The Brief

For college students seeking a job that fits around their academic schedules, and the opportunity to do meaningful work in their communities, a popular state program offers both.

Since it launched in 2022, the state program known as College Corps has been paying college students for community service work. And it has become so popular that only 30% of students who apply get a position.

The program helps college students, including those who are immigrants lacking permanent legal status, pay for college while serving in community-based organizations.

Students are dispersed across California tackling diverse needs. Fellows were key, for instance, in helping food banks meet a surge in demand during last year’s government shutdown, said Josh Fryday, director of California Service Corps. And during the wildfires in Los Angeles last January, fellows were there to support, he said.

“When the government shut down and there was a huge shortage or huge demand at the food bank and they needed support, it was our College Corps members that got deployed. Same thing after the fires,” said Fryday.

The program has recruited more than 3,000 students each academic year since it started, some serving multiple years. Students serve 15 hours a week for 30 weeks and receive monthly stipends totaling $7,000 for the academic school year. At that time those who complete 450 service hours receive an additional $3,000 educational award.

Student volunteer Yongjie restocks shelves with canned goods at the UC Berkeley campus food pantry on Oct. 25, 2019.

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College Corps is just one program within California Service Corps, a statewide service initiative that consists of three other paid service programs sending members into communities around the state.

The state gave College Corps $83.6 million for 2026-27 in addition to a one-time $5 million allotment this academic year to help expand the program to additional campuses. The program currently has 45 participating campuses, 41 of them across California’s public community college and university systems. For the next cohort, they’re planning to expand to 52 campuses and recruit about 4,000 students. Some of the new partner sites include Cal State Northridge, Monterey Peninsula College and UC Santa Barbara.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office had recommended rejecting the request for more funding, and it was cut from the budget proposal in June. However, it was reinstated in the final Budget Act.

The program started as a pilot, intended to run through 2023-24 while receiving one-time funding each year. Now, according to the LAO budget overview for 2025-26, the intent is to continue with the $84 million in annual funding permanently starting in 2026-27. Of the $84 million, $45 million would go towards program support and administrative costs for the program while the rest would go toward aid for students.

The College Corps program is open to students at participating campuses, including those who qualify for AB 540, a state law that allows eligible students without legal status to qualify for California in-state tuition and aid. The state has about 100,000 immigrant students without permanent legal status who don’t qualify for federal work-study programs and many lack the necessary permits to work other jobs, according to the Higher Education Immigration Portal.

“I wanted to make sure that we gave an opportunity to our Dreamers to be part of [College Corps],” said Fryday. “We’ve had unbelievable success stories of AB 540 students… [by] having this program change their lives and giving them opportunities that they, quite frankly, have been excluded from for far too long.”

Officials with California Service Corps did not provide numbers on how many spots are filled by immigrant students eligible for in-state tuition and aid under AB 540.

Rafael, an immigrant student and College Corps fellow, came from Mexico to the United States at the age of 14. He requested that his full name not be used due to concerns about his legal status.

Job opportunities do not come easy for Rafael due to his lack of a Social Security number.

“For undocumented students, there are not a lot of things that you can apply to be part of,” he said. “So that was also kind of like my only opportunity.”

Within the program, fellows can choose to serve in K-12 education, climate action or food insecurity. Students often help with tutoring at school sites, work with food banks, and serve at their campus gardens and food pantries.

Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates and study at one of eight participating University of California campuses, 17 California State Universities, 23 community colleges, and four private colleges.

Fellows get sworn in by Gov. Gavin Newsom during a ceremony in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2022.

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“We have students from all different backgrounds and our students are also getting different perspectives of diversity and empathy and learning how to see how other people live in their community,” said Katrina Gilmore, director of College Corps at Cal State Bakersfield.

Rafael, an English major, currently volunteers at a history museum in his community, a role he holds close to his heart. When he visited a museum for the first time in Mexico, he was amazed by the exhibits and the curiosity they sparked. He is now helping the museum develop an audio tour guide of the exhibits in English and Spanish to help more people feel included.

“It was really touching because my first language is Spanish and I remember having a hard time learning a lot of things,” he said. “I have been in that position. I know how it feels.”

Fellows are chosen based on their interest in service and availability to juggle the service hours with their academics. Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates, have good academic standing and demonstrate financial need.

Currently, UC Berkeley has 98 College Corps student workers. More than 200 students applied, said Ashley Kelly, a supervisor for the program at UC Berkeley.

“That just demonstrated to us that there's a huge desire and demand to do this program, that the program is working, it's impactful, and we just need to keep working to create more opportunities for students to be part of programs like this,” said Fryday.

California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday speaks at the College Corps fellows swearing-in event in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters For Lori Dominguez, a College Corps fellow at Cal State Bakersfield, the program has helped her pay for school. She said that if it wasn’t for the program, she would probably have to drop out of college.

“I have loans for my education, and, like, I’m broke, and I barely have job experience,” said Dominguez.

Dominguez struggled with school last year after leaving her job at her local library to take care of her mom who had surgery. She sought out College Corps as a way to pay for school with a program that understands that her education is her priority.

She currently serves with Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a secondhand store whose profits go towards building affordable homes in the community. Dominguez processes donated items such as clothing, toys and furniture.

The program is flexible with students' schedules, allowing Dominguez to make up missed hours at different work sites and giving her the opportunity to earn money while still being able to pursue a biology degree. She hopes to become a clinical lab scientist.

DJ Nunley and his wife, Lynn Nunley, in Albany on Feb. 27, 2026.

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Djuane "DJ” Nunley, a senior at UC Berkeley, has been a College Corps fellow since its pilot year. He joined the program at College of the Desert in Coachella Valley, before transferring to UC Berkeley.

He served in both campus’ food pantries and also worked at a food warehouse in Coachella Valley where he sorted food before it spoiled to see what could be preserved.

“I would see how families would just be so excited to get the food that they were getting,” said Nunley. “It was a humbling experience.”

He currently serves with UC Berkeley’s Incarceration to College program, tutoring incarcerated youth — and youth whose parents have been incarcerated — at Alameda County Juvenile Hall and with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, a community-based organization.

Nunley’s wife Lynn attended College of the Desert and joined College Corps at the same time with a desire to help the community. They were both accepted and transferred to UC Berkeley, where they moved with their eight kids ranging in age from three to 16.

“[College Corps] helped us out a big deal… We have a lot of children and raising kids is not easy. And financially, it's a lot on us,” said Nunley.

For Nunley, the hardest thing about being a College Corps fellow is juggling his service hours, school and family. But he manages with the support of his wife and his older kids.

Nunley was in the entertainment business for 12 years, making music and working as a freelance writer. He started college as an English major hoping to brush up on his writing skills. Joining College Corps shifted his career aspirations away from his original plan and towards helping children.

He is now double majoring in psychology and social welfare with plans of going to graduate school and becoming a psychologist that specializes in talk therapy for youth with traumatic experiences. He wants to open a nonprofit organization in Coachella Valley with his wife to assist kids from underrepresented communities.

“Once I became a part of College Corps, my perspective in life changed, like I had a great epiphany… I realized how my words could actually uplift,” said Nunley.

Brittany Oceguera is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

California and 23 other mostly Democratic states on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its new justification for the president’s wide-ranging tariffs.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading the lawsuit with the attorneys general of Oregon, Arizona and New York. They say President Donald Trump’s use of Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — which he invoked after the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 ruled that his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was unconstitutional — is also illegal.

Trump immediately issued 10% tariffs across the board after the Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of the tariffs he imposed last year.

“He’s desperately grasping at straws,” Bonta said in a virtual press conference Friday. “The president’s rationale for these unlawful tariffs has gone from unreasonable to ridiculous.”

The group filed the lawsuit in the Court of International Trade. It says that Section 122 has never been invoked and can be used only under limited circumstances, such as to deal with “large and serious balance-of-payments deficits” and to prevent an “imminent and significant depreciation of the dollar,” and that the president’s justifications do not meet those requirements.

“The President is using his authority granted by Congress to address fundamental international payments problems and to deal with our country’s large and serious balance-of-payments deficits,” White House Spokesperson Kush Desai said in an email. “The Administration will vigorously defend the President’s action in court.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was also at the press conference, said the president “conflates the balance-of-payment deficit with the trade deficit. They’re two distinct issues.”

The 35-page lawsuit explains that the balance of payments — the record of all transactions between U.S. and foreign residents that includes goods, services, income, assets and liabilities — consists of more than just the trade deficit.

Section 122 also requires that tariffs be applied evenly across products, which the lawsuit says the administration is not doing because Trump’s tariffs proclamation includes exemptions of goods from Canada and other countries, and many product exceptions.

The attorneys general also mentioned that Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for U.S. consumers and businesses. A recent Yale Lab study estimated that tariffs have cost the average household about $1,000 a year.

“President Trump ran on the promise of making life more affordable for families, yet here he is breaking the law to make life more expensive for Americans,” Bonta said.

In California, tariffs have disrupted businesses and industries including agriculture and wine, whose exports have fallen, according to a Public Policy Institute of California analysis.

The other states that brought the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, a judge for the Court of International Trade ruled that companies that paid broad tariffs under the previous law cited by Trump are due refunds.The United States collected more than $264 billion in tariffs in 2025, according to the Tax Foundation. More than $130 billion of the tariffs collected were under the law the Supreme Court ruled the president did not have the authority to use.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

A full career as a California Highway Patrol officer or a CalFire firefighter often ends with a six-figure pension that provides a comfortable retirement after countless hours spent in harm’s way.

This year, the unions that represent CHP officers and state firefighters are seeking a different end-of-career incentive: The opportunity to accumulate one big check in addition to that annual pension.

They're backing legislation that would create a supplementary savings program to allow state law enforcement officers and firefighters to leave public service with a payout. It’s called a deferred retirement option plan, which several local law enforcement agencies already offer to their officers.

“It’s a retention tool,” said Jake Johnson, president of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen. He said late-career officers might choose to continue working for the CHP rather than retire if they have access to the supplementary savings plan, particularly if they have already locked in a pension amount that meets their needs.

So far, the measure is sailing through the Legislature with bipartisan support in the Assembly. Supporters argue it would help agencies keep experienced people in uniform and encourage veterans to stay on to train younger employees.

“Unfortunately, both Highway Patrol officers and CalFire struggle to keep on board personnel ideally suited to direct a response when needed the most in critical times when a fire or disaster is upon us,” said Assemblymember Mike Gipson, the Democrat from Gardena who is carrying the bill. “The deferred retirement option program known as DROP is neither revolutionary nor untested. It is working well in other parts of California.”

But certain deferred retirement plans have a poor reputation among taxpayer advocates because they risk driving up expenses from already-underfunded pension systems. Ten bills that would have created or expanded them in California have failed since 1999, according to a legislative committee analysis. Gov. Gray Davis vetoed five of them between 1999 and 2002, citing their potential to drive up costs.

Separately, one deferred retirement plan in Los Angeles allowed cops to gain seven-figure payouts while claiming disability and not working. And, a new program in San Diego County permits sheriff’s deputies to draw pensions while continuing to work in law enforcement — a practice that taxpayer advocates deride as “double dipping”.

“We are talking about people staying in government service for an additional five years, drawing a six-figure salary, then getting a lump sum payment of a million dollars each,” Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, said during a debate on the measure last month. He was the only lawmaker to vote against it.

The CHP and CalFire unions counter that their proposal is simple compared to the ones past governors vetoed and the ones that recently drew scrutiny in Los Angeles and San Diego.

• Late-career CHP officers and CalFire firefighters would stop making contributions from their paychecks toward their pensions and instead put money in the deferred retirement plan. 
• They would stop accruing additional years of service toward their pensions if they participate in a deferred retirement plan, essentially freezing their pension income the moment they join the program.
• Officers and firefighters could continue working for up to five years. CalPERS would manage the deferred retirement plan and guarantee participants a 5% return. 
• When they retire, the officers and fighters would get a payout from the deferred retirement plan and also begin receiving monthly pension checks from CalPERS.

What's the cost to the state?

Their deferred retirement proposal leaves some room for union bargaining and it’s unclear how much it would cost.

For instance, it’s up for negotiation whether the state would make employer matches toward the deferred retirement accounts.

Today, the state contributes 70 cents to CalPERS to fund CHP pensions for every dollar it pays in salary to officers. It kicks in 51 cents to CalPERS for CalFire firefighter pensions for every dollar it pays in firefighter salaries for the same reasons.

The state would not have to make those pension contributions on behalf of officers and firefighters in a deferred retirement plan.

Those payroll costs haven’t come up explicitly in legislative hearings on the proposal, but Terence McHale, the longtime lobbyist for public safety unions, noted in a January hearing that officers in a deferred retirement plan would be “no longer accruing adjustments that are ascribable to California.”

“There is no reason not to support this bill,” he told lawmakers. “It does everything we need to do and it works for the administration and it works for both parties.”

Other pension legislation

The two unions keep a steady presence in the Capitol. CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database shows the CHP union has given $2.2 million to lawmakers since 2015, and the CalFire Union has given $1.8 million. Cal Fire Local 2881 over the past several years has prioritized legislation and contract agreements that would improve working conditions by compelling the state to hire more firefighters.

The request adds to the long push-and-pull over how to compensate California police and firefighters. CHP officers and firefighters hired before Jan. 1, 2013 could retire at 50 with a pension formula giving them 3% of their final wages for every year of service, meaning California Highway Patrol officers with 30 years on the job would get a pension worth 90% of their final year earnings.

Officers hired since then have to work until 57 to earn a fully vested pension that accrues at a rate of 2.7% per year, a change detailed in a 2012 pension reform law championed by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

The average pension for a CHP officer with 30 years of service was $99,831 as of 2024, according to an analysis by Transparent California, an online organization that publishes the salaries of California public employees.

Aside from the deferred retirement proposal, the CHP and Cal Fire unions also are backing a proposal that would allow public safety employees to retire at 55 and with a more generous formula. It passed the Assembly by a vote of 70-2, but drew opposition from local government employers and may have a more difficult path to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk than the deferred retirement measure.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma would replace her.

Noem "will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida," Trump posted on social media. "I thank Kristi for her service at 'Homeland.'"

Noem is the first cabinet secretary to leave the Trump administration in the second term. The announcement comes after Noem spent two days being grilled by lawmakers in Congress over her leadership.

Mullin has been a defender of the president and his immigration agenda.

"A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda," Trump said in his post highlighting Mullin's position as the only Native American in the Senate. "Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., (left), speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on last month.

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Mullin will need to be confirmed by the Senate in order to take on the role permanently.

Noem, who was formerly South Dakota's governor, had been at the forefront of Trump's efforts to carry out mass deportations. Following her confirmation, she quickly became the face of the administration's immigration agenda — making multimillion dollar ads urging people to self deport, conducting press conferences around the country touting deportation numbers and conducting international visits geared at promoting Trump's vision.

She is the highest-profile departure in recent weeks at the agency. Madison Sheehan, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy director, left her post at the start of the year to run for Congress. Top agency spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin left her role last month.

At the start of her second year on the job, Noem faced bipartisan criticism over her leadership of an immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, where she deployed 3,000 officers and two U.S. citizens were killed. Some of the loudest voices on the right for her resignation came from Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., who is not running for reelection, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Other Republicans denounced Noem after she referred to 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was shot by two border patrol agents, as a "domestic terrorist" before any investigation had begun. Following the event, Congress, amid opposition from Democrats, failed to pass a budget to fund the Homeland Security Department and attempted to negotiate immigration enforcement reforms.

Noem was asked to testify before the Senate and House judiciary committees in early March — as her agency was in the third week of a shut down. She said 100,000 employees were furloughed including those who work in cybersecurity and disaster relief.

During the hearings she sparred with lawmakers of both parties over the tactics used by immigration officers, spending at her agency and her broader leadership. Noem also received questions regarding a letter sent by DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, which accused Noem's department of having "systematically obstructed the work of the DHS Office of Inspector General" as he sought data related to immigrant arrests, airport security programs and counterintelligence. 

Noem was the face of the mass deportation agenda 

During Noem's time helming the 250,000 person agency, DHS was at the center of an ambitious effort to arrest, detain and deport 1 million people without legal status per year. Data from DHS released in the fall shows the department deported 605,000 people and has a historic high number of people in immigration detention.

As secretary, Noem oversaw the start of a hiring surge to bring on thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and the proliferation of Border Patrol agents as enforcers throughout the country.

Noem's confirmation out of the Senate sailed through, despite questions over how much money the agency was asking for to conduct immigration enforcement and policy directives coming from personnel high up at the White House, such as border czar Tom Homan.

While on the job, Noem drew scrutiny over the handling of national disaster relief and resources and her selection of Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign aide, for a DHS special employee advisory role. Noem's DHS has also consistently ended up in the crosshairs of legal scrutiny — from immigration courts to the Supreme court. Federal district judges have blocked DHS from using wartime powers to expedite deportations, and ordered some deportees returned.

If confirmed, Mullins will advise the president on a wide range of security issues. This also includes being in charge of the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a prominent role in counter-terrorism, aviation security and cybersecurity.

Turnover within Trump's Cabinet has been minimal this term so far. Over the course of his first term, Trump had five DHS secretaries, including three who were acting secretaries.

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