A California state senator said Monday he plans to introduce legislation to prevent private corporations involved in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign from seeking certain tax breaks.
State Sen. Steve Padilla’s announcement came after a KPBS investigation last week found the owner of an ICE detention center in Imperial County, a local nonprofit called the Brawley Community Foundation, has avoided paying millions in property taxes through a state credit for charities called the Welfare Exemption.
In a statement to KPBS Monday, Padilla called the tax breaks “a breathtaking example of governmental abuse of the tax code.”
“Private detention centers engaged in mass deportation raking in millions in profit from the pain and suffering of families is not charity,” said the Democratic senator, whose district includes Imperial County. “Nothing about this is charitable, and Imperial County residents shouldn’t be forced to subsidize it.”
Padilla said his legislation would be aimed at ensuring that “no other corporation engaged in mass deportation can use the tax code to fleece Californians.”
The lawmaker’s announcement comes as the two agencies that signed off on the tax breaks, the state Board of Equalization and the Imperial County Assessor’s Office, face growing pressure to revisit those decisions — some of which took place more than a decade ago.
Last week, Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee Chair Jerry McNerney told KPBS his committee was reviewing whether the detention center’s owner should be receiving those tax breaks.
McNerney, a Democrat from Stockton, said the assessor’s office appeared to have “misapplied state law” in signing off on the exemption.
“A privately run ICE detention center is not a charity,” the senator said in a statement. “It should not be receiving tax breaks afforded to legitimate California charities.”
McNerney also urged the Board of Equalization to review the foundation’s application. The board oversees the state’s property taxes and has joint authority over the Welfare Exemption.
In a statement to KPBS, Imperial County Assistant Assessor Jack Dunnam defended the office’s decision-making process. He said they had sought guidance from the board and had taken steps to review the foundation’s claims every year.
But Dunnam said they were going to take a closer look at the foundation’s application.
“The Imperial County Assessor has requested a meeting with our County Counsel to discuss this issue, and we are preparing a request for a legal review of the IVGC property and their welfare exemption application,” Dunnam wrote.
John Taylor, a spokesperson for the Board of Equalization, said the agency conducts thorough reviews of every application. But he said county assessors have the final say over whether to issue the tax breaks.
“The authority to grant or deny a property tax exemption rests with the County Assessor on an annual basis,” Taylor told KPBS over email.
In recent months, California legislators have proposed a number of crackdowns on federal detention centers — including by imposing new taxes on ICE’s for-profit contractors — in response to the Trump administration’s deadly mass deportation campaign.
Padilla is the author of one of those bills, SB 941, which would ban private detention centers from marking up the cost of basic products they sell to detainees like soap, baking soda and canned food.
None of Imperial County’s five supervisors responded to emails requesting comment on McNerney's remarks last week.
But a current candidate for supervisor told KPBS the lawmaker’s comments highlighted “a deeply concerning disconnect” between state law and local enforcement.
“Senator McNerney’s assessment that the Assessor’s Office may have misapplied the law is a serious charge,” wrote Enrique Alvarado, an investigator with the Imperial County Public Defender’s office. “I will advocate for a complete forensic audit of all such exemptions to ensure as in this case that our tax code supports charities, not private contractors.”
Alvarado, a registered Republican, is currently running against Democratic incumbent Supervisor Jesus Eduardo Escobar to represent the southeastern reaches of the county.
Alvarado previously told KPBS he would also support directing county health officials to conduct regular, unannounced inspections of the detention center.
