California is about to put new restrictions on its legal aid fund often used by undocumented immigrants. Advocates are saying with all of the recent federal immigration actions, the timing couldn’t be worse.
Starting next year, immigrants with serious or violent felony convictions will no longer be eligible for services funded through the Equal Access Fund, a major source of support for low-income legal assistance.
That’s troubling for advocates like Bruno Huizar with the California Immigrant Policy Center.
“At a time when federal agents have arrested over 1,600 people in Southern California, separating families, violating constitutional rights and terrorizing neighborhoods,” he said. “Now is not the time to add restrictions excluding people from access to life-changing services.”
He said the decision “rolls back” progress to ensuring all people have access to due process when facing detention and deportation, while also punishing immigrants with criminal histories twice for mistakes they’ve made.
“Many people have already served their sentences, been released by a judge and rebuilt their lives,” he said. “Excluding people from legal support not only creates this two-tier system of justice, which treats people differently based on where they were born, but really heightens the risk of inhumane detention, wrongful deportation and permanent family separation.”
Lorin Klein is the director of advocacy for the Legal Aid Association of California, a statewide association of 115 nonprofits that provide free civil legal assistance to low-income people. These nonprofits are funded through the Equal Access Fund to provide civil legal services including housing, health and immigration.
“Not every nonprofit that’s funded through the state provides immigration services, but many of them do,” she said.
This is the first time restrictions have been added to the fund since it was created over 25 years ago.
The decision comes after Republican lawmakers criticized Democrats for adding $10 million to the fund earlier this year, and another $10 million to a similar state fund meant for immigration legal services.
According to CalMatters, Republican state lawmakers made efforts to prevent taxpayer funds from being used to shield immigrants with felonies, but were blocked by Democrats. Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said this showed “just how out of touch the Democratic supermajority has become.”
Klein said that sends the wrong message to undocumented immigrants after the state championed these legal services for years.
“Seeing this restriction come at a time like this when so many immigrant communities are under attack in so many different ways is really disappointing,” she said.
She argued that it also sets a concerning precedent that could lead to more serious restrictions in the future.
“When there’s never been a restriction placed before on who can receive services and suddenly there is now, only time will tell what other restrictions people might feel empowered to make,” Klein said.
According to her, the restriction won’t take effect until next year. That means grants from the fund for 2026 will carry the restrictions, but not those being distributed this year.
But Klein said she’s already seeing an impact, especially on the advocates that do this work.
“They’re extremely disappointed and worried about the future,” she said. “This just creates fear in communities that are already afraid. The more we scare people, the more they go underground and don’t seek help. That’s something we certainly already see happening.”
Giselle Garcia is a volunteer with NorCal Resist. The group refers immigrants to legal nonprofits, many of which rely on state funding. She echoed Klein’s sentiments noting that daily arrests by federal agents at Sacramento’s federal courthouse has made many immigrants afraid to seek help at all.
And when they can provide help, she said the new restriction will make it difficult for them to direct people towards help.
“Just as the government is targeting immigrants indiscriminately, our aid towards immigrants should also be indiscriminate,” she stressed.
Although Norcal Resist doesn’t receive Equal Access Fund grants, Garcia said the groups they refer people to often do. She thinks adding restrictions means more people are left without support.
“We always discuss how private attorneys on an asylum case can run between $15,000 and $20,000,” she highlighted. “When you don’t have a work permit, that’s really hard to get. And it’s hard for anyone, let alone an immigrant.”
Garcia argued that adding restrictions means more people are left without any support and continues the stigma of “the perfect immigrant.”
“It’s a political decision being made to further use immigrants as scapegoats for issues in society,” she said. “By allowing this rule to be codified, we’re saying, ‘There is a good immigrant and there’s a bad immigrant.’ We’re not recognizing that immigrants are less likely to be involved in the penal legal system here in the United States than a U.S.-born individual.
Garcia noted that immigrants coming to the United States face the exact same challenges as citizens, with an added layer of navigating society without status. She believes this restriction reinforces harmful narratives as ICE raids and courthouse arrests continue.
