California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has boosted support for illegal immigrants in response to the federal government’s escalated law enforcement and deportation operations under President Donald Trump.
The new support includes $35 million in existing humanitarian funding for basic needs and legal aid. The money is in addition to $125 million already allocated for “free” immigration-related legal services, the governor’s office said in a statement.
“While the federal government targets hardworking families, California stands with them—uniting partners and funding local communities to help support their neighbors,” Newsom said in a statement. “The urgent need grows as the Trump Administration accelerates mass detention, tramples due process, and funds authoritarian enforcement with over $170 billion. As the Trump Administration chooses cruelty and chaos, California chooses community.”
The funding will not be administered in cash payouts but instead will go to philanthropic and nonprofit organizations that will help connect illegal immigrants facing deportation to legal services, food assistance, and other aid.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican serving communities in east San Diego County, criticized the new funding.
“If you were audited by the IRS and found to owe money and back taxes, as a citizen, you couldn’t say, ‘Well, I want a free lawyer to fight the federal government,’” DeMaio told CalMatters.
State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach who chairs the California Latino Legislative Caucus, described the move as protecting families.
“We continue to stand in solidarity with our immigrant families,” she said. “The federal government is waging a war on our communities—and we won’t stand for it. We are putting money behind an effort to stop the fear, stop the separation of our families, and stop violating our basic rights.”
The funding expands access to U.S. support regardless of immigration status. Such measures reflect California’s long-standing commitment to immigrant integration, even as the state grapples with budget deficits and federal pushback.
Disputes Over Sanctuary Policies
Meanwhile, Trump administration immigration law enforcement efforts, including detention and removals, will cost $170 billion over four years, Newsom’s office said.
DHS data indicate that more than 675,000 illegal immigrants have been deported since Trump returned to office for a second term in January 2025. An estimated 2.2 million people have self-deported for a total of approximately 3 million departures. Each deportee was paid between $1,000 and $3,000 and had his or her airfare paid by the U.S. taxpayer.
“In the last year, fentanyl trafficking at the southern border has also been cut by more than half compared to the same period in 2024,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “The U.S. Coast Guard alone seized enough cocaine to kill more than 177 million Americans.”
Noem said the efforts have saved taxpayers more than $13.2 billion, partly because forced removals cost a lot more than incentivized self-deportations.
“Countless lives have been saved, communities have been strengthened, and the American people have been put first again,” she said.
California is a sanctuary state, meaning that it limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities in enforcing federal immigration law, save for those who have already been found guilty of serious or violent felonies. However, California’s sanctuary laws—SB 54 and the TRUTH Act—do not require state compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers for those not yet convicted of serious or violent felonies, so arrests and charges alone do not secure state cooperation.
ICE in February asked Newsom not to release 33,179 noncitizens with ICE arrest detainers from state custody. ICE said they include people previously convicted of murder, sex offenses, or drug trafficking.
“Newsom and his fellow California sanctuary politicians are releasing murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
The federal government has withheld more than $160 million in transportation funds from California over issues such as foreign truck driver’s licenses and frozen billions of dollars in other aid to Democrat-led states.
An appeals court prevented federal restrictions on commercial driver’s licenses for certain immigrants from going into effect—a reprieve for temporary workers. Los Angeles County has spent more than $1 billion on welfare for illegal immigrants over two years.
DHS on Feb. 23 criticized Newsom for pardoning a convicted attempted murderer facing deportation, saying that the governor is putting American lives at risk.
Trump also hosted “Angel families,” or the families of those who have become victims of crimes by criminal illegal immigrants, at the White House for a remembrance ceremony on Feb. 23.
Jody Jones, the brother of Rocky Jones, who was fatally shot by an illegal alien in California, said: “I’m sick and tired of hearing these Democratic politicians stand up on these podiums and say how sorry they are for seeing these criminal illegal aliens being ripped apart from their families.
“What about us? What about the American family? What about us? We mean something, too.”
Earlier, the president signed a proclamation declaring Feb. 22—the anniversary of Laken Riley’s murder by Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra—as National Angel Family Day, honoring 62 victims and two survivors of such crimes.
