California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom asked nonprofits to donate at least $610,000 to groups that call for defunding or abolishing law enforcement since 2023 before distancing himself from such stances.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (IDLC) and Immigrant Legal Defense (ILD) received $500,000 in 2023 and $110,000 in 2025, respectively, at Newsom’s request, according to state records first reported by The Washington Free Beacon. IDLC has advocated for defunding the police and worked to free illegal immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while ILD “prioritizes abolishing immigration detention and reimagining the U.S. immigration system entirely,” the group’s website says.
Newsom said in a March interview that proposals to defund police after the Black Lives Matter movement gained steam in 2020 were “lunacy.” He also declared in a July 14 interview that he is “happy to advocate for eliminating sanctuary policy,” referring to laws in Democratic-leaning areas that prohibit police from helping ICE catch illegal immigrants. The governor’s recent push toward more moderate rhetoric on major issues has fueled speculation that he plans to run for president in 2028.
IDLC and ILD did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
“The Governor has never supported efforts to defund the police,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told the Daily Caller News Foundation after publication. “The contributions went toward ensuring children had access to lawyers in immigration court and due process for asylum seekers — a shocking concept for the Trump administration, we know. If defending due process offends you, take it up with the Constitution.”
The governor convinced the Irvine Foundation to pay IDLC and the Stuart Foundation to pay ILD, records show. The two foundations did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
California requires elected officials to report payments that an organization makes “at the request, suggestion, or solicitation of, or made in cooperation, consultation, coordination or concert with the public official,” a state website says. Newsom’s disclosures say that IDLC received funds “to support and to expand critical services offered to migrants crossing the U.S. border,” while ILD received them to provide “immigration legal services through K-12 school based partnerships.”
IDLC helped launch a bond fund to secure illegal immigrants’ release from ICE custody in California on June 7, one day after anti-ICE riots erupted in Los Angeles with fires and assaults on law enforcement, an announcement page shows. It also posted a statement on social media in June 2020 “joining the calls to dismantle the police state by defunding and decreasing police budgets.”
In the year after IDLC received $500,000 at Newsom’s request, the governor proposed slashing California’s public safety budget to address a fiscal deficit while prioritizing funds for climate-related programs, the DCNF previously reported.
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