(The Center Square) – Candidates in the race for California treasurer and a Democratic lawmaker reacted this week to a plan to keep state tax dollars from paying for federal immigration operations.
State Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced County, announced a plan in recent weeks to keep California taxpayers’ money from supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state. The plan is part of Caballero’s platform as she runs for treasurer, according to her campaign website.
Caballero’s “ICE Out Plan” keeps state bond money from supporting immigration raids, detention centers and other activities from ICE. The proposal also blocks the state from financing companies or organizations that are involved in immigration enforcement or detention, and the plan require those groups to follow the state’s sanctuary laws. The plan also keeps California from investing in companies that own or operate private detention centers, among other aims.
Caballero and her staff did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comments.
However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had opinions this week about Caballero’s plan to keep California taxpayers’ dollars from paying for ICE operations in the state.
“As someone who spent a career enforcing the law, I don’t have patience for politicians who campaign on ideas that are already unconstitutional,” Assemblymember Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, told The Center Square this week, answering a question via a text message. “It wastes everyone’s time, all just to boost themselves out of obscurity in a statewide race.”
In her run for treasurer, Caballero is running against two fellow Democrats: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and current California Board of Equalization member Tony Vasquez. Retired businesswoman Jennifer Hawks, a Republican; David Serpa, a businessman and author, also a Republican, and Glenn Turner, a Green Party candidate, are all also running for state treasurer, according to the list of candidates for the June 2 primary from the Secretary of State’s office.
Under California law, the two candidates with the highest number of votes in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to the Nov. 3 general election.
Serpa, the only candidate to respond to The Center Square on Friday about Caballero’s ICE Out plan, said that while he had not read the plan, he believes that since ICE is a federal agency, it should be federal tax dollars that pay for ICE operations in California.
“I don’t believe that the state should be involved in a lot of things the state is involved in,” Serpa said, but added he doesn’t think a plan to protect state taxpayers’ dollars is a waste of time.
“The federal government should be concentrated on what the federal government is supposed to be doing, and one of those things is primarily immigration and protecting our borders,” Serpa told The Center Square Friday. “States’ money doesn’t need to be spent in this way.”
One Democratic lawmaker also expressed an opinion about Caballero’s effort to withhold state taxpayer dollars from supporting ICE operations.
“ICE is terrorizing our communities,” Assemblymember Lis Ortega, D-Hayward, told The Center Square, answering a question via a text message this week. “Californians don’t support that. So why would we pay for it?”
According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. illegal immigrant population jumped to 14 million in 2023 after two years of growth. The first half of 2024 saw record growth in the country’s illegal immigration numbers, but slowed toward the end of the year.
The year 2025 saw a decrease in the country’s immigrant population, mostly due to increased enforcement leading to more deportations and fewer protections for illegal immigrants under the Trump administration, the Pew Research Center reported.
About 1.8 million people in California are illegal immigrants, according to numbers published in 2024 by Pew Research Center.
ICE did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment before press time on Friday.
