"This bill would add a new crime to the penal code protecting illegal aliens or those presumed illegal from threats designed to induce them to work for below minimum wage, to work in unsafe or unlawful working conditions...In addition, the bill creates a special cause of action for illegal aliens or those presumed illegal based on the same facts.

Each of these prohibited acts is already prohibited, criminal, and subject to penalties often greater than those required under the bill. 'Obtaining money by threatening to accuse victim of a crime constitutes extortion regardless of whether victim has actually committed any crime.' (People v. Goldstein (1948) 48 CA2d 581.)

Proponents assert that this bill addresses the problem of worker enslavement.

Penal Code Section 181 criminalizes involuntary servitude and sale of slaves and provides in part that every person who holds or attempts to hold any person in involuntary servitude is guilty of a felony punishable by 2, 3, or 4 years in prison.

"This bill would require the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to establish curriculum standards and implement new internship and apprenticeship programs for new industry sectors.

While internship and apprenticeship models for workforce training may be effectively applied to new industry sectors, this cannot be implemented without significant additional General Fund resources. Implementation at the local college level would be required for prospective new programs which have not yet been identified and for which local resources do not exist. Because this bill requires implementation 'to the extent sufficient resources exist', the Chancellor's Office requirements would be permissive

"This bill would provide that if an agency decides to withhold any record based on statute or public interest, the agency must identify in writing the statute or public interest served by nondisclosure of the record

SB 323 adds to the obligations of governmental agencies which are already under the heavy burden of responding to Public Records Act requests. Under current law, an agency must determine, within 10 days of any request for a copy of agency records, whether to comply with the request and must state the reasons for declining to do so. This bill would require that where the agency decides to withhold the record under Section 6255, it specify the public interest in undisclosure as well as state the public interest in disclosure

Governmental agencies receive hundreds of Public Records Act requests every month. They are most often not from ordinary citizens, but from political candidates and special interest groups searching for information. Government employees spend thousands of hours each year responding to the requests - many broad and unfocused - at the cost of doing their other responsibilities