California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill providing $3 million in legal services for unaccompanied minors arriving illegally in the state from Central America.
The bill also eliminated what Brown called ambiguity regarding the jurisdiction of state courts to make findings necessary to enable the federal government to grant the children special immigrant juvenile status.
About 57,000 unaccompanied minors, most from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, have crossed the U.S. border illegally since October. The political battle over what to do with the children, ages 3 to 17, has complicated the debate over U.S. immigration.
“Helping these young people navigate our legal system is the decent thing to do and it’s consistent with the progressive spirit of California,” Brown, a 76-year-old Democrat, said in a statement.
Brown also signed a bill limiting when a school administrator can suspend and expel students for so-called willful defiance, and eliminates out-of-school suspensions for kindergarten through third grade. The author of the bill, Sacramento Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat, said the legislation was the first of its kind in the U.S.
Brown vetoed $50 million in funding for both the University of California and the California State University System earmarked for deferred maintenance. In his veto message, Brown said it wasn’t wise to spend additional money given “unanticipated costs such as fighting the state’s extreme wildfires.”
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