The Brief

A typical single-family house is encircled by green, its shrubs and plants sitting just under windows and hugging exterior walls. It's an image that California is trying to get homeowners to rethink as the state's risk of extreme wildfires grows.

One year after the fast-moving Eaton and Palisades Fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures in the L.A. area, California is drafting the toughest statewide rules in the country for vegetation. In areas at risk of wildfires, homeowners would be required to clear some or all of the plants within 5 feet of their house, depending on what regulators decide. Well-maintained trees would still be allowed.

The idea, called Zone Zero, is to prevent plants and flammable items from igniting during a wildfire, spreading flames to the house and the surrounding neighborhood. In high winds, most homes burn down due to embers, the tiny bits of burning debris carried by the wind.

Still, the pushback has been strong, even in the Los Angeles area neighborhoods where so many lost homes. In public meetings, homeowners have voiced concerns about losing greenery and shade, as well as the cost of clearing the vegetation. Some say they believe plants and hedges saved their homes by acting as a buffer, though many scientific studies show that vegetation increases the risk a building will burn.

The new defensible space rules will affect about 17% of buildings in California. But they could set a much bigger precedent across the West, as more states deal with wildfires growing increasingly destructive as the climate gets hotter.

High winds spread burning embers into Altadena during the Eaton Fire, leading to the fire's rapid spread through neighborhoods.

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"How we step up and do this is hard, but I think we have to adapt and change a bit if we're going to try to not keep losing our homes," says Michael Gollner, who runs the Berkeley Fire Research Lab at UC Berkeley.

Hundreds of tiny fires

When the Eaton Fire broke out the evening of Jan. 7, Richard Snyder was at his home in Pasadena, working on a slide presentation about wildfire risk. Snyder had spent more than 30 years in firefighting before retiring and now does wildfire risk consulting. So when he saw the smoke in the nearby foothills, driven by powerful winds, he knew it didn't look good.

"I know where the smoke is going is going to be where the fire is going, and I saw this smoke heading off into Pasadena," Snyder says.

He told his wife to evacuate and started telling neighbors to be ready. Snyder decided to stay. Although the fire itself was still more than a mile away, he knew the biggest danger was the glowing embers being blown into his neighborhood by the wind.
"And then it happened," he recalls. "There was a palm tree that lit off and showered our neighborhood with embers and it started a fence on fire at my neighbor's house. Myself and two other retired firefighters tried to put that fire out with garden hoses, and it wouldn't work. It was too hot and the wind was too strong."

In windy conditions, embers can rapidly spread a fire, landing in dry leaves in a roof gutter, bark mulch on the ground or even being sucked into an attic through a vent. Once that fire gets going, the extreme heat and embers help it spread to neighboring buildings.

"I'm looking over and I'm seeing my St. Augustine grass burning," Snyder says. "Who would have thought that green St. Augustine grass would start burning? There's hundreds of little tiny fires burning in the yards and next to the houses of my neighbors."

Several homes in Snyder's neighborhood were lost. His own survived, but with damage. While he says it was a shock, it wasn't surprising to him. For years, wildfire experts had been finding that houses are vulnerable to wildfires both because of the building materials they're constructed with and when something flammable is next to the house. The concept of Zone Zero focuses on the crucial zone within five feet of a structure.

"We're not going to stop the fires, but we can absolutely keep them from burning our houses down," Snyder says. "But it's a change."

Public meetings get heated

California regulators are creating rules for the "ember-resistant zone" next to houses under state law. The original deadline was 2023, but the effort flagged. After the Los Angeles fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a new deadline for the end of 2025. With all the debate, regulators pushed past that deadline and say they expect to keep working through March to gather more feedback.

The proposed rules would prohibit flammable items such as firewood, bark mulch, dead leaves and weeds within five feet of a house. Fences and gates would need to be made of metal or other non-combustible materials in that zone. The rules wouldn't go into effect for existing homes for three years and local fire agencies would have some discretion over tailoring it for their areas.

The sticking point is over green vegetation. Trees would be allowed as long as they're well-maintained, by keeping branches five feet above the roofline, for example. When it comes to plants, regulators are considering several options: only allowing potted plants in Zone Zero, allowing plants under 18 inches, or allowing any well-maintained plants with no dead material.

Steve Hawks of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety inspects a home after the Eaton Fire. Embers caught a pile of flammable material, but the house's fire-resistant siding prevented it from spreading.

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The change isn't being welcomed by some California residents. In September, California's Board of Forestry and Fire Protection held a public hearing in Pasadena to gather feedback on the proposed rules.

"Our community just endured the most destructive residential fire disasters in modern history, yet this board is pushing Zone Zero policies that completely miss the mark," Jessica Rogers of the Pacific Palisades Resident Association said at the hearing. "My home and my neighbors' homes burned because of adjacent structures, not vegetation."

In the hours of public testimony, some residents spoke in support of clearing Zone Zero to prepare for wildfires that will inevitably come again. Other residents pushed back, worried that houses on small lots would lose too much greenery and shade, reducing wildlife habitat. Some raised concerns about the cost, since the new rules wouldn't include funding for landscaping work, though California is developing other programs for that. A few residents noted that in the aftermath of the fires, some plants were still left standing.

"I saw the well-hydrated hedges that I had planted protecting my house, acting as a fire catcher, essentially, because they were upwind," Pacific Palisades resident Martin Hak testified at the hearing.

"We know that not everyone will agree with every decision or aspect of what comes next," Board of Forestry and Fire Protection executive officer Tony Andersen wrote about the Zone Zero rules. "But we do know that many Californians agree that protecting our communities is not a passing fad or a momentary response."

The board also posted its responses to many of the questions raised at the hearings.

Do green plants burn?

"We don't really know how often plants can be 'protective' and provide a buffer for homes," says Max Moritz, wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension at UC Santa Barbara.

The destruction in a wildfire can be a patchwork, with some homes and plants left standing directly next to others burned to the ground. In the aftermath, it's difficult to know when vegetation was responsible for spreading fire because the evidence is often completely destroyed.

Ember-driven wildfires can leave a patchwork of destruction behind. In Altadena, some buildings and vegetation were left intact, while others were destroyed

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Moritz is one of the few fire experts who say that green plants may not pose a risk to houses and that more research needs to be done. Greener plants, which hold water in their leaves, are harder to ignite. He agrees that some plants, like highly flammable juniper and cypress, should not be allowed, nor should plants with dead leaves or dry branches.

"The really important aspect to the plants is the dead material," he says. "If most homeowners are just going to let dead material accumulate in Zone Zero anyway, then it makes sense that there shouldn't be any plants in Zone Zero."

Other wildfire experts warn that in the hot, windy conditions of an extreme wildfire, all vegetation poses a potential threat.

"Just because a plant is very moist doesn't mean it's non-flammable," says Gollner of UC Berkeley. "Having a well-watered plant is less of a risk, but it's not no risk."

What makes things burn

Gollner runs a "burn lab" on campus, where his team studies how and why materials burn. There, they place a well-watered shrub inside a special chamber lined with sensors. They ignite a small bit of mulch under the plant. After a few minutes, the flames creep up into the base of the plant.

"You can see, once the flames touch the leaves, they immediately dry out and burn," he says.

Gollner says in a wildfire, if a neighbor's fence or shed is on fire, it can dry out and ignite the vegetation next to a home. If those plants are within Zone Zero, the fire can then reach a neighboring house. Even shrubs and hedges that look healthy on the outside are often dry and bare in the interior. At a recent California Board of Forestry meeting, Gollner's colleagues presented their recent experiments about how green plants can burn.

Other scientific studies show that vegetation is influential in wildfire risk. A team from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a non-profit research group funded by the insurance industry, inspected damage at more than 250 homes in the Los Angeles fires. They found when Zone Zero had vegetation in quarter or more of it, the chances that a home was damaged or destroyed were almost 90%.

Michael Gollner watches a burn test in his lab at UC Berkeley. Green plants take longer to ignite, but he says leaves can dry out quickly in hot, dry conditions during a wildfire.

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Gollner and colleagues also looked at several of California's recent wildfires and used computer models to simulate those burns under different conditions. Their study found Zone Zero rules could have reduced structure losses by 17%. Another study looking at the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2017 Thomas Fire found having mostly vegetation within six feet of the walls was a big factor in whether the building was lost. Other studies have also shown the importance of defensible space.

Still, minimizing vegetation alone won't guarantee that homes survive. Wildfire experts say buildings need to be fire-resistant as well, a crucial factor in reducing fire risk. Many older homes have wood roofs, wood siding or single-paned windows, which are much more vulnerable to burning. Gutters need to be clear of dead leaves and attic vents need to be covered in a fine mesh, so embers don't get inside.

Homes built after 2007 in wildfire zones are required to meet California's building codes for fire-resistant materials, but most of the state's housing stock is older than that. Some vulnerabilities can't be changed, like when houses are built close together on smaller lots.

With wildfires, neighborhoods are only as strong as their weakest link. Once a fire starts, it can spread from house to house, so wildfire preparation is far more effective when an entire community fortifies itself — something regulators have cited as a reason for the new vegetation rules.

"It's a change of aesthetic, and it's incredibly difficult because it's people's private property," Gollner says. "But a wildland fire is unique amongst all catastrophes in that what your neighbor does directly affects you. We know that whatever we do, it's got to be across the community."

Copyright 2026 NPR

A bill that would make it easier for Californians to sue immigration agents and other federal officials for civil rights violations sailed through the state Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 747, dubbed the No Kings Act, would create a first-in-the-nation legal pathway for residents to seek financial damages in state court for excessive force, false arrest and other violations of constitutional rights committed by federal officers.

The bill was written by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. If state or local law enforcement officers had shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two people recently killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, they could be held financially liable, he said.

“But under current law, it’s almost impossible to file that same lawsuit against a federal agent who does the same thing,” Wiener said. “If the federal government won’t hold these agents accountable for violating the Constitution, we will.”

The measure passed the state Senate on a 30-10 party-line vote, with Republicans arguing the bill could expose local police to more lawsuits.

Tuesday’s vote is the latest move by Democrats in the state Legislature to create a bulwark against the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.

Last year, lawmakers set aside $25 million for legal nonprofits to defend residents facing detention or deportation. They also approved a bill, written by Wiener, to prohibit local and federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks on duty — which is currently facing a legal challenge from the Trump administration.

SB 747’s supporters said it would give Californians a chance to hold federal officials accountable in a way that can be difficult under current law.

Border patrol agents march to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. California prosecutors are pushing back on claims from the federal government that ICE agents have immunity from prosecution, vowing to investigate federal agents who break the law.

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“Today we are deliberating an issue to try to solve and also remedy the fear that folks are living with,” said Senate President pro Tem Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara. “In combination with the fact that we have not seen due process.”

Wiener argued that existing law makes it difficult for victims to receive damages in federal court. For example, the Federal Tort Claims Act protects the government from liability arising from decisions made by individual officers and requires plaintiffs to first file an administrative claim.

Supporters of SB 747 include the Prosecutors Alliance, a coalition of progressive district attorneys, and Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, which advocates for immigrants in California’s Inland Empire.

The bill is opposed by organizations representing California police officers, sheriffs and Highway Patrol officers.

They argued the change will undercut an existing state law, known as the Bane Act, which requires Californians who sue law enforcement officials to show that a civil rights violation was accomplished through “threats, intimidation, or coercion.”

“The question before you is not whether accountability should exist, but what creating a second, overlapping state system actually adds — other than more litigation and more risk for those on the front lines,” said Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita.

During debate on the Senate floor, Wiener said local police officers and sheriffs can already be sued under federal law for violating constitutional rights.

“The liability that local and state police officers face will be the same after this is signed into law as before,” Wiener said. “It doesn’t change that.”

Senate Bill 747 now heads to the state Assembly.

In an analysis of SB 747, staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote, “the bill is very likely to be challenged by the federal government if signed into law.”

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad.

Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.

Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee's oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world's governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.

In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything we've discussed, there's only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! You'll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don't please the officials, they'll be put straight on the next flight home. If they're lucky."

In his X post, Blatter quoted Pieth and added, "I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup."

The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June 11-July 19.

The international soccer community's concerns about the United States stem from Trump's expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protesters in American cities, particularly Minneapolis.

Oke Göttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup.

Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited "screening and vetting deficiencies" as the main reason for the suspensions.

Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles hits a big milestone this year: It’s turning 100 years old.

The century-old landmark has been through a lot of changes since opening, but how we got this iconic library in the first place is a saga in its own right.

A scrappy start

To understand what it took to get here, we’ll go back to 1872. Back then, the city of L.A. only had about 6,000 residents. Dirt roads were everywhere and agriculture was king.

The region was still fresh off the transition to American rule, and local leaders were just starting to dream up what the city could look like, especially in the downtown area.

There was no “LAPL” during this time — a group called the Los Angeles Library Association attended to local reading needs. John Szabo, current L.A. city librarian, says that early system was pretty bare bones.

“ It was a very small one room library with a handful of books,” he told host Larry Mantle on LAist 89.3’s AirTalk.

That was in the Downey Block building at Temple and Main streets, which is where the Federal Courthouse stands today. There were newspaper racks and shelves with about 750 books, while another space had checkers and chess — because what more do you need to fuel young minds?

The Downey Block building circa 1897.

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The city needed a lot more because of rapid growth, but money was an issue. To help meet the demand, the association became an official city department in 1878. That allowed local officials to fund their new “Los Angeles Public Library.”

Over the years, LAPL would open satellite “reading rooms” and branch libraries. However, the main collection was expanding quickly. The books were essentially couch-surfing for years. They moved four times into different rented spaces, including into City Hall in 1889.

This was a temporary home that lasted for a couple of decades. Then, the effort to build a central library picked up steam. One of those was with a plan to put it in Pershing Square, but the project went awry. So the collection moved again — this time into a department store building (while it was still running), between women’s clothes and furniture, where it stayed for six years.

A new, innovative library

When Everett Perry, an energetic city librarian, took the helm in 1911, he lobbied for years for a central library to be created.

Finally, a decade later, voters passed a measure for a $2 million bond to pay for a new dedicated building. That would become the Central Library we have today. L.A. was a little late among large U.S. cities for getting a central library, but it finally opened in July 1926.

The Central Library's rotunda and ornate ceiling, which is designed to mirror the mosaic pyramid on the exterior roof.

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The building was designed by New York architect Bertram Goodhue with art deco and Egyptian influence, common motifs of the time.

It’s elaborately decorated with murals, mosaics and sculptures. For example, black marble sphinxes sit inside and a mosaic tile pyramid  with a handheld torch makes up the roof. Szabo says it was well received by Angelenos.

“ Of course I’m biased, but I think it’s the most beautiful library in the world,” Szabo said. “ [It was] a great sense of pride in a growing city, sort of putting L.A. on the map.”

Sithy Yi fled genocide in Cambodia and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1981. She was detained earlier this month at a regular immigration check-in in Santa Ana, and her lawyer, Kim Luu-Ng, says Yi is being held unlawfully at the Adelanto detention center.

Luu-Ng said Yi was ordered by an immigration court to be removed from the country in 2016, but her removal was withheld out of concerns she would be tortured if she returned to Cambodia.

After 10 years complying with ICE instructions and initiating a still-pending visa application, Luu-Ng claims that federal immigration officials detained Yi two weeks ago as a form of punishment and to instill fear in immigrant communities.

Yi is one of potentially hundreds of people with pending visa applications meant to protect victims of crime or human trafficking whose status has been abruptly put at risk by immigration policy changes ordered by the Trump administration, Luu-Ng and other immigration attorneys told LAist.

Yi cannot be deported back to Cambodia, her attorney said. Luu-Ng said immigration officials have not told her where Yi might be deported to and says her detention is unconstitutional and inhumane without a plan of where to send her. Luu-Ng has filed a petition in federal court arguing for Yi to be released from detention.  Federal officials have not yet responded in court.

”I think this case asks a very simple question,” Luu-Ng said. “Can the government jail someone when it has no real plan to deport them?

“The Constitution says no."

ICE has not responded to LAist’s request for comment on this story.

Escaping violence

Sithea San, Yi’s sister, remembers the day her family was forced to leave their home.

According to her recollection, the Khmer Rouge approached them at gunpoint April 17, 1975, saying they had to leave before American forces were expected to bomb their city, Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge was a Communist regime that brutally tortured, murdered and starved more than a million Cambodians in the 1970s. A United Nations-assisted tribunal began investigations in 2007 and found surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The family left that day thinking they would be gone for only three days. Their horrific experience would last years, until they arrived in the U.S. as refugees in 1981.

Sithea San recounted how Yi, the eldest sister who was just 9 years old when they left their home, used to steal food to keep her family alive in Cambodia.

After getting caught stealing by the Khmer Rouge several times, San said her sister was given a final warning: If she got caught again they would kill her entire family. They led Yi to a place where they said she, her mother and two sisters would all be buried.

Yi was subjected to forced labor and torture at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, which she later described to Luu-Ng in 2016 as she fought in immigration court to be allowed to stay in the U.S.

Yi still carries scars from where guards would burn her with cigarettes, Luu-Ng told LAist. She said Yi has other scars that lie deeper.

Safe from the Khmer Rouge, troubles continue in the US

San said her family came to the U.S. in 1981, sponsored by her uncle. They arrived in California with just $10.

Yi’s mother and sisters had all become U.S. citizens by 1990, San told LAist, but Yi’s path to legal residency was more complicated.

San said their family did not understand it at the time, but Yi suffered from PTSD. She began to have seizures after they escaped Cambodia, which often prevented her from going to school once they arrived in the U.S.

Yi was also bullied at school, leading her to drop out, her sister said.

Far from Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, she again became a victim of abuse. Yi fell into a cycle of domestic violence, Luu-Ng told LAist, and she was severely abused by multiple partners over the years.

In 2011, Yi was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to probation. The abuse she faced at home continued and after being so severely beaten by her partner that she could not walk, Luu-Ng said, Yi missed one of her probation appointments.

She said that probation violation led to about a year in state prison, and from there Yi was transferred to ICE custody for removal proceedings.

Protections for victims of torture

Luu-Ng began working under a United Nations grant to help survivors of torture in immigration proceedings in 2009, and first met Yi in 2013.

She had talked with survivors of torture camps in Germany, Poland, Afghanistan and many other countries, but the story of what Yi and her family went through still left her shocked.

“ I've spoken to a lot of survivors of torture,” Luu-Ng told LAist. “Sithy’s story impacted me very, very deeply.”

Luu-Ng took on her case and argued in immigration court that Yi fell under protections granted by the United Nations Convention Against Torture — commonly known as CAT — banning anyone from being deported to countries where they will most likely be tortured.

The judge presiding over a 2016 hearing agreed.

“ We literally walked out of court within 30 minutes,” Luu-Ng said, “even the government counsel acknowledged the grave humanitarian concerns with this case.”

LAist reached out to ICE and an attorney who represented the agency, but they did not comment on the case.

Luu-Ng said Yi is not eligible for asylum status because of her conviction, but she has never heard of anyone being deported after receiving CAT protection.

“ Individuals who receive CAT withholding typically are allowed to live out the rest of their lives in the United States with a work permit,” she told LAist.

Even so, Luu-Ng said Yi also applied for a U visa in 2022 to further protect her from being deported. U visas are intended to give temporary immigration status to crime victims who have cooperated with law enforcement. Luu-Ng said Yi did cooperate with law enforcement in a case against one of her abusers and should qualify for a U visa, but she said they can take eight to ten years to be granted in some cases. She is still waiting for a decision on whether Yi’s visa will be approved.

Jennifer Diep, San Croucher, Sithy Yi and Sithea San attend the book release for "Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back," by Katya Cengel. The family was featured in the book.

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A policy change puts Yi’s future at risk

The Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC) and other immigrant rights organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, in October of last year over new immigration enforcement policies on how immigration agents treat victims of abuse or human trafficking.

The group claims in court documents that the new policy “has allowed, for the first time in decades, the detention and removal of survivors of these violent crimes as a routine matter, without regard for the many protections Congress put in place for them.”

Erika Cervantes, a staff attorney for The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, is part of the legal team representing ICWC in the case. She told LAist that until early 2025 there was a presumption that victims who came forward to help law enforcement would be protected.

She said that U visas and T visas — another type of visa for victims of human trafficking — have strengthened law enforcement by allowing victims to be comfortable coming forward and telling police about their abuse without risk of being deported.

Then, in January, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the “total and efficient” enforcement of immigration laws. ICE shortly followed with a memo that removed previous requirements for agents to identify whether their targets are victims of crimes that might qualify them for protections against deportation.

Cervantes said the memo also cuts protections that had been in place for victims who are waiting for their U and T visas to be approved. Attorneys for ICE previously had been instructed to not seek deportation of U and T visa applicants unless there were “exceptional or exigent circumstances,” according to the new ICE memo, but Cervantes said the new memo removes the presumption that victims would be protected.

“ [The memo] essentially green lights targeting this vulnerable community who went out of their way to share their story, go through this visa process,” Cervantes said. “There’s an about face, and now they’re being put behind bars.”

Cervantes said the ICE memo has affected hundreds of people, and ICWC is asking a federal judge to set aside the policy changes.

“ We're trying to challenge the administration's attempt to criminalize victims,” she told LAist.

Detained by ICE

Yi’s detention on Jan. 8 came as a complete surprise.

According to her sister, Sithea San, she had helped the government when she came forward as a victim and always went to her monthly check-ins with ICE.

“ She complied with every single thing that the government asked her to do,” San told LAist.

In November, two months before her detention, Luu-Ng and San went with Yi for her check-in with ICE. Luu-Ng said they were concerned at that time that Yi could be detained because they saw reports of other people being taken from their families during check-ins.

After discussing Yi’s case with Luu-Ng, the immigration officials at the Santa Ana facility said she would need to start wearing an ankle monitor, but she was free to go home. Luu-Ng recalled one official telling her that as long as Yi didn’t tamper with the ankle monitor or violate any conditions of her electronic monitoring, ICE would not detain her.

“We went out and everyone was in tears, relieved,” Luu-Ng said.

Yi continued to check in, and Luu-Ng thought she would be fine because she was following ICE’s instructions. The next two months Yi went to her check-ins without a lawyer, but her sister still came along.

At her January check-in, San said they saw people crying in the waiting area. She said Yi approached them and tried to comfort them.

Then after waiting about an hour, ICE called Yi into a back room, alone.

Yi can’t read in English, San said, and sometimes she struggles to understand when people talk to her. San wanted to accompany her sister to be sure she understood any questions she might be asked.

Instead, she was stopped at the door.

“ And then I heard the sound . . . the handcuffs,” San said. “And that moment I feel like, am I dreaming? Is this real?”

San said she told the ICE agents that her sister had CAT protections and a pending U visa application, which she showed them. She said they told her it didn’t matter.

When San was later able to visit her sister in detention, she said Yi told her the ICE agents tried to coerce her to sign legal documents she couldn’t understand and threatened that things would get worse for her if she refused.

She said Yi didn’t sign the documents.

“So unfair”

Yi would not be in this situation under any other administration, said Mariko Khan, who is on the board of the nonprofit organization Cambodia Town, where she met Yi about 15 years ago.

“ Things would've been taken care of years ago and she certainly would not have had to be corralled at her check-in,” Khan said. “I mean, that's so unfair.”

Khan said Yi has been a consistent volunteer with Cambodia Town, which serves the largest Cambodian community outside Cambodia itself.

Khan had heard about some of Yi’s background over the years, and she learned that Yi had first found counseling when she was in prison. Having a background as a mental health professional, Khan said she was amazed to see Yi’s improvement.

“ I think it shows a lot of character and integrity that she could, given all that she had suffered, actually get better,” Khan said.

Yi has also been a mainstay with the Cambodia Town Parade. Khan said Yi had led a group of up to 30 women in the parade’s “Stop the Hate” event for the past three years.

Sithea San said Yi planned on coming to her house on Jan. 8 to work on the choreography for this year’s parade after they went to check in with ICE.

Fear in local communities

Manju Kulkarni is the executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, and she says people being detained by masked agents in the streets and others being held at their immigration appointments reminds some in Southeast Asian communities of the governments their families once fled.

Federal agents have repeatedly detained people at scheduled immigration check-ins over recent months, including Eaton Fire survivor Masuma Khan, 60-year San Diego resident Kazem Majd and dozens of others across California.

“ Communities that are made up often of refugees who escaped an American war in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam . . . are faced with the familiar terror,” Kulkarni told LAist. “Terror from which they thought they had escaped.”

Kulkarni and Luu-Ng told LAist they are deeply concerned that if Yi is deported to a third-country, she will then be sent by that country back to Cambodia despite an immigration judge already acknowledging she would most likely be tortured.

Reuters found that 22 people who were deported to Ghana as a third-country were then sent to their country of origin last year, despite court orders in the U.S meant to prevent that from happening.

For now, Luu-Ng is focused on getting Yi out of detention.

When San visited her sister at the Adelanto detention center on Jan. 18, Yi said she’d just had a nightmare, with scenes from her time under the oppression of the Khmer Rouge.

She told San being detained reminds her of those times, and she tries to keep her mind on other things.

“Remember during the Khmer Rouge,” San told Yi. “You know what we do. We need to have hope.”

Yi told her sister she had been trying to fill her time by teaching the other detainees how to do traditional Cambodian dances.

“How do you do it? How do you get the music?” San recalled asking Yi.

“She said she just sings.”