A bill making its way through the legislature will function as a gift for traffickers and a license for taking vulnerable children and make them disappear, according to parental rights advocates who are opposing the bill.
According to critics, including family rights attorneys, Assembly Bill 495 creates a number of serious legal loopholes that make it make it easy for traffickers and other unscrupulous persons to exploit chaotic familial situations by sidestepping multiple layers of oversight protections and verification requirements to seize guardianship of vulnerable children to whom they are not related.
AB 495’s key provision is stretching what is known as caregiver’s authorization affidavit to allow “non-relative extended family members” to take control of children whose parents are absent.
Current law requires an authorized caregiver to be a relative of the minor in question. Under AB 495, equal legal status would be given to “non-relative extended family members” – elastically defined as any adult “has an established familial relationship with a relative of the child, or a familial or mentoring relationship with the child. Nonrelative extended family members may include, but are not limited to, teachers, medical professionals, clergy, neighbors, and family friends.”
In other words, basically anyone with some form of contact with the minor in question who claims to have a “mentoring relationship.”
Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez (D-San Fernando), who sponsored the bill, claims it enhances child welfare by giving caregivers legal recognition and children access to essential services without unnecessary disruption.
While her assurances may be sincere, they cannot override the great unrepealable law of reality: the law of unintended consequences. History is littered with countless examples of well-intentioned law being manipulated by unscrupulous people in ways the lawmakers never envisioned or anticipated.
According to recent data, during the last ten years, the federal government has released nearly 82,000 unaccompanied undocumented migrant children in California.
Erin Friday, an attorney and president of Our Duty-USA, a parent-led advocacy group, called AB 495 “a child trafficker’s and kidnapper’s dream bill.”
As critics note, “non-relative extended family member” is defined so broadly virtually any adult claiming a mentoring relationship could legally assume guardianship. AB 495 establishes a process that does not require court review, notarization, or parental consent – bypassing background checks, welfare checks, or any verification by schools or daycare providers.
Furthermore, schools and child care facilities are not required to verify the legitimacy of an adult presenting the “Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit,” increasing the risk that children could be removed by strangers or traffickers without accountability.
Rodriguez’s bill also imposes “sanctuary state” mandates on child care facilities, largely enjoining them from sharing any information with law enforcement as it pertains to illegal immigrant children in their care.
In other words, potential child traffickers will have far greater access to illegal immigrant minors than law enforcement officers.
Attorney Erin Friday, president of parent advocate organization Our Duty-USA, castigated AB 495 as “a child trafficker’s and kidnapper’s dream bill.”
“There is no background check, no welfare check, no court oversight, and no verification. All you need is a piece of paper and some form of identification, with no obligation for the adult handing the child over to verify the identification, and presto, someone walks away with your child,” she has warned publicly.
Contrary to Rodriguez’s claim AB 495 is a targeted bill narrowly-tailored specifically for deportation-related emergencies, the proposed legislation’s language actually applies to any child for any reason, regardless of immigration status, and grants temporary legal rights to individuals with no blood relation, including people who may not even be known to the child’s parents.
Under AB 495, it is entirely possible a stranger can consent to medical treatments for the child, according to critics like Friday. Furthermore, the bill absolves the doctors from any liability if it turns out the supposed adult caregiver has no actual legal connection to the child.
“We’re talking about a legal pathway for predators to operate in plain sight,” Friday said. “This bill is not about immigration. It’s about relinquishing parental rights to unvetted strangers under the guise of compassion.”
As attorney Nicole Pearson, who heads the legal advocacy group Facts Law Truth Justice, testified to the state Senate Human Services Committee:
“California wants to let someone that is not related to your child remove her from school, enroll her in any other school in the state, authorize any medical treatment of her, including mental health services and drugs, without the parents’ notice and knowledge or consent. This is not fear-mongering. I’m not being hyperbolic… . These unintended consequences are terrifying, and they are unavoidable.”
Thus far, the bill is sailing through the progressive Democrat-dominated state legislature. It passed the Assembly on a vote of 62-7. Inexplicably, two Republican Assemblymembers – Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis – supported it.
It has passed the Senate committees hurdles on party-line votes, and is being re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
