Each year, thousands of California residents go through the civil immigration system without an attorney.
That often involves navigating complex legal proceedings and hearings, meeting filing deadlines, and following procedural rules, almost entirely in English, without the help of a lawyer. As a result, many people are separated from their families, friends, and communities, detained, and deported. Research has shown that people with an attorney are much more likely to avoid these outcomes.
A new law proposed by Assemblymember Mia Bonta aims to provide immigrant Californians with more support.
On Tuesday, Bonta introduced a bill that, if approved, would create a state program to provide legal representation to Californians facing deportation proceedings, with priority given to people held in immigration detention facilities.
“AB 2600 represents California’s chance to stand up for our values: a commitment to due process, dignity, and the principle that justice shouldn’t depend on what you can afford,” said Bonta, who represents California’s 18th Assembly District encompassing Oakland, Alameda, and Emeryville, in a statement.
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives defendants in the criminal justice system the right to an attorney. But that right doesn’t apply to people in civil immigration court. AB 2600, the East Bay lawmaker said, would virtually extend that protection to Californians undergoing deportation proceedings.
Legal representation makes a big difference. Immigrants with attorneys are five times more likely to win their cases than those without one, according to a recent report from the American Immigration Council. Another study from the UCLA School of Law found that immigrants who had legal counsel were 5.5 times more likely to obtain relief from deportation than unrepresented immigrants.
The law would provide state funding to public defender offices, nonprofit legal organizations, and private immigration attorneys. It builds on AB 1261, another proposal introduced by Bonta and signed into law last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which expanded access to legal counsel for unaccompanied minors and other immigrant youth in removal proceedings.
If approved, the new program would take effect in 2027.
More than 60 organizations sponsored the bill, including the Vera Institute of Justice, the California Immigrant Policy Center, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
On any given day, thousands of Californians are held in for-profit immigration detention facilities, where advocates have raised concerns about unsanitary conditions and limited access to food, water, and health care. The deportation case of grandmother Harjit Kaur, 73, who lived in Hercules and worshipped in El Sobrante, was one example of that. She told family members she wasn’t given water to take her medication with nor a bed or anything to sit on.
Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center, said the legislation would provide relief to some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
“Legal representation is a lifeline — and every person deserves the right to a lawyer when their life, liberty, and freedom are on the line,” Huizar said in a statement.
Expanding legal representation for immigrants “is critical to address the mass deportations, unprecedented numbers of people held in detention, and indiscriminate arrests devastating families, communities, and our economy,” said Abraham Bedoy, California policy and government affairs manager for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, in a statement.
