As attorney general he ran a multistate litigation campaign against federal immigration enforcement: leading the multistate defense of DACA, defending California's SB 54 sanctuary law ("We didn't enact immigration laws. We enacted laws regarding our public safety"), and suing over the expanded public-charge rule. In the 2026 campaign he called ICE operations in California a "mercenary force." His HHS tenure oversaw the unaccompanied-children surge response, which critics attacked. In Congress he voted YEA on the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2011 (House Roll Call 860, Nov 29, 2011), which would remove employment-based green-card per-country caps; it is not an H-1B bill. No current H-1B-specific position was established in this fact-check pass (oag.ca.gov; American Community Media, Jun 2026; GovTrack RC 860). [oag.ca.gov] [American Community Media, Jun 2026] [GovTrack RC 860] [NPR, Mar 2018] Rating basis: Sustained personal leadership of multistate DACA, sanctuary-law and public-charge litigation. This is more than a single supportive vote or statement. Preserve the HHS criticism separately rather than treating unspecified criticism as an opposing policy action.

He has both enforcement results and a production agenda. In January 2020 he moved to intervene in San Francisco Bay Area Renters Federation v. City of San Mateo, defending the Housing Accountability Act's application to charter cities (oag.ca.gov, Jan 2020). California YIMBY calls the appellate ruling a landmark that "changed what cities could get away with." California YIMBY's June 2026 endorsement describes a first-ever California Housing Affordability Master Plan directing state agencies, including the Coastal Commission, to prioritize housing production. He "came to housing as a campaign priority later than the other top three candidates" and voiced support for SB 79 upzoning only after passage (CA YIMBY, May 2026; campaign platform). [oag.ca.gov, Jan 2020] [CA YIMBY, May 2026] [campaign platform] (June endorsement).

Borrower-protection and education-affordability record. As AG he sued over federal loan- servicing failures and borrower-defense rollbacks, and his DACA defense protected hundreds of thousands of students. He voted AYE on the No Child Left Behind Act (2001). In 2026 he has not offered a comprehensive K-12 plan, but he has discussed early-childhood education, smaller classes, teacher pay, tuition-free community colleges and protecting DACA students (House Clerk, 2001; EdSource, 2026). Rating basis: Borrower-protection litigation plus specific early-learning, teacher-pay and community- college affordability positions. BroadEducation does not require AANHPI-history authorship for 4.

As HHS Secretary his department issued division-specific Language Access Plans (Aug 2024), announced commitments to ease language barriers in health care (2022), and finalized the strengthened Section 1557 nondiscrimination rule carrying translation and interpreter requirements (May 2024). This record sits in federal health policy (HHS, Aug 2024; Federal Register). Rating basis: Sustained executive leadership and implementation, 2022-24: departmental language- access work and plans plus the final Section 1557 rule. Credit administration leadership, not personal statutory authorship.

As AG he launched a hate-crime prevention "one-stop shop" website, produced the annual "Hate Crime in California" report, and called for police decertification and use-of-force reforms (2020). On June 24, 2020 he joined the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and other caucuses to release anti-hate reporting resources in 14 languages and urge reporting after COVID-related incidents; the California DOJ later issued a special report on the 107% rise in reported anti-Asian events in 2020 (released June 2021, under his successor Rob Bonta) (oag.ca.gov/hatecrimes; oag.ca.gov, Jun 2020). Asian American advocates asked his office to track self-reported incidents and were told no (NBC News). The multilingual hate-crime brochure program's launch era is unattributed.

His campaign proposes ending full Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants. He told ABC7 "everybody supports" Trump's immigration policies; NBC framed him as "in lockstep with Trump on immigration policy." He presents himself as "the candidate who represents legal immigrants in California." No skilled-visa position was found in the checked sources. (campaign policy; ABC7).

He campaigns on housing affordability within his "Califordable" plan, but his signature land-use position is opposition to state density mandates. California YIMBY writes that his "war on single-family homes" rhetoric "is the kind of conspiratorial framing that produced California's housing crisis in the first place," while his campaign presents an affordability agenda. The same anti-state-preemption posture graded 3 for other candidates in this guide (CA YIMBY, May 2026). [CA YIMBY, May 2026]

His "Making California's Schools Work Again" agenda calls for Education Savings Accounts starting with low-income and special-needs students, grading every school, extending teacher tenure to five years and reforming teacher evaluations; a separate campaign page proposes banning school-supply charges. EdSource reports ending teacher tenure, while his campaign page proposes extending it to five years, an unresolved difference. EdSource also reports he opposes funding for ethnic studies; no AANHPI-specific curriculum statement was found. This matches the ratings for other school-choice champions in this guide (TX HD-26 Morgan, IL-08 Davis) (EdSource, Sep 2026; Hilton campaign page). [EdSource, Sep 2026] [Hilton campaign page]

His policy archive (affordability, housing, schools, energy, public safety) contains no language-access plank. No statement on the March 2025 English-official executive order or multilingual ballots was found, and no immigrant-language outreach events turned up (site reviewed via indexed text).

Rated on statements only. In a May 26, 2026 interview with the New York Post, he said he would enforce Proposition 36 in his first year, send repeat drug and theft offenders to prison, and refocus incarceration on literacy, job training, addiction treatment and mental- health services. This is general public-safety support, not a hate-crime or anti-Asian- violence position. No such specific plank was found in the checked sources. (New York Post, May 2026)