By Max Kennedy
SACRAMENTO, CA – Bounchan Keola volunteered as a CDCR firefighter while serving his sentence in California prison, and after being injured in a wildfire and airlifted to a hospital, he was released early by the parole board for good behavior.
Instead of returning home, however, he was transferred directly to immigration officials and faced potential deportation.
Keola is a refugee from Laos and has lived in the US since he was two years old. He is also undocumented. Today, thousands of undocumented Californians, like Keola, are sent to ICE facilities upon release from jail or prison.
A new bill introduced in the California assembly, known as “The Vision Act,” would end these voluntary transfers to ICE facilities. California lawmakers and a broad coalition of community and civil rights organizations met last week for a press conference to announce and promote the bill, AB 937.
Assemblymember Wendy Carillo, who authored the bill, described the current system as “double punishment,” since undocumented Californians are often sent directly to immigration facilities after serving their time in custody.
“Today we have a system that imposes double suspicion and double punishment on immigrants in every setting,” said Carillo. “We really do need good examples for how to move forward to stop and 
address that criminalization and to confront and end the visible legacies of white nationalism.”
Carillo noted that California has voluntarily sent thousands of people from jail or prison to ICE facilities in the last few years, including more than 1,400 people in 2020. These transfers show a “complete disregard for the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Carillo.
State Senator Scott Weiner, a co-author of the bill, agreed that COVID-19 has increased the urgency of this issue, noting, “We know that ICE’s private prison detention facilities are COVID hot beds. People are dying. Why are we facilitating that?”
Weiner, too, invoked the concept of double punishment. “The individuals at issue here have done their time… Why are we continuing to punish them by voluntarily turning them over to ICE?” said Weiner.
The press conference also included testimony from individuals directly impacted by these transfers, like Keola.
“I felt angry and betrayed by CDCR thinking this is what they do to people who risk their lives protecting people from wildfires… At any moment I could be arrested and deported to Laos, a country I have no ties to,” said Keola. “I want ICE transfers to stop because people should have second chances.”
Keola also referenced his friend, another CDCR firefighter, who is currently in an ICE detention center after completing his sentence. “Please Governor Newsom, sign this vision act,” he said.
“There is hope for this policy to be able to move forward but it will require a lot of work both in the assembly and the senate” said Carillo.
Max Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 2016 with a degree in history. He is an intern with the San Francisco Public Defender and most recently worked as a digital organizer with Joe Biden for President.
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