Immigrants selling food, flowers and other goods on California’s sidewalks will face up-to-date privacy rules designed to keep their identities secret from federal immigration officials.
The measure, signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, follows other recent state laws intended to protect students in schools and patients in health care facilities from President Donald Trump’s immigration actions.
Democratic-led states are adding legislation targeting Trump as he intensifies his deportation campaign by seeking to deploy National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities to bolster U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of people who are in the U.S. illegally.
In contrast, some Republican-led states require local law enforcement to work with ICE agents.
“The actions of states really reflect the polarization of the country on this issue,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports immigration restrictions. “We saw some states trying to cooperate to the fullest extent possible,” while the Trump administration others “did what they could to try to thwart immigration enforcement in their state.”
Lawmakers across the U.S. have passed more than 100 immigration-related bills this year, according to an Associated Press analysis supported by law-tracking software Plural. The measures are almost evenly split between those that offer protection to immigrants and those that deny them protection.
California protects information about immigrants
A significant portion of California’s urban street vendors are immigrants. Some have been caught up in immigration enforcement actions, in part because their work outside in public places makes them easier targets than people behind closed doors.
Street vendors in California typically require permits from cities or counties. The up-to-date law prohibits local governments from inquiring about sellers’ immigration status, requiring fingerprinting or disclosing personal information – including name, address, date of birth, social media handles and telephone, driver’s license and Social Security numbers – without a court subpoena.
The law, which will take effect Jan. 1, was prompted by concerns that federal immigration authorities could access vendor databases maintained by local governments to target and detain people.
“We’re talking about real security — security for businesses, security for people, security for people who have been through so much,” said Sergio Jimenez, a street vendor organizer with the nonprofit Community Power Collective in Los Angeles.
Other recent legislation signed by Newsom adds immigration status to a list of protected medical information and prohibits schools from granting immigration officials access without a court order. Another up-to-date California law requires schools and higher education institutions to immediately notify employees, students or parents if immigration officials are on campus.
Democratic states create safe and sound places for immigrants
When he took office, Trump reversed a policy that barred federal immigration agents from arresting people in sensitive locations such as schools, churches and hospitals. Like California, other Democratic-led states responded with laws aimed at creating safe and sound spaces for immigrants.
A law passed earlier this year in Maryland requires public schools, libraries and health care facilities to restrict access to immigration officials unless there is a court order. Nevada’s Republican governor vetoed a similar school measure passed by the Democratic-led Legislature.
Meanwhile, a up-to-date Colorado law allows, with some exceptions, civil penalties of up to $50,000 for public day care centers, schools, colleges, health care facilities and libraries that collect information about people’s immigration status. New laws in Rhode Island ban health care providers and landlords from inquiring about people’s immigration status. Oregon also passed a similar law for landlords.
States were divided over support for federal immigration authorities
In contrast, Republican-led states have passed numerous laws intended to strengthen Trump’s immigration policies.
New laws in Texas, Florida and Arkansas require sheriffs who run prisons to enter into federal agreements to have their officers trained to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. State and local participation in the federal 287(g) immigration program — named for the section of law that created it — has exploded from 135 agreements in 21 states before Trump took office in January to more than 1,000 agreements currently in effect in 40 states.
But some Democratic-led states refused to take part. A up-to-date Delaware law prohibits participation in the program, similar to laws already in effect in California and Illinois. Democratic-led Vermont also tightened its restrictions on participation in federal immigration programs and repealed a waiver that had allowed participation in emergencies.
A Connecticut law that took effect in October allows people to sue local governments that cooperate with federal immigration authorities in violation of the state’s Trust Act.
Community benefits are a point of contention
In Washington, up-to-date state laws allow workers to take paid leave to participate in immigration proceedings on behalf of themselves or family members and prohibit employers from using immigration status to coerce their workers.
But some Republican-led states have passed laws restricting benefits for people who are in the country illegally.
A up-to-date law in Idaho bars undocumented immigrants from receiving some publicly funded health care services, including vaccinations, crisis counseling, and prenatal and postnatal care for women. A up-to-date law in Louisiana requires applicants for public benefits to be checked for legal immigration status and, if not, reported to federal immigration authorities
Several Republican-led states — including Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Wyoming — have passed laws that invalidate certain driver’s licenses issued to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Discounts on tuition fees are decreasing
As of the beginning of this year, nearly half of states offer in-state tuition at public colleges and universities to residents living in the U.S. illegally. However, that number has declined since Trump took office and the U.S. Justice Department began suing states. The federal lawsuits allege that states violate the Constitution by providing in-state tuition to people without legal status but failing to provide the same benefits to U.S. citizens out of state.
Effective July 1, Florida has repealed its decades-old law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. The Republican-led states of Texas and Oklahoma both ended similar tuition policies after being sued by the Justice Department. Kentucky, which has a Democratic governor, also took steps to halt its policies after a lawsuit.
California lawmakers have sought to improve college tuition for immigrants through a first-of-its-kind measure that would allow community college students who are deported or leave the U.S. voluntarily to continue receiving in-state tuition while taking online courses remotely. But Newsom vetoed the measure earlier this month, citing “significant constitutional concerns” that the tuition break would only be offered to students who had left the country and not also to residents of other states.
A bill passed this year by New Mexico’s Democratic-led Legislature would have expanded study breaks in the state to immigrants who earned income or took at least two semesters of adult education courses in New Mexico in the last two years. But Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham allowed the bill to die without her signature.
