Newsom Vetoes Bill to Fund Immigration Attorneys in Rural California
Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have fortified a pipeline of new immigration lawyers to work in rural parts of California that are home to many immigrants but few attorneys equipped to help them.
The bill, SB 1194, authored by Central Valley Sen. Anna Caballero, would have codified an existing legal fellowship pilot program placing newly minted lawyers at immigrant-serving community organizations in underserved regions such as the Central Valley, Inland Empire and Central Coast, and pairing them with experienced immigration lawyers from urban areas who provide intensive training and mentorship.
The legislature sent it to the governor’s desk at a time when the Trump administration has ramped up immigration arrests in the state and across the country to new levels as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
Since 2019, the pilot program has received about $2.5 million a year, and the current budget provides $7.5 million — three years worth of funding — so the program is expected to continue operating for now.
But advocates say SB 1194 would have made it permanent and ensured the funding builds capacity in rural and underserved areas, which the budget language does not.
In his veto message on Sunday evening, Newsom said he shared Caballero’s commitment “to ensure California maintains the capacity to provide legal representation for vulnerable immigrant communities as arrests and detentions rise.” But he said that’s taken care of by the budget, which includes a total of nearly $150 million for immigration services, including the $7.5 million and another $34 million for nonprofit organizations to provide legal aid.
“As such, this bill, which creates an unfunded program on top of this work, is duplicative and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote.
Advocates who sponsored the measure said they were deeply disappointed that the governor rejected a chance to protect “a proven, community-driven program.”
The veto “underscores the Newsom administration’s failure to acknowledge grassroots-led solutions developed by rural communities and sends the message that these regions, and the immigrant communities that call them home, can be ignored without consequence or accountability,” said Jackie Gonzalez, co-director of the Sacramento-based Immigrant Defense Advocates.
Data show that people who have legal representation are far more likely to succeed in fighting deportation than those without. And a new report shows that where an immigrant lives affects whether they can find an attorney to represent them in immigration proceedings.
“For too long, the resources California has invested to expand access to immigration legal services have failed to reach communities in the Central Valley,” Caballero said. The fellowship program “creates a pipeline in the Central Valley for high-quality immigration legal services by training the next generation of lawyers to serve individuals, families and communities that need them the most.”
The pilot program began during the first Trump administration. So far, it has trained about 20 attorneys who’ve provided pro bono representation to nearly 2,500 people across 39 counties, she said.
California has the largest number of immigrants of any state. People vulnerable to immigration enforcement include people with green cards or other lawful status, as well as the more than 2 million California residents who are unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have lived in the state for decades.
Adriana Melgoza, executive director of the Watsonville Law Center, said that on the Central Coast, longtime agricultural workers have often been in this country so long they have not only U.S.-born children but U.S.-born grandchildren, yet no way to become legal residents. She said she’s also seen an uptick in immigration arrests in the region.
“Any arrest in our community brings fear for the entire community,” she said. “Children who are citizens are really afraid to go to school because they fear that they’re not going to come back to a parent…. We’re traumatizing our next generation.”
But Melgoza, whose organization was part of the original pilot program, said her area, including Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, is a “legal desert,” with a severe lack of immigration lawyers and a growing need.
“A lot of the clients that we’re representing in removal defense have options to fight their case,” she said. “But if they don’t have an attorney, people face straight deportation without even the chance… to exercise their rights.”
Nearly three decades worth of data on immigration court outcomes made available by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, shows that nearly seven out of 10 individuals who lack lawyers are ordered deported, while fewer than three out of 10 face deportation if they have an attorney.
The fellowship program not only provides three years of training for new immigration lawyers, but also assists nonprofit organizations in rural areas in developing their capacity to become legal service providers.
That’s key, according to Gonzalez, because it allows those groups to apply for a larger pool of state funding for immigration legal services. Those funds, administered by the state Department of Social Services, are only available to organizations that can show at least three years of expertise.
“The fellowship has been a resounding success by all measures,” Gonzalez said. “It has recruited young attorneys back home to serve their communities… and all of the participating organizations have acquired three years of [capacity-building], making them eligible to obtain funding that has previously predominantly only been available to larger organizations in wealthier metropolitan hubs.”
But this year’s budget strips out language directing the funds to historically underserved areas and instead calls for “sustainable, cost-effective fellowship strategies.”
With the veto killing a chance to enshrine the fellowship into law, Gonzalez said she fears the program could be reshaped into something “that no longer prioritizes rural communities at all.”
SB 1194 was one of an array of bills on the governor’s desk aimed at strengthening California’s support for immigrants at risk of deportation and exercising state oversight of immigration detention.
Newsom has until Sep. 30 to sign or veto the remaining legislation.