Immigration in California (By the Numbers)

According to Pew Research, immigration ranked second, after the economy, in a top ten list of potential Trump voter concerns going into the 2024 presidential election.   For potential Harris voters, immigration ranked last.  Upon his Nov 6^th election, President-Elect Trump made immediate plans for the “mass deportation” of millions of undocumented immigrants and nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the Director of Department of Homeland Security and former acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Honan as “Border Czar” to carry out his plan.

Ironically, the US President responsible for the highest number of removals and deportations is still Barack Obama.  During President Obama’s two terms, a total of 2.53 million removals took place. In his last four-years in office, 1.16 million of those removals occurred compared to 935,346 removals during  President Trump’s four-year term.  This slowdown was perhaps triggered by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

California Jails and Prisons

In 2013, California designated itself a “sanctuary state” through the passage of AB 4 and then in in 2017 passed SB 54, the so-called California Values Act.  Under both laws, California law enforcement is prohibited from making immigration inquiries and do not cooperate with federal immigration officials (however, they may arrest individuals who have an existing immigration arrest warrant.)  Further, inmates who aren’t citizens may not be held beyond the expiration of their sentence for the purposes of removal.  California law enforcement may, at their discretion, notify immigration officials of an inmate’s release if they are felons or serious misdemeanants.

California’s county jails and state prisons hold approximately 150,000 inmates yet little is known about their immigration or citizenship status due to AB4 and SB 54.  The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) does track inmates by their country of birth. Of the 91,906 inmates currently in state custody, 20,235 have a country of birth other than the United States – although this, of course, is not representative of their citizenship/immigration status.  Of the 59,328 inmates held in county jails, even less is known as to their status.

Nationally, it is believed that illegal immigrants are arrested at a lower rate than the US citizens.  The Cato Institute conducted an eight-year analysis of incarceration rates from 2010-2018 and determined that illegal immigrant incarceration rates ran below the rates for legal immigrants and US citizens.

None of the studies reviewed addressed the social situation within the illegal immigrant community.  Because of their status, immigrants are unlikely to report being the victim of a crime due to the perception both real and imagined that any encounter with law enforcement can result in deportation, the potential loss of work and family separation.  This creates a scenario wherein victims are highly susceptible to victimization as perpetrators, who are often illegal immigrants themselves, are aware that they are unlikely to be caught and prosecuted.   Immigrants are, in fact, perfect victims.  This reality has possibly influenced both the statistics and perception that illegal immigrants are less criminally oriented.

Schools and Universities

California’s public schools are also prohibited by law from inquiring as to the citizenship or immigration status of students who come to enroll.  In 2022, for the 2022/23 academic year 165,293 immigrant students were enrolled from a remarkably diverse cross section of countries of origin. Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador represent 38 percent at 62,811 enrolled but many nationalities are represented.  This creates an instructional challenge as dozens of languages are represented in this population.  By far, the largest body of foreign-born students are enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which numbers 27,518 immigrants amongst its student body.   A scant $150.83 in additional per student funds is made available through the Title III ESL program.

California’s school spending per student is a complex calculation based on a variety of criteria and student needs.  But a rough calculation of $23,500 per student means that immigrant K-12 education costs are approximately $3.8 billion.

The Higher Education Immigration Portal reports that California enrolls 86,805 undocumented students in its various colleges and universities. Of those, 32,296 are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) eligible and 54,509 are not.  Approximately 14,000 undocumented high school seniors graduate every year.

In general, legal immigrant students fare very well at colleges and universities while undocumented immigrants do not.

California Values

California voters frustrated by lack of action by the Governor and the legislature  have taken matters into their own hands.  They passed Prop 36 to amend Prop 47 in an effort to reduce crime; they have twice defeated measures to end cash bail; and they defeated an unopposed ballot proposition to end mandatory inmate labor.

After the election, Gov. Newsom convened a special session of the state legislature to “…focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families.”  Yet he vetoed bills that would extend to undocumented immigrants unemployment benefits, provide for home loans, and allow undocumented college and university students to be employed in on-campus jobs.

In 2020 President Biden garnered over 11.1 million votes in California and in 2024 Kamala Harris received just over 8.9 million, a decisive victory, but a declining one historically.  The Pew poll mentioned earlier stated that immigration was last amongst the priorities of likely Harris voters nationally.  In California, immigration was third.

Steve Smith is a senior fellow in urban studies at the Pacific Research Institute.