California lawmakers are moving to use taxpayer money to provide free legal representation to all undocumented adults in the state fighting deportation, even as the state faces a multi-billion dollar budget deficit.
Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D) introduced the bill, which would require the state to fund immigration attorneys for an estimated 2.25 million undocumented immigrants living in California. The legislation cleared its first committee hurdle Tuesday.
“Legal representation saves lives, protects civil liberties and keeps families together,” Bonta said. “This is a due process issue in California. People can lose their freedom, their family, their job and home through immigration proceedings.”
Bonta previously authored a 2025 law that directed the California Department of Social Services to fund legal counsel for all undocumented and unaccompanied minors. That program was projected to cost between $17.5 million and $77 million. The new bill would extend that mandate to every undocumented adult in the state, regardless of criminal history.
The total cost of the expanded program has not yet been assessed. Given the scale, analysts for the state Assembly Judiciary Committee recommended limiting the bill’s scope to detained illegal immigrants rather than all undocumented adults, citing budget constraints. Bonta rejected that narrowing.
Republican lawmakers pushed back. Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R) asked whether violent and dangerous convicted felons would be eligible for taxpayer-funded legal aid under the proposal.
Bonta replied that the bill is silent on the issue, focused solely on due process.
The bill would establish a new state administrator, likely within the social services department, to develop regulations and a phase-in plan. It would also set criteria for private attorneys seeking state contracts and provide grants to community organizations for outreach.
Immigrant advocacy groups said the program hinges on available funding and framed it as an economic issue rather than a response to federal enforcement. “Mass deportation policies target Californians based on the color of their skin, the language they speak, or their type of work, destabilizing entire industries and local economies,” said the California Immigrant Policy Center in a letter to lawmakers.
California has approximately 2.25 million undocumented residents, according to the 2023 Pew Research Center estimates. The state currently runs a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
