In the News

By: Jeremy White

Congress may be moving slowly on plans to rewrite the nation’s immigration policy, but California lawmakers weren’t waiting this year as they pushed a raft of legislation aimed at expanding rights for noncitizens of all sorts.

As the 2013 legislative session concluded Thursday, lawmakers put forward a series of bills to extend new privileges, some of which had been sought for years, to the state’s largest-in-the-nation population of undocumented immigrants.

By: Christopher Cadelago & Jeremy White

In the waning hours of the 2013 legislative session, the Assembly on Thursday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses.

The surprise 55-19 vote moved California a signature away from putting into law a measure that immigrant advocates have sought fruitlessly for years, with past attempts thwarted by legislative vote and gubernatorial veto.

By: Patrick McGreevy & Melanie Mason

SACRAMENTO — Laboring late into the night Thursday to finish their work for the year, state lawmakers acted to allow many more immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain California driver's licenses, a measure Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign.

By: Melanie Mason

By: Julio Morales

By: Tatiana Sanchez

California Gov. Jerry Brown joined Senator Ricardo Lara, D-Long Beach, and Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, D-Coachella, for a forum on comprehensive immigration reform Tuesday, hosted by the state’s Latino Legislative Caucus.

The forum covered the historical aspect of immigration and provided an analysis of comprehensive immigration reform from policy experts, business leaders and community organizers, according to Perez’s office.

By: Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Susan Eggman is having the time of her life and working hard at it.

Not since former state Sen. Patrick Johnston, D-Stockton, left office 13 years ago has San Joaquin County had such an outspoken advocate in the California Legislature.

Eggman, a 52-year-old Democrat, was sworn into the California Assembly eight months ago - and immediately found herself involved in leadership in Sacramento.

By: Patrick McGreevy

The subject was illegal immigration, and Ricardo Lara, head of the Legislature's Latino Caucus, was livid.

Lara, then a Democratic Assemblyman from Bell Gardens, wanted to grant driver's licenses to some undocumented Californians. A Republican lawmaker was objecting.

Some of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists used driver's licenses to get through security checkpoints and board planes they later flew into the World Trade Center, said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks).