From the Daily Caller: 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.
The Daily Caller points to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which states that the Equal Access Fund paid for more than $8 million in immigration-related legal services in 2024.
FAIR further revealed that another $10 million was allotted to a separate program run by the California Department of Social Service, exclusively for legal aid for non-felons.
“These are only a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $30 billion illegal immigration cost California taxpayers in 2023,” FAIR also reported.
FAIR noted that liberal pro-immigrant groups are now fuming since the taxpayer-funded legal aid is being cut for illegal alien criminals:
More than 70 activist organizations, in fact, sent a letter to the state legislature and Governor Newsom urging them to backtrack. After stating it’s not the time to “exclude more people [convicted felons] from accessing [free, taxpayer-funded] legal representation,” the letter stated “everyone deserves due process.” The illegal aliens excluded from taxpayer funding by this bill did, in fact, receive due process; that is, they were duly convicted of the felonies that make them ineligible for handouts from the State Bar’s nonprofit slush fund.
— Federation for American Immigration Reform (@FAIRImmigration) July 25, 2025
🚨 CA lawmakers are quietly gutting immigrant legal aid
A new budget proposal would block $40M in state legal funds from helping immigrants w any felony conviction.
Even minor offenses could now disqualify someone from deportation defense.
Read more https://t.co/fJpIomB9Ih
— Immigrant Legal Resource Center (@the_ILRC) June 16, 2025
Legal help in immigration court fades as Trump administration ramps up arrests https://t.co/K6jgZNMrkN
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 23, 2025
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