Indicator
Accessibility of Services:
A warm, welcoming place has a strong infrastructure of immigrant-serving organizations.
Each indicator page features a series of charts, insights and analysis, case studies, resources, and related indicators.
Insights and Analyses
The infrastructure of immigrant-serving organizations throughout California varies. In 2019, San Francisco and Nevada counties ranked highest in the number of immigrant-serving organizations per 10,000 non-citizen immigrant residents: 21 in San Francisco County and 14 in Nevada County.
Legal representation is the most important determinant of deportation outcomes. Yet across the state, there is an urgent need to expand funding and support to organizations providing immigration legal services to fill the unmet gap due to their limited capacity. At the end of the 2024 fiscal year, California had a case backlog numbering over 400,000 cases of the approximately 3.7 million cases backlogged nationwide.
In the past few years, California has expanded Medi-Cal coverage to cover more of the state’s immigrant residents who are undocumented, closing the gap in access to care for residents who have been historically excluded. Years of advocacy from a broad coalition of organizations has resulted in the ongoing expansion of the program, first to undocumented children (2015), then to youth under 26 (2019), and to seniors ages 50 and above (2022), and finally those aged 26 to 49 (2024). The state made history by becoming the first state to expand Medi-Cal coverage to eligible undocumented seniors ages 50 and above (this encompasses about 235,000 immigrants).
Expanding access to healthcare reduces the number of Californians that are uninsured. An analysis of the 2019 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that low-income undocumented immigrants have the highest uninsured rate (46%). Yet, when excluding Medi-Cal as a form of insurance, the uninsured rate increases to 87%.
The Food4All coalition has been advocating for the state to expand accessibility to food assistance benefits for all Californians, regardless of immigration status or age. An analysis of 2017-2020 data pooled from the California Health Interview Survey showed that more than 45% of undocumented immigrants with low incomes were affected by food insecurity. However, California’s Food Assistance Program (CFAP), the state-funded CalFresh counterpart that serves those ineligible for federally funded SNAP due to immigration status excludes those who are undocumented, DACA recipients, TPS holder, and certain visa holders. In October 2027, as a result of advocacy efforts, California expects to become the first state in the nation to expand food assistance through the California Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to all income-eligible noncitizens aged 55 and older.
Despite expanded access to care, there are some that still lack access to insurance. For those, the state of California requires counties to provide “care of last resort”. Public hospitals, community clinics, and Medically Indigent Adults (MIA) programs, although they are limited and vary across the state, have been filling in a gap by providing healthcare services to uninsured residents. County-based MIA programs, designed for low-income, uninsured residents who are not eligible for Medi-Cal, determine benefits and services, as well as eligibility requirements, including whether or not undocumented residents are eligible. See here for a guide on these county-run health care programs.
Amidst COVID-19, the California Immigrant Resilience Fund (CIRF), a public-private partnership with the state of California, was launched to provide cash assistance to undocumented immigrants impacted by the pandemic. The fund raised over $75 million and served almost 100,000 immigrants.
To address the needs of undocumented Indigenous immigrants, many of whom were ineligible for other assistance, Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO) created the Undocumented Indigenous Relief Fund, providing assistance for critical needs to families in Los Angeles during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of February 2021, CIELO had distributed about $1.5 million to over 15,400 individuals in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.
The San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (SFOCEIA) works in close collaboration with service providers to address the needs of local immigrant communities.
Since its creation in 2009, SFOCEIA has brought together various services that help promote immigrant inclusion in partnership with city agencies and local service providers – including free or low-cost legal services in non-English languages; financial and logistical assistance with immigration applications; fellowship and community ambassador programs; and efforts to ensure that San Francisco remains a sanctuary city for non-citizen immigrants.
Over the past ten years, SFOCEIA has also helped more than 11,000 people become U.S. citizens through its Pathways to Citizenship Initiative. SFOCEIA is also responsible for overseeing the City’s compliance with San Francisco’s Language Access Ordinance (LAO), which requires that all City departments that serve the public, provide access to interpretation and translated materials into any “threshold” language spoken by over 10,000 residents – which according to 2022 ACS 5-year data, includes Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin, and Tagalog. Under LAO’s oversight, City departments translated nearly 5,000 materials into these threshold languages (and nearly 1,000 materials into other languages); had over 141,000 non-English in-person and telephonic interactions; and served nearly 1,012,000 limited English proficiency clients in FY 2022-23. The LAO also provides an avenue for residents have to report agencies who do not adhere to the LAO.
According to OCEIA Deputy Director of Programs Richard Whipple, the agency’s success is based on close collaboration with immigrant-serving organizations, a dedicated staff committed to serving the city’s immigrant population, and community and legislative champions that move policy to support immigrant inclusion. For more information on the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, click here.
Photo credit: San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) needs to improve the care that it provides to immigrant children living with disabilities held in ORR-contracted facilities in California.
ORR is responsible for housing unaccompanied migrant children who are in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services. Many of these children are living with physical as well as sensory disabilities and mental health conditions. Under ORR policy, children should be placed in facilities according to their needs. As a part of Disability Rights California’s (DRC) work monitoring facilities that house and serve people with disabilities, the organization conducted on-site monitoring of nine ORR-contracted facilities throughout the state. In their 2019 report, DRC found that ORR does not provide adequate special education services, the agency’s services and assessments to evaluate a child’s need for services do not meet California’s standards, and children with disabilities tend to be housed in the most restrictive settings. In the report, DRC recommends a host of changes to the system, including a recommendation to ORR and other entities in charge of detention that they should “rethink the detention of children with mental health needs and other disabilities.”
In 2021, ORR opened up two Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) in Southern California for unaccompanied children apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the U.S. Southern Border. The two emergency facilities were located in Pomona and Long Beach, California. The Pomona EIS had a maximum capacity of 2,500 beds, while the Long Beach facility had 1,000 beds. Both facilities served to provide shelter, food, clothing, legal services, and recreational activities for the children until they were both closed for service. The Long Beach EIS closed down in July 2021, while the Pomona EIS closed in November 2021.
To learn more about DRC’s findings and their recommendations to improve conditions for children living with disabilities under ORR’s care, read the full report here.
Resources
Reports:
Articles:
California to become first state offering health care to all undocumented residents
California surpasses 90% internet connectivity, but low-income households still lack access
California expands Medi-Cal, offering relief to older immigrants without legal status
How one city closed the digital divide for nearly all its students
