The Brief

One of the world’s most high-tech indoor vertical farms is right here in Southern California, in Compton.

I headed there to find out more about what role indoor farming may play in the future of food. As increasingly extreme weather driven by human-caused pollution in the atmosphere makes it harder — if not impossible — to farm outside in formerly high-producing regions, could farming indoors be part of the solution?

I admit I’m pretty skeptical of this high-tech farming. How practical is it? What are the tradeoffs? And how much does this farm really benefit Compton?

Those were the questions I wanted to answer as I pulled into the parking lot of a clean white warehouse in north central Compton. The formerly empty warehouse is across from a neighborhood and next to a larger industrial building and yard full of big-rig trucks.

Inside, is the flagship commercial-scale farm developed by San Francisco-based startup Plenty. It officially opened last May and is the West Coast’s largest indoor vertical farm.

When I walk in I’m greeted by cool air conditioning and Erin Santy, the company’s media liaison. She walks me upstairs to the mezzanine. From there, I can see huge robot arms moving tall, thin towers of greens.

“When you say farming, this is not what I think of, but how cool that it can be?” Santy said. “Fifty years from now, what will people think of?”

The indoor vertical farm in Compton is highly automated.

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Why farm indoors? 

Within 100,000 square feet, the farm can grow some four million pounds of spinach, kale, spring mix and arugula every year. That amount adds up to about 16 million of those packages of greens we see at the grocery store. And it's produced within a much smaller area than what's need to grow the same amount outside.

They sell at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Gelson’s and most Walmarts in Southern California. They just launched a partnership with 7/11 to sell salads there too.

“We want to be able to deliver a locally grown fresh product and part of that is how do we get it closer to the people who are eating it?” Santy said. “Some of that is about growing in a more urban and dense area like Compton.”

An aerial view of the indoor farm in Compton.

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She said the prices are on par with organic for now, since it’s so expensive to build these farms and they’re not common. But she said the prices don’t fluctuate like conventionally grown greens because they’re not affected by weather volatility or supply chain disruptions.

One of the biggest perks of indoor farming is that it can use as much as 98% less water than conventional farming, said researcher Shamim Ahamed, who studies advanced farming techniques at UC Davis. But he said the biggest drawback is that it also uses a lot of electricity. That’s because they need to use artificial light to grow the plants as well as keep specific temperatures inside.

“That's basically the prime reason for having a high carbon footprint,” Ahamed told LAist.

He said because the power grid is getting cleaner overall, that footprint will continue to go down. And there are lots of ways these indoor farms can use energy really efficiently or generate their own cleaner energy on site, Ahamed said.

Erin Santy, media liaison for the startup Plenty.

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Santy said Plenty used solar to generate their energy on their far smaller pilot farm in Northern California, but she said they didn't go that route for their Compton site because they don't have the space for the number of panels they'd need. She said the amount of electricity generated by putting panels on their rooftop would be essentially negligible and didn't pencil out. She added the current mix they're paying for from the power grid is currently about 40% renewable sources.

And, Ahamed pointed out, conventional agriculture also has a huge carbon footprint. Mostly due to land use changes, livestock and soil depletion, large-scale farming accounts for about a quarter of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions and about 10% of the U.S.’ total greenhouse gas emissions.

Plenty's indoor vertical farm in Compton is in a formerly empty warehouse.

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But there are limits, at least right now, to what food can be farmed indoors in this way. Ahamed said indoor vertical farming works for certain crops, such as leafy greens, strawberries and tomatoes — crops that are also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, he said.

While Ahamed said indoor farming can’t completely replace farming outdoors, he said it does play a role in the future of our food.

How the farm works

Before going inside Plenty’s Compton farm, we have to get dressed in full protective gear and sanitize everything.

The greens never get touched by human hands: The environment is kept so clean they don’t need pesticides. That means they also don’t need to be washed before being eaten, so the greens don’t get that “triple wash” like many we buy at the grocery store.

Machines place seeds in a soil tray at Plenty's indoor farm in Compton.

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That, plus the fact they’re grown so much closer to the stores where they end up, means Plenty’s greens have a longer shelf life, staying fresh for as many as 21 days, Santy said.

Once we’re fully suited up, we head inside.

Seed trays getting irrigated with a precise amount of water in the seeding room.

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First stop is the seeding room. Seed trays run along a conveyor belt, where machines place a precise number of seeds into the soil, then squirt just enough water and nutrients on top.

Then we head into a brightly lit room full of colorful lights called the propagation room. I can’t take pictures — the specific combination of artificial light in here is proprietary because it’s the company’s secret sauce for helping the plants grow faster. They’re ready to harvest in around 30 days, instead of the 60 to 90 it would take outside in the field, Santy said.

After a couple weeks in this room, the baby plants are routed on a conveyor belt to a series of robots that pull them from the trays and place them into growing towers that are several stories high.

“Imagine how delicate the fingers of that robot have to be to lift it without ripping the plant or tearing the roots,” Santy said.

Robot "fingers" pluck plants from trays and place them in a growing tower, where they'll eventually be ready to harvest.

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Then, the towers full of plants are transferred by a much larger robot arm to another conveyor system that moves them into the final growing room.

“When you're able to stand in front of a 30 foot wall of lettuce, that’s when it gets really cool,” said Yatae Lewis, the farm’s site operations manager. “I tell people I work at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.”

The light in here is super powerful and also proprietary. This is where the plants stay for a couple weeks until they’re ready for harvest. Stories of lush purple and green spring mix and kale and spinach tower above me.

And it’s humid. All the water the plants in this room respirate, or essentially sweat out, is recycled. That helps the farm use about 90% less water than conventional growing, Santy said.

The final growing room. The light is proprietary, which is why LAist couldn't take its own photos. That artificial light helps the plants grow about twice as fast as they would in the field.

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Leafy greens grow inside a high-tech indoor vertical farm based in Compton and developed by San Francisco-based startup Plenty.

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What the farm means for Compton

Farming is actually nothing new to Compton. In the early 1900s, Compton was an agricultural hub. Compton Creek, a major tributary to the L.A. River, made for a reliable water source and rich soil. Southern California sunshine made for ideal growing conditions.

Compton’s Mayor Emma Sharif said the Plenty indoor farm is a way to bring that legacy back in a new way.

“This isn't just a nod to our past. It's a bold step into the future of farming,” she told LAist.

A robot "arm" that moves the towers of greens onto a conveyer belt that takes them to the final growing room, where they'll be ready to harvest after a couple weeks.

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And Sharif said a big reason she supported the company coming to Compton was that it brings needed jobs. Part of the city’s agreement with Plenty is that at least a third of the farm’s 70 employees have to be from Compton. As of now about 31% are, said Yatae Lewis, the farm’s site operations manager.

Lewis grew up in Long Beach and has lived in Compton for 20 years.

Yatae Lewis is the site operations manager at Plenty's indoor farm in Compton.

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“Compton is known for so many things,” Lewis said. “Indoor farming is absolutely not one of them. So being a part of changing the narrative of Compton was something that I absolutely jumped at.”

He’s worked here for three years, and watched the farm go from empty warehouse to indoor growing powerhouse. He said that while the number of jobs may not be high, the quality is.

“We want jobs, and not only jobs, we want good jobs,” Lewis said. “And not only good jobs, we have jobs that we can brag about. If we can do that for 30% of the workforce, that's amazing.”

Yatae Lewis holds leafy greens in a photo from 2022, before Plenty officially launched its flagship commercial indoor farm in Compton.

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Lewis said the jobs for Compton locals range from field techs to growers to managers. The majority of roles in the farm have no educational requirements and they offer competitive pay as well as benefits, Santy said. Lewis said one of their Compton employees was able to afford her dream of traveling to South Korea for a K-pop concert recently.

“If we have an individual that now has a passport and can see the world and bring that back to Compton because they work at Plenty, that's what we're rooting for,” Lewis said.

Lewis, who also serves as Plenty’s community liaison, said the company has partnered with the Compton Run Club to co-host events and fundraisers, and they have partnerships with seven local middle schools to highlight STEM education.

“I have a 13-year-old, and he's into robots, he's into engineering, he's into computer coding,” Lewis said. “When I bring him to a bring-your-kid-to-work day and he sees the robots and he talks to the engineers, his mind is blown. It's very humbling and encouraging that my son's dream job can be five minutes away in the city that he lives in.”

Updated March 31, 2026 at 20:14 PM ET

President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States will be leaving Iran very soon, giving a two to three week timetable.

Trump's remarks came in response to a question about gas prices — which earlier Tuesday hit a national average of $4 a gallon. Asked what he would do about it, Trump said: "All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll become tumbling down."

"I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three," he added.

Trump also appeared to reverse previous promises about reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

"We'll be leaving very soon. And if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas, they'll go up through the strait, the Hormuz Strait, they'll go right up there, and they'll be able to fend for themselves. I think it'll be very safe, actually, but we have nothing to do with that. What happens with the strait? We're not going to have anything to do with it," he said.

Just on Monday, though, Trump offered this threat on social media over the strait reopening: "If for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched.'"

The White House later said Trump would speak to the nation about the war at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Here are more updates from the war in the Middle East:

Kidnapped journalist | Troop visit | Peacekeeper deaths | Iran | Rubio on Spain | Trump slams allies | Dalai Lama

American journalist kidnapped in Iraq

Iraqi authorities reported a foreign journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad Tuesday. It turned out to be an American freelance reporter, Shelly Kittleson, according to Al-Monitor, a Middle Eastern news site for which she has written articles.

Iraqi security forces said they intercepted a vehicle that crashed and arrested one of the suspected kidnappers, but are stilling searching for the kidnapped journalist and other suspects.

U.S. officials say they're working to get her released.

"The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible," Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said on social media.

He said Americans, including media workers, have been advised not to travel to Iraq and should leave the country. The statement did not condemn the kidnapping or express concern.

Johnson said Iraqi authorities apprehended a suspect associated with Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, believed to be involved in the kidnapping.

This comes as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran enters its second month, and the fallout ricochets across the region.

Press freedom organizations expressed deep concern. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on "Iraqi authorities to do everything in their power to locate Shelley Kittleson, ensure her immediate and safe release, and hold those responsible to account."

Based in Rome, Kittleson has reported on Iraq, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, for years, according to Al-Monitor.

Reporters Without Borders said she is "very familiar with Iraq, where she stays for extended periods."

"RSF stands alongside her loved ones and colleagues during this painful wait," the organization said.

Al-Monitor said in a statement it is "deeply alarmed" by her kidnapping. "We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work," it said.

U.S. defense secretary visits troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an undisclosed trip to the Middle East to visit troops over the weekend. He did not divulge the location for the troops' safety.

"I spoke to Air Force and Navy pilots on the flight line who every day both deliver bombs deep into Iran, but also shoot down drones defending their base. Many had just returned from the skies of Iran and Tehran," he told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.

He said he "witnessed an urgency to finish the job" and tried to draw a comparison with America's earlier drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the U.S. is improving bunkers and layered air defenses as a priority to protect troops and aircraft.

This comes after more than a dozen U.S. service members were injured, several severely, and U.S. aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes on a base in Saudi Arabia last Friday. The Pentagon says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 300 wounded in what it calls Operation Epic Fury.

He repeated the administration's assertion that the U.S. is negotiating with Iran, despite Iranian officials' denial that talks are happening.

He said the U.S. prefers negotiations, but would not rule out using ground troops.

"In the meantime, we'll negotiate with bombs," Hegseth said. "Our job is to ensure that we compel Iran to realize that this new regime, this regime in charge is in a better place if they make that deal."

President Trump told the New York Post he is in talks with Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Security Council meets after U.N. peacekeeper deaths

Countries denounced the killings of three U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon this week as they met for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

"These are sadly not the only dangerous incidents faced by UNIFIL's courageous peacekeepers," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, said, using the acronym for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. "There has been a worrying increase in denials of freedom of movement and aggressive behavior."

Lacroix said initial findings suggested two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed Monday in a roadside explosion in southern Lebanon. A day earlier another peacekeeper from Indonesia was killed when a projectile hit a U.N. base, Lacroix said.

Their deaths came as Israeli forces have invaded Lebanon, intensifying a second front in the war in the Middle East. Israel says it is targeting the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The U.N. has not pinned blame and is investigating the incidents.

Ahead of the Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, expressed condolences for the Indonesian peacekeepers' deaths.

Displaced people warm up around a fire outside their tent along Beirut's seafront area on March 30, 2026.

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Danon blamed Hezbollah for laying explosive devices that killed two peacekeepers on Monday.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz paid tribute to the Indonesian peacekeepers and urged Security Council members not to jump to conclusions but to allow the U.N. to investigate.

Indonesia's foreign minister called for a swift, thorough and transparent investigation.

Iran executions, Starlink arrests

Meanwhile, Iran says it has arrested 46 people who were selling Starlink internet connections — one of the few ways that people in Iran have been able to connect to the global internet while authorities block communication. Starlink allows users to connect directly to the internet via satellite, bypassing government firewalls.

Global internet monitor NetBlocks said the country's "internet blackout has entered day 32."

"Extended digital isolation is bringing new challenges for Iranians, from expired domains and accounts to unpatched servers on a degrading national intranet," it said on X.

Iran said it executed two people who had taken part in opposition activities as well as two citizens it accused of spying for the U.S. and Israel.

Rubio accuses Spain's prime minister of "bragging"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday responded to news that Spain had closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war by lashing out at the NATO partner. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Rubio answered a question about whether the EU and NATO countries had "betrayed the U.S." by focusing on Spain, a NATO member who has publicly adopted a position opposing the war in Iran.

Gas prices are displayed at a Mobil gas station on March 30, 2026 in Pasadena, California. The average price of one gallon of regular self-service gasoline rose to $5.99 today in Los Angeles County, climbing from $4.69 one month ago, amid the ongoing war with Iran.

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"We have countries like Spain, a NATO member that we are pledged to defend, denying us the use of their airspace and bragging about it, denying us the use of our – of their bases," Rubio said.

Earlier on Monday, Spain Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the country had closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war. It is unclear when the closure started — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had hinted at the measure during a parliamentary debate on March 25.

The weekend the U.S. and Israel launched the attack on Iran, flight records showed at least 15 in-flight refueling planes leaving two jointly operated military bases in the south of Spain after not being allowed to provide support for the military action in Iran. Robles later confirmed the decision by the Spanish Government. That triggered a spat between President Trump and Spain's leadership the week after the war started. Trump said from the Oval Office that he would cut off all trade with Spain if the Spanish government did not allow U.S. forces to use the jointly operated bases. In response, Sánchez doubled down on his stance on the war in the Middle East.

Sánchez has relied on his opposition to the war, making it his main platform at the domestic level. Sánchez's Socialist Party has struggled to keep a government coalition from breaking apart, as he faces pressure to keep his party's hopes alive ahead of a parliamentary election due in 2027.

Trump slams allies

President Trump criticized France and the United Kingdom, among others, on his social media platform.

"All of those countries that can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump had asked allies for help after Iran largely blockaded the vital waterway, sending up oil and gas prices. But they have been hesitant to join in the war, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeating again this week that Britain would not get involved.

"You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!" Trump's post concluded.

He also said France "wouldn't let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory." and called the country "VERY UNHELPFUL."

Dalai Lama calls for peace

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday posted an appeal for an end to war in the Middle East.

"History has shown us time and again that violence only begets more violence and is never a lasting foundation for peace," he said on his official account on X.

"An enduring resolution to conflict, including the ones we see in the Middle East or between Russia and Ukraine, must be rooted in dialogue, diplomacy and mutual respect — approached with the understanding that, at the deepest level, we are all brothers and sisters," he said.

He said he was adding his plea to one made at the Vatican by Pope Leo during his Palm Sunday Mass, adding: "His call for the laying down of arms and the renunciation of violence resonated profoundly with me, as it speaks to the very essence of what all major religions teach."

Carrie Kahn in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Jennifer Pak in Shanghai, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain, Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, Quil Lawrence in New York, Giles Snyder, Michele Kelemen and Alex Leff in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles region’s homelessness agency will miss a Tuesday deadline for submitting its federally required annual audit of the agency’s financial records, which could jeopardize its federal funding.

LAHSA executives blamed the delay on a “perfect storm” of leadership changes and competing priorities within LAHSA’s finance department, including an L.A. County review of LAHSA’s delayed payments to contractors.

“Our staff made a good-faith effort to meet the deadline,” interim CEO Gita O’Neill said at a LAHSA Commission meeting Tuesday. “However, over the past year, we've experienced several transitions. As a result, we could not get all the required materials to the auditors as quickly as needed.”

Each year, LAHSA, like all non-federal agencies and organizations that get substantial federal dollars, is required to hire an outside auditor to determine whether it’s properly tracking and reporting the taxpayer funds it manages.

LAHSA’s single audit report for last fiscal year was due March 31, nine months after fiscal year 2024-2025 ended. Earlier this month, LAHSA officials said they were on track to meet the March 31 deadline.

Justin Measley, lead auditor for the firm CliftonLarsonAllen, had warned that LAHSA was months behind schedule turning over records.

At a meeting Tuesday, Measley explained that because of LAHSA’s earlier delays, the firm would need at least an additional week to complete a quality-control review process.

“We’re moving at the fastest pace we possibly can,” Measley said.

On Tuesday, LAHSA officials said the single audit will be filed “at the earliest possible opportunity,” within the next few weeks.

Federal funds at risk

LAHSA manages hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year, through grants from the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

O’Neill said the agency has been communicating with HUD officials regularly about the missed audit deadline and is “hoping for understanding.”

Janine Lim, LAHSA’s deputy chief financial officer, said she’s also been talking with HUD.

“They seem amenable to our situation and to our stated timelines,” Lim said. “So, we are hopeful that this will be a good outcome, despite having missed the deadline.”

HUD did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment Tuesday.

What went wrong 

Measley said LAHSA’s financial statements should have been turned over around last December, but LAHSA only submitted them this month, after blowing through multiple extended deadlines.

Measley said he contacted LAHSA’s governing commission about the overdue documents March 3.

He said he also previewed his firm’s findings, noting one “significant deficiency” in its draft report, related to LAHSA’s timeliness in detecting accounting errors.

LAHSA could contest those findings, officials said. That would add additional back-and-forth between the homelessness agency and accounting firm before the audit report is ready to file.

Justin Szlasa, a LAHSA commissioner who chairs the audit subcommittee, told LAHSA’s CEO he’s concerned that there was no time provided for LAHSA’s governing body to review the audit report.

“Next year, we will absolutely do that,” O’Neill responded. “I think this year, we were under the gun, and so we felt it was the most important thing was to get it uploaded on time.”

O’Neill said the agency hired accounting firm KPMG to help modernize LAHSA’s financial systems, with a focus on its contractor payments.

“We have an outside, trusted voice to help us create a system that works going forward because the system we have is not working at all, in finance,” O’Neill said.

Updated March 31, 2026 at 20:44 PM ET

President Trump on Tuesday escalated his efforts to reshape American elections, signing an executive order that seeks to create lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state, and instructing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he believes the order is legally "foolproof." But election experts said the order was unconstitutional, and voting rights advocates and Democratic state officials quickly pledged to sue to block the order from going into effect.

A previous executive order on elections, signed about a year ago, has been blocked by federal judges who said the president lacked the constitutional authority to set voting policy.

The Constitution says the "Times, Places and Manner" of federal elections are determined by individual states, with Congress able to enact changes.

"This Executive Order is a disgusting overreach from the federal government and shows how little the Trump Administration understands about election administration," Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state of Arizona, said in a statement Tuesday. "We will not let this order stand without a fight and will meet the federal government in court," he added.

Arizona is among more than two dozen states Trump's Department of Justice has sued over access to sensitive voter data.

The Trump administration claims it needs the data to enforce states' voter list maintenance. Federal judges in three states have dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuits in those states.

In another case, a DOJ official admitted in court last week that the department plans to share that voter data with the Department of Homeland Security, to run it through the so-called SAVE system to search for noncitizens.

NPR has reported that some U.S. citizens have also been inaccurately flagged by SAVE.

How the executive order seeks to change voting

Trump has long railed — baselessly — about widespread illegal voting by noncitizens and fraud associated with mail ballots.

The new executive order — which was first reported by The Daily Caller — takes aim at both.

It instructs the Department of Homeland Security, working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration, to "compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State."

The order then "requires the USPS to transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive absentee or mail-in ballots," according to a White House fact sheet.

Trump's executive order claims that "additional measures are necessary" to secure voting by mail, a form of voting he has used himself — including last week — but also falsely maligned for years. In the 2024 general election, nearly a third of all voters cast mail ballots.

The Postal Service should also review the design of mail ballot envelopes to protect "the integrity of Federal elections," the order says.

Collectively, the provisions would be a significant change to how mail ballot programs are currently administered in American elections, which are largely carried out by state and local officials.

"Our government's citizenship lists are incomplete and inaccurate. The United States Postal Service is overburdened and inadequate. This combines a car crash with a train wreck," the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voting access and sued to block Trump's 2025 election executive order, said in a statement.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, wrote on his blog that the order is likely unconstitutional. And regardless, he added, "the timing here makes this virtually impossible to implement in time for November's elections. … It seems highly unlikely any of this could be implemented for 2026, even if it were not blocked by courts."

The order comes as Trump pressures Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul that would impose new voter identification and documentation requirements.

That bill is stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition and the legislative filibuster.

The Supreme Court is also expected to rule this year on whether Mississippi should be allowed to count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received by election officials after Election Day.

The legal challenge, which could have sweeping implications for mail voting nationwide, was filed by the Republican National Committee and Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Federal immigration officials arrested more than 14,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area in 2025 — the majority of whom had no criminal record, according to an LAist analysis of new data from the Deportation Data Project.

The data project, an initiative between UCLA and UC Berkeley, publishes federal data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

In 2025, federal officials arrested 14,394 people, up from 4,681 the year prior. Forty-six percent of people arrested had criminal convictions, 15% had pending charges, and 39% had no criminal charges or convictions.

In a December news release, the Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested more than 10,000 people in the L.A. area since immigration raids began in June of last year, including "murderers, kidnappers, sexual predators and armed carjackers,” but did not publish details of the number of people who had criminal records.

The data from the Deportation Data Project shows that arrests in L.A. spiked in June, and about two-thirds of people arrested that month had no criminal convictions.

More than 313,000 people were arrested by ICE nationwide in 2025, according to an LAist analysis.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency has not “verified the accuracy, methodology or analysis of the project and its results” and said “this only reveals how data is manipulated to peddle the false narrative that DHS is not targeting the worst of the worst.” The spokesperson said 61% of people ICE arrested across the country either had criminal convictions or pending charges.

The agency has regularly published press releases identifying people they have arrested and who they have called “the worst of the worst,” including from the raids in L.A. in June. But an LAist investigation and reporting from other outlets has found that some of the people on those lists already has been in custody and were serving lengthy sentences.