republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20232024/ab-2224.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Special immigrant juvenile status: court orders and guardianship."
description: "Existing federal law establishes a procedure for providing certain immigrants with the classification of special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and authorizes those persons to apply for an adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident within the United States. Under federal law, SIJS criteria include, among other things, that the immigrant's reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under state law, and for whom it would not be in their best interest to be returned to their or their parent's previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence. Under existing state law, a superior court has jurisdiction to make the factual findings necessary to enable a child to petition the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for classification as a special immigrant juvenile under those federal provisions."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20232024"
identifier: "AB 2224"
citation: "California AB 2224 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Special immigrant juvenile status", "court orders and guardianship"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Santiago"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 28
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2024-02-07"
last_action: "2024-09-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fe45424d-6e65-40d9-bb27-86b01dbccf20"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224"
source_hash: "45ac04a0e279c3cde357c5fbd07713434087334b0db382e834c23f64cb4cd0e0"
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 2224 (20232024) — Special immigrant juvenile status: court orders and guardianship.

Existing federal law establishes a procedure for providing certain immigrants with the classification of special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and authorizes those persons to apply for an adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident within the United States. Under federal law, SIJS criteria include, among other things, that the immigrant's reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under state law, and for whom it would not be in their best interest to be returned to their or their parent's previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence. Under existing state law, a superior court has jurisdiction to make the factual findings necessary to enable a child to petition the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for classification as a special immigrant juvenile under those federal provisions.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/07/24 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222499INT)
2. **03/12/24 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222498AMD)
3. **04/11/24 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222497AMD)
4. **05/16/24 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222496AMD)
5. **06/20/24 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222495AMD)
6. **09/29/24 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222493CHP)
7. **AB2224** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224)
8. **08/29/24 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2224&version=20230AB222494ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass as amended. — **11–2** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB2224 Santiago By Durazo — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **5–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2224 Santiago Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **10–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 2224 Santiago Assembly Third Reading — **71–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Santiago — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-02-07** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2024-02-08** From printer. May be heard in committee March 9.
- **2024-02-26** Referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2024-03-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HUM. S. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-03-13** Re-referred to Com. on HUM. S. `referral-committee`
- **2024-04-02** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2024-04-10** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (April 9). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2024-04-11** 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-1, reading-2`
- **2024-04-15** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2024-04-16** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 16). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2024-05-01** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2024-05-16** Assembly Rule 63 suspended.
- **2024-05-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 11. Noes 2.) (May 16). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2024-05-16** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-05-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 71. Noes 0. Page 5600.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2024-05-24** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2024-06-05** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2024-06-19** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (June 18). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2024-06-20** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2024-07-01** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2024-07-02** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-08-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 5229.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2024-08-20** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2024-08-27** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 76. Noes 0.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2024-09-05** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2024-09-29** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2024-09-29** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 955, Statutes of 2024. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fe45424d-6e65-40d9-bb27-86b01dbccf20`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).