Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-1259.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Criminal procedure: motion to vacate."
+description: "Existing law allows a person who is no longer in criminal custody to file a motion to vacate a conviction or sentence based on a prejudicial error damaging to the moving party's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
+legislature: "California Legislature"
+session: "20212022"
+identifier: "AB 1259"
+citation: "California AB 1259 (20212022)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: ["Criminal procedure: motion to vacate."]
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Chiu"]
+version_count: 4
+action_count: 20
+vote_count: 7
+first_action: "2021-02-19"
+last_action: "2021-09-30"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2af9f298-0c58-4e78-9cf3-5268bbbaa340"
+source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1259"
+source_hash: "b55ee444ef9cae2adaab186f1f57ed1ab3d210ab71706e9011c4c255ae6f93e0"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
+---
+
+# California AB 1259 (20212022) — Criminal procedure: motion to vacate.
+
+Existing law allows a person who is no longer in criminal custody to file a motion to vacate a conviction or sentence based on a prejudicial error damaging to the moving party's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **02/19/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1259&version=20210AB125999INT)
+2. **09/30/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1259&version=20210AB125997CHP)
+3. **AB1259** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1259)
+4. **09/14/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1259&version=20210AB125998ENR)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper
+- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
+- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **4–1** (pass) · upper
+- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **6–2** (pass) · lower
+- Do pass. — **12–4** (pass) · lower
+- AB 1259 Chiu Assembly Third Reading — **53–19** (pass) · lower
+- 3rd Reading AB1259 Chiu et al. By Skinner — **27–10** (pass) · upper
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Chiu — primary (person)
+- Lorena Gonzalez — coauthor (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2021-02-19** Introduced. To print. `introduction`
+- **2021-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
+- **2021-02-22** Read first time. `reading-1`
+- **2021-03-04** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
+- **2021-04-28** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 2.) (April 27). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
+- **2021-05-12** Coauthors revised.
+- **2021-05-12** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 4.) (May 12). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2021-05-13** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2021-05-24** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 53. Noes 19. Page 1543.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
+- **2021-05-25** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
+- **2021-06-03** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
+- **2021-06-22** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
+- **2021-07-05** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
+- **2021-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2021-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
+- **2021-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 27. Noes 10. Page 2565.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
+- **2021-09-09** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
+- **2021-09-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
+- **2021-09-30** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
+- **2021-09-30** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 420, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2af9f298-0c58-4e78-9cf3-5268bbbaa340`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).
+