Former Democratic Congressman and Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Xavier Becerra is the new Attorney General of California and the point man for the state’s legal response to Donald Trump, as reported in The Atlantic.

 On a whole range of issues, from gun safety to health care to financial deregulation to environmental protection to marijuana legalization to immigration, Trump’s deep-red vision for Making America Great Again has put him on a collision course with deep-blue California. As attorney general, Becerra will bring to battle decades of Washington experience. 

Born in Sacramento, California, Xavier Becerra is the son of working-class immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico. As a young child Becerra grew up in a one-room house with his three sisters. He graduated in 1976 from C.K. McClatchy High School, located in central city Sacramento. He attended the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain from 1978 to 1979, before earning his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1980, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college. He then received his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1984 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1985.