In January of 2010, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed massive budget cuts for various California state-funded programs. Among these cuts, welfare programs assisting legal immigrants to the state of California were extensively downsized. In this set of posts, I first outline the proposed program cuts in detail, and then analyze their progress through the California legal system from 3 different lenses. In Memo 1, I describe the initial process by which the program cuts arrived on the government decision agenda, looking specifically at Governor Schwarzenegger’s dominating role in placing them there. Memo 2 looks at one of Schwarzenegger’s main opponents in attempting to pass these cuts: the experts at immigrants rights groups, especially the California Immigrant Policy Center. Finally, in Memo 3, I explicate the role of the California Budget process in shaping these proposals to date, and how the California budget differs from the regular legislative process.
Each of these posts was created in response to the events surrounding the time of its writing. Thus many of my arguments evolve over time to fit the still ongoing debate on the proposed program cuts. I end my analysis with a prediction for the final results of the proposals.
