SACRAMENTO — More than half a million Californians have been reached through state-funded immigration-related legal services and regional community support initiatives, helping families, workers and business owners understand their rights, find trusted resources and navigate increasingly complex immigration challenges.
As federal immigration enforcement intensifies in regions, California is expanding its network of trusted community messengers and legal service providers to help more people access qualified legal assistance and support families targeted by ICE arrests and detention. The state’s regional community strategy funds local coordination through Regional Hubs, connecting qualified, trusted community messengers and service providers to share reliable information and vital services, including qualified state-funded legal help for Californians who need support with their immigration cases.
Help is available
California’s investments support a statewide network connecting the State’s immigration legal services system and trusted community messengers to help Californians, including expanding focus on supporting Californians affected by ICE detention:
- Prepare and protect families: Access Know Your Rights education, family preparedness planning resources, and connections to health, legal, and social services and advice on data concerns and public charge.
- Find qualified legal help: Access immigration legal services, including assistance for people in removal proceedings and those in ICE detention.
- Protect workers and livelihoods: Find information and support for workers, and small business owners. .
Legal help may be available from nonprofit organizations. Visit Service Provider Contact Information or here for more information.
Immigration enforcement affects more than the person targeted for removal. It can create pain and costly consequences for children, families, small business owners and entire communities.
The 2026–27 state budget provides $193 million to support families with immigration-related services. This funding supports regional immigration services and more than doubles support for immigration-related legal services, with an expanded focus on building the capacity of nonprofit legal services and strategies to help Californians in ICE detention. These efforts aim to expand legal defense response to detentions, improve access to legal representation for Californians in immigration court, including a new “attorney of the day” pilot, increase legal capacity within rural underserved areas through immigration fellows, provide services for children, and advance a new pilot so more Californians have qualified legal support in the face of detention and deportation by expanding nonprofit legal capacity with trusted private immigration attorneys when nonprofits are at capacity.
Additionally, a new investment will continue the state’s leadership on supporting farmworkers by providing dedicated free legal assistance to farmworkers and their families. This initiative will also partner with the Labor & Workforce Development Agency’s worker outreach partners to maximize reach and collaboration, supporting more of this vulnerable workforce and their families.