On Oct. 30, the California Resident Deportation Ban, also known as the “Protect our Family” initiative, began to receive signatures. This is a proposal to prevent police agencies from deporting illegal immigrants in California. To qualify the measure for the Nov. 2016 ballot, the initiative must receive 807,615 signatures of registered voters. The proposed plan would stop all law enforcement agencies in California, including city, county and state police, from apprehending suspected illegal immigrants.

Permission for this initiative to gather signatures came from Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Barton C. Gilbert, a Californian with a degree in political science, authored the proposal. He plans to receive signatures in the traditional sense of signatures on paper, and also through digital e-signatures on people’s smart phones. Although a California District Court ruled in 2011 that e-signatures do not qualify, Gilbert intends to be innovative and set a new precedent.

“I think what Gilbert is trying to do is really interesting and maybe even groundbreaking,” said senior Hallie Rosenberg. “Not just the e-signatures, but the bill itself. Illegal immigrants are people too, and should not be ripped from their homes by the federal government, which has no place presiding over the state.”

Backers of this policy say that this would prevent the state from using its funds or resources to detain a resident of the state for deportation. They defend the cause, suggesting that it would help keep California families together and no longer violate civil rights. Their opinion is that humans have a right to live and work without fear of being deported, and that the federal government does not have the power to deport California residents.

“We do not recognize the authority of the federal government seated thousands of miles away to send their agents into California to deport our residents from their homes and away from their families,” read a statement of the initiative’s organization, Sovereign California.

Similar initiatives, such as the California Opportunity and Prosperity Act, have been proposed in the past, and failed to receive enough support to be put into place. Immigration reform is undoubtedly a hot topic in politics right now. The policy may be receiving even more attention due to President Obama’s recent executive order on immigration reform, which included a new program that allows the parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to apply for work permits and deferred deportation. This will affect illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years and are parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and immigrants who arrived as children before 2010. If the California Resident Deportation Ban receives enough support and gets enough signatures, it will qualify for the ballot next fall and will then be voted on by the citizens. Valid signatures must be submitted by March of 2015 to qualify for the November 2016 ballot.