Faith, Labor, and Community Leaders and Elected Officials Rally at the Capitol Urging Governor Newsom to Sign AB 2465 and AB 1633<\/p>\n
Sacramento, Calif. (Sept. 8, 2026) \u2014 Faith leaders, labor leaders, elected officials, co-sponsors, and community members gathered at the California State Capitol today calling on Governor Newsom to sign AB 2465 (Ortega) and AB 1633 (Haney) \u2014 two landmark bills that would use California\u2019s tax code to hold corporations accountable for profiting from immigration detentions and deportations. Following the press conference, faith leaders led a procession from the West Steps to the Governor\u2019s Office to hand-deliver postcards from thousands of constituents across the state urging his signature.<\/p>\n
AB 2465 would make corporations that profit from immigration detention and deportation ineligible for state tax credits, grants, and loans. AB 1633 would tax for-profit corporations that operate private detention facilities in California at a 25% rate. Both bills would reinvest the resulting funds into immigrant communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing all this for profit \u2014 keeping children in cages, locking innocent people up, denying them care \u2014 so that people who are already rich can get even richer,\u201d said Assemblymember Liz Ortega, author of AB 2465.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, ICE has fueled a system that profits from human suffering and family separation, outsourcing detention to private corporations who rake in profits while people endure dangerous, inhumane conditions,\u201d said Assemblymember Matt Haney, author of AB 1633. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing across the country shows the real-world consequences of ICE\u2019s unchecked power, putting communities and lives at risk for profit with zero accountability. Corporations running these facilities are being paid hundreds of millions to detain people in cruelty right here in California, and it has to end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was a teenager, ICE detained my father in a private detention facility, and my family lost everything \u2014 our home, our stability, our sense of safety,\u201d said Bruno Huizar, Supervising Policy Manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC). \u201cAB 2465 and AB 1633 are landmark bills that send a clear message: health and safety should always come before corporate profit. We urge Governor Newsom to sign them and stand with immigrant communities \u2014 not the corporations profiting from their detention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia children belong in classrooms, not detention centers \u2014 and no child should go to school wondering if their parent will be there when they get home,\u201d said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. \u201cWe have seen a six-year-old Deaf student deported without the assistive devices he relies on, and students devastated when their parents are detained or deported. California must stand with immigrant families, not corporations that profit from separating them. I urge Governor Newsom to sign AB 1633 and AB 2465.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living in fear, enduring traumatic family separations, and worrying in silence. In Trump\u2019s first year back in office, ICE arrests of AAPIs in California jumped ten times from prior years. And of course my community is not alone, overall ICE arrests in California increased by 386% \u2014 that\u2019s 27,000\u00a0 people separated from their families. In addition to all of us here today, we carry the voices of the thousands of California residents who have joined We Are CA, and who signed postcards letting Governor Gavin Newsom know we want our families and communities to be free from ICE terror, and we should refuse to subsidize corporations that profit from detention and deportation,\u201d said Timmy Lu, Executive Director of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment and We Are California leadership.<\/p>\n
As immigration enforcement and detention have intensified across California and the country, private corporations have seen massive profits from family separation while contributing little in state taxes \u2014 leaving immigrant families and their communities to absorb the harm. Four people have died at the GEO Group-operated Adelanto ICE Processing Center between September 2025 and March 2026, and ICE failed to follow a federal judge\u2019s July order to provide clean drinking water, adequate medical care, and mold remediation, among other basic conditions.<\/p>\n
AB 2465 and AB 1633 would be landmark laws that use a state\u2019s tax system to hold corporations like GEO Group accountable and reinvest in the communities they\u2019ve harmed \u2014 building on California\u2019s responsibility to protect families and the common good.<\/p>\n
Livestream recording is available here<\/a> or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n