Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a package of California laws intended to restrict the tactics of federal immigration agents, expose them to civil lawsuits and widen state oversight of immigrant detention centers.

The signing comes as President Donald Trump’s deportation program escalates, with weekly immigration arrests reaching new records across California, CalMatters reported. The program has detained more than 38,000 people in the state since February 2025, and the federal government has bought detention facilities, in part to avoid scrutiny from local governments.

“This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities,” Newsom said in a written statement. “We will continue protecting our people, upholding the rule of law, and making clear that if the federal government operates in California, we will hold them accountable.”

The most sweeping measure, Senate Bill 747, would allow anyone to sue federal agents for violations of their constitutional rights. Under federal law, people suing US government agents can now seek relief only through a “Bivens” action, named for a 1971 Supreme Court case in which a man successfully sued drug enforcement agents who violated his Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure.

Supporters call the measure the No Kings Act and say it “closes that accountability gap (by) providing for a clear statutory pathway to sue any official — federal, state, or local — who violates the Constitution.”

“ICE and Border Patrol have terrorized California communities with impunity. That ends today,” said State Senator Scott Wiener, the San Francisco Democrat who wrote the law, in a written statement.

Opponents of the law, including dozens of California law enforcement agencies, argue it is unnecessary and will “promote second-guessing of a public employee’s actions made in good faith,” according to CalMatters.

The conduct of immigration agents is at the center of court battles between California and the Trump administration. The January fatal shootings of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were protesting the deportation program in Minneapolis, intensified Democratic demands for accountability. Dozens of people have been injured in protests or when agents misidentified a person as a deportation target.

A second law, Assembly Bill 1806, requires state prosecutors to investigate when federal immigration agents kill unarmed people, duplicating a 2020 program under which the state attorney general can investigate police shootings of unarmed people. It faces an immediate legal obstacle: an 1890 Supreme Court ruling bars states from prosecuting federal officers acting in the course of their duties. That precedent played a critical role this year when the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a California law, signed by Newsom last year, that sought to compel masked federal agents to identify themselves.

Other laws address conditions in detention centers, where detainees have complained of filthy drinking water and other problems, most of them confirmed by investigations by counties and civil liberties groups, according to CalMatters. Private facilities sell water in their canteens at significant markups; a separate bill would cap the markup on all canteen items at 35%, and it drew no opposition in the Legislature.

Senate Bill 942 declares a bill of rights for people held in immigrant detention, including access to healthcare and healthy food. Senate Bill 1399 extends the state’s authority to investigate conditions in private detention centers, a power now used for annual reviews of medical care inside the facilities. Senate Bill 423 requires government agencies to release details of emergency calls from detention centers; it was prompted by CalMatters reporting on alleged sexual assaults at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Assembly Bill 2760 prohibits federal agents from using electric shock gloves; lawmakers advanced it quickly after reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had bought thousands of the weapons. Assembly Bill 1807 bars immigration agents from using state-owned property, and Senate Bill 937 forbids law enforcement agencies from using flash-bang grenades to break up protests. Police previously used stun grenades to disperse protests against the detentions and the facilities.

The most significant of the new laws will likely be tested in federal court, CalMatters reported.