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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislative leaders unveiled a new state operating budget that will cover health care bills for low-income, undocumented immigrants who are more than 50 years old. This is part of an expansion of Medicaid that aims to ensure everyone has health insurance. On Monday, the budget will be voted on in the state legislature, with Newsom likely signing it into a law before Thursday. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, an estimated 3.2 million people in the state will not have health insurance next year. Close to half of those individuals are undocumented, which makes them unable to receive full Medicaid benefits and other health insurance assistance programs. The Associated Press
Law Clinic Assists Immigrants While Providing Students With Interactive Experience
A new law clinic at Ohio State University is giving eight law students at the Moritz College of Law the chance to learn how to represent immigrants in legal proceedings through classroom time and real-world experiences. According to Laura Barrera, a visiting assistant clinical professor of law at Ohio State and director of the clinic, the clinic is also helping the immigrant community with free legal services. To face immigration courts, immigrants have to find one of few pro bono attorneys in Columbus or figure out how to pay for one since the government doesn’t provide immigrants with an attorney. The Columbus Dispatch
Colorado Gov. Signs Immigrant Farmworkers Rights and Wages
On Friday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a bill that grants thousands of immigrant farmworkers a state minimum wage, overtime and labor organizing rights. He also signed a law to create a state fund to assist immigrants with getting legal representation in deportation proceedings. With this new farmworkers law, agricultural business owners must give employees housing that follows pandemic guidelines, give them meal and rest breaks and limit the maximum number of hours employees work. “Colorado’s agricultural workers have been exploited for far too long in this state, and it’s well beyond time for us to provide them with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said Sen. Jessie Danielson (D). Sentinel Colorado
50 Florida Officers Sent to U.S.-Mexico Border
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced that 50 state law-enforcement officers will be deployed on Monday to assist Texas with U.S.-Mexico border crossers. It’s uncertain what these officers will do and where the money to send them will come from. “Typically, if someone would help us, you know, we would pick up some of their funding and so that is how we hope it goes,” said DeSantis. “But we do not anticipate getting any federal funds.” Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesperson Gretl Plessinger said in an email that the agency in charge of coordinating the efforts, still doesn’t have details on the mission. Bradenton Herald
85-Year-Old Immigration Activist Continues to Help the Community
Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, 85, is a Chicana historian and border, women’s and civil rights activist. She retired a few months ago — but it wasn’t the first time she did so. Back in December 1999, she retired as head of Pima Community College’s ethnic studies program. Then she retired twice, in 2010 and 2020, as the co-director of the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute. These retirements just gave Rubio-Goldsmith more time to dedicate to several immigration causes, supervise some grad students, and serve in advisory roles in the Binational Institute and the Justice for All campaign. Tucson.com