Newsom officials couldn’t confirm that no taxpayer money would be used to shield illegal aliens with felony convictions
California Democratic lawmakers suddenly canceled Thursday’s vote on their high-profile $50 million plan to fight President Donald Trump with no clear timeline for moving forward. The delay came as Republicans threatened to force a public debate on an amendment that would prohibit funds from being used to protect illegal immigrants with felony convictions from being deported.
The state assembly on Thursday morning was set to approve $50 million in taxpayer funds for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) to split evenly between the California Department of Justice and various nonprofits. The $25 million earmarked for the Department of Justice would bankroll lawsuits against Trump’s policies, while the other $25 million would bankroll nonprofit legal services, including deportation defenses for illegal immigrants.
Yet shortly after Democrats convened, they called an unexpected recess and huddled behind closed doors for nearly an hour before adjourning for the week. Assembly speaker Robert Rivas’s spokeswoman did not respond to the Washington Free Beacon’s queries about what happened but provided a printed-out statement given to reporters in the state capitol.
“In the Assembly, we are going to look closely at the special session legal defense bills to ensure they are airtight and protect all Californians,” the statement read.
Ahead of the scheduled floor debate, Republican assembly members planned to force their Democratic colleagues to vote on four proposed amendments, which were shared with the Free Beacon. Assemblywoman Leticia Castillo planned to introduce an amendment that would have barred any legal aid money from funding the deportation defenses for illegal aliens with felony convictions, according to assembly minority leader James Gallagher’s office.
During a Monday hearing on the $50 million plan, assemblyman Bill Essayli (R.) repeatedly pressed Newsom administration officials and legislative staffers for guarantees that no taxpayer money would protect convicted felons. They couldn’t give him those assurances.
On Thursday, two sources told KCRA that Newsom himself asked the legislature to change the legislation so it would be clear the money would not fund legal assistance for illegal immigrants with felony convictions. A Newsom spokesman did not address those claims in a statement to the Free Beacon, saying only that the governor “will take action on these measures when they reach his desk.”
“It’s becoming harder and harder to see how they could get a win out of this,” a Republican aide told the Free Beacon.
Newsom announced that he would call the special session two days after the November election, directing the legislature to develop a resistance plan. During Trump’s first term, California sued the president’s administration 123 times at a cost of about $41 million, according to a CalMatters analysis.
Both Newsom and Democratic lawmakers wanted to have the money appropriated and at the governor’s disposal before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Yet shortly after legislators reconvened in early January, wildfires began torching Los Angeles in the costliest disaster in U.S. history.
Republicans in the legislature called on Democrats to ax the special session on Trump and focus on wildfire relief instead. Essayli wrote a letter to Newsom, who was already facing criticism for the state’s failure to protect against wildfires, asking him to jettison his “Trump-proofing” plans for a special session to address the wildfires.
Still, Democratic leaders didn’t postpone their hearings until flames threatened the assembly budget committee chair’s district. Newsom then asked lawmakers for $2.5 billion in wildfire relief aid, which they approved last week before returning to their anti-Trump funding.
Under the existing plan, the legislature would send some $10 million for the California Department of Social Services to fund nonprofit grants or contracts for immigration legal services and removal defense. The department last year shelled out $37 million in grants to pro-migration nonprofits like Al Otro Lado, Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, and Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Free Beacon has reported.
Another $5 million would go to the nonprofit California Access to Justice Commission to expand its grants to legal aid groups. The commission’s top-funded nonprofits have included the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, which works to release detained illegal immigrants, and Centro Legal de la Raza, a nonprofit firm that sues to fight detention of illegal immigrants as well as landlords and employers over alleged violations.
An additional $10 million, earmarked for the California State Bar’s Legal Services Trust-Fund Commission, could help illegal immigrants as well. The legislature has designated this money for legal services for indigent people at risk of detention, deportation, eviction, wage theft, and more. The commission already sends money to pro-immigration nonprofits like the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Law San Francisco, Al Otro Lado, and the LGBT Asylum Project in San Francisco, which says its clients come to the city’s Castro District, a gay tourism hub, “to find a sanctuary.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
