Category: California

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

WATCH: SB 79 Will Undo Everything

It’s bad, real bad, and it’s making its way through the State legislature.

SB 79 would allow 6-story apartment buildings to be built IN OVER HALF OF SAN DIEGO’s RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS. (Much worse than SB 10!)

We ask that you watch this short video on Senate Bill 79

From Fox11 Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – A sudden federal enforcement action in MacArthur Park ended without a single arrest — but not without impact. Armored vehicles, mounted officers, and heavily armed agents arrived in the middle of the day, disrupting the normal life of one of Los Angeles’ most diverse public spaces. What followed was a moment of visible leadership, as Mayor Karen Bass confronted the operation in person and called for it to end — a demand federal agents appeared to honor shortly after.

On July 7, a large contingent of federal agents, armored trucks, and mounted officers arrived at MacArthur Park in what appeared to be an ICE enforcement sweep. SkyFOX was overhead during the operation and did not observe anyone taken into custody. FOX 11 has confirmed that no arrests were made.

Midway through the activity, Mayor Karen Bass arrived on scene and questioned the agents directly. A conversation with a representative identified on the scene as the “Head of Customs” led to a phone call in which Bass asked, “So they’ve stopped that? They’ve completed their mission here? What’s the timeframe before they leave?”

Soon after, the agents began pulling out. The show of force quickly dissipated, with federal vehicles departing the area and no visible enforcement action taken.

‘This is unacceptable’

Mayor Bass made her position clear in a statement to FOX 11: “They need to leave — and they need to leave right now. This is unacceptable.”

Hillcrest, San Diego

ESCONDIDO,

ESCONDIDO, A coalition of North County San Diego organizations will host a pro-democracy, pro-community rally on Friday, July 4th at 10:00 AM Pacific to reaffirm the value of the immigrant community in Escondido and their rightful place in America.

The rally, organized by Indivisible North County San Diego, We the People, and 50501 North County San Diego, will take place at the corner of E Valley Parkway and Ash Street in Escondido (e.g. 1201 E Valley Pkwy, Escondido, CA 92027).

On July 2, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428, and 1442, together representing more than 45,000 grocery workers across Southern California, finalized a tentative agreement with Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions. The agreement includes significant improvements for grocery workers, including higher wages, increased pension contributions, expanded health and welfare benefits, staffing commitments, and other key wins.

“This agreement is a testament to the strength, unity, and determination of our members,” said UFCW Local 135 President Todd Walters. “Our members stood strong, took a strike vote over unfair labor practices, and showed the companies that we were ready to fight. They responded with a deal that addresses many of our core issues. This contract reflects the power of our members and what we can achieve when we stand together.”

Immigration raids violate Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights of thousands of people

From ACLU

On July 1, Southern California residents, workers, and advocacy groups across various industries sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal court for abducting and disappearing community members using unlawful stop and arrest practices and confining individuals at a federal building in illegal conditions while denying them access to attorneys.

The suit brought by five individual workers as well as three membership organizations and a legal services provider—The Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers (UFW), the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center— alleges that DHS has unconstitutionally arrested and detained people in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration.

“Since June 6th, marauding, masked goons have descended upon Los Angeles, terrorizing our brown communities and tearing up the Constitution in the process,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, representing the plaintiffs. “No matter their status or the color of their skin, everyone is guaranteed Constitutional rights to protect them from illegal stops. We will hold DHS accountable.”

By Joni Halpern

We must have been only five and six years old, my sister Rosie and I, when we were enlisted into providing care for our mom, who was only 35 years old and suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

That was back in 1954, when there was no such thing as Medicaid, In-Home Supportive Services, or affordable health care. There were no food stamps, no child care, nothing to help a father working six days a week to make a living that would give his kids a chance and pay for the care his wife needed.

We were a family of six siblings ranging in age from babyhood to 10 years old.  Our baby sister had already been sent to live with relatives, because my mom could not hold her after she was born.

My dad was a carpenter who worked at the California School for the Deaf, just across the street from where we rented a small house.  He had a group health insurance plan, but it required co-payments; some treatments and medications were not covered at all.  He took us to the doctor as little as possible, relying on old Italian home remedies my immigrant grandmother had taught him.  If we got well, the remedies were said to have worked.  If not, things got worse, and finally, Dad would be forced to take us to the doctor.  But most of the time, we waited it out, missing school, with no one to watch over us except the lady next door, who would peek in the living room window and ask my older sister (who missed school to care for us) if we were okay.

by Levi Sumagaysay and Lauren Hepler / Cal-Matters / June 19, 2025

Brandon Mejia usually spends his weekends conducting a symphony of vendors serving pupusas, huaraches and an array of tacos at his two weekly 909Tacolandia pop-up events.

Half food festival, half swap meet, the events draw 100-plus vendors a week in Pomona and San Bernardino. They offer a way to “legalize” street food — vendors get a reliable location, cities collect taxes and enforce health codes — while patrons enjoy delicacies from all over Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Spanglish music plays, people dance and kids flock to facepainting and pony rides.

But in the past week, that’s all come to a screeching halt. As the Trump administration ramps up immigration raids in California, some restaurants, worried about their workers or finding that customers are staying home more, are closing temporarily. Many street vendors are going into hiding, and some food festivals and farmers markets have been canceled.

Mejia called off all Tacolandia events last week. His mind raced about whether agents would come for his vendors as videos surfaced on social media of taqueros, farm workers and fruit vendors vanishing in immigration raids around LA and neighboring Ventura County.

By Paige Austin and Fernando Haro / Patch / June 14, 2025

Police in downtown Los Angeles declared the massive “No Kings” protest an unlawful assembly and aggressively cleared the remaining protesters. They fired rubber bullets into the crowd as well as tear gas and beat protesters with sticks. Some smaller protests such as an afternoon demonstration in Anaheim were also declared unlawful.

In Los Angeles, the violence erupted suddenly, marking a dramatic shift from what had been a peaceful “No Kings” demonstration with more than 30,000 people [very conservative estimate —  more like 100,000] converging on downtown Los Angeles along with thousands more from San Diego to San Francisco.

Patch witnessed officers knocking demonstrators to the ground, charging into the crowd on horseback, shooting them with rubber bullets and beating them with long sticks. One officer fired rubber bullets into a cluster of journalists at close range, hitting at least one. One elderly man was charged and shoved to the ground by a Los Angeles Police Department officer.

By Michael Wilner and Queenie Wong / Los Angeles Times / June 12, 2025 Updated 6:19 PM PT

A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to “return control” of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom after the president issued an extraordinary order deploying them to Los Angeles over the weekend.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, presiding over the case, granted California’s request for a temporary restraining order, granting the federal government a stay until Friday to appeal the ruling.

Breyer had expressed skepticism at a hearing Thursday over the matter, questioning whether President Trump had operated within his authority.

“We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and of course, the president is limited in his authority,” Breyer said. “That’s the difference between the president and King George.”

“We live in response to a monarchy,” the judge continued, adding: “Line drawing is important, because it establishes a system of process.”

The Marines are trained in combat, not crowd control. People are likely to get hurt.

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout / June 11, 2025

Four and a half months after his inauguration, Donald Trump is exercising his authoritarian chops, targeting immigrants in the state he most despises — California. Making good on Trump’s nativist pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security started conducting widespread raids outside workplaces in Los Angeles. They began on June 6, with no prior notification to the California governor, L.A. mayor or local law enforcement.

During these raids, ICE officers arrested people in military-style operations that instilled fear and panic in the community and terrorized immigrants.

[Please see original for all links.]

As a result of the Trump administration’s repressive anti-immigrant actions, thousands of people of all races and backgrounds took to the streets in solidarity with their fellow Angelenos and conducted protests that have largely consisted of mass marches and rallies. Some protesters have also engaged in direct actions, such as blocking portions of the 101 freeway. A handful of protesters have vandalized corporate-owned, self-driving Waymo robotaxis to highlight their role in expanding the police surveillance state: the driverless cars are constantly recording surveillance videos that are then used by police.

By Joni Halpern

“Go ahead and take my place in line,” said the old man in front of me as we stood recently in a long queue of people waiting to enter a local Social Security Administration (SSA) Office.  “I’ve been here since 7 o’clock this morning,” he told me.  “I can’t take it anymore.”

He had just climbed out of the ground cover into which he had fallen after one of his bandaged legs had finally given way.  He had been waiting in line to schedule an appointment so he could return at some later date to resolve a Social Security problem of which he had been notified by mail some weeks earlier.

Americans who need help from SSA staff members cannot enter an SSA office without an appointment.  The trick is to schedule the appointment.  In the long line of people I met that day at the SSA office, every single one had tried to get an appointment by calling the highly publicized phone number listed on the SSA website and on every other communication issued by SSA.  Most had also tried to get an appointment by going online.  When that failed, their last resort was to go in person to an SSA office to wait in line to schedule an appointment.