---
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).