US Lawmakers to defend immigrants from Donald Trump

California legislators on Monday warned US President-elect Donald Trump that the state is prepared to fight his administration from pursuing the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in the state by introducing urgent legislation to fund immigration lawyers and help public defenders protect the state's immigrants.

Democratic lawmakers in the two chambers of the state legislature passed identical resolutions calling on Trump to develop humane immigration policies, to avoid mass deportation and to keep President Barack Obama’s deferred action for childhood arrivals, or DACA, program, despite intense protests from some Republicans.

California state senator Ben Hueso introduced a bill on Monday that would fund lawyers for representation of immigrants facing deportation, while Assembly man Rob Bonta, proposed a bill that will help public defenders assess the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.

“The Senate condemns in the strongest terms bigoted, racist, or misinformed descriptions of the immigrant community that serve only to foment hatred and violence,” the resolution says.

“The Senate supports a comprehensive and workable approach to solving our nation’s historically broken immigration system.”

Both bills were marked urgent and aim to protect immigrants in California - which has more than 10 million foreign-born residents.

"This is a salvo, if you will, across the board to make it very clear that these are the values of California," Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Democrat from Los Angeles, told reporters.

Jonathan Cooper and Amy TaxinAssociated Press