In early July, men who said they were immigration agents knocked on the door of an East Oakland apartment looking for someone who no longer lived there. They left with the man whose pay as a construction worker and mechanic covered the family's $2,000 monthly rent, the family told El Tímpano. He was deported to Honduras in September. Mutual aid groups helped cover two months of rent. November's is coming due.
Behind that door are a mother and three children, and a landlord who, she says, wants the rent paid in full. California has written several laws for moments like this. None of them pays the rent. Here is what the record shows.
At work: a call to someone the worker chose
Under SB 294, the Workplace Know Your Rights Act by Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes (Chapter 667, Statutes of 2025), every California employer must:
- Give a yearly notice of rights. A stand-alone written notice to each worker by February 1 every year and at hiring, in the language the employer normally uses with that worker when the Labor Commissioner's template comes in it. The templates are published in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean and other languages.
- Offer an emergency contact. Each worker can name one (current workers had to be offered the chance by March 30, 2026; new hires are offered it when hired) and can update it at any time.
- Make the call. If the worker asked for it, the employer must notify that contact when the worker is arrested or detained at the worksite. If it happens elsewhere during work hours or job duties, the employer must call when it actually knows.
A union contract can set these rules aside only in clear and explicit terms, and retaliation is prohibited.
At home: a guardian the parent chooses
AB 495, the Family Preparedness Plan Act by Assembly Member Celeste Rodriguez (Chapter 664, Statutes of 2025), helps a parent plan ahead. A court can name a custodial parent and a person the parent nominates as joint guardians of a child when the parent is temporarily unavailable, including because of an immigration-related administrative action. The parent can ask to end the guardianship once they are available again. The law also widens which relatives can sign a caregiver's authorization affidavit as a relative. Any adult raising a child at home can use that form to enroll the child in school and consent to school-related medical care, and a relative who signs it can also consent to medical and dental care, as a guardian could. It also bars licensed child care facilities and license-exempt state preschools from collecting information on a child's or family's citizenship or immigration status, except where state or federal law, or a state or federal education program, requires it.
Family aid: a CalWORKs grant that is not cut, from mid-2027
AB 1655 by Assembly Member Isaac Bryan (Chapter 742, Statutes of 2026) starts on July 1, 2027, or later if the statewide welfare computer system is not ready by then. From that date, when a child or other member of a family receiving CalWORKs cash aid is held in federal immigration detention, the county treats them as temporarily absent, so the family's grant is not cut for that reason. The rest of the household must still qualify, the detained member must be otherwise eligible, and a member held outside California must intend to return to the state. A written sworn statement from the family is enough to show the detention.
At the landlord's door: the bill that stopped in May
No state law pauses an eviction because a tenant lost income to immigration enforcement. SB 1243, the Tenant Protections for Immigrant Families Act of 2026 by Sen. María Elena Durazo, would have. As last amended on April 28, it would have:
- kept a landlord from evicting a tenant for unpaid rent when the arrest, detention or deportation order of the tenant or a household member cut the household's income or support, until at least 90 days after the hardship ended, once the tenant gave the court proof of the hardship such as a signed declaration (with a civil fine of up to $1,500 for a false one);
- let the landlord ask for a court hearing, at which the tenant would have to prove the hardship;
- barred late fees on that rent and the sale of the debt;
- kept the rent owed: within 90 days after the hardship ended, the tenant would pay it all or agree to a payment plan with the landlord;
- expired on January 1, 2030.
"By pausing eviction proceedings, SB 1243 gives immigrant families some stability and the opportunity to get back on their feet during an already traumatic time," Durazo told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in her statement printed in the committee's analysis. The committee passed it 11 to 2 on April 21. On May 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee held it, after its staff projected "cost pressures of an unknown but potentially significant amount to the courts." It goes no further this session, which ends November 30.
The Judiciary Committee's analysis lists more than 60 organizations in support, among them Bay Area legal aid groups such as Centro Legal de la Raza, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. It reports that no letters of opposition arrived in time for the hearing. On April 14, when the bill still barred evictions until 180 days after enforcement activity ended, the California Apartment Association and four other real estate and business groups had written to Durazo in opposition. The bill, they said, "shifts the full financial burden" of enforcement's effects onto housing providers, "many of whom are small, independent property owners." They asked the Legislature for "alternative approaches that provide targeted financial support to affected property owners and tenants."
Already the law for every tenant
- Immigration status is off limits. A landlord may not ask about a tenant's immigration or citizenship status, or disclose it to harass a tenant or push them out (Civil Code section 1940.3). A landlord may still check an applicant's identity and finances, and may comply with federal law, including federal rent-assistance program rules, and with a subpoena, warrant or court order.
- The clock is short. An eviction for unpaid rent starts with a written three-day notice to pay or leave. If the landlord then files in court, the tenant has 10 court days after being served to respond (15 days if served by mail). About 40 percent of eviction cases end in a default judgment, which a landlord can get when the tenant does not respond, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee's analysis.
Rent help: what exists, and what doesn't
- Los Angeles County has a program. In September 2025, its Board of Supervisors voted unanimously for an emergency rent relief program of about $30 million for tenants who lost income to the immigration raids or the wildfires, paying up to six months of rent, capped at $15,000, ABC7 reported. El Tímpano reports that families can apply regardless of immigration status if they document the detention, and that the Bay Area has no such program.
- The Stand Together Bay Area Fund, launched last year by regional leaders and the San Francisco Foundation, helps families who lose a breadwinner to detention or deportation pay rent and buy food. It has raised $3.6 million toward a $10 million goal and had helped 626 households by August, but donations have slowed and the foundation is scaling back what it gives its partners. Alameda County Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa Márquez gave $50,000 each from their discretionary budgets last year. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and San José Mayor Matt Mahan promoted the fund, but their cities have not put city money into it; Representatives for San Francisco and San José told El Tímpano that city funds were never part of the commitment and that the mayors pledged to help raise money in other ways. Lee's office said she raised $100,000 for the fund this year and is fundraising with private and philanthropic partners. Lee, who won an April 2025 special election to finish the current term, is on the November 3 ballot for a full term (her profile). All three cities pointed to city-funded efforts of their own, such as deportation defense, legal clinics and family emergency planning.
- Legal aid is stretched. Centro Legal de la Raza has paid rent help for families hit by detention or deportation since last year and now expects less than half the foundation funding it received. "We have a backlog of applications because we're running out of funds," Angel Ibarra-Nuñez, who co-directs the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership at Centro Legal, told El Tímpano.
- San Francisco residents can apply to the city's Emergency Rental Assistance Program for back rent if their household earns no more than half the area median income and is at the highest risk of losing its housing. El Tímpano reports that San Francisco's rental assistance is open to anyone regardless of immigration status.
What you can do now
- Workers: name an emergency contact with your employer, and keep it current.
- Parents: make a family plan, including whom you would nominate as a guardian. Legal aid groups can help with the forms.
- Tenants: if you get a three-day notice or court papers, call a legal aid group that day. You usually have 10 court days after you are served to respond in court. In San Francisco, the city points tenants with eviction papers to the Eviction Defense Collaborative.
- Landlords: a written payment plan can keep rent coming in and the case out of court. Do not ask about a tenant's immigration status.
- Employers: give the yearly SB 294 notice, offer every worker the emergency contact form, and know who will make the call.
This is a summary of the law, not legal advice.
