California wanted to punish ICE-linked companies. Affordable housing could be the victim

Published On: June 5, 2026

By Laura Waxmann, San Francisco Chronicle

California lawmakers seeking to punish companies linked to immigrant detention centers may be colliding with another state priority: affordable housing.

Assembly Bills 1675 and 2465 have yet to pass the Legislature or reach the governor’s desk. But housing industry leaders warn the proposals have already begun to unsettle California’s fragile affordable housing finance market, threatening to disrupt the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars into income-restricted developments planned statewide.

The bills would bar companies connected to private immigration detention operations from receiving certain California tax benefits and public contracts — a move their authors and supporters say is intended to further isolate the detention industry financially. They come amid broader efforts by immigrant-rights advocates and lawmakers to pressure corporations to cut ties with the detention industry by limiting access to state-supported economic programs. But affordable housing developers and investors warn that the measures, as currently written, could also disrupt state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit market, inadvertently pulling affordable housing finance into a broader political fight.

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