The California Legislature has found that some landlords report (or threaten to report) their tenants’ immigration status to harass or intimidate those tenants.30 Other landlords carry out such reports or threats as a way of retaliating against tenants who have reported habitability issues or who have exercised other tenant rights. Reports and threats based on immigration status are also used to pressure tenants into leaving their homes, a problem that is particularly salient in rapidly gentrifying cities such as Anaheim, where some landlords might be motivated to illicitly push out lower- and moderate-income tenants in favor of more lucrative projects. Arrest by ICE can lead to detention and deportation, ripping families and communities apart. For more than a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized deportation as a deprivation of liberty that “may result . . . in loss of both property and life, or of all that makes life worth living.” Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276 (1922).
30 Office of Assemblymember David Chiu, Immigrant Tenant Protection Act of 2017 (AB 291) Fact Sheet ARCHIVE