In one week the Legislature will kick off a special session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom to prepare the state for President-elect Donald Trump. CalMatters reporters drill into two particular issues where California’s policies could clash with the Trump administration: public health and immigration.
RFK Jr. and vaccination: California Democratic officials are already bracing for potential public health court battles over abortion, transgender health care and Medi-Cal support. But Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services — former environmental lawyer and controversial vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — could also affect California’s vaccination efforts.
As CalMatters health reporter Ana B. Ibarra explains, Kennedy has a history of making false claims about medicine, such as the frequently debunked assertion that vaccines are linked to autism. In 2019, he joined anti-vaccine activists in Sacramento to unsuccessfully oppose a bill to crack down on dubious medical exemptions for childhood vaccines.
These days, Kennedy has somewhat softened his mistrust of vaccines, telling NBC News earlier this month that, “If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away.” But if confirmed as health secretary, he could embolden anti-vaccine Californians who undermine the state’s public health policies.
As health secretary, he’d have the power to help decide whether to withhold federal funding that helps pay for states’ vaccination efforts; appoint members of an advisory committee that makes recommendations on immunization practices; and limit access to new vaccines.
Read more about Kennedy’s potential impacts on vaccine policy in Ana’s story.
Mass deportation: Advocates warn that Trump’s pledges to deport one million people a year — which the American Immigration Council estimates could cost taxpayers and the economy $88 billion annually — will threaten more than just undocumented immigrants, reports CalMatters’ Wendy Fry
Other distinct groups are at risk too: Non-citizens who have had brushes with the criminal justice system, including ones from decades ago; the roughly 1.3 million people in the U.S. who have been issued final orders of removal; and undocumented people who may live or work near these two groups.
Though California became the first “sanctuary state” to support immigrant communities during Trump’s first term, its protections aren’t as strong as some other states. State prison employees, for example, still coordinate with federal immigration agents about inmates in their custody, and Newsom’s clemency rate to pardon immigrants and shield them from deportation is lower than some previous governors.
Learn more about who is at risk under Trump’s deportation plan in Wendy’s story.
And as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal, Wendy and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on Wendy’s story on the anxieties immigrant families waiting to enter the U.S. are experiencing due to Trump’s reelection. Watch it here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.
