California Governor Signs Legislation for Undocumented Immigrants Amid Federal Tensions

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has been balancing a desire to push back on Republican policies with a need to cooperate in seeking federal disaster aid.

Two days after meeting with President Trump at the White House to seek disaster aid, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed legislation on Friday that authorized $50 million in state funds intended to counter the president's agenda.

Half of the money was dedicated to legal aid for undocumented immigrants, who have faced deportation threats from the Trump administration, and the other half was intended to cover additional state litigation costs as California spars with the federal government in court.

Mr. Newsom signed a pair of bills with no news cameras, bringing to a quiet end an effort he launched with vigor two days after the election. Three months ago, he asked state lawmakers to move quickly to defend the state from presumed incursions by Mr. Trump and called for a special legislative session.

The governor seemed to be positioning himself as a national leader of the Democratic resistance in the days following the election. But he has treaded more cautiously in recent weeks after the president threatened to withhold disaster aid from California. On Wednesday, he met with Mr. Trump for more than an hour in the Oval Office.

The bills signed by Mr. Newsom passed on a party-line vote, but proved trickier than first thought in the state's Democratic-led Legislature as Mr. Trump and Republican state lawmakers have tried to distinguish between the deportation of criminal undocumented immigrants and others they say they are not targeting for now.

Democratic lawmakers, in an attempt to inoculate themselves from arguments that they were using state dollars to help violent offenders, added a message to clarify that the state legal aid was not meant to help immigrants with criminal backgrounds -- a clear acknowledgment of Republican criticisms and the mood of the electorate.

Mr. Newsom also made that point in a signing statement. "None of the funding in this bill is intended to be used for immigration-related legal services for noncitizens convicted of serious or violent felonies," the governor wrote.

He encouraged legislators to pass a new law making it clear that this funding will be allocated based on restrictions in existing state law. Those restrictions prohibit people convicted of violent felonies from benefiting from state grants for immigration-related legal services.

Earlier this week, the legislation set off fiery debate in the State Capitol. Republicans argued that the special legislative session called by Mr. Newsom was an ill-timed political stunt that would harm California's efforts to seek federal funding to help Los Angeles recover from last month's wildfires, which killed 29 people and leveled thousands of homes. Democrats, who hold more than two-thirds of the state legislative seats, pressed the need to gird for legal battles with the Trump administration.

"Californians are being threatened by an out-of-control administration in Washington that doesn't care about the Constitution, that thinks there are no limits to its power," Robert Rivas, the Democratic Assembly speaker, said as lawmakers passed the bills on Monday. "I can say with clarity: We do not trust President Donald Trump."

Democratic state legislators had planned to send the bills to Mr. Newsom last week, but Republicans raised concerns that the legal aid could help defend immigrants accused of violent crimes. They emphasized that message in Sacramento the same week that Mr. Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which calls for the authorities to detain unauthorized immigrants who are charged with crimes ranging from violent offenses to misdemeanors such as burglary and shoplifting.

"The least you could do is stop spending taxpayer funds to keep violent criminals in our country," said Carl DeMaio, a Republican assemblyman.

The argument initially concerned some Democrats, and State Assembly leaders postponed their vote while they sought assurances that the legislation as written wouldn't wind up helping people with criminal records.

The rightward shift that the nation experienced in the last election was evident in California state contests as well. Republicans flipped three state legislative seats previously held by Democrats, and Mr. Trump won 10 counties that former President Joseph R. Biden carried in 2020.

Two of the counties fell partly in a Central Valley district represented by Esmeralda Soria, a Democratic assemblywoman. Yet she said she had no qualms about voting for the legal aid bill to support undocumented immigrants.

"When you talk to people in my district, they care about our local economy, and they understand that we need immigrants," she said. "Who's going to pick their fruit and vegetables?"

The legislation lays the groundwork for California to resume its role of jousting with the federal government. The state sued the Trump administration more than 100 times during the president's first term and has been involved in three lawsuits challenging his orders since Mr. Trump re-entered the White House last month.