SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office next month, California lawmakers are also preparing for any potential policies that could negatively impact undocumented Californians.
Trump promised throughout his campaign to implement out the largest deportation plan in American history.
Earlier this month, the California legislature began a special session to "Trump proof" the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed establishing a $25 million legal fund to help California’s Department of Justice “defend California from unconstitutional federal overreach, challenge illegal federal actions in court, and take administrative actions to reduce potential harm.”
Ahead of Trump returning to the White House, Assembly member Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Redondo Beach, introduced a bill to protect schools and daycares from ICE raids.
“Students can’t learn if they are in fear of being torn apart from their families — from having to deal with these immigration raids on school grounds. So, this is a very simple but important proposal to establish these safe havens for our immigrant students,” said Muratsuchi.
AB 49 would prohibit school or day care employees from allowing officers to enter a campus or child care facility without providing a valid ID or warrant, and approval from the district’s superintendent.
“Children should not be afraid of coming to school, parents should not be afraid of dropping their kids off at school and so we understand that immigration enforcement needs to be happening, but it should not be happening at sensitive locations where children can experience the trauma of potentially being torn apart from their family members.”
According to the USC’s California Immigrant Data Portal, 20% of California students are living in a mixed-family status household. Muratsuchi explained there are several reported incidents of ICE agents arresting parents after dropping their kids off at school.
“We need to get ready. We saw this happen in Donald Trump’s first term and so this is round two of California vs. Trump,” Muratsuchi noted.
California is home to the largest undocumented population in the nation. Fatima Yesenia Díaz Díaz is one of the roughly 1.8 million people that account for the state’s undocumented community and one of about 200,000 DACA recipients whose future remains uncertain.
“I just like to just take everything with a grain of salt and just keep pushing forward and be who I am and work as hard as I can,” said Díaz.
The Sacramento State University graduate shares her mental health suffered when Donald Trump was president. This time around she says she feels less anxious about the president-elect’s promises to carry out mass deportations.
“There’s still that lingering anxiety because obviously it’s my future at stake, so I just like to keep it in the back of my mind and try to plan ahead for things and just be prepared.”
The 28-year-old Rocklin resident adds she’s doing whatever she can to stay prepared in anticipation of any new policies that may affect her. She recently started exploring health insurance options. For the time ever, DACA recipients are eligible to sign up for Covered California, which is the state’s version of the Affordable Care Act.
“There have been times where I’m sick and I don’t have health care so I have to pay for all of it out of pocket, so just knowing that’s an option for us now has been a little bit more reassuring.”
Republican lawmaker David Tangipa believes California should work with the incoming administration to shield people like Díaz from potential deportation, but he disagrees with Democrats’ approach to ‘Trump-proof’ the state.
“We’re moving this fast for something that hasn’t happened yet and yet, the real problems in California right now that I know people are thinking about is, ‘How can afford groceries? I’m struggling to pay my utilities?’”
Díaz hopes Republicans and Democrats can work together at the federal level to come up with a permanent solution to protect immigrants like her who don’t know a life outside the U.S.
In a recent interview with NBC News, Trump said he will work with Democrats on a plan to keep DACA recipients in the U.S.