Bill
AB 1321
Requires CA AG to build an online missing-children registry (including immigrant kids) with anonymous reporting, privacy safeguards, and free DNA tests to reunite families.
Status
- Introduced: February 21, 2025
- Current status: In committee (set for second hearing; hearing canceled at request of author)
- Recent actions: Referred to Public Safety Committee and Public & Consumer Protection; amended and re-referred to Public Safety; hearings scheduled and later canceled.
- Digest notes: Majority vote; no appropriation identified in digest.
Purpose / intent
- Require the California Attorney General (AG) to create an electronic public-facing system to report and search for missing children (explicitly including immigrant children), with built-in privacy and support features to increase reporting and reunification while protecting vulnerable families from immigration enforcement fears.
Key provisions
1. New duty for Attorney General (Penal Code §14217)
- Establish, in consultation with nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters, legal aid groups, and government agencies, an electronic database and support system for the public to report and search for missing children, including immigrant children.
- System functions required:
- Allow parents to register missing children and receive updates on the child’s location.
- Include anonymous reporting features to encourage participation without fear of immigration enforcement.
- Ensure firewall protections to prevent unauthorized data sharing.
- If a missing child is identified, parents reunified with the child must be offered free DNA testing in a state‑approved laboratory to confirm parentage; DNA results are to be used exclusively for reunification purposes.
- Defines “immigrant” broadly to include noncitizens and undocumented persons.
Who would be affected
- Families and guardians of missing children, particularly immigrant and undocumented families (by providing anonymity and anti‑sharing protections).
- Nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters, and legal aid groups (consultation role and potential users).
- Attorney General’s office (responsibility to build and maintain the system).
- Local law enforcement and state-approved DNA laboratories (operational roles in verification and investigations).
Potential impacts and considerations
- Could increase reporting and reunifications among immigrant and other vulnerable populations by reducing fear of immigration consequences and enabling anonymous reports.
- Requires DOJ technical implementation and operational capacity (database, secure firewall, notification system); bill does not appropriate funds in text, so funding/implementation logistics remain a consideration.
- Free DNA testing provision raises laboratory capacity and cost questions; results limited legally to reunification use to protect participants’ privacy.
Next steps
- Awaiting committee reconsideration/hearing following cancellation at author’s request; further amendments or fiscal/implementation analyses may follow.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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