New California laws aim to protect detainees and make it more costly for ICE to operate here
on October 7, 2026
California will impose a 25% tax on private detention center operators under a new law recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as the state seeks greater oversight of the growing network of immigration detention facilities operating in its borders.
Newsom signed AB1633 on Sept. 29, alongside about 20 others aimed at strengthening oversight of federal immigration enforcement and detention facilities while also expanding protections for immigrants. The measures include a ban on law enforcement’s use of electric shock gloves, increased health and safety oversight at detention facilities, expanded public access to detention records and a new state law allowing people to sue federal officials for alleged violations of their constitutional rights.
The Private Detention Facility Tax Law comes as the Trump administration has intensified immigration enforcement and deportation efforts in California and nationwide.
“This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities,” Newsom said in a Sept. 29 news release. “We will continue protecting our people, upholding the rule of law, and making clear that if the federal government operates in California we will hold them accountable.”
Advocacy groups in West Contra Costa County and throughout the Bay Area, expressed support for immigrants who have been held in detention centers and said these bills allow for immigration-related services to flourish. One essential thing that detainees need is legal representation, said Shira Levine, deputy legal director of Immigration Institute of the Bay Area.
“Noncitizens with lawyers have much better outcomes than noncitizens who do it on their own. The vast majority of people do not have legal representation,” said Shira Levine, deputy legal director of Immigration Institute of the Bay Area. “I would hope that this bill would provide high quality legal representation.”
In May, the California Department of Justice released its fifth report on conditions in the state’s eight ICE detention centers, highlighting a 162% increase in the number of detainees in two years. When the Justice Department inspected the centers in September 2025, more than 6,000 people were being held. The report also noted that six detainees died in the centers between September and March, the highest numbers since the department started conducting reviews in 2017.
The DOJ observed inadequate medical care for detainees, overcrowding, delays in medical treatment, faulty building infrastructure during extreme weather, brutality from facility guards and standards of conduct violations that included guaranteeing nutritious meals, a tolerable facility and adequate medical care. Four of the facilities are in Kern County, others are in San Bernardino County, the Imperial Valley, Irvine and San Diego. Individuals who are detained in any part of the state can be transferred in and out of these facilities.
In an interview for San Jose Spotlight., Huy Tran, executive director for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, said many clients of the Fresno-based organization have endured terrible conditions in the centers, which the government has invested billions of dollars into expanding.
“This industry is built on heartbreak and AB 1633 makes it clear that California will not allow immoral profiteering to go unchecked,” Tran told Spotlight.
The law will impose an annual 25% tax on the gross income private detention facility operators earn from their California centers. Revenue from the tax will go into the Due Process for All Fund, which supports immigration-related services. The legislation is intended to reduce the profitability of operating private detention facilities in California and discourage companies from opening or expanding them.
It is unclear how much money the tax would generate and how it will be distributed to immigration-related services.
Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, who authored the bill, said it is intended to address the harms inflicted by the federal government’s immigration policies.
“These companies are getting rich while separating families and causing actual harm to our communities,” Haney said in a Jan. 27 news release. “That has a real cost, and Californians are stuck paying the price. This is not an abstract policy problem, it’s a human crisis.”
The bill will go into effect in July 2028.
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