me)
    • Click on the link for your Assemblymember & try to call their Sacramento number.
      • If they don’t pick up, leave a voicemail and try their field office/local number.
    • Go back to https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ and do the same thing for your State Senator!
    • Be sure to ask them to pressure Speaker Rivas and Pro Tem McGuire to remove the loitering provision from AB 379 entirely. Full sample script below!
  • Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas 

 

SAMPLE SCRIPT

Hello, my name is [NAME] and I am one of your constituents [and a regular voter / donor to you(r party) / an engaged member of my community / a survivor of violence in the sex trade / someone who has experienced law enforcement abuse / etc.]. I’m calling to express my opposition to a provision in AB 379 that would criminalize loitering with the intent to purchase commercial sex. Please ask Assembly Speaker Rivas and Senate President Pro Tempore McGuire to insist that the loitering provision of AB 379 be removed entirely.

NEW DEPORTABLE OFFENSE

 AB 379 would be classified as a crime of moral turpitude and therefore create a new deportable criminal offense. Because the language of the bill is so vague and the conduct criminalized so broad, AB 379’s loitering provision is extremely susceptible to abuse. Someone convicted under AB 379 could be deported based on “loitering” with an intent to participate in conduct that would be entirely legal if they didn’t “loiter” first. 

At the same time, the evidence required to bring charges under AB 379’s loitering provision would be extremely minimal, opening people up to criminal charges and potential deportations for circling the block or smoking a cigarette – even if they didn’t know they were near an adult-oriented establishment.

Prosecutors and police in California were more likely to arrest and prosecute Black and Hispanic individuals for a similar anti-loitering statute which was repealed in 2023, and we should expect even worse impacts if AB 379’s even broader loitering provision becomes law.

Passing AB 379 at a time when ICE is hunting down immigrants across California would give the Trump Administration a broad weapon to use to tear our communities apart, and local law enforcement across the state an excuse to harass communities of color & facilitate Trump’s inhumane deportation machine.

Passing AB 379 as-is will put marginalized groups, sex workers, and trafficking survivors at risk of criminal and immigration consequences. 

Please ask Speaker Rivas and President Pro Tempore McGuire to insist that the loitering provision of AB 379 be removed entirely.

Thank you for your time. If needed, I can best be reached at [CONTACT INFORMATION].