Resistance State

For some 164,000 poor undocumented California children, the ability to see a doctor for regular medical care hangs in the balance. Several experts predict they could be among the first to lose health coverage if the Trump administration carries out its promise to end much of Obamacare, leaving California to try to make up the difference.

President Trump appears to be dramatically softening his tone regarding a popular program for immigrant children, telling ABC News that the program’s participants “shouldn’t be very worried” about deportation.

There is already a ban in place that prohibits additional federal leasing off California's coast until 2022. But Obama declined to make that permanent, even as he ruled out energy exploration in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The Trump administration’s response is a big unknown.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles reports it has issued more than 792,000 licenses to undocumented drivers. Now California is preparing for the possibility that the administration of President-elect Donald Trump—who campaigned on a promise to deport at least 2 million people—might demand access to various state databases that would reveal the names and locations of undocumented immigrants, such as the one maintained by the DMV. But in a state where Democrats hold the governor’s office and supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, lawmakers say if the Trump administration does come knocking for such state data, their answer will be a vociferous “no.”

The President signed his first executive order to begin the repeal of the Affordable Care Act just hours after he was sworn into office. The broad order instructs federal agencies to roll back or waive provisions of the law within their purview. That means agencies can change, delay or bypass parts of the Act.