How to Advocate for a Bill: CA Summer 2025

Summer is heating up, and federal hostility toward immigrants has sparked a shower of immigrant advocacy bills in California. Quite a few of these bills pertain to patient care.

Here is a play-by-play for how to contact your local representative to advocate for a bill today.

Step #1 - Pick a bill

Tons of options! Choose one from below or head to CalMatters to explore what's coming down the pipe.

• Senate Bill (SB) 805 and SB 627 aim to increase transparency of federal immigration agents by requiring them to uncover their faces and wear badges.

• Assembly Bill (AB) 421 would prohibit California law enforcement agencies from sharing information with immigration officers about immigration enforcement.

• SB 81 would require health and care facilities to restrict access for immigration enforcement to its nonpublic areas, and train staff and relevant volunteers on how to respond to requests relating to immigration enforcement.

  
  

Step #2 - Check the house

A bill has to pass through the Senate and the Assembly before arriving at the Governor’s desk for signing. Whether it starts in Senate or Assembly depends on which house the author is elected to. For extra credit, you can check which representative you should contact, because:

• the bill may have already passed out of one of the houses

• the bill may have already died (failed to pass) in one of the houses

• legislators are busy people & often don’t pay attention to a bill until it has passed to the floor of their house

You can read up on bills and check their status at California’s LegInfo.

Navigate to the Status tab to check what house the bill is currently in.

Step #3 - Find your Rep

If you’ve done your extra credit task as above, congrats! If not, no worries – representatives value hearing from constituents (voting members of their district), and there is little harm in contacting them about a bill that has already been voted down, or passed through their house. It can even be a helpful way of informing them about your opinion for any future related bills.

You find your Senate and Assembly reps at California’s FindYourRep website.

Step #4 - Send a message

Okay, you’re almost there! You have a pet bill, you found your rep, and you figured out how to contact them. Now, what message are you going to send? That’s up to you, but here are a few tips:

• ID yourself as a constituent

• Make your concern and ask clear: do you want them to vote yes or no on a specific bill?

• Share why this is important to your community

• Keep it short and sweet- no longer than three short paragraphs

  
  

Here’s my sample pitch in favor of SB 627:

“Greetings Assemblymember Krell,

I am an emergency medicine physician, and I work and live in Assembly District 6 as your constituent.

I wanted to reach out to you regarding SB 627, which aims to increase transparency of federal immigration agents by requiring them to uncover their faces during enforcement actions. This is particularly important to me, as my Emergency Department is the main source of healthcare for many undocumented immigrants, and the threat of an ICE raid at my hospital is a very real concern today.

Requiring ICE agents to uncover their faces, and generally share their identity and purpose during enforcement actions at a hospital, would help expedite the involvement of hospital legal counsel and help us best navigate the protection of patient privacy in a difficult situation. Please vote yes on SB 627 and help me protect my patients. If you have any questions or need for clarification, please do reach out.

Sincerely,

Jane Smith, MD”

Run that back?

To sum up:

1. Pick a bill

2. Check the house (optional)

3. Find your representative

4. Send your message

   
   

That’s it! In fifteen minutes, you can tangibly advocate for the undocumented immigrant patients you work with.

Check out other ways to advocate for undocumented immigrants in a non-medical context!