News

Feb 20, 2026

Governor Newsom launches new state investment and philanthropic collaboration to continue supporting families under federal assault

What you need to know: Governor Newsom, legislative leaders, announce funding to increase mutual aid, and support local partners that connect families with needed services and other recent awards to provide legal representation to Californians facing deportation.

SACRAMENTO – As the Trump administration escalates mass detention and deportation efforts across the country, California today announced a collaboration with philanthropic leaders to expand legal assistance, help families meet basic needs and connect with help during a time of escalating fear and instability.

The state has heard directly from immigrant families and community leaders about their struggles. People are afraid to leave their homes, children are left without their parents, and families unable to afford groceries. Families are even foregoing critical medical care. There are reports of people being deported before they can speak to an attorney or be located by their family, as the administration expands long-term detention of families and longstanding residents who have no criminal history.

To meet this moment, the state is leveraging up to $35 million in existing humanitarian funding and working alongside philanthropic partners to help connect families to legal support, food assistance, and other essential resources. While the state's investment will not provide cash payments, the investment will allow nonprofits to provide in-kind support for basic needs. The investment builds upon the state's commitment, alongside legislative leadership, to protect immigrant families and represents the latest coordinated effort with philanthropic partners to meet the most urgent and emerging needs. California is home to many immigrant families, including American families with mixed-immigration status. They contribute to our neighborhoods, create jobs and support our economy. Supporting them in this moment strengthens neighborhoods and local economies.

While the federal government targets hardworking families, California stands with them – uniting partners and funding local communities to help support their neighbors. 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.

Governor Gavin Newsom

Through California's continued partnership with philanthropic organizations, the state is maximizing available funding and community support to assist families with basic needs and services that support their well-being. We appreciate our collaboration with the California Community Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Sierra Health Foundation, whose recent aligned and complementary investments total nearly $30 million.

This investment builds on California's broader approach to support families, and thanks to the Governor, Legislature, and community partners, includes legal services, community outreach, and regional coordination, to strengthen the local response to the challenges facing immigrant families. These efforts are increasing expertise in the legal representation of habeas matters to help release Californians from unlawful immigration detention, strengthening responses to immigration enforcement, and bolstering collaboration between local agencies and the communities receiving services.

Regional partnerships

Through regional networks of immigrant-serving organizations, the state is funding nonprofits to coordinate legal interventions for detained individuals, enhance regional collaboration and responses to harms caused by immigration enforcement, and connect families to trusted services.

This effort has already helped thousands of Californians with access to legal and social services, including through outreach events in various languages, legal consultations, and detention center visits.

"This is a time of great need for immigrant families across California, and meeting that need requires all of us to step up," said San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell. "We're grateful to be working with the Governor and partners across the state on this effort, and I'm proud that our donors and partners have already committed close to $3 million to Stand Together Bay Area, an effort to provide needed support to immigrant families facing the fears and realities of deportation. Together, across the state, we're making sure families have the supports and stability they deserve and strengthening the ties that hold all of us together."

"Federal immigration enforcement has created a humanitarian emergency in our immigrant communities. Through our Los Angeles Neighbors Support Fund, more than $3 million has been made available to more than 3,500 families struggling to meet basic needs, and we are committed to collaborating with partners across California to support immigrant families in crisis," said California Community Foundation President and CEO Miguel Santana. "During this time of unprecedented challenge, we must act with unprecedented solidarity, and we are proud to work alongside philanthropic partners, business leaders, labor organizations, and civic institutions—including Governor Newsom—to ensure all Californians have access to basic needs and due process."

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In the face of efforts to divide and harm California communities and families, shared vision and collective effort are critical. Working together, California's government and its philanthropic partners can combine scale with agility – ensuring immigrant families in California receive the timely and coordinated support they deserve," said Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet P. Hewitt. "Collaboration is how we close gaps, accelerate mutual aid, and keep families safe and communities resilient. Our Central California Immigrant Resilient Fund (CCIRF) partners with new and existing efforts underway in California's Central Valley and Central Coast regions to help communities mitigate physical, emotional, and economic harms caused by dramatic shifts in federal immigration policies. With a focus on access to health, nutritional, education and legal supports and services, CCIRF invests nearly $7M to support California's immigrants who reside in agricultural regions of our state.

This regional coordination also leverages other state funding for immigration services, including facilitating connections to removal defense attorneys through the Detained Representation Project for people who are detained and facing immigration proceedings, a service supported by the Governor and Legislature's allocation of funding from the 2025 Special Sessions.

Values backed by recent investments

Just this year, the state awarded $15 million to fully fund 33 removal defense organizations over the next two years, helping Californians facing deportation access legal representation. In consultation with nonprofit providers and legal experts, the state has expanded funding for community outreach and enhanced removal defense services by funding legal consultations and expanding representation for people in detention.

California has committed $125 million in recent funding to support free immigration-related legal services statewide, including:

• $75 million in ongoing funding for immigration-related legal services
• $25 million in special-session funding for legal services in civil proceedings, including immigration
• $25 million in one-time funding, including $15 million for immigration legal services and $10 million for youth legal services and case management
• $20 million over two years to support regional coordination

The state's investments over the years have increased access to immigration legal services. State funding is meeting the requests of the existing nonprofit legal staff. However, the current capacity of nonprofit legal staff cannot meet the growing demand. The state is making investments to increase capacity with strong removal defense organizations, and continues to discuss potential solutions with providers, philanthropic organizations, and others to expand access to attorneys and support families in the short-term.

"Our immigrant communities have faced unimaginable emotional and physical hardship. This partnership is critical in meeting the needs of our communities across the Golden State and connecting them with valuable legal and mutual assistance," said Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón. "We look forward to partnering with the Governor and Speaker to provide additional needed support, including legal services that our communities desperately need."

"California will never be silent in the face of Trump's cruel and unlawful immigration raids. We will meet fear and intimidation with courage and action," said Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas. "I'm proud to stand with our Governor and community partners as we protect immigrant families, strengthen access to trusted legal support, and defend the dignity of every immigrant who calls this state home. In California, we don't turn our backs on our neighbors — we lead with conscience, and we act."

The state will continue to meet with immigrant families, community leaders, service providers, schools, and local governments to assess emerging needs.

"We continue to stand in solidarity with our immigrant families. The federal government is waging a war on our communities – and we won't stand for it," said Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. "We are putting money behind an effort to stop the fear, stop the separation of our families and stop violating our basic rights."

"As raids continue throughout the state, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) immigrant families continue to live in fear, uncertainty, and instability," said Assemblymember Mike Fong (D-Alhambra), Chair of the AAPI Legislative Caucus. "Additional resources are critical to help our immigrant individuals and families navigate the legal system and receive other essential services. We appreciate the Governor's efforts to seek private resources to support families during these challenging times."

"When federal actions create fear and instability, our responsibility is to show up for families," said Kim Johnson, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. "This investment strengthens local partners who are helping people access legal services and meet basic needs during an incredibly difficult moment."

Economic impact of Trump's insane immigration policy

Trump's actions have a chilling effect – the state's economy is likely to contract later this year due to fallout from global tariffs and immigration raids in Los Angeles and other cities that have rattled key sectors, including construction, hospitality, and agriculture, according to a UCLA Anderson forecast.

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Earlier this year, the Governor met with business owners and faith leaders in the Los Angeles area to discuss the economic and societal impact indiscriminate federal immigration actions have had on their communities. LA County found that approximately $3.7 million in business losses occurred between July to September 2025 due to federal immigration raids in Los Angeles County.

Mass deportations in California could slash $275 billion from the state's economy and eliminate $23 billion in annual tax revenue. The loss of immigrant labor would delay projects (including rebuilding Los Angeles after the wildfires), reduce food supply, and drive up costs. Undocumented immigrants contributed $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 — a number that would rise to $10.3 billion if these taxpayers could apply to work lawfully.

California remains vigilant

The state announced a new online portal to assist members of the public in reporting potentially unlawful activity by federal agents and officers across the state. The portal allows Californians to submit video and photos, helping create a record of potential unlawful conduct by federal agents and informing possible legal actions the state may take to protect Californians' rights. If you believe you are witnessing a crime in progress, you should call 911 or your local law enforcement agency and report it.

California law is clear and prudent

State and local law enforcement agencies do not participate in these reckless and indiscriminate immigration raids. Their focus is on keeping people safe and preventing crime, not tearing families apart and threatening working people. State law requires them to cooperate only with federal immigration enforcement for people who have been convicted of dangerous crimes, including those leaving state prisons.

California has taken action, including enacting recent legislation to help keep people safe and push back against Trump and Stephen Miller's reckless "secret police" tactics in California.

• Schools: Families will be notified when immigration enforcement comes on school campuses, and student information and classrooms are protected from ICE — and require a judicial warrant or court order to be accessed.
• Hospitals: Emergency rooms and other nonpublic areas in a public hospital are off limits to immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant or court order, and immigration information collected by a health care provider is protected as medical information.
• Parent's Rights and Due process: Laws that support parental rights in the face of increasing family separations due to immigration enforcement. Funding immigration attorneys and assistance for immigrants so they can keep or apply for legal status, and have their day in court to prevent their wrongful detention and deportation.  

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