California SB 227: Vetoed Benefits Bill for Excluded Workers

California SB 227, the Safety Net for All Workers Act, would have created the state’s first Excluded Workers Program, paying $300 per week in unemployment assistance to workers who cannot access regular unemployment insurance because of their immigration status. The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature in 2024 but Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it on September 28, 2024, so the program never took effect. A successor effort has since surfaced in the 2025–2026 session.

What the Bill Would Have Paid

Eligible workers would have received $300 per week for each week of unemployment, capped at 20 weeks. The maximum total benefit was $6,000.¹ California’s regular unemployment insurance pays between $40 and $450 per week, so the flat $300 rate would have sat roughly in the middle of that range.

Payments would have covered weeks of unemployment occurring between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025. The program itself carried a sunset date of January 1, 2027, which gave the Employment Development Department room to wind down. The bill was authored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo and would have been funded from the General Fund at an estimated cost of $356 million for benefits and administration combined.²

Who Would Have Qualified

SB 227 was narrower than some early coverage suggested. It did not cover gig workers, freelancers, or independent contractors as a class. It targeted one population: workers who cannot collect state or federal unemployment insurance because of their immigration status. A U.S. citizen working as a freelancer would not have qualified, because other programs are already open to them.² Roughly one million undocumented workers in California fall into the gap the bill was written to fill.

An applicant would have had to meet all of the following:

Live in California.
Be ineligible for state or federal unemployment insurance because of immigration status.
Have worked at least 93 hours or earned at least $1,300 in gross wages over three calendar months (not required to be consecutive) within either the 12 months or the calendar year before applying.
Have experienced at least one full week without work.

The bill expressly stated that immigration status alone could not be a reason to deny benefits if the applicant otherwise qualified.²

How Workers Would Have Proved Their Work History

Workers paid in cash or off the books often do not have pay stubs, W-2s, or tax returns. SB 227 handled that with a point-based system. An applicant would self-attest to eligibility and then submit documents adding up to at least four points.³

Four-point documents were enough on their own and included wage statements, W-2s showing at least $5,200 in gross wages, federal or state tax returns reporting at least $5,200 in gross wages, or time records showing at least 93 hours worked within a three-month window.

Two-point documents included bank statements showing regular direct deposits from an employer, receipts from check-cashing establishments, transaction logs from payment apps, commuting records such as toll receipts or transit passes showing a pattern of travel to a work location, and letters from registered charitable organizations attesting to employment history.

One-point documents included employer-issued ID badges and text messages or emails containing work schedules or instructions from an employer. The tiered design let workers without any single formal document combine informal records to qualify.³

Privacy Protections for Applicants

Because applicants would be disclosing their immigration status to a state agency, SB 227 included unusually strong confidentiality rules. All personal information collected under the program would have been confidential and exempt from the California Public Records Act. The data could only be used to administer the program, with one narrow exception: compliance with a court-issued order, warrant, or subpoena.² A general request from another government agency would not have reached the data.

The bill prohibited sharing applicant information with other government agencies, including agencies the Employment Development Department already had data-sharing agreements with. Submitted documents could not be kept any longer than necessary to administer benefits, and the department would have had to establish specific safeguards against unauthorized access by any person or entity, public or private.²

Would Accepting Benefits Affect Immigration Status?

A common concern is whether taking government benefits could hurt a future green card or visa application under the public charge rule. USCIS does not consider receipt of unemployment insurance when making public charge inadmissibility determinations. The agency lists unemployment insurance alongside Social Security retirement and veterans’ benefits as “earned benefits” that fall outside the public charge analysis.⁴

Whether a state-funded program like the one SB 227 proposed would be treated as “unemployment insurance” for this purpose is not fully settled. USCIS guidance lists unemployment insurance among benefits that are not considered and also notes that pandemic and disaster relief cash payments are excluded.⁵ The Excluded Workers Program was designed to resemble unemployment insurance, which supports the argument that it would fall under the same exemption. Anyone weighing the decision should consult an immigration attorney, since federal enforcement priorities can change.

Why Newsom Vetoed the Bill

Governor Newsom vetoed SB 227 on September 28, 2024. His stated reasons were that the bill’s timelines were impractical, that the program presented operational challenges, and that the required funding had not been included in the state budget. He did not raise federal preemption or constitutional concerns in his veto message.

The veto was his second rejection of the excluded workers concept and came alongside vetoes of other bills that would have expanded state programs to undocumented immigrants, including one opening University of California and California State University campus jobs to undocumented students.²

What’s Happening Now

The SB 227 bill number in the 2025–2026 session has been assigned to an unrelated bill about a green empowerment zone in Contra Costa County. SB 1054, introduced by Senator Cabaldon with Senator Durazo as a coauthor, appears to carry forward at least some elements of the excluded workers concept in the current session. The details and whether SB 1054 mirrors SB 227’s structure are still developing.

In the meantime, no state-level excluded workers program exists in California. Workers who lose their jobs and cannot access unemployment insurance because of immigration status may still be eligible for disaster relief programs, workers’ compensation for on-the-job injuries, and services provided through community organizations. None of these replace what SB 227 would have offered, but they are what’s currently available while the Legislature considers its next move.

1
California State Senate. SB 227 Safety Net for All Workers
2
LegiScan. Unemployment: Excluded Workers Program
3
California State Legislature. Summary of SB 227 (Durazo) – Excluded Workers Program
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 7 – Consideration of Current and/or Past Receipt of Public Cash Assistance for Income Maintenance or Long-term Institutionalization at Government Expense
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Fact Sheet: How Receiving Public Benefits Might Impact the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility