SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California Senate committee on Tuesday advanced Senate Bill 941, legislation that would limit price markups on goods sold in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility commissaries.
The Senate Public Safety Committee approved the measure, which targets pricing practices in privately run commissaries inside immigration detention facilities.
“We cannot allow California corporations to take advantage of families during the hardest moments of their lives,” said Sen. Steve Padilla. “We cannot allow California corporations to take advantage of families during the hardest moments of their lives.”
Padilla added that the bill seeks to prevent corporations from “exploiting working-class families under the guise of President Trump’s mass incarceration spree.”
According to the article, private third parties run commissaries in immigration detention facilities, where vendors “set prices without meaningful oversight.”
The release cites reports indicating that goods are sold within facilities at significant markups, including “a bar of Irish Spring soap … marked up by 75%, ramen noodles by 100%, Colgate Baking Soda and Peroxide by 139%, and canned tuna by 300%.”
SB 941 would prohibit commissaries from being marked up to more than 35% of vendor cost and extend the protections established under SB 474 to ICE detention facilities.
“No family should be forced to choose between staying connected to a loved one and putting food on the table,” said Edwin Camona-Cruz, co-executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “California has a duty to shield families from the predatory greed of for-profit detention facilities.”
Camona-Cruz added, “We must put an end to this cycle of exploitation once and for all.”
“SB 941 would respond to the corporate exploitation of California families by limiting the egregious markup on items sold in immigration detention commissary,” said Elaina Jung Hee Vermeulen, an immigration attorney at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. “Without any regulation, immigrants in California are detained without consistent access to essentials like soap.”
Vermeulen also added that detainees “must rely on funds sent from their families who are already struggling or the $1 a day they earn working in the facility,” and that “when detained people have no other option to procure the items they need, it’s easy for companies to exploit our immigrant community members economically.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta voiced his support for the legislation.
“Under the Trump administration, immigration enforcement has skyrocketed, while conditions at immigration detention facilities have continued to deteriorate,” Bonta said. “My office has inspected these facilities, and we’ve received countless reports of insufficient clothing, food, and hygiene products being a devastating and unacceptable part of detainees’ everyday reality.”
Bonta added that “these necessities should not be a vehicle for private vendors to run up massive profits.”
“Price gouging is always a violation of the public trust, but when it targets people trapped in substandard conditions, it becomes a moral crisis,” said Jackie Gonzalez, co-executive director of Immigrant Defense Advocates. “Forcing families to pay premium prices for necessities … is a predatory exploitation of human suffering.”
Gonzalez stated that “SB 941 recognizes that basic dignity is not a commodity” and described the bill as “the essential first step in holding these for-profit corporations accountable.”
The legislation passed the Senate Public Safety Committee by a vote of 6-0 and now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Categories: Breaking News Immigration State of California Tags: California legislation ICE Immigrant Rights Immigration Detention Price Gouging SB 941