Immigration
What Trump wants: He plans to repeal President Obama’s executive order granting a reprieve from deportation to nearly 750,000 immigrants who entered the United States illegally before age 16. He has said he would cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration agents. He plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico and says Mexico will pay for it. And he has discussed restricting the distribution of H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers, widely used in Silicon Valley.
What California has: The state pays for legal representation for children who entered the U.S. unaccompanied by adults. Newly introduced state legislation would fund legal representation for adult immigrants challenging deportation. State law makes driver’s licenses and in-state tuition at public colleges available to California residents regardless of immigration status. Many California cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Jose, have some type of sanctuary policy. The state law also prevents local governments from holding immigrants in jail for immigration agents. Construction projects in the state, including border walls, must comply with state environmental laws.
What could happen: Although immigration is governed by federal laws, state and local governments have some power “to protect immigrants in the Trump years,” said Stanford law Professor Jayashri Srikantiah. She said California could limit large-scale deportations by paying for legal representation and limiting cooperation with federal agents. Another immigration expert, Bill Ong Hing of the University of San Francisco, said state environmental laws were used a decade ago to slow construction of a border barrier in Texas and could be invoked again in California. Both agreed there’s not much the state can do to preserve H-1B visas, other than to lobby Congress.