Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) said she has introduced the Senate Bill (SB) 12 legislation to establish a new state agency dedicated to Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. 

State legislature started its session today at the state Capitol in Sacramento. 

As the first bill in her 2025 legislative package, SB12 would provide a permanent governmental framework focused on streamlining services, creating grant programs, and engaging stakeholders to enhance support for immigrant and refugee families in California. 

“In the face of an incoming Trump Administration that has promised to take hostile actions against immigrant communities, California must be prepared more than ever before,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “Trump’s promises of mass deportations and the unprecedented threat of deploying the US Military to remove undocumented Americans would hurt not only immigrant families, but all California families, our economy, and the cultural and social benefits that new Californians bring to our communities.” 

...

Read the full article on CALO News, here.