Erin Stone
covers climate and environmental issues in Southern California.
Published August 17, 2023 5:00 AM
Aerial view of housing stock in Los Angeles.
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Topline:
We recently reported on how “cool pavement” which uses a reflect coating to deflect heat, could help bring temperatures down in cities as the climate crisis pushes us into a hotter reality. An LAist reader posed this question: Can these “cool coatings” also cool our homes? The answer: Yes!
Why it matters: Roofs and outside walls absorb a lot of heat, especially if they’re a dark color and unshaded. That heat ends up in our homes, which drives up energy costs from air conditioning and fans, and can even lead to heat stroke and other dangerous health situations, felt disproportionately bylow and moderate-income folks.
What is a cool roof? A cool roof is simply a highly reflective roof. For example, a roof with a clean, smooth bright white surface can reflect about 85% of sunlight, whereas a dark asphalt shingle roof can absorb as much as 95% of sunlight. Now, that could be good in a cold climate, but in hotter climates it’s not so great.
What's next: If you're thinking of re-painting or re-roofing this summer, consider cool coatings. Check out resources for finding those materials at the bottom of our story.
I recently reported from Pacoima on how “cool pavement,” a type of coating that reflects sunlight and heat, could help bring temperatures down in cities as the climate crisis pushes us into a hotter reality.
It prompted an LAist reader, Denise Davis, from Crenshaw Manor, to ask us this:
"Last fall Los Angeles was terribly hot and it's becoming miserable again. If Pacoima used paint on pavement, like streets and parking lots, is there reliable information on how practical or effective it might be to paint our homes with it?
It’s a good question, because roofs and outside walls absorb a lot of heat, especially if they’re a dark color and unshaded.
That heat ends up in our homes, driving up energy costs from air conditioning and fans, and even leading to heat stroke and other dangerous health situations, felt disproportionately bylow and moderate-income folks.
So the short answer is — yes — there are such things as cool roof shingles and cool paint and they’ve been around (and studied) a lot longer than cool pavement. Research shows cool roofs can cut air conditioning use by on average 20% and lower indoor temperatures by as much as 10 degrees.
“A reflective roof and a reflective wall are very simple and reliable passive strategies that don't require you to do anything other than make the right choice when it comes time to re-roof or re-paint,” said Ronnen Levinson, a cool materials scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
“It will help you now and it'll be even more useful as the climate warms.”
A brief history of 'cool roofs'
Long before air conditioning, humans have used these passive methods to stay cool. One example? The white or lighter-colored buildings that characterize cities from the Mediterranean to the Middle East. Those lighter surfaces reflect solar radiation, rather than absorb it.
White buildings that reflect sunlight characterize many Mediterranean cities, including Santorini, Greece, pictured here.
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“Ever since people have lived in hot places, they've tried to do the sensible thing, which is keep the building cool by absorbing less sunlight at its surface,” said Levinson. “North American architecture hasn't always worked that way.”
Levinson said commonly used materials on homes here, such as traditional asphalt roof shingles, make air temperatures in cities hotter than areas outside — that’s the urban heat island effect.
So a cool roof could actually be one of the quickest and most effective ways to curb that regional heat, as well as cut energy costs, especially for low- and moderate-income homeowners who tend to live in older housing and in denser neighborhoods with more pavement, said Alex Turek with GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that installs cool roofs and rooftop solar on low-income homes for free.
“There's such a hardscape that trees may not be an option for some homeowners,” he said. “Cool roofs can definitely provide similar benefits to trees.”
White roofs
The silicone cool roof of the Bell Thrift Store in Bell.
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By 2005, research by Levinson and his predecessors helped push California to establish new building codes requiring flat commercial roofs to be painted white to alleviate that impact. Those roofs are now ubiquitous across the state.
Fast forward to 2015, when L.A. became the first major city to require all new and replaced residential buildings to have “cool roofs.”
What makes a roof or wall 'cool?'
A cool roof is simply a highly reflective roof. For example, a roof with a clean, smooth, bright white surface can reflect about 85% of sunlight, whereas a dark asphalt shingle roof can absorb as much as 95% of sunlight. Now, that could be good in a cold climate, but in hotter climates it’s not so great.
The two main components that determine how “cool” a roof is are solar reflectance (the amount of sunlight that’s reflected) and thermal emittance (the ability of that material to radiate heat).
These are measured on a scale from 0 to 1, where 1 is 100% reflective or emissive. The higher the decimals (eg 0.7 or 0.8), the cooler the roof. That’s called the solar reflectance index.
Roofs can either help absorb or reflect heat.
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The company GAF is the largest manufacturer of cool roof shingles, such as these in the picture. They look similar to traditional shingles, but reflect more light in the invisible spectrum.
While commercial roofs are usually white and made of silicone, cool roofs don’t always have to be white or light. There are "cool color" roof materials, including coatings and shingles, that use darker-colored pigments that are still highly reflective in the invisible half of the solar spectrum.
While cool roofs can provide a lot of relief in the summer, they may actually lead to more heating in the winter. However, research has shown that increase is marginal and the cost savings of a cool roof in the summer also offset that issue. Furthermore, the technology of “smart roofs” and improvements in materials are rapidly offsetting this issue.
Other cool roof benefits
They can help extend the life of the roof because they relieve heat stress and wear on its surface, said Andres Lopez, marketing director at Central Roofing, a family owned company that installs cool roofs on commercial buildings across Southern California. “It just has too many benefits to pass up,” Lopez said.
A cool roof also cools the air outside the building, which slows the formation of smog, said Levinson.
At scale across commercial and residential buildings, they can actually help cool the entire planet.
"On a clear day, 75% to 80% of sunlight that is reflected from a horizontal surface like a pavement or a low slope roof will get all the way to outer space without being absorbed by the atmosphere, so that allows us to reduce warming of the planet as a whole,” Levinson said.
Cool roofs: A how-to guide
If you don't want or need to re-roof: Apply a cool roof coating to your existing roof.
If you do need to re-roof: Install cool roof shingles.
Cost:
Both types of cool roofs are similar in cost to traditional roofs.
A shingle roof can be slightly more expensive.
It’s worth factoring in the savings you’ll get from energy costs.
The nonprofit Cool Roof Rating Council lists more than 3,000 cool roof shingles and coatings, and more than 80 wall paint products, among other resources.
The winners of the 2026 Emmy Awards were announced Monday night for shows that aired between June 2025 and May 2026.
The context: Last year's winner for best drama, The Pitt, was up against Pluribus, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Diplomat, and more. On the comedy side, two Apple TV newcomers — Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles— were up against a slate of returning nominees including Hacks, nominated for its fifth and final season, and The Bear, nominated for its fourth season.
Read on... for an updated list of winners as they're announced.
Updated September 14, 2026 at 21:26 PM ET
Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is hosting the Emmy Awards on Monday night. The ceremony is on NBC and Peacock starting at 8 p.m. PT, 5 p.m. ET.
Last year's winner for best drama, The Pitt, is up against Pluribus, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Diplomat, and more. On the comedy side, two Apple TV newcomers — Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles— are up against a slate of returning nominees including Hacks, nominated for its fifth and final season, and The Bear, nominated for its fourth season. (Eligible shows aired between June 2025 and May 2026.)
Noah Kahan is set to perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for the In Memoriam segment.
We'll be updating this page with winners in bold as they come in.
Outstanding writing for a comedy series
WINNER: Katie Dippold, Widow's Bay Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Tim Robinson, Zach Kanin, The Chair Company Michael Patrick King, Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, Hacks Anthony King, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
WINNER: Tom Pelphrey, Task Patrick Ball, The Pitt Billy Crudup, The Morning Show Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt Gerran Howell, The Pitt Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Carlos Manuel-Vesga, Pluribus
WINNER: The Traitors Dancing With the Stars RuPaul's Drag Race Survivor Top Chef
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series
WINNER: Stephen Root, Widow's Bay Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons Paul W. Downs, Hacks Nick Offerman, Margo's Got Money Troubles Michael Urie, Shrinking Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary
Outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie
WINNER: Linda Cardellini, DTF St. Louis Dakota Fanning, All Her Fault Laurie Metcalf, Monster: The Ed Gein Story Joy Sunday, DTF St. Louis Youn Yuh-jung, Beef Constance Zimmer, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie
Outstanding directing for a comedy series Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear Andrew DeYoung, The Chair Company Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms. Pat Show Hiro Murai, Widow's Bay
Outstanding directing for a drama series Salli Richardson-Whitfield, The Gilded Age Hanelle M. Culpepper, Paradise Noah Wyle, The Pitt Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Task
Outstanding writing for a drama series Peter Ackerman, Debora Cahn, The Diplomat Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman, R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt Valerie Chu, The Pitt Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Will Smith, Slow Horses Brad Ingelsby, Task
The Supreme Court has sided against President Donald Trump, rejecting his efforts to enact new mail-in voting restrictions for the midterm election.
The context: The ruling released Monday by the high court means the U.S. Postal Service is expected to continue delivering ballots as usual. Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots.
Why it matters: Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency.
How we got here: Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston had issued a preliminary injunction against USPS, blocking the mailing agency from imposing those new ballot requirements on states. The judge found the requirements are likely illegal because the Postal Service has no authority to control mail-in voting. Now, a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place.
Updated September 14, 2026 at 21:18 PM ET
The Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, rejecting his efforts to enact new mail-in voting restrictions for the midterm election.
The ruling released Monday by the high court means the U.S. Postal Service is expected to continue delivering ballots as usual.
Voting by mail has already begun in states including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, with more soon to follow — including Western states such as Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, where elections are held primarily or fully with mail ballots.
Under the still-blocked USPS plan, which followed an executive order by Trump, states would have had to turn over lists of voters' names and addresses and have certain specific barcodes on ballot envelopes in order to have them delivered by the mailing agency.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against USPS, blocking it from imposing those new ballot requirements on states. The judge found the requirements are likely illegal because the Postal Service has no authority to control mail-in voting. A second federal judge issued another preliminary injunction late Sunday.
Now, a majority of the Supreme Court decided to keep that injunction in place. The court said the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short concurring opinion, saying "there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority." But, he added, "applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections."
Indeed several Republican state election officials, including from the mostly vote-by-mail state of Utah, signed on to a Supreme Court brief, warning that any attempt to carry out the USPS plan now "will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials."
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the order, and would have granted the administration's request to pause the Boston-based judge's ruling.
While the USPS plan remains paused for the midterms, the legal fight will likely continue over how the agency may try to implement it for future federal elections.
For now, challengers of the proposal are celebrating their victory.
"Today, the Supreme Court refused to allow the federal government to throw our elections into chaos just weeks before Election Day. The Postal Service exists to deliver Americans' mail — not to rewrite election rules, demand voters' personal information, or decide which ballots make it through the system," Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, said in a statement.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a separate statement that she was "truly relieved" by the high court's ruling.
"Voters should never have to wonder whether a ballot they legally cast will be counted because the federal government suddenly changed the rules," said James, whose state was among the 24 mainly Democratic-led states that sued alongside Washington, D.C. "We will keep fighting to make sure every eligible ballot is counted come November. Now, I encourage all eligible Americans to get out and vote — and vote early."
Trump said he issued the call for USPS to change its rule for mail ballots as a way to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, a problem that many studies and audits show is extremely uncommon. For this legal fight over the USPS plan, the administration's lawyers have provided the courts with no evidence of mail-voting fraud.
Trump has been a vocal critic of the way about one-third of voters cast ballots in the lasttwo federal elections. In 2024, the share of voters who reported casting ballots by mail was higher among Democrats (37%) than Republicans (24%), according to a national survey by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.
In a social media post last year, Trump said he is "going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS" and claimed that "ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING."
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Faheem Khan
is an Associate Producer for AirTalk and FilmWeek, assisting with live radio production and in-person events.
Published September 14, 2026 4:37 PM
Caltech president Ray Jayawardhana at his announcement ceremony at Caltech in Pasadena on January 6, 2026.
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Topline:
Ray Jayawardhana — or Ray Jay for short — has served as Caltech's president officially since the beginning of July. His expertise in astrophysics, coupled with extensive experience in university administration, is what he's using to lead the school while continuing his own research. He sat down with AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, saying he's optimistic about the school's future and relationship with the Jet Propulsion Lab.
Why it matters: NASA — which now owns and sponsors JPL — is opening its contracting to other research institutions for the first time, which could mean a bidding war. Losing the contract for Caltech would mean losing a stream of federal funding valued at $3 billion per year.
What's next? Jayawardhana said he’s confident Caltech and JPL’s partnership will continue, saying that the university's value proposition is unrivaled. NASA’s current contract with Caltech expires in September 2028.
Listen to the full conversation with Caltech's new president
Listen
22:22
New Caltech president Ray Jayawardhana
Ray Jayawardhana, a seasoned astrophysicist and university administrator, officially took over as Caltech’s 10th president on July 1.
The newly appointed president sat down with Larry Mantle on AirTalk, LAist 89.3’s daily news program, to talk about his plans for the future of the esteemed university.
Ray Jay and Caltech — it was in the cosmos
Jayawardhana, who goes by “Ray Jay,” told Larry he was always interested in the cosmos growing up.
He shared that, as a teenager in Sri Lanka, he wrote to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) — NASA's leading space exploration center, which is managed by Caltech — to ask for images from the Voyager space missions they were conducting during the 1980s.
“I waited impatiently for a response, and one day, this large envelope with an oversized wheel of books arrived with a set of images of the outer planets and their moons,” he said. “That just delighted me to no end.”
Saturn and its satellites Tethys (outer left), Enceladus (inner left) and Mimas (right of rings) are seen in this mosaic of images taken by NASA's Voyager 1 on Oct. 30, 1980 from a distance of 18 million kilometers (11 million miles).
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This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image. This photo was assembled from three black and white negatives by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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This picture of Neptune was produced from images taken by NASA’s Voyager 2 in the summer of 1989 as it became the first spacecraft to fly by the planet.
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Today, he’s the first South Asian American to lead Caltech, overseeing the operations of the same Jet Propulsion Lab he wrote to in the '80s.
How he came to the U.S.
After attending St. John’s College in Sri Lanka, he decided to pursue higher education in the United States. He earned an undergraduate degree from Yale and subsequently his doctorate in astronomy from Harvard, quickly establishing himself as one of the world’s most renowned astrophysicists.
He previously held positions at Cornell University and Johns Hopkins.
Exoplanetary president
Aside from his main focus as the school’s head of administration, Ray Jay continues his own research exploring the formation of planets and stars, saying it keeps him intellectually engaged.
He's part of a team that works with the James Webb Space Telescope to observe and characterize so-called exoplanets — planets around other stars — with an eye toward the potential for life beyond Earth.
He’s confident in Caltech’s future with JPL
Universities like Caltech are on rocky terrain amid sweeping federal government cuts of public funding for scientific research.
Additionally, JPL's future is uncertain. NASA — which now owns and sponsors JPL — is opening its contracting to other research institutions for the first time, which could mean a bidding war.
The entrance to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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Losing the contract for Caltech would mean losing a stream of federal funding valued at $3 billion per year.
Jayawardhana said he’s confident Caltech and JPL’s partnership will continue, saying that the university's value proposition is unrivaled.
“It’s not only about the self-interest in continuing to ensure there's federal and public funding for research, it's also about enriching humanity,” he said.
NASA’s current contract with Caltech expires in September 2028.
Staff with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project distribute school supplies and food to people in Santa Paula, California, where many families are feeling the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
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Topline:
Separation destabilizes families, often leaving the remaining parent or caregiver scrambling to stay housed, buy food, and fulfill kids’ medical needs. Some kids are left alone to care for themselves.
Why it matters: An estimated 205,000 children have had at least one parent detained by immigration authorities through April, a number that has undoubtedly climbed since. Separation from parents harms children psychologically.
The backstory: The Trump administration, with the approval of Republicans in Congress, has poured billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, detaining the parents of an estimated 145,000 U.S. citizen children as of April, and, according to an analysis by nonprofit newsroom The Marshall Project, over 6,200 children.
The little girl stared up at Norma Gómez from the doorway of her neighbor’s apartment, her sad, brown eyes suddenly flashing with hope.
“Are you the person who’s going to bring my mom back?” she asked.
Gómez struggled to find an answer. It was a December morning, and she’d brought food, diapers, baby wipes, and clothes — items she hoped would help the 6-year-old girl, her baby brother and the neighbor who had stepped in to care for them. The children were left alone after federal immigration agents arrested their parents outside their apartment in Oxnard, a mostly Latino agricultural community on the Southern California coast. But Gómez had no power to bring the parents back.
“We’re working on that,” Gómez recalled telling the girl. In reality, she was at a loss for how to answer truthfully without upsetting her.
As a project manager for a nonprofit that provides food assistance to immigrant families affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, Gómez has witnessed the tumult and pain that have roiled the lives of millions of immigrant families since President Donald Trump returned to office, with devastating consequences for children’s health. They include an estimated 205,000 children with at least one parent detained by immigration authorities through April, a number that has undoubtedly climbed since. Separation from parents harms children psychologically. It destabilizes families, often leaving the remaining parent or caregiver scrambling to stay housed, buy food, and fulfill kids’ medical needs. Some kids are left alone to care for themselves.
Many kids whose parents aren’t detained are experiencing threats to their health and well-being too. Two children in the South died by suicide in February 2025 after reportedly being bullied over their family’s alleged immigration status.
Most of these children are American citizens. About 1 in 4 U.S.-born kids have an immigrant parent, including around 4.6 million with a parent who lacks legal status.
“I'm really concerned about how long it's going to take for us as a country to address all of the harm that's happening to this generation of kids,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy. “This type of stress can have long-term developmental harm and can really inhibit their ability to do well in school, to have good health outcomes, and to grow into thriving, stable adults.”
Curbing public benefits
Trump has made cracking down on immigrants — including the children of immigrants — a priority since his second term began last year. On Inauguration Day, he issued an executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for kids born to parents without legal status or in the country on temporary visas, an attempt ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court.
His administration, with the approval of Republicans in Congress, has poured billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, detaining the parents of an estimated 145,000 U.S. citizen children as of April, and, according to an analysis by nonprofit newsroom The Marshall Project, over 6,200 children. It’s sought to rescind temporary protected status, or TPS, for over 1 million immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have U.S. citizen children, and stalled renewals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which includes the parents of about 300,000 citizen children.
White House officials say the immigration crackdown benefits American citizens by freeing up resources such as jobs and housing, reducing pressure on public coffers, expelling criminals, and restoring integrity to the immigration system. (Studies have shown that mass deportations harm U.S. workers.) Trump and other Republican leaders have argued that birthright citizenship encourages unauthorized immigration and “birth tourism,” and that TPS has allowed immigrants from “dangerous, third-world countries” to remain in the United States indefinitely under what is supposed to be a temporary program.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis did not directly address whether the administration is concerned about long-term harm to children and increased healthcare costs because of its immigration policies. Instead, she repeated past White House criticisms that President Joe Biden’s immigration policies allowed children to be trafficked across the U.S. border.
“The real story is the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border — many by human and sex traffickers,” she wrote in an email.
Gómez at a monthly food distribution organized by the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project in Santa Paula. She says she has delivered food to families caring for children with one or both parents detained by immigration authorities.
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Only 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, has accused the children of immigrants of draining public resources and perpetuating problems from their parents’ home countries. Research, however, shows that immigrants earn more and do better the longer they live in the United States and that they and their children assimilate rapidly. Data also shows they rely less on welfare than native-born Americans.
“This is the great lie of mass migration,” Miller wrote on the social platform X in November. “You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.”
The Republican tax-and-spending law enacted last summer curbs immigrant eligibility for health and food assistance programs. And this July, the administration issued new “public charge” rules that give immigration officers broad discretion to deny green cards to lawfully present immigrants if they or family members have used public benefit programs, a move that could result in over a million U.S. citizen children disenrolling from safety net healthcare programs.
Together but afraid
Separation from parents is traumatic for children and can lead to lifelong health problems, including anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, and learning difficulties. Children separated from their parents at the border during the first Trump administration were found to exhibit lasting trauma. Researchers have also tied deportations and detentions of immigrant parents — as well as the threat of them — to widespread emotional trauma, higher school dropout rates, housing instability, and hunger among both immigrant and U.S.-born children.
It’s also costly to society. A 2024 study by federal researchers estimated that health conditions related to childhood trauma accounted for $292 billion in healthcare spending in 2021 alone, including by taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.
Emmanuel, a 13-year-old in Oxnard, gets anxious every time his dad goes to work as a farm laborer, his mother, Ana, said. He asks her for reassurance that his father will return, and about what would happen to him if his parents got detained. He tries to hurry Ana up when they’re out in public, worried that ICE could suddenly appear. KFF Health News is not using their full names because they fear deportation.
Doctors and therapists interviewed by KFF Health News said they have observed a notable increase in mental health problems, especially anxiety, in children from immigrant families. Kimberly McNally, a pediatrician at Venice Family Clinic's Inglewood South La Brea Health Center, said she’s regularly referring children of all ages for mental health services related to fears that their parents will be taken away. At daycares, kids have been showing up with an extra bag in case their parents don’t pick them up, said Liza Davis, advocacy director for Children in Immigrant Families at The Children’s Partnership, which works with a coalition of early childhood educators.
Sometimes, the distress leads young people to take extreme actions. In June, 19-year-old Eliel José took his own life after his father was deported from the Atlanta area to Mexico, according to Univision.
Rosie Harrison, executive director of Grow Initiative GA, a community organization that serves low-income families, said she’s received calls over the past year from immigrant parents seeking help for suicidal and depressed kids. Their situations are often made worse because many lack health insurance and can’t afford to pay for therapy. That’s often because parents have lost jobs that came with health insurance due to worksite raids or because of eligibility changes imposed by the Trump administration.
“I’m concerned about the families that are going to be burying their child,” Harrison said. “I’m concerned that we are going to miss out on having an amazing person do amazing things for our community, for our country, because they took their life.”
Strength under pressure
Many children are showing resilience, though.
In a role reversal, some children have become their parents’ protectors. They go grocery shopping and take their younger siblings to school so that their parents don’t have to leave the house.
Staff with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project distribute school supplies and food to people in Santa Paula, where many families are feeling the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
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Giselle Gonzalez, a university student and volunteer with the immigrant protection network VC Defensa in Ventura County, said she’ll never forget the morning last summer when she woke up to the sound of kids on bicycles pedaling through her immigrant-heavy neighborhood in Thousand Oaks, yelling “La migra! La migra! Don’t come out!” They’d spotted ICE agents grabbing factory workers and gardeners on their way to work, she said.
Ultimately, more humane immigration policies and enforcement tactics will be required to end the harm being done to children, academic experts and advocates said.
Researchers at Arizona State University point to a pilot called the Family Case Management Program as a model for keeping families together while also enforcing immigration laws. Launched in January 2016 under President Barack Obama, the program allowed families seeking asylum to remain in the community while awaiting resolution of their cases. Through a case manager, they received support in meeting the obligations of their immigration cases and preparing for deportation if needed. The program, which proved successful and cost-effective, was terminated by the first Trump administration.
At Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, case manager Mabel Alavez sees the pressures facing families who are still together but worried they could be separated. Many of the people are parents or grandparents who have been in the U.S. for decades. Some are afraid to take their children to school, the park, or the beach. They ask whether it’s safe to enroll their U.S.-born kids in Medicaid. She helps families who are facing eviction because they’re afraid to go to work and can no longer afford rent. She often helps them create plans for who will look after their children if they get detained.
Raised in an immigrant family herself, Alavez knows how challenging it can be for kids who are first-generation Americans to navigate growing up, going to school, and finding a sense of belonging in a country their parents aren’t from.
“It’s hard for me to imagine how they could possibly do that in addition to what’s going on now,” she said. “I do feel like there will be a big impact on them. What that might look like, I’m not exactly sure.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
