The Brief

As the Trump administration works to end in-state tuition for undocumented students across the United States, California lawmakers are weighing a bill to preserve access to in-state tuition for community college students who get deported.

The bill would enable deported community college students to continue their coursework online while paying in-state tuition rates, until January 2030. Community college students who leave the U.S. because of the political climate and DACA recipients who are denied re-entry would also be eligible. If students manage to get back to the U.S. lawfully, they would be able to access in-state tuition when they return.

“Deportation should not erase a student’s dreams of higher education,” said Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr., a Democrat who represents communities from Huntington Park to Lakewood and is one of the bill’s co-authors. Assemblymember Mike Fong of the San Gabriel Valley introduced the bill, and Assemblymember Mark González, who represents Koreatown, Boyle Heights and Montebello, is a co-author.

“Over the last few months, on an almost daily basis, we have seen reports of individuals [who] were detained by federal agents and deported,” Fong said at a Senate education committee hearing this summer. “Due to the nature of the arrests, some individuals have decided to leave on their own, to avoid the physical threat. [The bill] would allow our community college students who leave the country, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, the opportunity to continue their education.”

“This bill is very narrow,” he emphasized, solely applicable to undocumented students who are enrolled in community college at the time of departure or removal.

What does the bill accomplish?

Undocumented college students in the U.S. are racially and ethnically diverse. In California, there are an estimated 100,000 undocumented students, who make up a small percentage of the overall higher ed population. The majority of undocumented students are enrolled in one of the state’s 116 community colleges.

Because undocumented students don’t qualify for financial aid, they rely on state funding, scholarships and their wages to pay for school. The law that allows them to access financial aid if they meet certain criteria often serves as a lifeline.

For instance: To attend Long Beach City College during the 2025-26 academic year, California residents are expected to pay about $1,556 in tuition and fees. Nonresidents will pay $11,440 dollars. For students who are forced or pressured to leave the country — particularly to places where they’d have less earning power — paying for California’s in-state tuition could pose a significant challenge. Paying the out-of-state rate could be impossible.

The Trump administration maintains it’s unlawful to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, as it gives them an advantage over out-of-state students who are citizens.

Fong’s bill has been endorsed by educator and labor unions across the state, as well as the California Community Colleges system.

“From our perspective, this is about being inclusive and making sure that we are supporting all our students,” said Chris Ferguson, the system’s executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives.

Jessie Hernández-Reyes, director of policy and advocacy at the Campaign for College Opportunity, said the bill “signals a commitment to supporting undocumented students,” noting that, if students manage to return to the U.S. with authorization, they would not only have access to in-state tuition, but also be encouraged to apply for state-based financial aid.

As Fong’s bill makes its way through the California legislature, the Trump administration is working to end in-state tuition for undocumented students across the country. Under the president’s direction, the U.S. Department of Justice has sued several states that offer in-state tuition, saying this effort is meant to “ensure illegal aliens are not obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.”

In an email statement, María Morales, statewide policy director at Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, noted that “undocumented residents contribute billions in taxes to California’s economy and account for nearly 5% of the state’s GDP.”

“Keeping [undocumented] students on track to graduate ensures they can continue fueling our workforce and strengthening our economy, benefiting all Californians,” she said.

Why does it matter?

Christopher Sanchez, a lobbyist for the Central American Resource Center, was among dozens of organizations that showed up to back the bill at this summer’s senate hearing. The immigrant rights group, known as CARECEN, was founded by Salvadoran refugees and human rights activists in the 1980s. It provides legal services to students at Cal State universities and community colleges in L.A., Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

Under the Trump administration, Sanchez said, “we are seeing long-standing legal pathways and immigration statuses that offer protections being stripped away from those who were once eligible for them, which has made the immigrant community more vulnerable to deportation, especially those who are in California's community colleges.”

He said it’s important to maintain benefits for students through possible interruptions.

“While many may think that immigration ends after deportation, that's not true,” he added. “On a case by case basis, many immigrants may seek to adjust their status abroad to return to the United States, or to challenge our deportation case because they've been wrongfully deported.”

What's already changed?

Alouette Cervantes-Salazar coordinates East Los Angeles College’s Dream Resource Center, which provides support and services for undocumented students; DACA and TPS recipients; and students in mixed-status families.

The Trump administration has already transformed campus life; she said “quite a bit” of students who used to take all their classes in person have decided to complete this semester online.

For some, online coursework has become preferable because it enables them to juggle school and an increased workload, Cervantes-Salazar added. For others, the fear of getting to and from campus amid roving immigration patrols was the decisive factor.

The bill to preserve in-state tuition, she said, “gives our students some hope.”

Thousands of students from schools across Los Angeles walked out Wednesday in peaceful protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated 4,400 students from about two dozen schools participated.

“ I think it's really empowering that we aren't being discouraged to [protest], but it's also really discouraging to have to live through this,” said Roybal Learning Center senior Melisa. 

“The reason I came out is 'cause we're so young and I feel like people always think that like young people don't have a voice and in reality we have one of the strongest voices,” said Jazlyn Garcia, a senior at  Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School. “I want people to go out and vote for midterms, pre-register to vote.”

Leonna, a senior at Downtown Magnets High School and daughter of immigrants from Cambodia, said she was thinking of her neighbors.  “We need to protect the people that make sure that the economy is running and make sure that our lives are the way that they are every day.”

Students said the Trump administration's immigration raids threaten their families, communities and education.

LAUSD estimated that several thousand students walked out.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Students said they were concerned for family and neighbors.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Alexis, a senior at Brío College Prep, said administrators locked down his campus after agents detained a nearby fruit vendor. “He was a part of our community,” Alexis said. “He would always be out there selling fruits to us after school.”

San Fernando Valley students at more than 40 schools plan to walk out Friday.

“Los Angeles Unified supports the rights of our students to advocate for causes important to them,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist. “However, we are concerned for student safety at off-campus demonstrations as schools are the safest place for students.”

The district encouraged students to exercise their rights in on-campus discussions and demonstrations.

The University of Southern California board of trustees has appointed interim president Beong-Soo Kim to be its 13th full president.

Kim was named as the interim leader in February 2025 and began the role this summer. He most recently served as USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, and as a lecturer at the law school. Prior to joining USC, he worked at Kaiser Permanente and was a federal prosecutor for the Central District of California.

Kim succeeds Carol Folt, who was brought on to stabilize the university following a series of scandals under the administration before hers. She formally stepped down from her role in July, following criticism of her ability to handle student protests and concerns over fiscal stewardship.

Soon after his term began, Kim oversaw the university’s effort to manage a $200 million deficit, which also led to hundreds of layoffs.

“We did have to make some difficult decisions last year with respect to our budget and layoffs,” Kim told LAist. “And I'm really pleased that as a result of those difficult decisions, we're now in a much stronger financial position and really for a number of months have been really focusing on the opportunities that we see on the horizon.”

In a call with LAist, and joined by USC board chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, Kim touched on bright spots and some of his priorities. He also touched on the relationship between USC and the Trump administration before a sudden ending to the call.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LAist: You've talked about addressing the mass layoffs and budget challenges. What do you see as the way forward?

Beong-Soo Kim: Our research expenditures have actually been going up over the last year, over the last couple of years. We're focusing on: How do we provide the best possible educational value to our students? We're focusing on how to maintain and strengthen our academic culture of excellence, open dialogue and engagement with different viewpoints.

And we're also really kind of leaning into artificial intelligence and asking questions as a community about how we incorporate AI responsibly into our education, into our operations, into our research. And there are obviously a lot of important ethical questions that we're working on, and it's really an quite an exciting time to be in the position that I'm in.

What are you excited for?

Well, a couple things that we're really looking forward to are, as part of the anniversary of the United States, we're going to be hosting a National Archives exhibition [of] founding documents in late April. We're also looking forward to helping host the L.A. Olympics in 2028. We have our 150th anniversary coming up in 2030 as a university.

So there's a lot that's on the horizon. We also have the Lucas Museum opening up across the street later this year and, of course, George Lucas is one of our most beloved Trojan alumni. So there's so much vitality, so much energy on the campus right now.

USC has, for the most part, avoided the sort of conflicts that the University of California system and elite private institutions across the country have had with the Trump administration. What can you share about how you plan to manage USC’s relationship with the federal government?

Well, we really make an effort to engage with all levels of government, as well as foundations, the private sector, community groups. That kind of engagement is really more important nowadays. Universities can't just go off on their own. It's important for us to partner and find opportunities to work with others. And that's what we've been doing.

And that's part of the reason why I think that our research has continued to go strongly. And I give a lot of the credit to our faculty and researchers who can continue submitting grant applications and continue to do research in areas that are critically important to the benefit of our community, our nation, and our world. And I think that we -—

Suzanne Nora Johnson: —Actually I'm so sorry, but we have to complete the board meeting, and we've got to run. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We'll be in touch. Bye. Thanks. Bye.

Huntington Beach will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision striking down the city’s controversial voter ID law.

What’s the backstory?

Huntington Beach voters approved a measure in 2024 allowing the city to require people to show ID when casting a ballot. That contradicts state law — voters in California are asked to provide ID when they register to vote but generally not at polling places.

The ensuing court battle

The state and a Huntington Beach resident promptly sued the city over the voter ID law and won an appeals court ruling striking down the law. The California Supreme Court declined to review the decision earlier this month. The state also passed a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own voter ID laws.

Then, the City Council voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Does the city have a shot?

The Supreme Court gets 7,000 to 8,000 requests to review cases each year. The Court grants about 80 of these requests, so the city’s chances of getting the court’s attention are statistically slim.

There’s also a question of whether or not the city’s voter ID case meets the Court’s criteria for review — SCOTUS addresses questions of federal law. Mayor Casey McKeon said it does, in a news release, noting a 2008 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state’s voter ID law — in Indiana. But Huntington Beach is a city, and the question in its voter ID case is whether or not a city can implement its own requirements for voting, even if it clashes with state law.

Go deeper

• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Huntington Beach clashes with California over voter ID requirement in court
• HB Mayor defends Voter ID measure as Gov. Newsom seeks to ban it
• Listen 26:32

  The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?