California Cut Health Care for Its Own Citizens and Now Wants to Give Illegal Immigrants Free Lawyers

California just froze Medi-Cal for its own legal residents to close a $12 billion budget hole.

Now Gavin Newsom's Sacramento is back – with a plan to hand free lawyers to every illegal immigrant facing deportation in the state.

That same government that told sick citizens there was no money just found a way to fund attorneys for people ICE is trying to remove.

The Bill Mia Bonta Doesn't Want You to Do the Math On

Assembly Bill 2600, introduced March 17 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), would create a state program providing taxpayer-funded legal representation to every California resident facing deportation – with no upper limit and no exclusions spelled out in the bill text.

California already spends $45 million a year on immigrant legal defense through its existing "One California" program.

AB 2600 doesn't set a specific price tag – the language reads "subject to the availability of state funding, the state shall provide legal counsel to every covered individual."

Translation: they'll figure out the bill later, and you'll pay it.

Bonta recruited a coalition of 60 organizations to push the measure, including the Vera Institute of Justice and the California Immigrant Policy Center – groups whose entire existence depends on funneling public money into immigration obstruction.

State Republicans pressed Bonta on whether violent felons could access the funds under her bill.

She answered by talking about due process.

The Budget Gavin Newsom Doesn't Want You to Compare

Here's what California did last year when money got tight.

Newsom froze new Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented adults and charged existing enrollees a $30 monthly premium – in a state that had proudly offered them free full-scope health care.

The state also cut $78 million from its mental health phone line, eliminating coverage for 100,000 people annually.

Dental services for low-income legal residents disappeared too.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office now projects California faces an $18 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year – a number Newsom's own team acknowledges could balloon to $22 billion in 2027–28.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) said the existing immigrant legal defense spending was "absurd" and put the double standard plainly: "If you were audited by the IRS and found to owe money and back taxes, as a citizen, you couldn't say, 'Well, I want a free lawyer to fight the federal government.'"

Illegal immigrants in California get that deal.

Your grandmother on Medi-Cal does not.

What This Actually Is

AB 2600 isn't a due process bill.

It's a deportation obstruction bill dressed up in constitutional language.

ICE arrested more than 10,000 illegal immigrants in California in the final months of 2025 alone – triple the pace of prior years – because the Trump administration is enforcing the law that Sacramento has spent a decade trying to undermine.

Every lawyer AB 2600 funds is one more obstacle in the path of every one of those removals.

Bonta herself called Trump's enforcement operations a "mass deportation machine" in her own press release – which tells you exactly what this bill is designed to fight.

California's elected legislature decided that shielding illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement is a higher priority than providing health care to the citizens who voted for them.

Mia Bonta just made that choice official – and California Republicans who want to hold her accountable have the receipts, the dollar figures, and a $12 billion deficit to make that case in November.

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Sources:

• Newsweek Staff, "California Bill Would Cover Legal Costs For Illegal Immigrants," Newsweek, April 8, 2026.
• Roselyn Romero, "Californians Facing Deportation Could Be Guaranteed an Attorney Under a New Program," The Oaklandside, March 19, 2026.
• Assemblymember Mia Bonta, "Nobody Should Face Deportation Alone," Official Press Release, March 17, 2026.
• CalMatters Staff, "California Expanding Services for Immigrants Amid Trump's Deportation Push," CalMatters, February 23, 2026.
• CalMatters Staff, "Newsom Is Set to Unveil His Last Budget. An $18 Billion Deficit Looms," CalMatters, January 6, 2026.
• DHS Press Release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE Arrests in California, December 11, 2025.
• California Senate Republican Caucus, "2025-26 Budget Act Highlights and Analysis," 2025.