California migrants hunger strike spotlights treatment

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking a well-deserved holiday break and will return to your mailboxes on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

At various times throughout 2023, California was at the center of the debate about how states should approach their migrant populations. In June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off a political squabble with Gov. Gavin Newsom after taking credit for sending 36 asylum-seeking migrants to Sacramento. The capital city’s under-resourced response sharply contrasted that of Los Angeles, which received more than 900 migrants from Republican states since June.

And earlier this month, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to request another $3 million in funding for a welcome center that assists migrants. From September through November, U.S. border agents released more than 42,000 migrants onto county streets, as charities struggle to offer services.

Now, the latest disclosures about the immigration system come from Justo Robles of CalMatters’ California Divide team, who spoke to Jose Ruben Hernandez Gomez, a Mexican-born permanent legal resident. He is among the California detainees who in 2022 filed a class-action lawsuit alleging forced labor against the private prison operator GEO Group and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the detention of immigrants.

Then this week, Hernandez Gomez filed a complaint (a precursor to a potential lawsuit) against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking $1 million in personal injury damages. He alleges that in March during a hunger strike to protest conditions at a Bakersfield detention center operated by GEO Group, he was “violently dragged” and sent to another center in Texas, where he says he was shackled and threatened with force-feeding. 

From January through October, nearly 400 other grievances have been filed by detainees about California detention facilities, half of them about mistreatment and living conditions, according to a tally by the ACLU of Northern California. 

In November 2019, Gov. Newsom signed a bill in an attempt to ban private prisons and immigration detention facilities from operating in California. But a federal appeals court struck down the law as unconstitutional, allowing GEO Group facilities in California to continue operating under a $1.5 billion, 15-year federal contract.

Though he returned home to Lodi in April after 16 months in detention, Hernandez Gomez says that he is still “not free.” He walks with a cane and says he suffers from neurological problems, flashbacks and persistent nightmares, and often cries himself to sleep.

• Hernandez Gomez: “I shed tears, because how are they getting away with all this? I am a human being, I shouldn’t be treated that way.”

For more on Hernandez Gomez and his complaint against ICE, read Justo’s story.

Speaking of immigrants in California, the process for undocumented students seeking financial aid for college is about to get a tad easier, writes CalMatters’ higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn.

Since 2011, undocumented students could apply for state aid, but had to submit two documents at different times in the year. One document was a frequently overlooked legal affidavit needed to qualify for in-state tuition at California’s public universities and community colleges.

Because of the confusing paperwork, only about 14% of the state’s nearly 100,000 undocumented college students received any state financial aid in 2021-22. But with the passing of a new law, California’s student aid commission will streamline the process for the California Dream Act Application into one workflow.

Once the application goes live, students pursuing a four-year degree have until April 2 to submit their paperwork, while students applying to community colleges have until early September. (Because the University of California is exempt, starting in 2024 the university will ask students to submit the affidavits to the campuses directly, instead of through the Dream Act application.)

For more on this issue, read Mikhail’s story.

Mikhail also writes in his year in review summary of higher education that California’s public universities have been getting more money for financial aid and other needs, but still face financial challenges.

Cal State also continues to confront questions about how its campuses treat students who file allegations of sexual assault and harassment — an issue that led to the resignation of its prior chancellor in 2022. CalMatters’ College Journalism Network has written about this subject, and is now inviting students and others to share their experiences. Fill out this survey, which is also in Spanish. 

As for K-12 education, CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones says that in 2023, enrollment rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, but learning loss for students is still a work in progress.

Today, CalMatters puts a bow on its year in review summaries, now compiled in one place for your holiday reading. They cover a wide range of topics and try to take stock of a sprawling, dynamic and complicated state.

The summaries are also a reminder of how much happened in California in 2023 — and the many ways that CalMatters reporters, photojournalists and editors tried to explain all of it.

This year reminded us that California, a state of immigrants, can find itself in the middle of issues that start half a world away. A bill to ban caste discrimination in employment and housing emerged as one of the most hotly debated in the Legislature. Even though Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure, the author, Sen. Aisha Wahab, could lose her seat if a potential recall makes the ballot and succeeds.

Then, after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the debate over the plight of Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire in Gaza — and resurgent antisemitism here and abroad — divided California college campuses and put politicians on the hot seat.

The year started with the most diverse state Legislature in history, with record numbers of female, Latina and LGBTQ lawmakers, though still not at parity with the state’s population. There’s a new Assembly speaker, Robert Rivas, and on Feb. 5, a new Senate leader, Mike McGuire.

Another significant shift: The state went from two years of record budget surpluses to a deficit in 2023-24 and an even bigger projected deficit for 2024-25. And years of drought made way for a winter deluge that resurrected Tulare Lake in the Central Valley. Speaking of rebirths, unions roared back in a hot labor summer that included far more workers than in recent years and spanned a wide range of workplaces, including Hollywood.

But despite all the changes, the state is still grappling with deep inequality and pervasive poverty. That’s the focus of the final year-end summary, from CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Jeanne Kuang. 

Update: On Dec. 30., another ruling did allow the concealed carry law to take effect Jan. 1, during the state’s appeal.

Here’s one new law that isn’t likely to take effect Jan. 1: California’s ban on carrying concealed guns in a wide range of public places.

On Wednesday, federal Judge Cormac Carney temporarily blocked the law, calling it too sweeping, “repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”

The law was California’s response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 that dramatically narrowed limits on who can get concealed carry permits.

The California Rifle & Pistol Association sued to stop the law. Chuck Michel, its president, said “permit holders wouldn’t be able to drive across town without passing through a prohibited area and breaking the law.”

• Michel, in a statement: “California anti-gun owner politicians refuse to accept the Supreme Court’s mandate from the Bruen case and are trying every creative ploy they can imagine to get around it.” 

Wednesday’s ruling didn’t come from the usual suspect: Federal Judge Roger Benitez, who has struck down several California gun laws and drawn the ire of gun control advocates and politicians. 

What wasn’t a surprise: The immediate response from Democratic leaders. Gov. Newsom, who signed Senate Bill 2 into law in September, said Wednesday’s decision defies common sense and endangers Californians.

• Newsom, in his statement: “What is repugnant is this ruling, which greenlights the proliferation of guns in our hospitals, libraries, and children’s playgrounds — spaces which should be safe for all.” 

One Democrat, however, broke ranks. Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil of Modesto commended the ruling, saying that the law faced substantial criticism in her district. In a statement, she said “while we recognize the importance of public safety, it is imperative that we strike a balance that respects the rights of responsible gun owners.”

While Attorney General Rob Bonta quickly declared that he would appeal the ruling, it means another delay in California’s concealed carry rules. A very similar bill was supposed to take effect in September 2022. But it required a two-thirds majority in the Legislature — and it fell one vote short in the Assembly on the session’s final day.

As CalMatters’ Ben Christopher has reported, in the meantime, there has been a surge in concealed carry permits, including in some Democratic counties that had issued very few.