Overview

• Legislative leaders advanced a budget agreement that bars about $40 million from the Equal Access Fund for deportation defense and other immigration legal help for immigrants convicted of any felony.
• The measure widens existing limits on ‘serious or violent’ offenses to include all felonies, a change that could block aid for low-level crimes such as shoplifting or writing bad checks.
• Over 70 legal aid and immigrant advocacy groups have sent a letter urging lawmakers and the governor to remove the restriction, warning it will undermine access to vital civil legal services for low-income Californians.
• Democrats frame the revision as a response to sustained Republican criticism and shifting voter sentiments on crime and immigration policy.
• Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’s office says the budget language remains negotiable as it heads to Gov. Newsom, who has emphasized continued cooperation with ICE in felony cases.