The Brief

When South Asians migrate to the U.S., they gravitate toward other immigrants from their community. In Artesia, shopfronts pay homage to Hindu gods. People congregate in Pakistani restaurants in Hawthorne, sipping steaming chai while cricket matches play on a TV. And in Little Bangladesh, a little pocket in Koreatown, the curly Bengali font stands out from storefronts.

But, within some of these spaces, unscrupulous scammers prey on those new immigrants, taking advantage of their limited English.

Under past administrations, that typically would mean a protracted case in immigration court to try to rectify their application process for permanent residency. But the Trump administration’s ramp up of immigration enforcement has raised the stakes for people like Masuma Khan, a 64-year-old Altadena resident who immigrated from Bangladesh in 1997. Years ago, she was scammed by a "very, very friendly" Bengali man who promised to secure her green card. Now, she’s being held in an ICE facility in California City after being detained by ICE agents earlier this month during a routine check-in appointment.

"My mom, she spoke very little English at the time, and she had zero knowledge of how the immigration system works," her daughter, Riya Khan, said. "My mom is a very naive person. She tends to trust people easily. She is extremely friendly."

Masuma Khan has lived in the U.S. since 1997.

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Courtesy Riya Khan

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Masuma Khan and her family later would find out this man created a false identity for her, Nur Jahan, and filed a case on her behalf seeking asylum. He also created a fake passport she never saw, Riya Khan said. He also took her to interviews with immigration agents and acted as her interpreter.

"All the notices, all the letters that came from [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] went to his address," Riya Khan said.

When the asylum application was denied, he advised Masuma Khan to lay low. She would only realize she had a deportation order on her case when she tried to gain U.S. citizenship through her husband, who immigrated here in 1999. Since then, she has worked with multiple attorneys to try to become naturalized. Since 2020, USCIS has required her to appear for annual check-ins at their offices.

This year, she was detained.

Rep. Judy Chu, who represents Altadena, has been trying to get information about Masuma Khan’s case. But her office told LAist that getting information from ICE has become "increasingly delayed" because of the government shutdown, worsening their ability to do oversight.

Sen. Adam Schiff’s office told LAist in a statement that he "believes strongly that Ms. Khan should receive a fair and prompt hearing and has been working with Rep. Chu and others to get answers from ICE and ensure that she is treated properly and receives timely access to her medication during her distressing detainment."

Masuma Khan with her daughter, Riya.

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Courtesy Riya Khan

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In a written statement citing the fake name the scammer filed, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "On Oct. 6, ICE arrested Nur Zahan, an illegal alien from Bangladesh, who had had a final order of removal from a judge since 1999. She exhausted all due process and appeals. On Nov. 26, 2018, an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal."

"Seventeen years later, she moved to reopen her case with the Board of Immigration Appeals and the court affirmed her order of removal. Additionally, she filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit, and that court denied her petition," according to the statement.

On Thursday, Masuma Khan’s attorney filed a temporary restraining order, according to her family’s immigration advocates.

Fraudsters prey on South Asian immigrants

Shakeel Syed, executive director of local nonprofit South Asian Network, said scammers prey on immigrants from South Asia because they don’t have adequate knowledge of the legal system and they’re afraid of working with a lawyer because of their limited English skills. That leads them to work with other South Asians "by virtue of language and culture," he said.

His organization currently is helping three families who have fallen prey to scammers, including Masuma Khan. In one of the cases, an immigrant paid around $50,000 to a scammer to gain permanent residency. Riya Khan said her mother also paid the scammer money, but she’s unsure how much because she was a young child at the time.

Syed, who has visited the California City detention center where Masuma Khan is being held, said ICE detention centers are "deliberately misorganized" and "inhumane." He added that they are “ deliberately” kept in these conditions “to dehumanize them, to strip their basic human dignity.”

Conditions at the facility

Masuma Khan did not get a change of clothes for three days, Syed said. At the detention center, she has had to make do with mostly canned vegetables for food.

"She's not getting much protein because she was getting ham and such and she asked for halal food, but the halal food that they're providing her is mostly just canned veggies," Riya Khan said.

To make matters worse, Masuma Khan wasn’t given her high blood pressure medication for days, her daughter said.

 "Without her medication, she was having a really hard time breathing. She was having a tough time speaking," Riya Khan said.

Her legs also became severely swollen and it hurt to walk, Riya Khan added, and yet she was denied access to a doctor.

Masuma Khan currently is detained at an ICE facility in California City.

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Courtesy Riya Khan

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Add to all of this the additional trauma of being displaced from her home due to the Eaton Fire. While the home she shared with her husband didn’t burn, it did suffer ash and smoke damage.

"My mom has spoken to me a lot about how traumatic that experience has been," Riya Khan said about her mother’s experience evacuating from the fire.

Now, the family is fighting to rebuild their lives on two fronts as their matriarch awaits her fate.

"Every time I see her, she's shaking, and she has been put in a prison where she doesn't belong," Riya Khan said. “She doesn't have any criminal history. She's never been a threat to anybody. She was not a flight risk when they took her.”

And as a kidney transplant patient, Riya Khan is worried she won’t see her mom again if she’s deported.

" I'm immunocompromised. I would never be able to see her again because I can't go back to Bangladesh," she said.

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.