The Brief

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Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges.

Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists. 

Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building.

Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo.

College presidents say they’re doing everything in their power to keep students safe and prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus. But they admit that they have limited power in these situations.

“If ICE agents want to come and walk in the middle of campus, they can do that,” said Kevin Walthers, the president of Allan Hancock College.

State laws require colleges to notify students if immigration enforcement agents are on campus and agents must present a warrant before entering a "nonpublic” area in a school, such as a classroom or office building. But parking lots, quads and many other outdoor spaces are considered public.

By the time Walthers learned ICE agents had arrived at the campus parking lot, they were gone — the arrest happened in a matter of minutes. He said he never received a warrant and was only able to issue a notification to students and faculty after the arrest. The same was true in San Diego, said district Chancellor Gregory Smith.

President Donald Trump rescinded a longstanding policy that prevented immigration enforcement in “sensitive” locations, such as schools. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which oversees the state’s 116 colleges, has been outspoken about protecting students without legal status and offered guidance to schools on dealing with immigration agents. Attorney General Rob Bonta released his own, more detailed guide last month.

Chandler Rebel, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, said “ICE does not target schools” and denied arresting anyone on the Allan Hancock campus, despite witness testimony and photographs. Rebel did not respond to questions about the officer who chased a San Diego City College student on campus.

After their interactions with immigration agents, Santa Barbara and San Diego city colleges put up or are in the process of installing signs in parking lots, sidewalks or at the entrances to classrooms and buildings, telling agents they need approval to enter.

In practice, these messages may not prevent immigration agents from coming onto their campuses, college presidents say. “It's kind of our district putting every effort that we can think of, and hopefully it is a deterrent,” Smith said.

A regular Monday 

Last Monday morning, Mayrin, 18, said she was sitting in the passenger seat while her father drove her to Allan Hancock College, where she had statistics class that day. As they drove by the Olive Garden just outside of campus, she said she saw a large black car follow them down the road.

Mayrin and her father parked in the campus lot, she said, where a masked man approached the window and asked for their identification. CalMatters agreed to withhold her full name because she fears drawing attention to her family’s legal status.

“I was calling people. I was crying. It was a mix of emotions, mostly just worried about my dad,” she said. Maryrin gave the officer her state ID and told him that she’s a U.S. citizen. Her father, who immigrated from Mexico and has lived in the U.S. for about two decades, did not have identification on him and the officer pulled him into his car, she said.

Mayrin spent the next 20 minutes alone in her father’s car, crying and calling family, before college staff, including campus police officers and the dean of counseling, brought her into a conference room to ask what happened and provide support.

Mayrin’s father was one of at least 17 people who were arrested last Monday by immigration enforcement agents in the Santa Maria area, said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat, in an emailed statement. “Mass enforcement sweeps like this are designed to send a message of fear and intimidation – one straight from President Trump.”

A student walks through San Diego City College in downtown San Diego on Oct. 9, 2026.

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Adriana Heldiz

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The largely Latino towns in California's Central Coast region, which include Santa Maria, have experienced waves of immigration enforcement since Trump took office.

In April, Walthers said the college’s police chief had a meeting with other local police chiefs, the FBI and ICE officers who oversee the Central Coast. The college’s police chief asked immigration officials to provide advance notice before coming on campus. “The response was that ICE would not be coming to campus,” Walthers said. In retrospect, he said he wished the agreement was more formal.

After the arrest last week, Walthers said he got in touch with a federal immigration officer in Los Angeles and said he felt “optimistic” after the conversation that it wouldn’t happen again.

‘Without us knowing or without any previous approval’

In December, a local organization that advocates for immigrants, 805 UndocuFund, alerted Santa Barbara City College officials that ICE agents were at a campus parking lot and appeared to be using it as a staging area, according to Jordan Killebrew, the executive director of public affairs for the college.

Killebrew said agents were “occupying our parking lots without us knowing or without any previous approval.”

The college has since signed an agreement with 805 UndocuFund to help alert the college of the presence of federal law enforcement agents. The group will also provide college students and staff with resources and referrals including legal, financial, mental health and emergency support services for immigration-related matters.

Killebrew said the college spent about $1,200 on 12 signs, which say its campuses “may not be used for civil immigration enforcement staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases.”

The San Diego college district was already in the process of putting up similar signs when ICE appeared on campus last month. District spokesperson Jack Beresford said the four-college district spent $71,000 on 68 signs, including the cost of the labor to install them. The district also created a new policy requiring any entity, including law enforcement, to get prior approval before conducting “official business” on campus.

“We don't let a bank just come and set up a booth,” said Smith, the chancellor of the San Diego district. He said immigration enforcement agents would need approval before conducting their business, including arrests.

Whether the policy will actually work is less clear. “By the time I know that they're here and get down there to tell them they're not allowed to be here, they're going to be gone,” Smith said. “What I'm hoping that we have set up with this is a legal argument that it's an illegal seizure, the same as if they just broke into somebody's home.”

The policy has never been tested in court. He said he hopes it never gets there.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Californians are choosing their next governor: a longtime liberal politician pitching his government experience or a Republican first-time candidate vowing to dramatically upend Democratic power structures.

The race between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of the most consequential on the ballot. Polls for months have put Becerra ahead of Hilton by double digits, a predictable lead in a state with nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans and where a Republican hasn’t won a statewide office in nearly two decades.

Hilton, a former Fox News host who has urged voters to end “16 years of one-party rule,” is banking on frustration with the state’s high cost of living to drive undecided voters, independents and even some Democrats to support a Republican for a change.

He represents the best hope in years for a GOP victory. He has raised more than $33 million to Becerra’s $38 million and is running hard on a series of ambitious promises to lower costs by slashing regulations and taxes. He portrayed Becerra as the embodiment of the California political status quo, someone who would make decisions that benefit influential special interest groups like organized labor.

“It’s the people against the machine,” he said of his campaign in a virtual town hall last week.

His message of change, promises to slash gas prices and frequent invocations of Californians moving out-of-state resonated with Brad Gerig, who voted in Roseville last week. It was the first time Gerig, 34, could recall voting for a Republican, he said. The EMT and firefighter said he wants to be able to afford to stay and raise a family in California, so he was willing to “try something different.”

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Gerig said. “I think for everybody living in this area there’s an inherent angst for a little bit better. There’s no reason it should be as expensive as it is.”

But Hilton has struggled to rid himself of the baggage from President Donald Trump’s endorsement in a state Trump lost by 20 percentage points in 2024.

Becerra has reminded voters of Hilton’s link to Trump at every turn, and cast himself as a fighter who would, like Newsom, challenge decisions in Washington such as Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign.

He has dismissed Hilton as unserious and primarily campaigned on his longtime experience representing Los Angeles in Congress and serving as state attorney general and as U.S. health secretary. Those roles have earned him a wide swath of influential liberal allies.

“Xavier Becerra has stood with us for more than 30 years,” said Tony Hoang, executive director of the LGBTQ+ rights organization Equality California, at an event in San Francisco last week.

He highlighted Becerra’s role as one of the small minority of congressmembers who voted against the anti-gay marriage Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

At the same event, Becerra touted his opposition to Trump.

“Donald Trump is on this ballot,” he said, without naming his opponent once. “We see right through you, Donald Trump. And we see through all those MAGA friends and relatives who are trying to push that agenda on us.”

Becerra’s comfortable standing is reflected in the relatively muted nature of his campaign: Becerra agreed to meet for only one debate with Hilton this fall. He has spent much of his time campaigning not for himself but against a Republican-backed voter ID measure and on behalf of other California Democrats.

The election comes at a particularly delicate time for California.

Street homelessness rose for years and only began to decline again in 2025. Wildfires have made it harder to buy homeowners insurance. Inflation, much of it attributable to Trump’s warin Iran, tariffs and immigration crackdown, have added to the already-high cost of living.

The state budget, always subject to the boom and bust of the stock market, has become particularly dependent on the fortunes of the artificial intelligence industry. Under Newsom, the state has made aggressive regulatory moves to curb the use of climate-warming fossil fuels. But despite recent polling that shows a majority of Californians support the green transition, fewer are willing to pay higher prices for energy than were a decade ago.

And the state’s liberal politics have often put it in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which has withheld federal funds, challenged California’s environmental policies and attempted to intervene in this election.

Both candidates agree the state has become unaffordable for working families. That’s about all they agree on.

Becerra has proposed mostly incremental changes to existing state policies, such as continuing recent efforts by Newsom and lawmakers to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles to approving new housing construction.

He wants to expand state mortgage assistance programs and said he’s committed to the clean energy transition, but open to delays or tweaks to trim costs. He has not endorsed any new taxes on residents, but wants the state to assess a fee on corporations whose employees make so little they qualify for public healthcare.

Hilton, a British American who was once a close adviser to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, ran on a deregulatory agenda, promising to slash environmental rules and the gas tax and allow more home construction on exurban, undeveloped land.

One of his signature campaign promises was to eliminate the income tax on residents’ first $150,000 in earnings and make the income tax flat above that — amounting to an expensive tax cut for the highest earners that he’s said he would pay for with spending cuts. It’s one of his many promises that would need legislative approval, and he has not said how he would get Democrats in the Capitol to support them.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

California voters are deciding whether the state will levy a first-of-its-kind tax on billionaires.

If it passes, Proposition 40 would assess a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state’s roughly 200 billionaires, targeting their stocks, bonds, business holdings and other valuable personal property.

Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the union pushing the measure, says it would generate an estimated $100 billion for healthcare and education to be spent over the next five years. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates the tax would raise “tens of billions of dollars” over several years, well short of the union’s projection, and says billionaires leaving the state could cut income tax revenue by less than $1 billion a year.

The results could also be complicated by two competing ballot measures: Propositions 41 and 42. Proponents of those measures designed them to conflict with Prop. 40, which means if either countermeasure receives more votes than Prop. 40, it nullifies the billionaire tax.

The union and other supporters argue that billionaires should pay their fair share to support social services programs the Trump administration cut last year.

From the outset, Prop. 40 revealed divisions in the Democratic Party and galvanized some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest executives to spend hundreds of millions to defeat it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom became one of its earliest opponents, attempting through backroom negotiations to keep Prop. 40 off the ballot altogether. He endorsed Prop. 42, the billionaire-backed countermeasure designed to ban all wealth taxes in California and kill Prop. 40. Newsom, along with a cadre of Democratic allies such as Planned Parenthood of California and the California Teachers Association, argued a one-time tax would not solve the state’s fiscal woes and would drive wealthy residents out of state.

Despite party and labor divisions, the California Democratic Party and California Federation of Labor Unions supported the initiative and opposed its counter measures, arguing the state needs more revenue to shield workers and everyday Californians from the effects of dramatic federal healthcare cuts expected to kick 2 million residents off health insurance.

Billionaire opponents spend heavily

Billionaire opponents and business interests poured $316.7 million into the campaign to stop Prop. 40 — including support for Props. 41 and 42 — telling voters nearly the same message: Wealthy residents who contribute jobs to the economy and income tax to state coffers have already left, and more will follow if the initiative passes. They also made a largely misleading claim that lawmakers could lower the threshold of the wealth tax to include everyday Californians.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin led the opposition, publicly moving out of state and donating $102 million to Building a Better California, a political committee he founded to oppose the tax. The group has served as a passthrough for other billionaire donors to oppose Prop. 40.

Billionaire tax opponents also placed Props. 41 and 42 on the ballot.

Prop. 41 prohibits the state from collecting taxes that circumvent the state spending limit set in 1979, which Prop. 40 is designed to do. It also requires the state to audit future tax proposals before they reach voters and identify potential spending cuts in the programs they’d fund.

Prop. 42 prohibits the state from taxing financial assets, private businesses, pensions and other forms of wealth. It also prohibits retroactive taxes. These provisions directly conflict with the billionaire tax.

The state constitution dictates that when there are multiple competing ballot measures on the same ballot, the one that receives the most votes wins, nullifying its competitors.

Allegations against healthcare union's leader

Prop. 40 is the brainchild of Dave Regan, president of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. He has been mired in scandal in recent months. Some members of SEIU California, the political umbrella organization representing the healthcare workers union, have accused him of threatening and intimidating women over the years and of attempting to “extort” support for the measure, according to an internal investigation commissioned by SEIU California and SEIU, the union’s national parent organization.

Separately, the California Primary Care Association, which represents clinics and opposes Prop. 44, another ballot measure run by Regan’s union, alleged in a recent lawsuit that the health workers union violated anti-racketeering laws in part by asking clinics to support the billionaire tax in exchange for killing the clinic initiative.

The union and Regan have called these allegations “categorically false” and characterized them as a “smear campaign” designed to derail the billionaire tax.

If Prop. 40 survives, billionaires who lived in California on Jan. 1, 2026 would be assessed the tax based on their net worth as of Dec. 31, 2026. Payments would be due in one lump sum or in installments over five years.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Midterms coverage: Live results | What to know | Stories around the country
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Democrats appear poised to retake control of the House on Tuesday. If they do, will their majority be built upon a blue wave or a tiny trickle? A previous NPR analysis found both parties spending deep and wide in a competitive landscape that spans 70 districts, ranging from longtime tossups to newly-competitive seats in deeply conservative areas.

Republicans came into Election Day with a narrow 218-214 seat advantage in the House and facing severe headwinds as the party in power. This midterm cycle has also seen a record number of departures from Congress, and polls show voters aren't happy about things like the economy and the ongoing war in Iran.

So what separates a good night for Democrats from a blue wave that sees dozens of House seats change hands? Here's NPR's cheat sheet to four types of House races to watch as results come in:

Early polls closing

The first results of the night with national implications will likely be from Kentucky's 6th Congressional District (KY-06) and Indiana's 5th (IN-05), two districts where polls close first (in the 6 p.m. ET hour) and whose 2024 margins for President Trump (15 and 17 points, respectively) could act as a preview for how much voters have soured on Republicans.

Democrats and Republicans alike have spent heavily in the Kentucky race, where Democrat Zach Dembo faces Republican Ralph Alvarado, so the increased investment is worth noting as a factor on the outcome. If Democrats flip one or both of these races, then it will likely be a long night for the GOP.

Florida also counts and reports its votes quickly, and is home to more than a half dozen races that are viewed as toss-ups or slightly favor one party or the other, so as these districts have projected winners there will be more insight into other races across the country.

Like the Kentucky contest, both parties have spent significant sums in races like the open seat in FL-22 with Democrat Pia Dandiya facing off against Republican Casey Askar and incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz versus Republican Scott Singer in the newly-redrawn FL-25 race.

Other races to watch: FL-27, NC-11, SC-01, VA-01

Last-minute big spending

In the final seven days of the midterms, a handful of House races have seen more than $10 million in ad spending, according to data from AdImpact. It's a sign of where both parties think the saying "It all comes down to turnout!" is more than a cliche. That includes districts in Michigan, such as MI-07, where progressive Democrat William Lawrence is challenging incumbent Republican Tom Barrett in a seat that Trump carried by just over one percent in 2024 and the open MI-10, where Democrat Christina Hines faces Republican Mike Bouchard.

New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in NY-17 could be one of the rare Republicans who holds on to his seat thanks in part to his party's ad spending advantage in the closing stretch against Democrat Cait Conley.

Three of Iowa's four House races, IA-01, IA-02 and IA-03 are on the list of most expensive, in part because of the competitive governor and U.S. Senate races that are also on the ballot and driving up turnout.

Other races to watch: CO-08, PA-01, WA-03, WI-03

Redistricting

This year's Supreme Court decision rolling back part of the Voting Rights Act led to many Republican-led states redrawing their House maps to eliminate districts that favor Democrats in a typical election year – but this year is not typical.

Now, the political environment has deteriorated so much that seats like AL-02, held by Democrat Shomari Figures, OH-09 held by Democrat Marcy Kaptur and NC-01 held by Democrat Don Davis are all considered toss-ups at best and favoring the Democrats at worst for Republicans.

In Texas, Latino voters seem poised to swing back to Democratic candidates and could prevent Republican Eric Flores from flipping the seat held by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in TX-34 or Tano Tijerina from unseating Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar in TX-28.

Other races to watch: CA-22, FL-09, FL-14, TX-35

The outer edges of the map

As results continue to be reported, one thing to watch is how far into conservative communities the increased support for Democrats can go.

One race that has received a surprising amount of ad attention is in Arkansas's 2nd district (AR-02), where incumbent Republican Rep. French Hill faces a well-known challenger in Democrat Chris Jones. By the time polls close, closer to $10 million will have been spent in the final months on the Little Rock-based seat that Trump carried by 15 points in 2024.

There are also many districts in states that redrew their maps where the Republican gerrymander could backfire, like Ohio. In both OH-10 held by Republican Mike Turner and OH-15 held by Republican Mike Carey, Trump won by closer to 10 points in 2024. They're also in a state with competitive governor and Senate races and stretch between the suburbs and exurbs of Dayton and Columbus with an electorate that could swing away from the GOP.

The margin in North Carolina's Senate race, where former Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to win against former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, could determine if races like NC-03 are in play as well too. Rep. Greg Murphy's district absorbed more Democratic-leaning voters after the latest map redraw.

Other races to watch: NC-09, NY-21, TN-09, WA-05

Copyright 2026 NPR

Election Day is here, and with it comes your last chance to vote in the 2026 general election.

So far, a lot of people have cast ballots. Early voting turnout in L.A. and Orange counties has been higher than the previous midterm cycle in 2022.

The ballot is hefty, asking you to choose among dozens of candidates and weigh in on important local and statewide measures, from a new governor to a billionaire’s tax. L.A. voters will choose who will be mayor and the city attorney, decide on Superior Court judges, school bonds and much more.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Where to vote on Election Day

All vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for in-person voting or to drop off your vote-by-mail ballot — in L.A. County, there are more than 600 to choose from. Remember: If you’re in line to vote by 8 p.m., stay in line. You’re legally allowed to cast your ballot if you get in line by the 8 p.m. deadline.

Tip: You aren’t required to bring your vote-by-mail ballot with you — those get voided during the check-in process.

• Find an L.A. County vote center near you (with wait times)
• Find an Orange County vote center near you (with wait times)

If you haven’t registered yet or you’re worried you’ll have an issue, election workers can help you. California allows same-day registration. (Check your registration status here.) If you register at the same time that you vote, you’ll cast a provisional ballot. Officials will verify your registration information and count all ballots of voters who are eligible.

You can also drop your ballot in an official ballot drop box anywhere in the state before 8 p.m.

• Find an Orange County drop box near you
• Find an L.A. County drop box near you
  

If you prefer to mail your ballot in, just make sure it’s postmarked by Tuesday. No postage is required. (Pro tip: If you’re mailing your ballot, take it into the post office to ensure it’s postmarked on time. It'll be counted as long as it arrives within 7 days of Election Day.)

You can also designate another person to return your completed ballot, as long as they aren’t paid. Make sure they fill out the envelope as directed for another person returning your ballot.

Get a free ride to vote in LA

L.A. Metro offers free rides until 11:59 p.m. All buses, trains, Metro Micro and Metro Bike Share services are covered. The promotion on Bike Share covers a 30-minute ride with the code “110326.” LADOT Transit, which includes DASH and Commuter Express rides, is also free.

Here’s a map of ballot drop boxes near Metro stations.

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Lyft is offering discounted rides with the code “VOTE26.” You’ll get 50% off up to $10.

What to do if you can't get to your local vote center

Not to worry — if you’re out of town, you can drop off your ballot at an official ballot drop box or polling location anywhere in California. It will be routed to the correct county. There’s no need to drive back to the vote center closest to where you live.

The same goes for voting by mail. Remember: If you have a vote-by-mail ballot, you can get it postmarked at any post office. As long as it’s postmarked by Tuesday and arrives within 7 days of Election Day, it will be counted.

What to do if you make a mistake on your ballot 

If you make an error on your vote-by-mail ballot, you can draw a line through it and make your correction.

You can also go to any vote center, request a new ballot and vote in person.

How to sign your ballot

Make sure to sign your ballot envelope with the signature that matches what your county registrar has on file, which is probably the signature on your driver’s license or state ID. Otherwise, your ballot might get flagged. If that happens, you’ll be notified by mail and will have a chance to fix it.

What to do if you come across an unfamiliar ballot item

It’s not required to vote on every item. If you haven’t had time to research, it’s OK to skip a race or ballot measure you’re unsure about — or several of them if you like. Whatever votes you do cast will still be counted, even if parts of your ballot are left blank.

You can also check out our voter guides.

What to expect after polls close

Follow LAist’s Voter Game Plan. We’ll keep you updated as results come in after 8 p.m.

When will my ballot be counted?

Keep in mind that in tight races particularly, the winner may not be determined for days or weeks after Election Day.

Election results will start posting shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m.

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Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk

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In L.A. County, the first batch of results released includes vote-by-mail ballots received before Election Day (8:30 to 8:45 p.m.), followed by early votes cast at vote centers before Election Day (8:45 to 9:00 p.m.), then votes cast in-person on Election Day. This process is expected to wrap up in the early hours of Nov. 4. Then, additional results will be released following a schedule you can see on the county's site. In California, ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 3 are counted toward the results as long as they arrive within seven days of the election.

County election officials must certify election results by Dec. 3.

Track your ballot

You can track the status of your ballot here:

• Voters in L.A. County
• Voters in Orange County

If your mail-in ballot is rejected for any reason (like a missing or mismatched signature), your county registrar must contact you to give you a chance to fix it.

If you come across any other challenges, be sure to let us know. We have reporters out across L.A. County, along with staff standing by to answer your questions.

Editor's note: A version of this story was first published in 2022, and we continue to update it for subsequent elections.