Deep blue California has barred illegal immigrants with felony convictions from receiving taxpayer-funded legal aid in immigration cases, sparking outrage from some activists in the state.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure as part of his 2025 budget, emphasizing in his Feb. 7 signed note to the state Senate that no taxpayer money in the budget should support “immigration-related legal services for noncitizens convicted of serious or violent felonies.” The change is set to take effect starting in 2026 and will be the first change regarding who is eligible for California’s Equal Access Fund since the program’s creation in 1999, The Latin Times reported.
Over 70 organizations in June issued public statements and sent letters to Newsom and state lawmakers demanding a reversal, CalMatters reported.
“This prohibition would have a devastating impact on low-income Californians seeking immigration legal assistance, likely stoking fear and creating a chilling effect on client communities in need of vital legal services,” Doan Nguyen, the California State Bar’s director of the Office of Access & Inclusion, told CalMatters in June.
Bruno Huizar of the California Immigrant Policy Center said the policy signed by Newsom “rolls back” progress, CapRadio reported.
“Now is not the time to add restrictions excluding people from access to life-changing services,” Huizar said. He also claimed that the present time is one “when federal agents have arrested over 1,600 people in Southern California, separating families, violating constitutional rights and terrorizing neighborhoods.”
Huizar’s comments came weeks after a series of violent riots opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) erupted in Los Angeles.
Lorin Klein of the Legal Aid Association of California warned that California’s policy change “just creates fear in communities that are already afraid,” according to CapRadio.
“The more we scare people, the more they go underground and don’t seek help,” she added.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Equal Access Fund alone paid for more than $8 million in immigration-related legal services in 2024. Another $10 million — also exclusively for immigration legal aid — was recently added to a separate program run by the California Department of Social Services, which does not serve felons, according to FAIR.
However, the amount of money doled out by these programs is dwarfed by the over $30 billion burden illegal immigration placed on California taxpayers in 2023, according to FAIR.
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