Immigration

The state already pays some legal bills in immigration court – but not for those with serious or violent felony records. If they can’t afford a lawyer, they face deportation alone. Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer says that’s not due process.

The controversial construction of a taller border fence at Friendship Park at the California-Mexico border began this week. If completed, a once beautiful vista filled with joy, family and togetherness could become an ugly metaphor for U.S. immigration policy.

January’s rains flooded farm fields and orchards. Many California farmworkers lost weeks of pay. Advocates say the state should help them weather such crises. A leading proposal would pay $300 a week to undocumented workers.

Seven years after the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act gave undocumented residents a license to drive, the state is ready to expand its impact, but the law still has detractors.

The Supreme Court is keeping in place, for now, Title 42 — the pandemic policy that OK’d migrant expulsions. California has yet to figure out how to meet the needs of an influx of migrants when it does go away, especially given that the state is confronting a projected budget deficit of $24 billion for the next fiscal year.

Two days before deadline, after vetoing a similar bill last year and resisting months of marches, vigils and posturing, including a note from President Biden, Newsom changed his mind on a farmworker labor bill.

Migrant survivors of gender-based violence require care and community support.

California will offer food assistance to undocumented people over 55. Advocates want more. They say younger people need help, too.

California's undocumented immigrants risked themselves working during pandemic. Lawmakers want to pay them unemployment benefits.

California must show the nation a way that offers complete democratic participation, inclusion and a narrative of “Belonging.” Here’s how: