The Brief

A recent string of high-profile immigration enforcement actions at Columbia and other universities has sparked fear and caution among some students and faculty in Southern California — especially those who aren’t U.S. citizens.

Last spring, campus activists protested the war in Gaza and set up encampments at schools across the country, calling for their institutions to divest from companies, weapons manufacturers and other activities with ties to Israel.

When the encampments were dismantled, many participants faced arrest, suspension, loss of on-campus food and housing, doxxing, accusations of antisemitism and physical violence. Now, some participants worry they could also be removed from the U.S.

What’s been happening to immigrant students on college campuses?

The Trump administration has targeted students with lawful permanent residence (who have green cards) and those here under a visa.

In early March, Homeland Security agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil in Columbia University housing. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who recently completed his graduate studies, served as a negotiator between the school’s administration and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups opposed to Israel’s war effort. Now Khalil is in a detention center, fighting to stay in the country with his wife, a U.S. citizen who’s expecting their first child. On social media, President Donald Trump said Khalil’s arrest was the first of “many to come.”

Soon after, Ranjani Srinivasan, a doctoral student at Columbia, fled the U.S. after her visa was revoked. Srinivasan said she was making her way home through a crowd of protesters last spring when police detained her and charged her with obstructing traffic and failing to disperse. Both charges were dismissed, but ICE agents still came knocking at her door.

Similar actions have been reported against visa holders at Brown, Cornell, Georgetown and another green-card holder at Columbia. As Axios reported, the State Department is also using AI to surveil students’ social media accounts and cancel the visas of those who “appear to support Hamas or other designated terror groups.”

Rafael Jaime, a doctoral candidate in English at UCLA and president of UAW 4811 — the union that represents about 48,000 student researchers, teaching assistants, and post-docs across the UC system — said the Trump administration's crackdown on noncitizens is a “clear attempt to instill fear in the campus community.”

“Campuses have long been bastions of free speech and protest,” he added. “This is an attempt to silence that.”

What does the law say?

Immigration attorneys have flagged Khalil’s arrest as particularly alarming.

“The law is very clear: A green-card holder cannot be stripped of their immigration status unless they're ordered removed by an immigration judge,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-cirector at UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy.

To detain Khalil, the Trump administration has invoked a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes any “alien” deportable if the Secretary of State “has reasonable ground to believe [that their presence or activities] would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” In the 1990s, the late U.S. District Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (the president’s sister) wrote an opinion declaring the provision unconstitutional.

“Everybody who knows a green-card holder — everybody who knows a noncitizen — should be worried about a provision that gives the secretary of state the power to decide that an immigrant's presence is no longer good for American foreign policy. Because that has virtually no logical limit,” Arulanantham said. “This is not a power that we want to give to the unchecked discretion of any government official, in any administration."

Under normal circumstances, visa holders are more vulnerable than lawful permanent residents.

“Every time [visa holders] leave the country, when [they] come back, [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] has the power to admit you or to deny your admission. Whereas a green card holder has to be let back into the country,” Arulanantham said.

Arulanantham added that it might be advisable for international students to have a lawyer on call and to be mindful of their social media.

How advocates are preparing to help SoCal students 

Since Trump’s reelection, there’s been an uptick in student requests at UC’s Immigrant Legal Services Center. The federal crackdown on international scholars has served to “aggravate student concerns,” said Vivek Mittal, the center’s managing attorney.

“As advocates, we’re really concerned about what's going on, and that what's happening at Columbia will happen here,” he said.

The center periodically holds Know Your Rights workshops for noncitizens. In a webinar last November, Mittal and his colleagues told students to weigh the risks of protesting. They also emphasized that there’s more than one way to contribute to a cause, including providing supplies for protesters and donating to organizations.

When it comes to potential encounters with immigration officials, Mittal encourages students to practice what they learn — including the constitutional right to remain silent and demand to see a signed judicial warrant — so they’re prepared to assert those rights in real life.

ICE agents cannot enter a private space without a warrant, but they have been known to employ a number of tactics to catch their targets, he added. This includes dressing in plain clothes, traveling in unmarked vehicles and lingering outside buildings, he said.

“It's always a good idea to talk to an immigration attorney to really assess your situation,” Mittal added.

UC’s Immigrant Legal Services Center provides free legal advice and representation for students and families.

Jaime, UAW 4811’s president, said international workers make up a significant part of the union’s membership.

Members are currently “organizing, going out and talking to others, making sure they know their rights,” he said.

The union will also host a webinar where members will learn how to respond if immigration officials come on campus or go to their homes.

“In fact,” Jaime added, “under our contract, the university is required to inform us if [ICE agents are spotted], to make sure that workers are protected.”

Dina Chehata, civil rights managing attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) chapter in Greater L.A., said her organization has hired more staff to help students “fight back against disciplinary actions that are trying to chill their First Amendment rights ... and also to help support the students facing criminal consequences for engaging in what we strongly believe is lawful conduct.”

Chehata’s chapter also just listed a position for a litigation attorney.

“We're very serious about escalating our challenges against the violations that students and other other community members are experiencing,” she said.

Last week, CAIR and other legal partners filed a lawsuit against UCLA, where a mob attacked pro-Palestinian students and faculty.

Chehata said she’s spoken with dozens of students who’ve faced arrest and disciplinary action.

“Understand what's at stake, understand what your rights are," she said. "And, also, don’t be discouraged, because as much as we are seeing a very serious targeting of First Amendment rights and protections, we are seeing equal, very sincere and powerful challenges being mounted.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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J.W. Hendricks

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The LA Local

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.