On Sept. 20, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a set of bills aimed at protecting undocumented residents, pushing back against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration raids that occurred across the state.
The new set of bills will require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to always self-identify and will limit its access to educational and medical institutions.
Several active bills, including AB 49, which prohibits immigration enforcement officers from entering school campuses without a warrant; SB 81, which protects healthcare spaces from unwarranted raids; SB 98, which requires schools to alert parents about immigration enforcement, also known as the Sending Alerts to Families in Education (SAFE) act; and SB 805, the No Vigilantes act, which requires ICE agents to always display identification and badge numbers; are currently helping to reduce stress for millions of undocumented residents statewide.
Additionally, SB 627, the No Secret Police Act, will go into effect in 2026 and will prohibit local and federal law enforcement from concealing their faces during operations, except for specific medical or fire-related circumstances.
This legislation protects similar rights as a 2021 policy by the administration of President Joe Biden, which prohibited arrests by U.S. immigration agents at or near schools, places of worship and other places deemed to be sensitive locations, later revoked by the Trump administration, hours after his inauguration on Jan 20.
This new immigration bill package was championed by the California Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucuses.
Leaders from both groups accompanied Newsom in Los Angeles for the bill signing, along with other state and local officials.
“The signing of this immigration bill package is a major win for our communities, delivering stronger protections in the face of egregious immigration raids and escalating authoritarian attacks on our freedoms,” said Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. “These new laws set important guardrails so that immigrant families can feel safe whether they are at school, at the doctor, or in their own neighborhood.””
In California, President Trump’s tactics have terrorized communities, traumatized students, disrupted businesses, and endangered public safety for Californian residents that fit the description.
According to a release posted on Newsom’s website, “the Trump Administration claims to target the worst of the worst, but has instead targeted hardworking people without criminal records, including parents of U.S. citizens, and even people with legal status and part of the DACA program, while also targeting children.”
These raids have concerned undocumented students at Delta, but there are resources on campus with intentions to support their educational journey.
In a separate interview with Tina Leal, program support counselor for the Dreamers Success Center at Delta College, she said that “students were more scared about ICE raids when they first began. Since Delta became a sanctuary campus, it offers resources and programs, such as the Dreamers Success Center, that help undocumented students feel calmer and less anxious about attending school.”
Alex Breitler, director of marketing and communications at Delta College said in an email that“the Dreamers Success Center has continued to offer enhanced services for undocumented students. Those services include ‘Know your Rights’ lectures and emergency planning workshops, legal consultations, counseling and ‘de-stress’ events to help students who might be feeling anxious about ongoing events.”
The Dreamers Success Center helps undocumented students feel more comfortable on campus and encourages them to self-advocate.
“Delta helps these students stand up and speak up by helping them create posters, plan events and help them advocate their message through safe protests.” Leal said. “Delta’s continued support services for undocumented students are important to help them feel safe.”
Not only does Delta offer strong support to undocumented students, but this new bill package will protect them even more,
At the signing event, Newsom further said that “these masked men had no identification, did not provide any information, name, badge number, hidden from accountability, any transparency and any oversight, That’s Trump’s America, but it is not the America we grew up in…and so we’re pushing back against this. It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie, unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing, no due process, no rights. In a democracy where we have rights, immigrants have rights and we have the right to stand up and push back”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to Newsom’s legislature with a press release, stating that the DHS “vehemently condemns California Gov. Gavin Newsom for signing the ‘No Secret Police Act,’ which further demonizes law enforcement from being able to protect their identities to keep them from being targeted by cartels, criminal rings, terrorists and doxxed online.”
The DHS’s release claims that ICE officers “clearly identify themselves as law enforcement” when conducting operations and are only “wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by highly sophisticated gangs.”
According to the DHS’s assistant secretary of public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, “ICE officers are facing more than a thousand percent increase in assaults against them.”
Regardless of the DHS’s statements, “four pieces of legislation go in effect immediately upon signature and one on the masking that will formally go in effect January of 2026,” said Newsom.
Delta has not taken a stance on this legislation but continues to advocate and show support for its affected students.
Breitler said “although Delta has not formally taken a position on the immigration legislation that was recently signed into law, we are very much engaged on these issues and doing whatever we can to support our students.”
