California lawmakers bill to fight Trump’s deportation plans
California lawmakers have proposed legislation to fight US President-elect Donald Trump over his campaign rhetoric against undocumented immigrants.
Republican Trump, who defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the November 8 election, said he would deport illegal immigrants and build a wall along the US-Mexico border to stop them from coming into the country illegally.
On Monday, California legislative Democrats introduced two bills, which would provide free legal services to undocumented immigrants and help them in criminal court.
Two-thirds of immigrants detained in California do not have attorneys, which means they stand little chance of winning their cases, according to figures provided by the office of Kevin de Leon, California State Senate President pro Tempore.
"Throughout the presidential campaign and since, the president-elect has made many troubling statements that run counter to the principles that define California today," Kevin de Leon said in a statement.
"California celebrates diversity. We don't deport it," he noted.
The effort is the first major one a state has made to pass laws aiming to help migrants since Trump’s election, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute office at the New York University School of Law.
According to Chishti, both bills are likely to succeed as Democrats exercise control over California's state legislature and governor's office.
Meanwhile, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago mayors have also promised to reduce cooperation with federal authorities in their bid to deport undocumented immigrants.
Most - three million - of the unauthorized immigrants in the US are in California and most of these immigrants were born in Mexico, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants were living in the US in 2014 and undocumented immigrants from Mexico made up the largest share of this population, according to government data.
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