---
type: "Bill"
title: "Housing: immigration."
description: "(1) Existing law, the State Bar Act, makes it a cause for suspension, disbarment, or other discipline for any member of the State Bar to report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action or his or her family member, as defined, to a federal, state, or local agency because the witness or party exercises or has exercised a right related to his or her employment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 291"
citation: "California AB 291 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Housing: immigration."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chiu"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 25
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2017-02-02"
last_action: "2017-10-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ccdf4a42-770c-4de9-be0f-179b171518f7"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291"
source_hash: "111599f1f04b9c04dd5ad1832559f4951e00ada812b165ac6cb6f01ca21bd46f"
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 291 (20172018) — Housing: immigration.

(1) Existing law, the State Bar Act, makes it a cause for suspension, disbarment, or other discipline for any member of the State Bar to report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action or his or her family member, as defined, to a federal, state, or local agency because the witness or party exercises or has exercised a right related to his or her employment.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/02/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29199INT)
2. **03/15/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29198AMD)
3. **03/29/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29197AMD)
4. **05/15/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29196AMD)
5. **08/28/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29195AMD)
6. **10/05/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29193CHP)
7. **AB291** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291)
8. **09/13/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB291&version=20170AB29194ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 291 CHIU Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **56–20** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB291 Chiu et al. By Lara — **28–11** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chiu — primary (person)
- Allen — coauthor (person)
- Bloom — coauthor (person)
- Bonta — author (person)
- Chu — coauthor (person)
- Eduardo Garcia — coauthor (person)
- Gonzalez Fletcher — author (person)
- Kalra — author (person)
- Mullin — coauthor (person)
- Santiago — coauthor (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)
- Wiener — principal coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-02** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-03** From printer. May be heard in committee March 5.
- **2017-02-13** Referred to Coms. on JUD. and P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-01** Coauthors revised.
- **2017-03-15** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-03-16** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-28** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. (Ayes 7. Noes 1.) (March 21). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-03-29** Read second time and amended. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-03-30** Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P. `referral-committee`
- **2017-05-11** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (May 2). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-05-15** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-05-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 54. Noes 17. Page 1655.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-22** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-01** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-21** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (June 20). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-06-22** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-08-28** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2017-08-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-06** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 28. Noes 11. Page 2496.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-06** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 8 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2017-09-11** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 56. Noes 20. Page 3103.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2017-10-05** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-10-05** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 489, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ccdf4a42-770c-4de9-be0f-179b171518f7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).