(The Center Square) – Gov. Gavin Newsom early Tuesday signed several bills to protect California’s immigrants, crack down on private jails and prisons, and keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers out of the state’s police departments.
The package of bills, 21 in all, were all authored by Democratic lawmakers this year. Newsom’s office said in a press release sent out early Tuesday that the bills were in response to the increased immigration enforcement crackdown by the Trump administration.
“We may not be able to dictate federal immigration enforcement policy, but we can make clear that activities taking place in California will be subject to California law,” Newsom said in a video message sent by his office. “So today, I signed a number of bills to strengthen transparency, strengthen accountability and oversight around federal immigration enforcement and civil detention in our state.”
Newsom’s office declined to comment beyond the press release sent on Tuesday.
A number of bills, including one by Sen. Maria Durazo, D-Los Angeles, targeted private detention facilities in the state. Durazo’s legislation, Senate Bill 1399, removed a sunset clause that would have repealed a requirement that the California attorney general review private detention facilities throughout the state where immigrants are detained, according to a legislative analysis.
The bill was introduced to push for state oversight of privately-owned detention centers following a California Department of Justice reportshowing that six people detained in those facilities died in custody between September 2025 and March 2026, following worsening conditions. The report was the fifth such study detailing conditions in private detentions operated in California.
“Gov. Newsom's signature on SB 1399 is a historical moment for California and makes it clear that the state will inspect detention facilities, document, and report it to the public for transparency,” Durazo told The Center Square on Tuesday. “Cal DOJ's five reports under AB 103 have documented deaths, inadequate care, and conditions that fail even the federal government's own standards. These reports have shined a light into a very dark place. SB 1399 makes sure that light stays on.”
A similar bill authored by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, requires the California attorney general to submit a report to the state Legislature detailing an oversight plan for private detention facilities in the state.
“Accountability and protecting Californians are at the heart of SB 957,” Pérez told The Center Square via email on Tuesday. “This new law will require the state, under the direction of the Attorney General, to identify the most effective ways for California to create meaningful oversight of privately-operated facilities and end the cruel conditions happening inside. No human should have to endure eating moldy food, drinking dirty water or being denied medical care.”
Other notable legislation, including a bill that bans electric shock gloves often worn by law enforcement, also were signed into law on Tuesday, along with bills prohibiting state property from being used in immigration enforcement, protecting the rights of immigrant detainees, keeping ICE officers from getting jobs in local and state law enforcement agencies in California, and imposing taxes on private detention facilities.
Assembly Bill 1633, by Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would impose a tax on private detention facility operators equal to 50% of that operator’s gross receipts from operating private detention facilities in the state, according to a legislative analysis.
That bill was opposed by conservative group SFV Alliance, which said in opposing arguments submitted as part of the legislative analysis that the bill could potentially spur those facilities to leave California.
“Forcing detention centers out of state will make the detention center farther from loved ones to either visit and or check in on the person being detained,” the organization said in its opposing arguments. “It will also make it harder and more expensive for California lawyers and representatives to do in-person representation, possibly forcing those lawyers to do remote representation.”
The Center Square reached out to Republican lawmakers for this story, who did not respond before publication time on Tuesday.
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