California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a significant $35 million state funding initiative aimed at supporting undocumented immigrants amid the Trump administration’s extensive deportation efforts.
According to a press release, the governor’s office is distributing these funds, which were previously earmarked in the state budget, to assist philanthropic organizations in providing essential services such as food aid to immigrant families.
This financial support comes in addition to previously allocated state resources dedicated to offering legal assistance to individuals facing deportation.
“While the federal government targets hardworking families, California stands with them—uniting partners and funding local communities to help support their neighbors,” Newsom stated in the release.
He further criticized the federal government’s approach, stating, “The urgent need grows as the Trump Administration accelerates mass detention, tramples due process, and funds authoritarian enforcement with over $170 billion. As the Trump Administration chooses cruelty and chaos, California chooses community.”
A spokesperson for Governor Newsom noted that he has been actively engaging with immigrant families and community leaders to discuss the federal government’s intensified immigration enforcement.
“People are afraid to leave their homes, afraid to go to school or work, and unable to afford groceries,” the spokesperson told CalMatters.
California allocated the money despite significant budget constraints, as Newsom’s office anticipates a $2.9 billion deficit in the coming budget year, according to CalMatters. The state also limited health care for illegal immigrants this year to help make up for a larger deficit last year.
“When federal actions create fear and instability, our responsibility is to show up for families. This investment strengthens local partners who are helping people access legal services and meet basic needs during an incredibly difficult moment,” Kim Johnson, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said in the release.
Democrat state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, said the funding shows her party will “continue to stand in solidarity with our immigrant families.”
“The federal government is waging a war on our communities – and we won’t stand for it,” Gonzalez said. “We are putting money behind an effort to stop the fear, stop the separation of our families and stop violating our basic rights.”
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican, blasted the funding as “absurd.”
“If you were audited by the IRS and found to owe money and back taxes, as a citizen, you couldn’t say, ‘Well, I want a free lawyer to fight the federal government,’” DeMaio told CalMatters.
President Donald Trump campaigned on a major immigration crackdown and has since followed through with that promise through mass deportations.
In June, Trump signed a budget bill that included $170 billion for immigration enforcement, detention and deportation, an investment that aims to remove up to 1 million immigrants from the US per year over four years.
California state funds set aside for immigration legal services prevent money from being used to help people with serious or violent felony convictions fight against deportations, CalMatters reported.
California laws do not block state corrections staff from moving illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious or violent felonies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
“California will never be silent in the face of Trump’s cruel and unlawful immigration raids. We will meet fear and intimidation with courage and action,” Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas, a Democrat, said in the release.
