California’s Democratic attorney general wants to stamp out President-elect Donald Trump‘s plan to deport illegal immigrants in the Golden State.
As the head of California’s justice department, Rob Bonta is the face of the state’s legal resistance, which will involve costly lawsuits, to Trump’s immigration agenda ahead of his second term.
“I want to emphasize that the California DOJ is here to protect immigrants’ safety, immigrants’ freedoms, and immigrants’ rights,” Bonta said during a recent press conference. “Let me be clear: President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda is draconian and his rhetoric, xenophobic. You can be sure that as California Attorney General, if Trump attacks the rights of our immigrants, I will be there.”
Bonta has been involved in California politics for more than two decades and has been the state attorney general since 2021. Bonta is a key figure in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) plans to “Trump-proof” California.
“My office will continue to use the full force of the law and every tool at our disposal to protect the rights of California’s immigrants — and we need staff at these critical locations to do the same,” Bonta said. “We cannot let the Trump deportation machine create a culture of fear and mistrust that prevents immigrants from accessing vital public services.”
California holds the largest share of illegal immigrants of any state in the country. A recent study by the Pew Research Center estimated that 1.8 million noncitizens reside in California. Republican lawmakers in the state who are critics of Bonta and Newsom have said the number is much higher.
“Under Gavin, he brings a magnet why to come. He’ll give them free health care. I mean, he denies California citizens certain things, but not to those who come illegally,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said during a recent Fox News interview before criticizing California Democrats for steering the state toward a projected $30 billion budget deficit by 2027.
“That’s why we attract so many, and it’s costing a great deal. We have a huge deficit in California,” McCarthy added.
While McCarthy said illegal immigrants are costing California precious resources, Bonta argued Trump’s plan to remove undocumented citizens is “fiscally irresponsible.”
There is no clear price tag on the president-elect’s goal of first deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and are in U.S. prisons, followed by millions of other people in the country illegally.
Republican-led states such as Utah have suggested deporting illegal immigrants could save money in the long run. Inmates in Utah prisons in the country illegally cost the state $16 million a year. Removing them from the country would represent a “cost savings” to Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) told the Deseret News.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimated roughly 660,000 noncitizens with criminal histories were in the United States in July. Trump’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, has said there are more than 1.5 million such individuals in the country. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has estimated there are as many as 4 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have committed violent crimes.
Whatever the number may be, California is taking active steps to sidestep Trump’s plans for immigration reform.
“In California, we believe our public resources, like libraries, hospitals, courthouses and schools should be available for all without fear of civil immigration enforcement,” Bonta said. “The model policies we’re issuing to public facilities … provide policy recommendations that may mitigate disruptions from immigration enforcement actions at public institutions.”
McCarthy described Bonta’s move as an effort to sabotage the will of voters in a state that shifted to the right during the 2024 elections.
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“What you’re seeing from this attorney general, he wants to be the Democrat political player, and he wants to make a name for himself, so instantly, he starts to attack a president who hasn’t been sworn in yet on policies that the American public has actually voted for,” McCarthy said, pointing to Lake County’s trend toward Trump, an area he said “hasn’t voted for a Republican since 1984, since Ronald Reagan’s big wave. “
“I would think these attorneys general should take a deep breath, listen to what the American public said, and understand that immigration was one of the major reasons why Donald Trump won, and it wasn’t a Republican issue,” McCarthy said. “Republican and and Democrat too.”