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Tag: immigrant

  • Trump defends immigration crackdown at State of Union as approval ratings plummet

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    WASHINGTON — To defend an increasingly unpopular immigration crackdown during his State of the Union speech, President Trump highlighted the victims of crimes perpetuated by undocumented immigrants.

    But as Democrats pointed out, the president’s lengthy speech made no reference to the U.S. citizens, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, who were killed by immigration agents.

    Recent polls show public approval of Trump’s immigration policies has fallen to record lows level since he returned to the White House. One poll, released Feb. 17 by Reuters and the market research firm Ipsos, showed just 38% of respondents felt Trump was doing a good job on immigration.

    Another poll, published last month by Fox News, showed 59% of voters say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “too aggressive.”

    “As President Trump brags about his immigration enforcement at tonight’s State of the Union, I can think only of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti and the three dozen people who have died in ICE custody since Trump took office,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) wrote on X.

    Within the first few minutes of his address on Tuesday night, Trump highlighted “the strongest and most secure border in American history, by far.” He also offered — at least momentarily — a softer tone, adding that “We will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.”

    In reality, the administration has restricted legal immigration. It has revoked humanitarian benefits for hundreds of thousands of people, and placed an indefinite pause on all asylum applications filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    Guests invited by various lawmakers to attend Trump’s speech offered dueling visions of the administration’s mass deportation effort.

    Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) said he would bring the father and brother of Sarah Root, who was killed in 2016 after a drunk driver, who was in the U.S. illegally, crashed into her vehicle. Trump held an event Monday for “angel families,” those with a relative who was killed by an undocumented immigrant, and signed a proclamation honoring such victims of crimes.

    Democrats, meanwhile, invited immigrants, family members of those detained or deported, and U.S. citizens who were violently arrested by immigration agents.

    Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano), for example, said he was bringing the daughter of a Laguna Niguel couple deported last year to Colombia after their arrest during a routine check-in with ICE. And Rep. Jesus Garcia (D-Ill.) invited Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman shot five times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum.

    On X, the Department of Homeland Security shot back at Democrats with immigrant guests, saying the lawmakers are “once again prioritizing illegal aliens above the safety of American citizens.”

    On Tuesday morning, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) held a news conference on “the state of immigration,” flanked by Christian pastors, in which she touted her Dignity Act, which would provide permanent legal status to immigrants who meet certain benchmarks.

    “Throughout the Scripture, there are two kinds of leaders: those who persecute faith communities and those who protect them,” she said.

    California Sen. Adam Schiff was among the Democrats to boycott Trump’s speech, and he cited immigration enforcement as one reason for his absence.

    “I have not missed the State of the Union in the 25 years I’ve been in Congress, but we have never had a president violate the Constitution, the laws every day with seeming impunity,” Schiff told Meidas Touch outside the Capitol. “We’ve never had masked armed, poorly trained agents, victimizing our cities, demanding to see people’s papers.”

    Trump repeated claims about immigration that have been debunked, such as his assertion that President Biden’s immigration polices allowed millions of people to pour into the U.S. from prisons and mental institutions.

    Trump also highlighted a figure he has often turned to — that Democrats let in “11,888 murderers.” That number, an inaccurate description of federal data, refers to immigrants who, over the course of decades (including the first Trump administration) were convicted of homicide, usually after their arrival in the U.S. Those immigrants are listed on ICE’s “non-detained docket” typically because they are currently serving their prison sentences.

    Turning to Minnesota, Trump said Somalis have defrauded $19 billion from American taxpayers — a disputed figure — and referred to them derogatorily as “Somali pirates.”

    Trump went beyond Somalis to disparage many immigrants, saying “there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception.”

    “Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA, and it is the American people who pay the price,” he said.

    Trump also highlighted the case of Dalilah Coleman, 6, of Bakersfield who was left with a traumatic brain injury after a 2024 car crash in California.

    He called on Congress to pass the Dalilah Law, which would bar states from granting commercial drivers licenses to immigrants without lawful status. He said, without proof, that “most illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs.”

    A year after Dalilah’s accident her family met with Partap Singh, the detained Indian immigrant responsible for the crash, at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield. Marcus Coleman, her father, told Fox26 News that the focus shouldn’t be on Singh’s legal status because similar accidents happen every day.

    Also present Tuesday night were the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member shot and killed in Washington, D.C. by an Afghan immigrant, as well as Andrew Wolfe, who was also shot and survived.

    Trump awarded Wolfe and Beckstrom the Purple Heart. He called Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man charged in the shooting, a “terrorist monster.” Lakanwal legally entered the U.S. from Afghanistan through a Biden administration program in 2021 and his asylum application was approved under the Trump administration last April.

    Turning his attention the fall’s midterm elections, Trump warned his supporters that if allowed back into power, Democrats would reopen the borders “to some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world.”

    Trump then invited legislators to stand if they agreed with him that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

    Republicans stood, offering one of the longest standing ovations of the night. Democrats remained seated.

    Trump told Democrats they should be ashamed for not standing up.

    “You have killed Americans!” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) yelled from the audience. “You should be ashamed.”

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    Andrea Castillo

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  • Student anti-ICE walkouts: Some officials praise activism, others dole out detention

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    After some 150 students walked out of Redlands schools early this month in support of immigrants they were dealt an unexpected consequence: a temporary suspension of school privileges as administrators enforced rules that forbid them from leaving a classroom without permission.

    The punishment — the loss of access to sports, dances, performances and other school events — in a school system with a conservative-majority governing board stands in sharp contrast to the positive reception that student activism has received in some other California school systems, including Los Angeles Unified School District.

    The disparate actions show how school officials throughout various states and school systems — in blue and red regions — have been dealing with a wave of student walkouts that began in late January as part of national protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.

    Redlands school officials said the suspension of privileges will remain in place until a student satisfies certain conditions, such as attending a session of Saturday school or performing four hours of community service.

    “The superintendent’s message is consistent: We care deeply about our students, and we recognize that many young people are dealing and engaging with issues they see in the news and in their community,” said district Public Information Officer Christine Stephens. “Students have the right to express themselves peacefully. At the same time, the district must uphold its responsibility to maintain a safe, supervised learning environment during the school day.”

    Districts that expressed support for students’ free-speech rights included those in San Francisco and Sacramento. In Palo Alto, district officials worked with schools to make sure students could carry out their announced walkout safely.

    L.A. Unified officials have not set districtwide penalties for walkouts — and its leaders align with the students’ anti-ICE critique. Supt. Alberto Carvalho, an immigrant himself, has pledged to do all in the district’s power to maintain schools as sanctuaries for children of immigrant families — and activists patrol outside schools to help ensure safe passage to campus for parents and students.

    At the same time, LAUSD educators have encouraged students to stay on campus for safety reasons. In L.A. there were reports of physical confrontations between officers and protesters after students walked out on Feb. 5 and on Feb. 13, when three federal agents were injured after some in the crowd threw objects at them.

    State and education leaders in Texas and Florida outlined significant consequences for students and educators related to student walkouts. In Texas, state leaders have talked about possible suspension and expulsion for students, dismissal for educators and state takeovers for school districts.

    The ACLU of Georgia sent a letter Jan. 29 expressing concerns to the Cobb County School District after it threatened out-of-school suspension, loss of parking and extracurricular privileges and warned of college admissions consequences for participation in walkouts.

    The ACLU warned that the school system would be acting illegally if walkout participants were singled out for especially harsh treatment based on their viewpoints.

    The young activists

    Student high school activists — in Redlands and elsewhere — said they are willing to face consequences, if necessary, to stand up for what they believe by protesting the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    “As organizers, it’s expected for us to take the first wave of retaliation,” said Redlands High School senior Jax Hardy. “So while we would be very disappointed in the district for doing such a thing, for us, it’s important to exercise our free speech rights to oppose a government that is encroaching on our human rights.”

    Student leaders see their protests as a civics lesson in action.

    “It’s necessary to act, because, if we don’t, who knows how things will escalate further,” said Redlands High junior Aya F, who goes by her last initial rather than her full legal name. “So that’s why we feel it’s important for us to stage this walkout.”

    Redlands is about 60 miles east of downtown L.A. and enrolls about 20,000 students. In November 2024 a conservative majority was elected to the five-person Redlands Board of Education, aligning the board with key policies of the Trump administration. Redlands joined a handful of ideologically similar California boards in approving policies that would allow parents to challenge library books with sexual content and prohibit display of the rainbow pride flag, which is associated with the LGBTQ+ community.

    But the district stated that its actions on the walkouts have no ideology attached.

    “The district’s response is not based on the viewpoint, theme or content of a student’s expression,” Stephens said.

    Students walk out despite punishment

    Some Redlands students organized another walkout Friday and organizers said they expected representation from students at seven middle and high schools. Many showed up from Redlands High School. They carried “Stop ICE” signs and Mexican flags and blew whistles as they made a 15-minute trek to a downtown intersection that some refer to as “Peace Corner.”

    “I haven’t seen this many people in Redlands do anything ever,” said sophomore James Bojado, who also said that, for days, administrators had attempted to dissuade students with threats of discipline.

    Several Redlands police vehicles patrolled the rally area, slowly rolling by.

    A man in a sun hat shouted: “Why don’t you fly the American flag? Are you ashamed of America?”

    “Leave us alone!” a chorus responded.

    “My mom and my dad are immigrants,” said sophomore Carmen Robles. “Why deport families that care about America back to where they came from?”

    At the rally, student demands included an ironclad district commitment that ICE will never be allowed on campus. Students also called for the abolition of ICE and spoke of wanting the school board to rescind what they regard as anti-LGBTQ+ policies. These include the flag ban and the book restriction policy.

    During the Friday Redlands rally, there were a few tense minutes when a student in a MAGA hat was pelted by water bottles. The student spoke to police but also said he wasn’t hurt.

    A person wearing a MAGA hat gets water and pizza thrown at him during a student walkout and protest in Redlands.

    (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

    Adult volunteers were on hand with the goal of keeping things safe and positive. Parent Toni Belcher said that students have a right to be heard.

    “I’m happy to see all these kids trying to get their voice to matter,” Belcher said. “If it doesn’t now, it will. … They’re starting early.”

    What the law says

    The right of students to express themselves begins with the U.S. Constitution.

    “You do not lose your right to free speech just by walking into school,” according to guidance from the American Civil Liberties Union. “You have the right to speak out, hand out flyers and petitions and wear expressive clothing in school — as long as you don’t disrupt the functioning of the school or violate the school’s content-neutral policies.”

    A walkout, however, could be treated as a disruption. But greater punishment cannot be applied based on the nature of the views expressed.

    Redlands Unified believes it is complying with that legal standard.

    California law offers some additional protection for student protests, but it’s not unlimited.

    A California law, which took effect in 2023, allows a middle or high school student to miss one day of school per year as an excused absence for a “civic or political event.” This includes, but is not limited to, “voting, poll-working, strikes, public-commenting, candidate speeches, political or civic forums and town halls.”

    The bill’s author, then-state Sen. Connie Leyva, said at the time that the law “emphasizes the importance of getting students more involved in government and their community by prioritizing student opportunities for civic learning and engagement both within and outside their education.”

    One caveat is that the law requires that “the pupil notifies the school ahead of the absence.”

    Students exercising this right must be allowed to make up missed schoolwork without penalty. There are potential gray areas — such as whether a large-scale school walkout — which organizers intend to be dramatic — would fall outside this protection because students don’t formally check out, for example.

    One Redlands parent said he notified the school that his son had permission to take part in an earlier walkout after the walkout. But his son was still penalized because, the parent said, he was not allowed to grant permission for his son retroactively.

    State law does require advance notice, but it does not say parental permission is required for that one protected civic activity day per year. The law also stipulates that schools, at their discretion, can allow additional excused absences for civic participation.

    The parent, who did not want to be named out of concern for retaliation, said his son was placed on a “No-Go List” for extracurricular activities and events.

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    Howard Blume, Christopher Buchanan

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  • Commentary: Yes, Trump’s video showing the Obamas as apes is racist. But it’s also about the election

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    Welcome to Black History Month, 2026 style.

    President Trump posted a video Thursday to his social media site that contains animated images depicting former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

    The White House took down the post Friday, and after first calling it nothing more than a meme, they dubbed it a mistake by a staffer. Sure.

    But while the justifiable outrage over this overt racism spins itself into a brief media circus (because we all know something else will come along in about three minutes), let’s look a bit deeper into why this video is more than an affront to everything America stands for, or should stand for, anyway.

    It’s no accident that the images of the Obamas are embedded deep inside a video about voter fraud conspiracies from the 2020 election (which are untrue, if I need to say it again). This video is an escalation in the assault that is likely to come on voting rights and voting access in the midterms.

    “Absolutely, there’s a connection to the vote,” Melina Abdullah told me Friday. She’s a professor at Cal State Los Angeles and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

    “This is about more than just about the Obamas,” added Brian Levin, a professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. “It’s about people that are [perceived as] undermining our elections and our democracy.”

    I caught Levin the day after he turned in a chapter about authoritarianism for a new book, which happens to look at how discrimination and the imposition of social hierarchies ties in with power.

    Let me summarize. Vulnerable groups are smashed down as dangerous and not fit to be full citizens, so a smaller group of elites can justify power by any means to protect society from these lowly and nasty influences.

    Let me make that messaging even simpler: Black and brown people are bad and shouldn’t be allowed to participate in democracy because they don’t deserve the right.

    How does that play out at the ballot box?

    All that talk about voter identification and election integrity is really about stopping people from voting — people who legally have the right to vote. Those who are least likely to be able to obtain proof of citizenship — which might require a passport or birth certificate, along with the money and know-how to get such documents — are often Black or brown people. They are often also poor, or poorer, and therefore have less time and money to put into obtaining documents, and also live in urban areas where they share polling places.

    Is it such a stretch to imagine some kind of federal oversight at those types of polling places, turning away — or simply intimidating away — legal voters who have long made up a strong block of the Democratic base?

    Let’s hope that never happens. But the current undermining of the legitimacy of Black and brown voters is, said both Levin and Abdullah, systemic and concerning.

    Trump’s latest video is “part of a floodgate of bigotry and conspiracy that relates to elections and immigrants and Black people and it’s important to condemn the manner in which these puzzle pieces are put together to label African Americans and immigrants as a threat to democracy with respect to the vote,” Levin said.

    The premise of the video in question is that Democrats have engaged in a complicated and decades-long scheme to steal elections. It’s presented as a documentary, and the images of the Obamas have been weirdly inserted as almost a subliminal flash near the end.

    If you’ve missed the white supremacist postings that have now become commonplace on official government communications such as those from the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security, let me assure you that Levin is right and this primate video is indeed part of a “firehose” of white nationalist rhetoric coming not just from Trump, but from the federal government as a whole.

    The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, for example, has turned its focus toward punishing diversity, equity and inclusion. Just this week, another federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, began a probe against Nike for allegedly discriminating against white people in hiring.

    “It has been not even a dog-whistling, but a Xeroxing of the exact kind of terms that I’ve been looking at on white supremacists’ and neo-Nazi websites for decades,” Levin said.

    It’s not my place or intent to warn Black people about racism, because that would be ludicrous and insulting, but I’ll warn the rest of us because in the end, authoritarianism targets everyone. This video is a clear statement that Trump’s vision of America is one in which every non-white group, every vulnerable group really, is a second-class citizen.

    “He’s enabling an entire group of people who want to take this country back to a time when rampant violent white supremacy was enabled in the law,” Abdullah said. “What they mean is recapturing an old-school, oppressive racism that is pre-1965, pre-Voting Rights Act.”

    That message, Levin said, has “a resonance with a decent part of his base,” and when fed ceaselessly into the system, can have violent outcomes.

    Levin uses the example of when Trump tweeted during the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” a phrase with a violent and racist history.

    Levin said Black people have always been the primary targets of hate crimes in the United States, but after that tweet, it was some of the “worst days” for violence aimed by race.

    “When a high transmitter, like a president, circulates imagery with regard to prejudice, it creates these stereotypes and conspiracy theories, which then are the groundwork for further conspiracy theories and aggression,” he added.

    Abdullah said she worries that even if the voter crackdown isn’t officially sanctioned, those empowered conspiracy theorists will take action anyway.

    “So the people who are so-called ‘monitoring,’ self-appointed monitors … this is who’s going to be pulling people out of voter lines, and so this is what he’s whipping up intentionally,” she said.

    Keep your eye on the ball, folks, because the far-right Republicans running the show are laser-focused on it. The midterm elections have to go their way for them to remain in power.

    The easiest way to ensure that outcome is to only allow voters who see things their way.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Commentary: MAGA launches another ‘save the children’ campaign targeting LGBTQ+ families

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    The latest nauseant from MAGA types pretending to care about children was dished up last week, but amid the internment of kindergartners, the slashing of funds to catch child predators and a measles outbreak at a detention center, you are forgiven for missing it.

    I am talking about a coordinated campaign launched by the religious right to overturn gay marriage, arguing it harms children. The effort is a direct attack on the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges decision making same-sex marriage a fundamental right of equality under the 14th Amendment, but also seeks to engage churches on the issue and change public opinion.

    Good luck with that last part. Most Americans support marriage equality. But the Supreme Court? That’s much iffier these days.

    But what disturbs me the most, while we wait for litigation, is that the campaign is yet another disingenuous ploy by MAGA to use children as an excuse for attacking civil rights, and attempting, Christian nationalist-style, to impose religious values on general society.

    MAGA frames so much hate — especially around immigrants and diversity — as protection of children, and through decades’ worth of conspiracy theory has attempted to paint LGBTQ+ parents as deviant and predatory. (QAnon, for example, was all about saving kids from gay and Democratic predators.)

    In reality, it’s the MAGA folks who are traumatizing children.

    “Our children are afraid. They’re terrorized,” Chauntyll Allen told me. She’s the St. Paul, Minn., school board member who was arrested recently for her part in the church protest of a pastor who is also an ICE official.

    “And we’re not just talking about immigrants,” she continued. All kids “are watching this, they’re experiencing this, and they’re carrying the terror in their body. What is this going to do for our society in 20 years?”

    This campaign to undo marriage equality, far from protecting kids, is just another injury inflicted on them for political gain. It features two California cases that are meant to show how terrible any form of same-sex parenting is, but mischaracterizes the facts for maximum outrage.

    The campaign also specifically targets in vitro fertilization and surrogacy as dangerous gateways to promoting LGBTQ+ families, an increasingly common position in far-right religious circles that would like to see more white women having babies through sex with white husbands.

    Attacking marriage equality isn’t about protecting children any more than deporting immigrants is about stopping crime. Allowing it to be framed that way actually puts in danger the stability of the approximately 300,000 kids nationwide who are being raised by about 832,000 couples in same-sex marriages.

    It endangers the physical and mental health of LGBTQ+ kids in any family who are growing up in a world that is increasingly hostile to them — with gender and identity hate crimes on the rise.

    And it endangers everyone who values a free and fair democracy that separates church and state by eroding the rights of the vulnerable as precedent for eroding the rights of whomever ticks them off next. If LGBTQ+ marriages aren’t legally protected, how long before racists come for the Loving decision, which legalized interracial marriage?

    If you doubt the MAGA agenda extends that far, when Second Lady Usha Vance recently announced her fourth pregnancy, one lovely fellow on social media wrote, “There is nothing exciting about this. We will never vote for your race traitor husband.”

    Hate is a virus that spreads how it pleases.

    Those behind the effort to undo marriage equality say that by legalizing the ability for LGBTQ+ folks to tie the knot, America put “adult desires” ahead of children’s well-being, which is dependent on being raised in a home that includes a married man and woman.

    Never mind the millions of kids being raised by single parents, grandparents (looking at you, JD Vance) or other guardians who aren’t the biological John-and-Jane mommy and daddy of conservative lore. Never mind the many same-sex marriages that don’t include kids.

    “Americans need to understand the threat that gay marriage poses to children and that natural marriage is directly connected to children protection,” Katy Faust, the leader of the campaign, said in an interview with a Christian news website.

    Of course, the campaign also makes no mention of the hundreds of children currently held in detention camps around the country — on some days, the number of children locked up just by ICE (not Border Patrol or in the care of other agencies) has skyrocketed to 400 under Trump, according to the Marshall Project.

    Outside of lockup, Black and brown children are being traumatized daily by the fear that they or their parents will be taken or even killed by federal agents. Thousands of kids across the country, including in California, have stopped going to school and other public places for fear of endangering themselves or their families. Don’t expect to see these folks campaigning to protect those kids.

    The campaign also ignores the fact that U.S. Department of Justice funding to combat sex crimes against children was just slashed, leaving victims and prosecutors without crucial resources to fight that real and undoubtedly harmful exploitation of our youth by sex traffickers.

    And Epstein. I cannot even start on save-the-children folks who seemingly ignore the victims of the sex crimes detailed in those files — many of them children at the time — while wringing their hands over families who don’t look like their own. It is a mind-blowing amount of hypocrisy.

    But of course, none of this is about saving children — yours, mine or anyone’s.

    But framing it around protecting children is a powerful manipulation — a last-ditch effort as same sex marriage does in fact become more accepted. Because who doesn’t want to save our kids? From whatever.

    Don’t be surprised if this effort gains traction in coming months. As we head into elections, the MAGA machine will attempt to turn the lens away from immigration and back to old-school issues such as feminism, abortion and same-sex marriage, which time and again its base has been willing to vote on regardless of what else is happening.

    Because they actually don’t care about kids. They care about power, and they’re perfectly willing to exploit kids to get it.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • L.A. archbishop holds ‘Mass for Peace’ as students protest Trump immigration policies

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    Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated what he called a “Mass for Peace” at Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday, stopping just short of a direct appeal to the Trump administration to draw down its aggressive immigration enforcement efforts as protesters gathered blocks away.

    “We are united with everybody in our country praying for peace, and specifically praying for immigrants in our country,” Gomez said during an address from the pulpit Wednesday afternoon.

    “Today, we especially pray for our government leaders, for the law enforcement officers and for those protesting and defending the immigrant families in this struggle here in Los Angeles.”

    As police helicopters buzzed overhead monitoring the demonstration nearby, the archbishop called on God to “awaken again the conscience of Americans.”

    Parishioners fill the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for a Mass led by Archbishop José H. Gomez.

    (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

    His remarks coincided with a student walkout, with teen protesters converging on the Metropolitan Detention Center about a mile away.

    More than 500 students carrying signs and draped in flags gathered at the intersection of Aliso and Los Angeles streets and marched to the jail, where a swarm of police stood behind yellow caution tape.

    Kiro Perez, a freshman from Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, held a sign above her faded green hair that read, “My parents work more than the President.”

    “I’m fighting for my father, my mom, my siblings and everyone else,” Kiro said.

    After working for more than a decade, her father had his application for a green card approved less than two years ago, Kiro said. She said that for months, he has obsessively checked ICE activity and has lived in fear.

    “I don’t want him to feel scared anymore,” she said.

    Los Angeles is the largest archdiocese in the United States, home to 3.8 million Catholics. A plurality of the faithful are immigrants and the overwhelming majority are Latino. Born in Mexico, Gomez is the first Latino person to serve as archbishop of Los Angeles, and the highest-ranking Latino bishop in the United States, according to the church.

    Faith leaders have increasingly been at odds with the president, despite longtime strategic alignment between the administration and the ascendant conservative wing of American Catholicism.

    Archbishop Jose H. Gomez

    Archbishop José H. Gomez leads Mass on Wednesday.

    (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times )

    “I don’t know if anyone’s OK with what’s happening right now,” said Isaac Cuevas, the archdiocese senior director of life, justice and peace. “We shouldn’t be these kinds of people.”

    The region’s Catholic institutions responded to last year’s aggressive raids with an outpouring of charity, reorganizing many food pantries around grocery delivery and ministering directly to communities many described as under siege.

    But the political response was more muted. Some clergy members joined protests, but the church largely shied from similar action at the highest levels.

    A nun at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

    A nun makes her way through the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday.

    (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

    “It breaks my heart, because I’m an immigrant,” said Lupita Sanchez, a Franciscan nun who joined the Mass on Wednesday. “The only way that we can help the world is by praying.”

    Prayer was at the heart of Gomez’s message Wednesday as well. But other Catholics were more critical.

    “The clergy who are the boots on the ground were out there from Day One, not only doing charity but working for justice,” said Catholic activist Rosa Manriquez. “We now have quite a few bishops and cardinals coming out and being present, which is very important. As far as our archdiocese is concerned — not so much.”

    Gomez is a longtime member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic movement with deep ties to the Trump administration.

    Vice President JD Vance underwent a 2019 conversion steeped in some of the group’s most prominent thinkers. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a member, and five of the nine sitting justices are conservative Catholics with ties to the group.

    Parishioners and members of the Catholic Church

    Members of the Catholic Church fill the cathedral.

    (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

    Trump’s newest 9th Circuit appointee, Eric Tung, also converted under the movement’s influence.

    “During the time of the rise of this regime, our archbishop was the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Manriquez said. “Their silence enabled this. You can’t argue with the statistics of how many Catholics voted for this regime.”

    In the 2024 election, 1 in 5 Trump voters identified as Catholic, a Pew Research Center study found.

    Pope Leo XIV conducts Mass

    Pope Leo XIV, shown leading a Mass in December, has forcefully condemned the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics.

    (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

    Pope Leo XIV, who became bishop of Rome after Pope Francis’ death last spring, has forcefully condemned the administration’s aggressive tactics, calling them “extremely disrespectful.” Last fall, the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly in support of a “special message” decrying militarized immigration enforcement and pleading for reform.

    “To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering,” they wrote. “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

    Times staff writer Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.

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    Sonja Sharp

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  • Why is ICE in Minneapolis? JD Vance wrong on reason

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    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security surged 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota — a state more than a thousand miles from the southern border that’s not known for having a sizable population of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — calling it the largest such operation ever. Many people have wondered: Why Minnesota?

    Vice President JD Vance, who visited Minneapolis on Jan. 22 to defend federal immigration enforcement, gave a misleading answer.

    “Right now, we’re focused on Minneapolis because that’s where we have the highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws, and that’s also, frankly, where we see the most assault of our law enforcement officers,” Vance said during a press conference.

    The vice president’s visit to Minneapolis came after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good on Jan. 7 but before a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. Both were U.S. citizens.

    PolitiFact asked spokespersons for the White House and Homeland Security for Vance’s evidence about Minneapolis having the “highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws” and received no response. (We did not examine data on assault of officers by jurisdiction.)

    Dozens of other U.S. metro areas have a higher concentration of immigrants in the U.S. illegally compared with the Minneapolis metro area. 

    Immigrant populations by metro area 

    There are about 130,000 immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally in Minnesota, according to 2023 Pew Research Center data, the most recent year available.

    They represent about 2% of the state’s population and about 1% of the unauthorized population nationwide. 

    The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan group, estimated a slightly smaller number for Minnesota of about 100,000 immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

    Government officials and nonpartisan groups that track immigration data do not have data showing the number of immigrants the U.S. illegally exclusively in the city of Minneapolis. Instead, they use metro area data; Pew Research Center uses a 15-county area that includes Minneapolis and St. Paul.

    Jeffrey Passel, a Pew Research Center demographer, said the overall U.S. population of immigrants in the country illegally was probably slightly larger in 2025 than the 2023 data reflects, but there was not a large influx in the Minneapolis metro area.

    Pew estimated about 90,000 unauthorized immigrants in the Minneapolis metro area. Dozens of other metro areas have larger numbers, Passel said.

    Immigrants in the country illegally represent about 2.4% of the Minneapolis metro area’s population. That’s smaller than the 4.1% nationally, Passel said. In major metro areas such as Miami and Houston, the share of immigrants in the U.S. illegally was at least four times as big as the share in Minneapolis. Metro areas such as Provo, Utah; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Hartford, Connecticut; and Tulsa, Oklahoma, had higher percentages than the Minneapolis metro area.

    Somalis are a small percentage of the Minnesota population

    President Donald Trump has said the Minnesota focus is because of a fraud scandal involving dozens of Somalis. Somalis represent about 2% of Minnesota’s population. Somalis came to Minnesota starting in the 1990s fleeing a civil war, some as refugees while others were sponsored by family members or moved from other states. Most are U.S. citizens, either through naturalization or birth.

    Since 2022, federal prosecutors have charged about 98 people with defrauding the federal government. The majority have been convicted while many cases remain pending.

    Our ruling

    Vance said, “Right now we’re focused on Minneapolis because that’s where we have the highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws.” 

    Vance provided no evidence to back up his statement.

    Immigrants in the country illegally represent about 2.4% of the Minneapolis metro area’s population. Dozens of metro areas have larger numbers of immigrants in the U.S. illegally than the Minneapolis metro area, including smaller metro areas across the country. 

    We rate this statement False. 

    Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact-check.

    RELATED: In Context: What did Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey say about police fighting ICE?

    RELATED: Fact-check: Trump officials’ statements about Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting by Border Patrol agent

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  • ICE deports Maryland father despite ‘do not remove’ orders

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    Federal immigration authorities removed a Maryland father to El Salvador on Tuesday despite two court orders saying not to.During an emergency hearing Thursday at federal court in Baltimore, a federal judge examined what happened to Jose Serrano-Maldonado.Federal authorities admitted they made a mistake, conceding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated court orders filed in the system, even with a banner in Serrano-Maldonado’s file that said, “Do not remove.”But the feds couldn’t say why they did it anyway.The judge called this a very bad situation and demanded to know, in writing, exactly who took what steps, when and why.Serrano-Maldonado’s immigration attorney, Anna Alyssa Tijerina, is fighting for his immediate return to the United States, telling the judge that her client’s life is in danger.”He told me he is going to try and remain in his house as much as possible until this is resolved. He told me he wants to come back to the United States, even if it’s back to the detention center,” Tijerina told sister station WBAL-TV.Assistant U.S. Attorney Beatrice Thomas offered no comment outside the court when asked questions by WBAL. In court, Thomas told the judge that the government is working to fly Serrano-Maldonado back on “ICE Air” but that there’s a lot of red tape and it could take many days.The judge ordered status updates to be filed daily until Serrano-Maldonado is returned to the U.S. It’s unlikely that those daily status updates will be accessible publicly because the government said it plans to file the updates under preliminary seal.”I can’t imagine being in (the family’s) position of knowing, not knowing. At least, ‘There’s no new update today,’ is an update, right? They know something, they know that nothing was done today, but something will be done tomorrow,” Tijerina told WBAL. “For the sake of my client, for the sake of my client’s life in El Salvador, and for the sake of his family, I hope that this gets resolved quickly.”Thursday’s hearing was the first of three immigration hearings for this sole judge in the single courtroom on just one day.

    Federal immigration authorities removed a Maryland father to El Salvador on Tuesday despite two court orders saying not to.

    During an emergency hearing Thursday at federal court in Baltimore, a federal judge examined what happened to Jose Serrano-Maldonado.

    Federal authorities admitted they made a mistake, conceding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated court orders filed in the system, even with a banner in Serrano-Maldonado’s file that said, “Do not remove.”

    But the feds couldn’t say why they did it anyway.

    The judge called this a very bad situation and demanded to know, in writing, exactly who took what steps, when and why.

    Serrano-Maldonado’s immigration attorney, Anna Alyssa Tijerina, is fighting for his immediate return to the United States, telling the judge that her client’s life is in danger.

    “He told me he is going to try and remain in his house as much as possible until this is resolved. He told me he wants to come back to the United States, even if it’s back to the detention center,” Tijerina told sister station WBAL-TV.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Beatrice Thomas offered no comment outside the court when asked questions by WBAL. In court, Thomas told the judge that the government is working to fly Serrano-Maldonado back on “ICE Air” but that there’s a lot of red tape and it could take many days.

    The judge ordered status updates to be filed daily until Serrano-Maldonado is returned to the U.S. It’s unlikely that those daily status updates will be accessible publicly because the government said it plans to file the updates under preliminary seal.

    “I can’t imagine being in (the family’s) position of knowing, not knowing. At least, ‘There’s no new update today,’ is an update, right? They know something, they know that nothing was done today, but something will be done tomorrow,” Tijerina told WBAL. “For the sake of my client, for the sake of my client’s life in El Salvador, and for the sake of his family, I hope that this gets resolved quickly.”

    Thursday’s hearing was the first of three immigration hearings for this sole judge in the single courtroom on just one day.

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  • Here’s how many Somalis are in the U.S. as Trump administration ends protected status

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    There are about 98,000 immigrants from Somalia living in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau’s latest 2024 estimates. About 83% are naturalized U.S. citizens.This comes as the Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is ending temporary protected status for Somali immigrants.File video above: Temporary protection status ends for Nicaraguans and HonduransTPS offers protection from deportation and work authorization for those who are facing unsafe conditions in their home countries. Only a fraction of immigrants from Somalia in the U.S. have been granted TPS.The majority of Somali immigrants in the U.S. — about 44% — live in Minnesota. Ohio and Washington host the second-highest number of immigrants from Somalia, just over 10,000 each. President George H.W. Bush first granted TPS to Somalis in 1991 during the country’s civil war. Subsequent administrations have repeatedly renewed that status, including most recently President Joe Biden in 2024.Over the past decade, the total Somali immigrant population in the U.S. has remained about the same, although a growing number have become naturalized citizens. There are about 260,000 total people of Somali descent in the U.S. as of 2024 estimates — that’s including those born in the U.S.PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    There are about 98,000 immigrants from Somalia living in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau’s latest 2024 estimates. About 83% are naturalized U.S. citizens.

    This comes as the Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is ending temporary protected status for Somali immigrants.

    File video above: Temporary protection status ends for Nicaraguans and Hondurans

    TPS offers protection from deportation and work authorization for those who are facing unsafe conditions in their home countries. Only a fraction of immigrants from Somalia in the U.S. have been granted TPS.

    The majority of Somali immigrants in the U.S. — about 44% — live in Minnesota.

    Ohio and Washington host the second-highest number of immigrants from Somalia, just over 10,000 each.

    President George H.W. Bush first granted TPS to Somalis in 1991 during the country’s civil war. Subsequent administrations have repeatedly renewed that status, including most recently President Joe Biden in 2024.

    Over the past decade, the total Somali immigrant population in the U.S. has remained about the same, although a growing number have become naturalized citizens.

    There are about 260,000 total people of Somali descent in the U.S. as of 2024 estimates — that’s including those born in the U.S.

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  • ICE officer fatally shoots Minneapolis woman amid immigration crackdown

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    An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.LIVE video above: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds press conference on deadly ICE shootingThe woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of angry protesters.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”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“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officerMinneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.

    MINNEAPOLIS —

    An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.

    LIVE video above: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds press conference on deadly ICE shooting

    The woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of angry protesters.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”

    But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.

    “What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”

    “They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.

    Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

    Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”


    It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.

    The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.

    The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.

    Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officer

    Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.

    “This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”

    A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

    In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.

    “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.

    For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.

    On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.

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  • ICE agent shoots and kills a woman during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown

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    A federal officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.Livestream above: Officials speak at press conference on shooting of woman by ICE agent in MinneapolisThe shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The woman is at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday’s shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.In a scene similar to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the crackdowns.“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.After the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.”“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said on social media.The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.“I feel like I’m an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV. Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.

    MINNEAPOLIS —

    A federal officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.

    The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

    Livestream above: Officials speak at press conference on shooting of woman by ICE agent in Minneapolis

    The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The woman is at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.

    The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

    A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday’s shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

    In a scene similar to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the crackdowns.

    “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.

    After the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.”

    “We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said on social media.

    The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.

    The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.

    “I feel like I’m an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV.

    Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.

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  • California has lost more than a quarter of its immigration judges this year

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    WASHINGTON — More than a quarter of federal immigration judges in California have been fired, retired or quit since the start of the Trump administration.

    The reduction follows a trend in immigration courts nationwide and constitutes, critics say, an attack on the rule of law that will lead to yet more delays in an overburdened court system.

    The reduction in immigration judges has come as the administration scaled up efforts to deport immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Trump administration officials have described the immigration court process, in which proceedings can take years amid a backlog of millions of cases, as an impediment to their goals.

    Nationwide, there were 735 immigration judges last fiscal year, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the arm of the Justice Department that houses immigration courts. At least 97 have been fired since President Trump took office and about the same number have resigned or retired, according to the union representing immigration judges.

    California has lost at least 35 immigration judges since January, according to Mobile Pathways, a Berkeley-based organization that analyzes immigration court data. That’s down from 132. The steepest drop occurred at the San Francisco Immigration Court, which has lost more than half its bench.

    “A noncitizen might win their case, might lose their case, but the key question is, did they receive a hearing?” said Emmett Soper, who worked at the Justice Department before becoming an immigration judge in Virginia in 2017. “Up until this administration, I had always been confident that I was working in a system that, despite its flaws, was fundamentally fair.”

    Our government institutions are losing their legitimacy

    — Amber George, former San Francisco Immigration Court judge

    The administration intends to fill some judge positions, and in new immigration judge job listings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere seeks candidates who want to be a “deportation judge” and “restore integrity and honor to our Nation’s Immigration Court system.”

    The immigration judges union called the job listings “insulting.”

    Trump wrote on Truth Social in April that he was elected to “remove criminals from our Country, but the Courts don’t seem to want me to do that.”

    “We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years,” he added.

    The National Assn. of Immigration Judges said it expects a wave of additional retirements at the end of this month.

    “My biggest concern is for the people whose lives are left in limbo. What can they count on when the ground is literally shifting every moment that they’re here?” said Amber George, who was fired last month from the San Francisco Immigration Court. “Our government institutions are losing their legitimacy.”

    Because immigration courts operate under the Justice Department, their priorities typically shift from one presidential administration to the next, but the extreme changes taking place have renewed longtime calls for immigration courts to become independent of the executive branch.

    The Trump administration recently added 36 judges; 25 of them are military lawyers serving in temporary positions.

    This summer, the Pentagon authorized up to 600 military lawyers to work for the Department of Justice. That took place after the department changed the requirements for temporary immigration judges, removing the need for immigration law experience.

    The Department of Justice did not respond to specific questions, but said judges must be impartial and that the agency is obligated to take action against those who demonstrate systemic bias.

    Former judges say that, because terminations have happened with no advance notice, remaining court staff have often scrambled to get up to speed on reassigned cases.

    Ousted judges described a pattern: In the afternoon, sometimes while presiding over a hearing, they receive a short email stating that they are being terminated pursuant to Article II of the Constitution. Their names are swiftly removed from the Justice Department website.

    Jeremiah Johnson is one of five judges terminated recently from the San Francisco Immigration Court.

    Johnson said he worries the Trump administration is circumventing immigration courts by making conditions so unbearable that immigrants decide to drop their cases.

    The number of detained immigrants has climbed to record levels since January, with more than 65,000 in custody. Immigrants and lawyers say the conditions are inhumane, alleging medical neglect, punitive solitary confinement and obstructed access to legal counsel. Requests by immigrants for voluntary departure, which avoids formal deportation, have surged in recent months.

    Many of those arrests have happened at courthouses, causing immigrants to avoid their legal claims out of fear of being detained and forcing judges to order them removed in absentia.

    “Those are ways to get people to leave the United States without seeing a judge, without due process that Congress has provided,” Johnson said. “It’s a dismantling of the court system.”

    A sign posted outside the San Francisco Immigration Court in October protests enforcement actions by immigration agents. The court has lost more than half of its immigration judges.

    (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

    The judges in San Francisco’s Immigration Court have historically had higher asylum approval rates than the national average. Johnson said grant rates depend on a variety of circumstances, including whether a person is detained or has legal representation, their country of origin and whether they are adults or children.

    In November, the military judges serving in immigration courts heard 286 cases and issued rulings in 110, according to Mobile Pathways. The military judges issued deportation orders in 78% of the cases — more often than other immigration judges that month, who ordered deportations in 63% of cases.

    “They’re probably following directions — and the military is very good at following directions — and it’s clear what their directions are that are given by this administration,” said Mobile Pathways co-founder Bartlomiej Skorupa. He cautioned that 110 cases are a small sample size and that trends will become clearer in the coming months.

    Former immigration judges and their advocates say that appointing people with no immigration experience and little training makes for a steep learning curve and the possibility of due process violations.

    “There are multiple concerns here: that they’re temporary, which could expose them to greater pressure to decide cases in a certain way; and also they lack experience in immigration law, which is an extremely complex area of practice,” said Ingrid Eagly, an immigration law professor at UCLA.

    Immigration courts have a backlog of more than 3 million cases. Anam Petit, who served as an immigration judge in Virginia until September, said the administration’s emphasis on speedy case completions has to be balanced against the constitutional right to a fair hearing.

    “There are not enough judges to hear those cases, and this administration [is] taking it upon themselves to fire a lot of experienced and trained judges who can hear those cases and can mitigate that backlog,” she said.

    Complementary bills introduced in the U.S. Senate and House this month by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) would prevent the appointment of military lawyers as temporary immigration judges and impose a two-year limit of service.

    “The Trump administration’s willingness to fire experienced immigration judges and hire inexperienced or temporary ‘deportation judges,’ especially in places like California, has fundamentally impacted the landscape of our justice system,” Schiff said in a statement announcing the bill.

    The bills have little chance in the Republican-controlled Congress but illustrate how significantly Democrats — especially in California — oppose the administration’s changes to immigration courts.

    Former Immigration Judge Tania Nemer, a dual citizen of Lebanon and the U.S., sued the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi this month, alleging that she was illegally terminated in February because of her gender, ethnic background and political affiliation. In 2023, Nemer ran for judicial office in Ohio as a Democrat.

    Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi speaks at the White House in October.

    Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, seen here at the White House in October, has dismissed complaints by a former immigration judge who alleged she was fired without cause.

    (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

    Bondi addressed the lawsuit in a Cabinet meeting.

    “Most recently, yesterday, I was sued by an immigration judge who we fired,” she said Dec. 2. “One of the reasons she said she was a woman. Last I checked, I was a woman as well.”

    Other former judges have challenged their terminations through the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.

    Johnson, of San Francisco, is one of those. He filed his appeal this month, claiming that he was not given cause for termination.

    “My goal is to be reinstated,” he said. “My colleagues on the bench, our court was vibrant. It was a good place to work, despite all the pressures.”

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    Andrea Castillo

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  • After National Guard shooting, administration cracks down on legal immigration

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    WASHINGTON — Sophia Nyazi’s husband, Milad, shook her awake at 8 a.m. “ICE is here,” he told her.

    Three uniformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were downstairs at the family’s home on Long Island, N.Y., on Tuesday, according to a video reviewed by The Times that she captured from atop the staircase.

    Nyazi said the agents asked whether her husband was applying for a green card. They told her they would have to detain him because of the shooting of two National Guard members a week earlier in Washington, D.C.

    “He has nothing to do with that shooting,” Nyazi, 27, recalled answering. “We don’t even know that person.”

    Her protests didn’t matter. The Trump administration has put into motion a broad and unprecedented set of policy changes aimed at substantially limiting legal immigration avenues, including for immigrants long considered the most vulnerable.

    Unfortunately, I think the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a way to shut down even legal immigration

    — Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Milad Nyazi, 28, was detained because, like the man charged in the shooting which left one National Guard member dead, he is from Afghanistan.

    The administration has paused decisions on all applications filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, by people seeking asylum. The visa and immigration applications of Afghans, whom the U.S. had welcomed in 2021 as it pulled all troops from the country, have been halted.

    Officials also froze the processing of immigration cases of people from 19 countries the administration considers “high-risk” and will conduct case-by-case reviews of green cards and other immigration benefits given to people from those countries since former President Biden took office in 2021.

    Immigration lawyers say they learned that dozens of naturalization ceremonies and interviews for green cards are being canceled for immigrants from Haiti, Iran, Guinea and other countries on the list.

    In a couple of cases, immigration officers told immigrants that they had been prepared to grant a green card, but were unable to do so because of the new guidance, said Gregory Chen, government relations director at American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Although it is unclear exactly how many people could be affected by the new rules, 1.5 million immigrants have asylum cases pending with USCIS.

    “These are sweeping changes that exact collective punishment on a wide swath of people who are trying to do things the right way,” said Amanda Baran, former chief of policy and strategy at USCIS under the Biden administration. “I worry about all the people who have dutifully filed applications and whose lives are now on hold.”

    Administration officials called the Nov. 26 shooting a “terrorist attack” and defended the changes as necessary to protect the country. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, faces charges stemming from the shooting that killed Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

    “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, said in a message posted Nov. 27 on X. “American safety is non-negotiable.”

    Lakanwal pleaded not guilty last week and his motive remains under investigation. In Afghanistan, he served in a counterterrorism unit operated by the CIA.

    Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through a Biden administration program that resettled nearly 200,000 Afghans in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, officials said. He applied for asylum in December 2024 and it was approved under the Trump administration in April, according to a statement by the nonprofit #AfghanEvac.

    Afghans who worked with U.S. troops were believed to face danger if left behind under the Taliban-run government. Along with undergoing routine security screening, they submitted to additional “rigorous” vetting, which included biometric and biographic checks by counterterrorism and intelligence professionals, the Department of Homeland Security said at the time.

    Two federal reports from 2024 and this year pointed to some failings of the screening, including data inaccuracies and the presence of 55 evacuees who were later identified on terrorism watch lists, though the latter report noted that the FBI had then followed all required processes to mitigate any potential threat.

    It’s unclear exactly how the administration will carry out reviews of thousands of people who already live legally in the U.S. The federal government can’t easily strip people of permanent legal status. The threat of reopening cases, however, has sparked alarm in immigrant communities across the country.

    About 58,600 Afghan immigrants call California home as of 2023, far more than any other state, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Interviews with a dozen local community advocates, immigration attorneys and family members of those detained paint an aggressive effort by the federal government to round up recent Afghan immigrants in the wake of the D.C. shooting.

    “Unfortunately, I think the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a way to shut down even legal immigration. And it’s definitely gone much broader than the Afghan community,” said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, the director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Trump administration officials cited the shooting in a spate of policy changes last week.

    On Friday, USCIS announced it had established a new center to strengthen screening with supplemental reviews of immigration applications, in part using artificial intelligence. The USCIS Vetting Center, based in Atlanta, will “centralize enhanced vetting of aliens and allow the agency to respond more nimbly to changes in a shifting threat landscape,” the agency said.

    On Thursday, USCIS said work permits granted to immigrants would expire after 18 months, not five years. The change includes work permits for those admitted as refugees, with pending green card applications and with pending asylum applications.

    In a memorandum Tuesday outlining the pause on asylum applications and the immigration cases of people from the 19 countries also subject to a travel ban, USCIS acknowledged that the changes could result in processing delays but had determined it was “necessary and appropriate” when weighed “against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security.”

    Immigrants already had been on high alert as the Trump administration canceled temporary humanitarian programs, cut back refugee admissions — except for a limited number of white South African Afrikaners — and increased attempts to send those with deportation orders to countries where they have no personal connection.

    Before the Washington shooting, a Nov. 21 memo showed that the administration planned to review the cases of more than 200,000 refugees admitted under the Biden administration. Although asylum seekers apply after arriving in the U.S., refugees apply for admission from outside the country.

    Nyazi questioned why Afghans are being singled out, noting that a white person allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, but “I don’t see any ICE agents going into white people’s houses.”

    Asked why Milad Nyazi was detained, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant public affairs secretary for Homeland Security, called him a criminal, citing two arrests on suspicion of domestic violence.

    “Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS has been going full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens that came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and working to get the criminals and public safety threats OUT of our country,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

    Nyazi said the charges, which did not stem from incidents of physical violence, were dropped and his record was later expunged.

    She and her husband got engaged in 2019 in Afghanistan and applied for a fiance visa, because Nyazi is a U.S. citizen. Their application was approved in 2021. Soon after, with the Taliban takeover in full force, the U.S. government allowed Milad Nyazi to fly to the U.S. He has a pending green card application, Nyazi said.

    On Tuesday, the couple’s 3-year-old daughter screamed and cried as her father was handcuffed and taken away. He has a court hearing this week.

    Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and others say Afghans in various stages of their legal immigration process — not only those with deportation orders — have been targeted. She said at least 17 Afghans in the Bay Area have been detained since Monday.

    Lawyers said many of the Afghans detained last week had arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, where they had sought asylum.

    Paris Etemadi Scott, legal director of the Pars Equality Center in San José, said three of her clients, an Afghan mother and her two sons who are both in their early 20s, were detained Dec. 1 during a routine check-in with ICE. All have pending asylum applications, she said.

    Rebecca Olszewski, managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said her Afghan client, who also has a pending asylum case, reported for his monthly virtual check-in Friday and was told to show up in person the next day, where he was detained.

    Since the shooting, administration officials and the president have used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants. In announcing the 19-country travel ban Dec. 1, Noem posted on X that she was recommending a “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

    In a Cabinet meeting the next day, Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” who “contribute nothing.” (A few days later, Noem said the administration would expand the travel ban to more than 30 countries.)

    On Thanksgiving Day, Trump had said on his social media platform that he intends to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and deport those who are “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

    In recent days, a ghostly quiet has overtaken Shafiullah Hotak’s regular haunts in North Sacramento, where the Afghan population in the city is especially dense. Hotak, 38, is an Afghan immigrant who served as a program manager at refugee resettlement organization Lao Family Community Development until layoffs due to federal cuts forced him out of work in May.

    On Thursday, immigration agents banged on doors at an apartment complex on Marconi Avenue, where hundreds of Afghans have resettled. Just one employee sat in an Afghan-owned tax and bookkeeping business that was typically buzzing with clients. A nearby park, where teenagers kick around soccer balls and giggling packs of children roam after school, was empty. And the lines at a halal market known for its sesame-topped Afghan bread had disappeared.

    “The situation we have in our community reminds me of when we used to go to work in Afghanistan,” Hotak said. “We had to take different routes every day because people who were against the U.S. mission in Afghanistan were targeting people. There were bombings and shootings.”

    Hotak said “Kill the eyes,” is what the enemies of the U.S. in Afghanistan used to advise as to how to deal with local Afghans aiding the military, in order to blind their operations.

    “But nowadays those ‘eyes’ are here in the U.S. and the U.S. government is looking to pick them up and put them in jail,” Hotak said.

    Times staff writers Castillo reported from Washington and Hussain and Uranga from Los Angeles.

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    Suhauna Hussain, Andrea Castillo, Rachel Uranga

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  • California to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants

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    California will cancel 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses that had been issued to immigrants after officials said they extended beyond the date the drivers were allowed to work in the country — a violation of state law.

    California requires driver’s licenses and work permits to have the same expiration dates, officials said. Notices were sent out on Nov. 6 to affected drivers warning their licenses would expire in 60 days.

    The move comes amid an ongoing clash between the Trump administration and Gov. Gavin Newsom over California’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licensing program. It also follows a nationwide audit of such programs after officials said a truck driver living in the U.S. illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.

    “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a written statement.

    State officials, however, said the drivers were not “illegal immigrants” and that they were authorized to work in the country by the federal government.

    “Once again, Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” said Brandon Richards, a Newsom spokesman.

    California is one of 19 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., that issues driving licenses to immigrants without legal status. Doing so allows people to work and travel safely, immigrant rights advocates argue.

    But California — along with six other states, including Texas — came under scrutiny after an audit conducted by the Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency responsible for preventing commercial motor vehicle-related deaths and injuries.

    That audit found irregularities in the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.

    Duffy said the audit found 25% of the licenses issued in California violated federal rules, including by extending well beyond an individual’s work permit end date.

    In October, following the audit, Duffy withheld more than $40 million in transportation grants and claimed California was not only continuing to issue commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants living in the country illegally, but was also not enforcing new English language requirements for truckers.

    Officials have refuted Duffy’s claims and said the state has complied with federal laws and regulations. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said on its website that it was not issuing or renewing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses as of Sept. 29.

    Proposed new federal rules that would include mandatory federal immigration status checks, limiting the duration of the license and limiting eligibility to certain immigration visas, were temporarily put on hold by a federal appeals court this week.

    The ruling provided relief for thousands of immigrants who were at risk of losing their licenses.

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    Ruben Vives

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  • Why California’s newest detention facility faces federal lawsuit over medical neglect and ‘punitive’ unsanitary conditions

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    Fernando Gomez Ruiz had been eating at a lunch truck outside Home Depot when agents arrested him and 10 others in early October.

    The diabetic father of two, who has lived in the Los Angeles area for 22 years, was detained and then quickly transferred to California’s biggest detention facility, where he’s been unable to get insulin regularly and now nurses a worsening hole in his foot.

    He fears now not only being deported, but losing a foot.

    Ruiz is one of seven immigrants detained who filed a federal class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for “inhumane” and “punitive” conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

    “Conditions in California City are horrific,” said Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office. “The conditions are punishing and they are meant to punish.”

    An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

    (ACLU)

    “Defendants are failing to provide constitutionally adequate care for the people in the facility,” Borden said. “Mr. Gomez Ruiz is just tragically one such example.”

    The complaint details alleged “decrepit” conditions inside California’s newest detention facility, where sewage bubbles up shower drains, insects crawl up and down the walls of cold concrete group cells the size of parking lots, calls for medical help go unanswered for weeks and people are excessively punished.

    Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, referred questions to DHS and ICE, but said in a statement “the safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority. 

    “We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including the [California City facility.] Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”

    The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But last month when asked about the center, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, defended the conditions.

    “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” she said. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

    The lawsuit alleges just the opposite: inadequate food and water, frigid conditions, forced isolation and lack of access to lawyers. It also details instances where life-threatening conditions allegedly weren’t attended to.

    An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility.

    An image used in a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of the interior of the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.

    (ACLU)

    One of the plaintiffs, Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, didn’t get his needed heart medications. Since arriving there he has had two emergency hospitalizations for severe chest pain. The last time he was there, the doctor told him “he could die if this were to happen again,” according to the lawsuit.

    “It is exemplary of the trauma and the heartbreak that people are experiencing inside,” Borden said.

    The former prison opened without proper permitting in August as the Trump administration pushed to expand detention capacity nationwide. By the next month, immigrants inside the 2,500 capacity facility launched a hunger strike protesting conditions.

    The lawsuit was brought by the Prison Law Office, the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters.

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    Rachel Uranga

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  • Asylum seekers face deportation over failure to pay new fees — before being notified

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    WASHINGTON — Late last month, an immigrant seeking asylum in the U.S. came across social media posts urging her to pay a new fee imposed by the Trump administration before Oct. 1, or else risk her case being dismissed.

    Paula, a 40-year-old Los Angeles-area immigrant from Mexico, whose full name The Times is withholding because she fears retribution, applied for asylum in 2021 and her case is now on appeal.

    But when Paula tried to pay the $100 annual fee, she couldn’t find an option on the immigration court’s website that accepted fees for pending asylum cases. Afraid of deportation — and with just five hours before the payment deadline — she selected the closest approximation she could find, $110 for an appeal filed before July 7.

    She knew it was likely incorrect. Still, she felt it was better to pay for something, rather than nothing at all, as a show of good faith. Unable to come up with the money on such short notice, Paula, who works in a warehouse repairing purses, paid the fee with a credit card.

    “I hope that money isn’t wasted,” she said.

    That remains unclear because of confusion and misinformation surrounding the rollout of a host of new fees or fee increases for a variety of immigration services. The fees are part of the sweeping budget bill President Trump signed into law in July.

    Paula was one of thousands of asylum seekers across the country who panicked after seeing messages on social media urging them to pay the new fee before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

    But government messaging about the fees has sometimes been chaotic and contradictory, immigration attorneys say. Some asylum seekers have received notice about the fees, while others have not. Misinformation surged as immigrants scrambled to figure out whether, and how, to pay.

    Advocates worry the confusion serves as a way for immigration officials to dismiss more asylum cases, which would render the applicants deportable.

    The fees vary. For those seeking asylum, there is a $100 fee for new applications, as well as a yearly fee of $100 for pending applications. The fee for an initial work permit is $550 and work permit renewals can be as much as $795.

    Amy Grenier, associate director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn., said that not having a clear way to pay a fee might seem like a small government misstep, but the legal consequences are substantial.

    For new asylum applications, she said, some immigration judges set a payment deadline of Sept. 30, even though the Executive Office for Immigration Review only updated the payment portal in the last week of September.

    “The lack of coherent guidance and structure to pay the fee only compounded the inefficiency of our immigration courts,” Grenier said. “There are very real consequences for asylum-seekers navigating this completely unnecessary bureaucratic mess.”

    Two agencies collect the asylum fees: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), under the Department of Justice, which operates immigration courts.

    Both agencies initially released different instructions regarding the fees, and only USCIS has provided an avenue for payment.

    The departments of Homeland Security and Justice didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House deferred to USCIS.

    USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said the asylum fee is being implemented consistent with the law.

    “The real losers in this are the unscrupulous and incompetent immigration attorneys who exploit their clients and bog down the system with baseless asylum claims,” he said.

    The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), a national membership organization, sued the Trump administration earlier this month after thousands of members shared their confusion over the new fees, arguing that the federal agencies involved “threaten to deprive asylum seekers of full and fair consideration of their claims.”

    The organization also argued the fees shouldn’t apply to people whose cases were pending before Trump signed the budget package into law.

    In a U.S. district court filing Monday, Justice Department lawyers defended the fees, saying, “Congress made clear that these new asylum fees were long overdue and necessary to recover the growing costs of adjudicating the millions of pending asylum applications.”

    Some of the confusion resulted from contradictory information.

    A notice by USCIS in the July 22 Federal Register confused immigrants and legal practitioners alike because of a reference to Sept. 30. Anyone who had applied for asylum as of Oct. 1, 2024, and whose application was still pending by Sept. 30, was instructed to pay a fee. Some thought the notice meant that Sept. 30 was the deadline to pay the yearly asylum fee.

    By this month, USCIS clarified on its website that it will “issue personal notices” alerting asylum applicants when their annual fee is due, how to pay it and the consequences for failing to do so.

    The agency created a payment portal and began sending out notices Oct. 1, instructing recipients to pay within 30 days.

    But many asylum seekers are still waiting to be notified by USCIS, according to ASAP, the advocacy organization. Some have received texts or physical mail telling them to check their USCIS account, while others have resorted to checking their accounts daily.

    Meanwhile the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) didn’t add a mechanism for paying the $100 fee for pending asylum cases — the one Paula hoped to pay — until Thursday.

    In its Oct. 3 complaint, lawyers for ASAP wrote: “Troublingly, ASAP has received reports that some immigration judges at EOIR are already requiring applicants to have paid the annual asylum fee, and in at least one case even rejected an asylum application and ordered an asylum seeker removed for non-payment of the annual asylum fee, despite the agency providing no way to pay this fee.”

    An immigration lawyer in San Diego, who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution, said an immigration judge denied his client’s asylum petition because the client had not paid the new fee, even though there was no way to pay it.

    The judge issued an order, which was shared with The Times, that read, “Despite this mandatory requirement, to date the respondents have not filed proof of payment for the annual asylum fee.”

    The lawyer called the decision a due process violation. He said he now plans to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, though another fee increase under Trump’s spending package raised that cost from $110 to $1,010. He is litigating the case pro bono.

    Justice Department lawyers said Monday that EOIR had eliminated the initial inconsistency by revising its position to reflect that of USCIS and will soon send out official notices to applicants, giving them 30 days to make the payment.

    “There was no unreasonable delay here in EOIR’s implementation,” the filing said. “…The record shows several steps were required to finalize EOIR’s process, including coordination with USCIS. Regardless, Plaintiff’s request is now moot.”

    Immigrants like Paula, who is a member of ASAP, recently got some reassurance. In a court declaration, EOIR Director Daren Margolin wrote that for anyone who made anticipatory or advance payments for the annual asylum fee, “those payments will be applied to the alien’s owed fees, as appropriate.”

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    Andrea Castillo

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  • Latino members of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seek aid as ICE raids escalate

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    On a recent Sunday morning in Provo, Utah, a small congregation of about two dozen people gathered in a church hall for ward services. At the front of the room stood the bishop, who blessed the bread and water in Spanish before passing the trays around for the congregation. The melodic sounds of the piano reverberated across the room as members sang “Welcome Home” — a new hymn for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    Ward services like this have brought a consistent comfort and sense of community for Izzy, who came to Provo to study at Brigham Young University a few years ago. But lately, the increased possibility of ICE raids across the country has made him nervous.

    “I just couldn’t focus. Just instant anxiety and fear. I worried about my family, and how I was gonna get through this year or the next four or three,” Izzy said. The prospect of an ICE recruitment fair nearby also disturbed him.

    When he was just a toddler, Izzy and his parents came from Venezuela to the United States in search of a better life. Then one Christmas, Mormon missionaries brought gifts to their home in West Valley. He and his family were sealed in Utah. He was accepted into the DACA program, Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, years ago.

    For many Latino members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an ambivalent sense of the Church’s stance on immigrants. There is discontent about how explicit the Church has been in condemning ongoing ICE raids, compared to Catholic leaders for example, while others have focused on providing individual help to those in need.

    The church has previously issued statements regarding immigration in 2011 and 2018 about the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. But its most recent statement published in January listed three points in order. While it reads similarly to past statements on loving thy neighbor and concern about keeping families together, the first point this time notably focused on “obeying the law.”

    When The Times reached out to ask about why the new statement was numbered and in this order, the Church declined to comment.

    The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.

    (Isaac Hale / For The Times)

    Dr. David-James Gonzales, a ward leader and history professor at BYU who studies Latino civil rights and migration, notes that the political climate has shifted on immigration in 2025.

    “This issue is one of the most polarizing issues nationally and it has split the Church,” he said, adding that it’s fair to question the way the statement is written. “If I’m analyzing it as a historian, it’s speaking to this moment that the Church needs to make clear to this administration that it’s not a sanctuary church.”

    The Church does not release publicly any demographic data, but according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 86% of the Church’s membership is white. Latinos are some of the fastest growing members worldwide, thanks to missionary work in countries like Mexico, Brazil and Peru.

    Yet despite the growth in Spanish-speaking wards and a more diverse Mormon community, many interviewed for this story still feel they face challenges of racism and belonging.

    This January, Brigham Young University shut down its “Dreamers” resource hub for undocumented students, after facing backlash from state leaders who complained that their tithings — or 10% obligated donations to the Church — were being used for illegal immigrants. Nori Gomez, the founding member of the Dreamer resource center, said the program’s offices started receiving threatening phone calls. The university eventually removed the resource page.

    “It was the highlight of my BYU experience,” she said. “But with how much universities are being attacked right now, I don’t agree with it, but I see why.”

    Students like Izzy had found a sense of community among other DACA recipients through these online resources. Shutting the center down added another chilling effect for church members.

    For former LDS leaders like Dr. Ignacio Garcia, a retired Latino studies professor and former bishop at a local Spanish-speaking ward, the Church’s silence has been disappointing.

    “The Church’s struggle has a lot to do with some of its members, some of its very conservative white members,” Garcia said. “[These congregants] will love you as an individual member in your ward, but then go out and condemn all immigrants.”

    In July, following hours of public comment from more than 100 community members opposing ICE’s presence in Utah, the Utah County Commission voted unanimously to enter a cooperative agreement with ICE to share data and work on a joint task force with local police. The county sheriff argued that a collaboration would allow more leeway for local officials to inject “Utah County values” into enforcement and public safety rather than allowing complete federal oversight.

    Evelyn R. has worked as a trainer in Provo for young Mormons who are about to embark on their 18 to 24-month missions domestically and abroad. As a DACA recipient herself who previously served a Spanish-speaking mission in Georgia, she has overheard mixed feelings from attendees at the center about how undocumented people can even be baptized.

    “[One girl said] you’re not really going to get anywhere with these people because they can’t get baptized. Because in order to be a member of the Church, you need to be abiding by the laws of the land, which is Article 12 of the faith,” Evelyn said.

    Article 12 refers to a revelation written by Joseph Smith, stating, “we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” The article has guided members to be good citizens in their communities.

    Evelyn said she had to ask her mission president if this was true. He reassured her that being undocumented did not gatekeep someone from belonging. It’s a stance that the First Presidency, the Church’s highest officials, also affirmed, saying that being undocumented should not itself prevent “an otherwise worthy Church member” from entering the temple or being ordained to priesthood, and calling upon congregation members to avoid being judgmental. As a convert to the Church and someone who comes from a diverse background, she said mixed responses like this were really hard to hear.

    “God doesn’t care about our status or who we are, where we came from in order to be a member of the Church,” she said. Some days, she feels that she can identify as a member of the Church, but not necessarily as part of larger “Mormon culture” — one that might be predominantly white and more conservative on politics in Utah.

    “We’re teaching principles and the doctrine of Christ,” she said. “I don’t think we’re necessarily learning how to apply those things.”

    People pass by portraits of the previous church's First Presidency in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025.

    People pass portraits of previous members of the First Presidency before the 195th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Oct. 4.

    (Isaac Hale / Associated Press)

    Luna Alvarez-Sproul, 25, works as a school teacher in Draper, Utah, where she often translates documents into Spanish for parents. She spent 18 months serving a Spanish-speaking mission in Salmon, Idaho, where many ranch hands were seasonal employees from Latin America.

    “As a missionary, we didn’t have to receive special permission from somebody in order to baptize an undocumented individual,” she recalled. “But there [are] so many members of our church that don’t believe that they should be here with their families, which I feel is contradictory in and of itself.”

    When guidance can vary so much, some church leaders have taken a more locally-focused ward approach — such as delivering food aid to members, helping out with rent or even sharing personal contacts with immigration lawyers. But addressing topics like the ICE raids during a service is likely taboo.

    “Leaders are trained and asked to be very careful about how they address it. And I think that puts them in a really hard situation, especially when they have members of their congregation that are affected by this,” Izzy said.

    The frustration may also have to do with reconciling religious principles with the views that are held by many people in the Church.

    Other members disagree about an institution-wide response. Julia, who asked to use a pseudonym due to her undocumented status, has seen firsthand the ways that individual actions have been kind to her.

    “I don’t think the Mormon Church should be responsible for us. The gospel teaches us to be independent,” she said.

    Utah also has infrastructure for many undocumented people to succeed in their daily life, she noted; it was the first state in 2005 to implement the “driver’s privilege card,” a driver’s license specifically for those who were undocumented, allowing them to commute to work and obtain insurance.

    People wear "We Are Charlie" shirts at a vigil for political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 12 in Provo, Utah.

    People wear “We Are Charlie” shirts at a vigil for political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 12 in Provo, Utah.

    (Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images)

    Just a few miles away in Orem, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University during a debate less than a week before I conducted these interviews. Hundreds of students and local community members attended vigils, laying bouquets of fresh flowers and American flags alongside crosses and the Book of Mormon on university lawns. “If you want unity, say his name UV,” one poster said. Others were adorned with Bible verses as the air echoed with different Mormon hymns.

    The LDS Church released a statement condemning the violence and lawless behavior.

    Isa Benjamin Garcia spent some time reflecting on the week’s tragic events after the Sunday ward service. As a daughter of a Mexican immigrant, she became more worried when President Trump rescinded a Biden-era policy that excluded churches and schools from immigration raids.

    “There’s a lot of rhetoric around violence, but it’s not acknowledged all the other violence that has been and is,” she said, referring to ICE raids, including an incident where a day laborer died after running away from ICE in California.

    Other members echoed this sentiment. “Something I’ve been wrestling with over the last few months is why the Church doesn’t say, ‘This is wrong.’ Like this isn’t what Christ would have us do,” said Benjamin Garcia.

    People visit a memorial honoring Charlie Kirk at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 11.

    People visit a memorial honoring Charlie Kirk at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 11.

    (Laura Seitz / Associated Press)

    In August, BYU’s Office of Belonging launched an immigration-focused eight-week course to help people gain a “basic understanding of complex immigration policies.” The goal is to equip more nonprofit workers to become partially accredited to represent clients in front of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    Gonzales, the ward leader and professor at BYU, believes this step speaks volumes about the Church’s efforts, despite challenges earlier this year with the takedown of its Dreamer center.

    “My heart was warmed seeing that,” he said. “BYU is a part of the Church and is a university that stands to help promote the Church’s ecclesiastical mission. I think that’s a form of messaging through one of its institutions.”

    Ultimately, when facing these hurdles and different interpretations of what the Book of Mormon or the Church says, members focus on their relationship to the gospel.

    “We also believe that we are the Church, and we believe that it is our responsibility to make it better. And that is what God is asking of us, and that’s what Christ is asking of us,” Benjamin Garcia said. She then paused.

    “Despite feelings of frustration or questions, what keeps a lot of us here, despite any of that, is that we have a conviction.”

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  • Do Democrats want hospitals paid extra to treat immigrants?

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    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., escalated his blame of Democrats for the federal government’s ongoing shutdown.

    “As a condition for ending the Democrat shutdown, Democrats want hospitals paid MORE to treat illegal aliens than American citizens — including young pregnant women,” Johnson said in an Oct. 5 X post.

    He pointed to the Democrats’ proposal to reverse Republican spending bill health care provisions signed into law this summer.

    “Republicans made it illegal for Medicaid to reimburse care for illegal aliens at higher rates than for U.S. citizens. Democrats are now demanding to reverse that,” Johnson said in the X post. 

    He made a similar statement in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” the same day.

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    A spokesperson for Johnson pointed to Section 71117 in the Republican law that Democrats want to repeal. The provision limits the way states can use taxes levied on health care providers to finance Medicaid costs. States share Medicaid costs with the federal government. 

    But health care experts said the section doesn’t address hospital reimbursement for providing services to immigrants illegally in the U.S.

    It “affects state financing mechanics, not coverage for undocumented patients,” University of California, Los Angeles health policy professor Arturo Bustamante said. “Reversing it wouldn’t suddenly increase payments for care to undocumented patients; it would just give states more flexibility in how they finance their Medicaid programs.”

    Democrats also want to reverse another section of the GOP bill, 71110, that affects hospital reimbursements for emergency care provided to immigrants. This can include immigrants illegally in the U.S. but is not limited to them. It also includes other noncitizens with legal status, such as permanent residents who have a waiting period before they qualify for Medicaid.

    The 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act requires hospitals to provide emergency services to stabilize patients regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status. States and the federal government reimburse hospitals for care provided to immigrants who meet all Medicaid requirements except for their immigration status; immigrants in the country illegally are not eligible to receive Medicaid. Those reimbursements are called Emergency Medicaid.

    The Republican law didn’t end hospitals’ obligation to provide emergency care. Starting in 2026, it will reduce federal government reimbursements to hospitals for certain noncitizens’ emergency care, leaving states to cover a larger portion. The Democrats’ budget proposal restores reimbursements to previous levels.

    Importantly, the Democratic proposal would not require that hospitals be paid extra to treat immigrants illegally in the U.S. It calls for states to receive the same amount of federal funding to cover Emergency Medicaid that they had received before the Republican law, health care experts said.

    “I’m not aware of hospitals getting paid more for emergency care for undocumented immigrants,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health think tank, said. By lowering how much the federal government covers, he added, Republicans are “just shifting costs to states.”

    Law enforcements stand outside the hospital emergency after a shooting near the adjoining campuses of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of Emory University in Atlanta on, Aug. 8, 2025. (AP )

    Republican law limits amount hospitals are reimbursed for emergency care for immigrants 

    Most Emergency Medicaid spending is for childbirth. In all, spending on Emergency Medicaid represented less than 1% of total Medicaid spending in fiscal year 2023, according to KFF.

    The Republican law’s changes to Emergency Medicaid reimbursements are focused on states that expanded Medicaid to cover a larger pool of people.

    Forty states and Washington, D.C., expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, making adults ages 19 to 64, without dependent children and with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, eligible. The federal government covers 90% of Medicaid costs for people included under the expansion, and states cover the rest. 

    For patients covered under regular Medicaid, and in states without the expansion, the federal government generally covers 50% to 77% of Medicaid costs.

    The Republican law limits the amount the federal government reimburses hospitals for emergency care provided to patients who would be eligible for expanded Medicaid if not for their immigration status. Rather than cover 90% of costs, starting in 2026, the federal government will cover the rate it covers for non-Medicaid expansion care.

    “Reducing the match rate for this care does not change the reimbursement for hospitals but instead shifts more of the costs to states,” said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

    Our ruling

    Johnson wrote on X, “As a condition for ending the Democrat shutdown, Democrats want hospitals paid MORE to treat illegal aliens than American citizens.”

    Federal law requires that emergency care be provided to anyone who needs it, regardless of insurance or immigration status. The federal and state governments reimburse hospitals for emergency care provided to immigrants who meet all Medicaid requirements except for their immigration status.

    Republicans’ new spending law calls for the federal government to cover a smaller portion of hospital reimbursements for emergency care to noncitizens who would be eligible for expanded Medicaid if not for their immigration status. 

    The GOP law doesn’t change hospital reimbursements. It shifts costs to states. Democrats want to reverse that. 

    Health care experts said a reversal wouldn’t mean hospitals would be reimbursed more for emergency care provided to immigrants illegally in the U.S. The federal government would cover the same share of care provided to anyone requiring emergency care, regardless of immigration or citizenship status.

    We rate the statement False.

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  • Commentary: They cuffed and tackled Sen. Alex Padilla. But he sees a bigger crisis ahead

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    California Sen. Alex Padilla is among the highest-ranking Latinos in U.S. politics today, but it took a pair of handcuffs to make him famous.

    How’s that for a comment on America 2025?

    Padilla, you may remember, was tackled and cuffed by federal officers after attempting to ask a question of Homeland Security Czarina Kristi Noem at an L.A. news conference in June, when the National Guard first made its appearance on our streets. Noem later claimed Padilla “lunged” at her — which he did not — using the classic Trumpian technique of erasing reality with blame, especially when it comes to brown people.

    Padilla told me that “from day one of this administration, I have tried to speak truth to power,” and if getting tackled forced people to “have no choice but to now start paying attention … that could be helpful, because the general public knows it’s wrong.”

    U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi recycled the incident on Tuesday when Padilla attempted to question her during a congressional hearing, voicing concern about the weaponization of the Department of Justice. Bondi refused to answer multiple questions, instead invoking the Noem defense.

    “I find it interesting that you want order … in this proceeding now,” Bondi said. “You sure didn’t have order when you stormed Secretary Noem at a press conference in California, did you?”

    Again, no storming, no lunging, not even a feint. Really, if anything can be said of Padilla, it’s that he’s a guy who likes order. An MIT-trained engineer, he’s known for being calm to the point of boring — in the best of ways. Who wouldn’t want a bit of boring in their politics today, if it’s seasoned with compassion and common sense?

    Calm, of course, does not mean a lack of conviction. As the government shutdown limps to the end of its first full week, Padilla took a few minutes to fill me in on why Democrats shouldn’t back down, and why he won’t — whether the issue is healthcare, immigration or the collision of the two, which is at the heart of this shutdown.

    Republicans would like voters to believe that undocumented immigrants are throwing parties in our emergency rooms, racking up free services while shoving U.S. citizens out to the sidewalk. In reality, there’s not a lot of good data on how many ER visits involve undocumented folks because doctors are more focused on saving lives than checking immigration status. But one Texas study found that about 2% of all hospital visits in a three-month period involved people without documentation. That’s in a state with a high number of undocumented folks, so take it for what it’s worth — hardly a scourge.

    Padilla and Democrats would like to stay focused on an actual crisis — healthcare premiums for low- and middle-income folks are about to skyrocket in coming weeks if Congress doesn’t keep the Obama-era subsidies that make the premiums affordable. Padilla wants voters to understand how dire this is.

    “This is not a what-might-happen-next-year concern … this is a now concern,” Padilla told me.

    “Open enrollment is opening,” he said. “People are setting their premiums and have to make choices of where to sign up for healthcare and at the cost right now, and so it does need to be immediately addressed.”

    In case you think this is partisan show, far-right MAGA cheerleader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) agrees with Padilla. That’s when you know things are getting weird.

    “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” Greene wrote on social media, breaking with her party on the issue.

    That’s about the only thing that Padilla and Greene may ever agree on. Padilla is the son of immigrants who met in L.A. and later obtained legal status. He was born in Southern California, making birthright citizenship core to his identity at a moment when Trump is asking the Supreme Court to end it. His isn’t just an immigrant story, it’s a California story, and it’s never far from his mind.

    He was recently asked if he regretted fighting with the Biden administration over proposed immigration reform that lacked pathways for immigrants, especially Dreamers and others who have been in the United States for years if not decades, to become citizens. Would it have been better to sell them out, leave them in limbo, but fix the border before Trump could exploit it?

    “Of course not,” Padilla told me. Rather than shrink under attack, Padilla said he’s holding his ground.

    California is one of a handful of states that does in fact offer healthcare to undocumented people, though budget shortfalls forced Gov. Gavin Newsom to scale back that plan.

    No federal dollars are used for that undocumented healthcare — it’s solely state money. And Padilla supports it.

    “There are some states that choose to use state funding to provide that care, and I agree with that, because it’s much smarter, from a public health standpoint, to help prevent people from getting sick or treat people early on, not administer healthcare, certainly not primary care, through emergency rooms,” he said.

    Padilla said it’s rich that the very workers deemed essential during the coronavirus pandemic, the workers who kept food on tables, deliveries going, and cared for our young and our elderly, are now “the primary target of Trump’s massive deportation agenda. So whether it’s in the vein of the healthcare question, whether it’s in the vein of the indiscriminate raids by ICE and other federal agencies, that’s the cruel irony.”

    The Trump administration raised Padilla’s profile inadvertently, but the newfound fame has had a somewhat unexpected consequence: Frequent speculation that he may run for governor when Newsom terms out in 2026.

    Padilla said he hasn’t “made a decision on that and not making any announcements right now.”

    Instead, he’s focusing on helping to pass California’s Proposition 50, which would rig election maps to potentially create five more Democratic seats in the midterm elections, with the hopes of taking control of at least one house of Congress, an effort he says is “critical to reining in this out-of-control administration.”

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Federal agents grab and shove journalists outside NYC immigration court, sending one to hospital

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    Federal agents grabbed and shoved journalists in a hallway outside a New York City immigration court on Tuesday, sending one to the hospital in the latest clash between authorities enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and members of the public seeking to observe and document their actions.A visual journalist identified as L. Vural Elibol of the Turkish news agency Anadolu hit his head on the floor at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pushed one journalist off a public elevator and shoved another journalist to the floor, according to video and witnesses.A bystander held Elibol’s head and a nurse treated him until an ambulance arrived, witnesses said. Video showed him in a neck brace as paramedics wheeled him out of the building on a stretcher. The other journalists, amNewYork police bureau chief Dean Moses and Olga Fedorova, a freelance photographer whose clients include The Associated Press, were not seriously injured.Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the agents’ actions, saying they were being “swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations.””Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm’s way.”A message seeking comment was left for the Anadolu news agency.Moses said the situation escalated when masked agents grabbed him and shoved him from an elevator on the 12th floor as he was attempting to photograph them arresting a woman who had just left immigration court.”I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me,” Moses told amNewYork. “Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out.”Video taken by photographer Stephanie Keith showed that during the struggle, another agent shoved Fedorova, who fell backward toward where Elibol lay on the floor.Fedorova said photographers had worked in the hallway outside immigration court for months without incident. The agents making arrests Tuesday, she said, didn’t announce any limits where journalists could go, and they hadn’t made it clear they were making an arrest when they got on the elevator.”If they tell us to get out, to not cross a certain line, we follow their orders,” Fedorova said. “In this case, it was not clear to anyone that this was a detention at all.”The episode happened just days after a federal agent at the Manhattan immigration court was captured on video shoving an Ecuadorian woman into a wall and onto the floor after her husband was arrested.Both confrontations took place in a part of the federal building that is open to the public, and is routinely filled with immigrants on their way to and from court hearings, agents waiting to make arrests, activists there to protest the arrests, and journalists documenting the confrontations.Elected Democrats, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, denounced the agents’ use of force and the Republican administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.”This abuse of law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories must end,” Hochul wrote in a social media post. “What the hell are we doing here?”State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a candidate for New York City mayor, said: “We cannot accept or normalize what has now become routine violence at 26 Federal Plaza. It has no place in our city.”

    NEW YORK —

    Federal agents grabbed and shoved journalists in a hallway outside a New York City immigration court on Tuesday, sending one to the hospital in the latest clash between authorities enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and members of the public seeking to observe and document their actions.

    A visual journalist identified as L. Vural Elibol of the Turkish news agency Anadolu hit his head on the floor at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pushed one journalist off a public elevator and shoved another journalist to the floor, according to video and witnesses.

    A bystander held Elibol’s head and a nurse treated him until an ambulance arrived, witnesses said. Video showed him in a neck brace as paramedics wheeled him out of the building on a stretcher. The other journalists, amNewYork police bureau chief Dean Moses and Olga Fedorova, a freelance photographer whose clients include The Associated Press, were not seriously injured.

    Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the agents’ actions, saying they were being “swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations.”

    “Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm’s way.”

    A message seeking comment was left for the Anadolu news agency.

    Moses said the situation escalated when masked agents grabbed him and shoved him from an elevator on the 12th floor as he was attempting to photograph them arresting a woman who had just left immigration court.

    “I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me,” Moses told amNewYork. “Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out.”

    Video taken by photographer Stephanie Keith showed that during the struggle, another agent shoved Fedorova, who fell backward toward where Elibol lay on the floor.

    Fedorova said photographers had worked in the hallway outside immigration court for months without incident. The agents making arrests Tuesday, she said, didn’t announce any limits where journalists could go, and they hadn’t made it clear they were making an arrest when they got on the elevator.

    “If they tell us to get out, to not cross a certain line, we follow their orders,” Fedorova said. “In this case, it was not clear to anyone that this was a detention at all.”

    The episode happened just days after a federal agent at the Manhattan immigration court was captured on video shoving an Ecuadorian woman into a wall and onto the floor after her husband was arrested.

    Both confrontations took place in a part of the federal building that is open to the public, and is routinely filled with immigrants on their way to and from court hearings, agents waiting to make arrests, activists there to protest the arrests, and journalists documenting the confrontations.

    Elected Democrats, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, denounced the agents’ use of force and the Republican administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

    “This abuse of law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories must end,” Hochul wrote in a social media post. “What the hell are we doing here?”

    State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a candidate for New York City mayor, said: “We cannot accept or normalize what has now become routine violence at 26 Federal Plaza. It has no place in our city.”

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  • Four takeaways from California’s first gubernatorial debate since Kamala Harris said she wasn’t running

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    In a darkened airport hotel ballroom room, a bevy of California Democrats sought to distinguish themselves from the crowded field running for governor in 2026.

    It was not an easy task, given that the lineup of current and former elected officials sharing the stage at the Sunday morning forum agreed on almost all the issues, with any differences largely playing out in the margins.

    They pledged to take on President Trump, make the state more affordable, safeguard immigrants and provide them with Medi-Cal healthcare benefits, and keep the state’s over-budget bullet train project intact.

    There is not yet any clear front-runner in the race to run the nation’s most populous state, though former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter has had a small edge in recent polling.

    Aside from a opaque dig from former state Controller Betty Yee, Porter was not attacked during the debate.

    They were joined onstage by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. State Sen. Toni Atkins, who was supposed to participate, dropped out due to illness. Wealthy first-time political candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck withdrew due to a scheduling conflict.

    The forum was sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, in partnership with the Los Angeles Times and Spectrum News. It was held in Los Angeles and moderated by Associated Press national planning editor Lisa Matthews, with L.A. Times California politics editor Phil Willon, Spectrum News 1 news anchor Amrit Singh and Politico senior political reporter Melanie Mason asking the questions.

    Sen. Alex Padilla and businessman Rick Caruso have also both publicly flirted with a bid for the state’s top office, but have yet to make a decision.

    Two major GOP candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, are also running for California governor, but neither were invited to the debate because they did not complete an endorsement questionnaire from the union.

    With Prop. 50 in the forefront, a lack of attention on the race

    California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary is just eight months away, but the horde hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom has been competing for attention against an extraordinarily crowded landscape, with an unexpected special election this November pulling both dollars and attention away from the race for governor. To say nothing of the fact that the race had been somewhat frozen in place for months until the end of July, when former Vice President Kamala Harris finally announced she would not be running.

    The candidates reiterated their support for Proposition 50, the Newsom-led November ballot measure to help Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year by redrawing California congressional districts. Newsom pushed for the measure to counter efforts by Republican-led states to reconfigure their congressional districts to ensure the GOP keeps control of Congress.

    “This is not a fight we actually wanted to have,” Yee said. “This is in response to a clear attempt to mute our representation in Washington. And so we have to fight back.”

    A focus on immigrant backgrounds, and appeals to Latino voters

    The candidates repeatedly focused on their families’ origins as well as their efforts to protect immigrants while serving in elected office.

    Thurmond raised his upbringing in his opening remarks.

    “I know what it is to struggle. You know that my grandparents were immigrants who came here from Colombia, from Jamaica? You know that I am the descendant of slaves who settled in Detroit, Mich.?” he said.

    Becerra highlighted his support for undocumented people to have access to state healthcare coverage as well as his successful lawsuit protecting undocumented immigrants brought to this nation as young children that reached the Supreme Court.

    “As the son of immigrants, I know what happens when you feel like you’re excluded,” he said.

    Becerra and Thurmond addressed the diverse audience in Spanish.

    Yee, who spoke about sharing a room with her immigrant parents and siblings. also raised her background during a lightning-round question about what the candidates planned to dress up as on Halloween.

    “My authentic self as a daughter of immigrants,” she said.

    Differing opinions on criminal justice approaches and healthcare

    The debate was overwhelmingly cordial. But there was some dissent when the topic turned to Proposition 36, a 2024 anti-crime ballot measure that imposed stricter penalties for repeat theft and crimes involving fentanyl.

    The ballot measure — which undid key parts of the 2014 criminal justice reform ballot measure Proposition 47 — sowed division among California Democrats, with Newsom and groups including the ACLU strongly opposing it. Its passage marked a turning of the tide in Californians’ attitudes about criminal justice reform and response to crime, following years of support for progressive policies that leaned away from punitive prison sentences for lower-level crimes.

    First, Villaraigosa contended that he was the only candidate on stage who had supported Proposition 36, though Porter and Becerra quickly jumped in to say that they too had supported it.

    But Porter also contended that, despite her support, there were “very real problems with it and very real shortcomings.” The measure should have also focused on prevention and incarcerating people for drug offenses doesn’t make anyone safer, she said.

    Thurmond strayed sharply from the pack on the issue, saying he voted “no” on Proposition 36 and citing his career as a social worker.

    “Prop. 36, by design, was set up to say that if you have a substance abuse issue, that you will get treatment in jail,” Thurmond contended, suggesting that the amount of drugs present in the prison system would make that outcome difficult.

    As governor, he would more money into treatment for substance abuse programs and diversion programs for those who commit minor crimes, he said.

    When the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they supported a single-payer healthcare system, Porter and Villaraigosa did not, while Becerra, Yee and Thurmond did.

    The need to build more housing

    Issues of affordability are top of mind for most Californians, particularly when it comes to housing.

    Thurmond said he would build two million housing units on surplus land on school sites around the state and provide a tax break for working and middle class Californians.

    Villaraigosa also focused on the need to build more housing, criticizing bureaucratic red tape and slow permitting processes.

    Villaraigosa also twice critiqued CEQA — notable because the landmark California Environmental Quality Act was once held seemingly above reproach by California Democrats. But the law’s flaws have become increasingly accepted in recent years as the state’s housing crisis worsened, with Newsom signing two bills to overhaul the the law and ease new construction earlier this year.

    Porter said that if she were governor, she would sign SB 79, a landmark housing bill that overrides local zoning laws to expand high-density housing near transit hubs. The controversial bill — which would potentially remake single-family neighborhoods within a half-mile of transit stops — is awaiting Newsom’s signature or veto.

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