Nguyen added that she also worried that any new requirement to screen clients’ criminal histories would create an administrative burden on already stretched legal clinics.
Hamid Yazdan Panah, who leads Immigrant Defense Advocates, said he was frustrated that Democratic lawmakers opted to include what he called a “criminalizing exemption.”
“If they spent more time understanding the importance of legal resources, they would understand that it ultimately helps our state to invest in legal infrastructure and protect due process, especially when it’s being attacked in the manner that we see right now in the streets in L.A.,” he said. “The majority of the funding goes to long-term California residents. And California reaps the benefits of keeping households together and having a strong immigrant workforce that has work permits.”
Panah said he’s also worried that the syntax of the bill is sloppy, fearing that the language could be interpreted to mean that the funds may not be used to provide deportation defense for anyone at all.
Legislative staffers say that’s not the intention.
Though the Legislature is required to pass the budget by June 15, there are still two weeks in which they are expected to hammer out final language in talks with the governor before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
“The Legislature doubled down on investments in legal aid this year, because immigrant workers, students and parents need support more than ever in the face of Trump’s raids and terror,” said Nick Miller, communications director for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. “The Governor’s message from January regarding aid and felons, and any draft language, will be discussed during ongoing budget negotiations.”
In 2024, roughly $8 million of the Equal Access Fund was spent on immigration legal services, and of the nearly 42,000 low-income Californians who got legal help, more than 11,000 were immigration clients, according to State Bar officials. Additional funds for immigration legal aid flow through the state Department of Social Services.
One of the nonprofits that receives funding from the Equal Access program is the Oakland-based California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. Co-Executive Director Lisa Knox urged lawmakers to remove the restriction and once again allow groups like hers to serve anyone who needs a lawyer to fight deportation or apply for protection.
“Legal representation is the most important factor in whether someone facing deportation is able to remain in their community with their family,” she said. “At a time when the Trump administration is sending in the military to make sure ICE can violently detain as many people as possible in California, it is unconscionable that our state Legislature would pull the rug out from under people who need legal representation.”
