Public Utilities Code section 876.5
(a)
The commission, its staff, the lifeline program’s third-party administrator, and lifeline service providers, and their contractors, agents, successors, or assignees, shall not share, disclose, or otherwise make accessible any information provided by an applicant or subscriber to the lifeline program, or a subprogram or pilot program of the lifeline program, to any agency of a local government, a state government, or the federal government, or to any immigration authority without a court-ordered subpoena or valid judicial warrant.(b)
This section does not prohibit the furnishing of applications, records, and data to other public agencies to the extent required for verifying an applicant’s or subscriber’s eligibility for lifeline service.(c)
This section does not prohibit the commission, its staff, the lifeline program’s third-party administrator, or lifeline service providers from using aggregated subscriber or applicant data for analysis, reporting, or program management if the aggregated subscriber or applicant data cannot be used to determine the identities of the persons to whom the data pertains, alone or in combination with other data.(d)
The commission, its staff, the lifeline program’s third-party administrator, and lifeline service providers, and the providers’ agents, successors, or assignees, may request, but may not require, applicants and subscribers to provide social security numbers, in whole or in part, to apply to, or participate in, the lifeline program.(e)
To the extent Section 1621 of Title 8 of the United States Code applies to this article, the Legislature finds and declares that this article is a state law that may provide assistance and services for individuals not lawfully present in the United States within the meaning of subsection (d) of Section 1621 of Title 8 of the United States Code.(f)
For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply:(1)
“Immigration authority” means any federal, state, or local officer, employee, or person performing immigration enforcement functions.(2)
“Immigration enforcement” includes any and all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal civil immigration law, and also includes any and all efforts to investigate, enforce, or assist in the investigation or enforcement of any federal criminal immigration law that penalizes a person’s presence in, entry, or reentry to, or employment in, the United States.
Source:
Section 876.5, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PUC§ionNum=876.5. (updated Jan. 1, 2026; accessed Dec. 15, 2025).
