The Brief

A federal court on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction forbidding the Border Patrol from conducting warrantless immigration stops throughout a wide swath of California.

The ruling came in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed after the El Centro Border Patrol traveled to Kern County to conduct a three-day sweep in January, detaining day laborers, farm workers and others in a Home Depot parking lot, outside a convenience store and along a highway between orchards.

The ruling prohibits Border Patrol agents from taking similar actions, restricting them from stopping people unless they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in violation of U.S. immigration law. It also bars agents from carrying out warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.

“You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Thurston said during a Monday hearing in Fresno that featured moments of heated exchange between government attorneys and the judge.

The ACLU filed suit on behalf of United Farm Workers, arguing that the stops violated the Fourth Amendment. The judge has not decided on the totality of the case, but on Tuesday granted the ACLU’s motion to stop the Border Patrol from conducting similar operations while the case moved through the courts.

“I think that it’s pretty clear that half of a century of really established law is being upheld. It's unfortunate that this is a cause for celebration. It’s not legal to snatch people off the street for looking like farm workers or day laborers,” said Elizabeth Strater, vice president of United Farm Workers.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta agreed. “That’s existing law, and the judge’s order reflects existing law.”

"You can't just indiscriminately stop people and search them without any appropriate reasonable suspicion or probable cause or without a warrant," Bonta said at a news conference in San Diego on Monday about conditions in ICE detention. "So, it sounds like the judge had seen enough and wanted to issue an order. "

The injunction is in effect in the jurisdiction of California’s Eastern District, which spans the Central Valley from Redding to Bakersfield.

After the January sweep, the man who led it, Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, said his agents specifically targeted people with criminal and immigration histories. However, a CalMatters investigation revealed that the Border Patrol had no criminal or immigration history on 77 of the 78 people it arrested.

The court also ordered the Border Patrol to document every stop and provide reports within 60 days. During oral arguments on Monday, the government attorney said doing so would be burdensome to Border Patrol agents. Judge Thurston rebuked the government, saying: “They have to make a report for every arrest, not sure what the burden is.”

According to sworn declarations filed in court by those detained, Border Patrol agents slashed tires, yanked people out of trucks, threw people to the ground, and called farmworkers “Mexican bitches.”

Border Patrol attorneys characterized those examples as actions of individual agents, and not reflective of a policy from the agency.

Thurston disagreed. “The evidence is that this was wide scale” and not limited to individual agents, she said.

Border Patrol agents receive new training

Border Patrol attorneys didn’t offer evidence of their own to dispute the evidence presented by the ACLU, including stopping people based on their race and warrantless arrests. They tried to persuade Thurston that the order would not be necessary because the agency is already taking steps to retrain its officers. In a previous court filing, government attorneys said Border Patrol had issued guidance to retrain the El Center sector’s 900 agents on the Fourth Amendment in order to prevent warrantless arrests.

At Monday’s hearing, Thurston questioned why guidance would even be necessary since agents are trained on the Fourth Amendment in the academy.

Government attorneys told the judge 270 agents have received the training. Thurston asked for details on how the training was being carried out. “Shift by shift?” she said. But government attorneys said they did not know.

The packed courtroom was contentious at times. U.S. Department of Justice attorney Olga Y. Kuchins argued that the Border Patrol’s sweep in Kern County, known as “Operation Return to Sender” wasn’t standard policy. “This two-day operation does not a policy make,” she said.

Thurston asked how many days were needed for an operation to be taken as policy, and on what authority the government was relying on to establish this operation could not be interpreted as part of Border Patrol policy.

“Do you know of that authority?” Thurston said.

“I don’t know of that authority,” Kuchins said.

The injunction also compels the El Centro Sector to provide proof within 90 days, and every 30 days thereafter, that agents involved in these operations have been trained on these rules.

“This ruling is a powerful recognition that what happened in Kern County and surrounding area in January was illegal,” said Bree Bernwanger, ACLU senior staff attorney.

She called it a “powerful reminder that law enforcement agents – including immigration – cannot stop you, detain you because of the color of your skin.”

Another immigration sweep

Even after government attorneys pledged to retrain agents on the Constitution, El Centro sector traveled more than 200 miles north to Pomona last week and rounded up day laborers outside a Home Depot, an action reminiscent of the Kern County raid.

Witnesses say federal agents arrived in unmarked vehicles around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and quickly surrounded the Home Depot parking lot on South Towne Avenue.

“When they saw that a critical mass was gathered, they executed the raid,” said Alexis Teodoro, a Worker Rights Director with the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents arrested 10 and placed them into removal proceedings. No other agencies were involved, said Michael Scappechio, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Advocates are adamant that more than 20 people were initially taken into custody, based on piecing together the accounts of different witnesses about what happened.

Federal officials defended their actions, saying agents were initially targeting a single individual with an active arrest warrant. During the operation, nine other people were also taken into custody. Some of those detained had prior charges, including child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, immigration violations, and DUI, said Hilton Beckham, the assistant commissioner for CBP’s office of public affairs.

Jesus Domingo Ross, 38, was standing on a street corner looking for work near the Home Depot in Pomona last week when, he said, agents appeared from all sides, grabbed him and threw him to the ground.

“I panicked,” he said, describing the moment he realized he was in custody of U.S. immigration authorities. “Just with everything you’re seeing on the news right now, I really panicked because we didn’t know what was going to happen.”

He spoke to CalMatters on Saturday night during visiting hours at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, where he is now being held.

“I’m trying to keep my confidence in God to carry me through this,” he said quietly.

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

The 99 Cents Only chain may be gone, but a new art exhibit at its former store at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is keeping its legacy alive in the most eccentric way possible.

From shopping carts suspended upside down to video art at the checkout counters to paintings and graffiti in every nook and cranny, this is not the same 99 Cents Only store where you used to buy your cleaning supplies.

The curators behind 99CENT, which is on display through the end of this weekend, have filled the space with artwork and L.A. artifacts for a free exhibition. So I had to check it out:

99CENT's art

Many of the involved artists used practically every square inch of parts of the store.

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The artists on display at 99CENT work across mediums.

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Art and graffiti were both on full display at 99CENT.

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Many of the works of art look like regular street signs ... until you look a little closer.

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Presumably, this fruit wasn't bought at the 99 Cents Only store, which closed last year.

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Many different art styles were on display at 99CENT.

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The exhibit makes creative use of space, including hanging things from the ceiling.

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Despite this sign, the inside of the store was covered in graffiti, though some staff members could be seen cleaning up graffiti on the outside.

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Many of the items on display were carefully crafted. The $9.99 sticker may not be accurate pricing.

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What you can see

As soon as you walk in, you’re treated to a complete reimagining of the 99 Cents Only store. This former site of the modern big-box discount chain has been infused with a healthy dose of the West Coast art styles that sprung up from places like the Mission District, Haight-Ashbury and Venice.

One of many sections of the repurposed store that showcases objects, graffiti and artworks.

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Artists whose work was on display used all kinds of mediums. In this case, mirrors and wheelchairs.

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All the original shelving is there, but nearly every nook and cranny has been filled with art.

Inside the old freezer

Even the store's freezers were fair game to show off art at 99CENT.

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The inside of the store's freezer, which was repurposed as a gallery space.

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But look close and you’ll see cheeky nods to the 99 Cents Only store of yore. Much of the old shelving and signage is still there, even if slightly rearranged. On some shelves, hygiene supplies sit side by side with artworks and found objects.

99CENT displays

Some parts of 99CENT even loosely resemble the former store.

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Though this is an artists' flea market, these works of art presumably would cost more than 99 cents to buy.

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Many books on display this week, like this one, probably never went for sale at the original 99 Cents Only stores.

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These curated vintage shirts presumably were also not for sale at the original 99 Cents Only store.

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Some old shopping carts have been converted into suspended sculptures. In between songs, the loudspeakers play what I’m pretty sure are authentic 99 Cents Only in-store announcements in English and Spanish.

One major auditory difference — and I can confirm this as a former 99 Cents store shopper — the music on the store’s PA system is much more lo-fi and homespun than the radio pop the old store used to have on.

Inside the "tent"

In the background, behind the hanging shopping cart, you can see the entrance to an improvised structure in aisle 11.

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Inside the improvised structure in Aisle 11.

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Since this is a self-described “artist flea market of sorts,” many of the artists have also scrawled their phone numbers and Venmo usernames near their works, and walking through different stations at the store really does feel like walking through different stations of a carefully curated swap meet or flea market.

Many works of art coexisted with produce and groceries, like this work held down by two Grey Poupon bottles.

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Even for works that aren’t on sale, most paintings and sculptures I saw identify the artist, though it’s admittedly a little more haphazard than most galleries I’ve been to.

About the curators

Representatives for the gallery The Hole, which curated this exhibit, said that the works in the store pull from its “West Coast network of artists and outsiders.”

These paintings share wall space with this sculpture made of repurposed blue jean fabric.

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One artist in particular takes the spotlight: The walls are covered by paintings by the San Francisco-based street artist Barry McGee and works from his personal collection — people who parked in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s garages in the early 2000s may remember his now-lost murals. All told, the curators say over 100 artists were represented.

With so many artists on display, very little space in the former store goes unused.

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How to visit

You can see “99CENT” for yourself at the former 99 Cents Only store at 6121 Wilshire Blvd., a stone’s throw away from LACMA.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday.

In her State of the City address this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted that her administration had fast-tracked the construction of more than 30,000 affordable housing units.

A Crosstown analysis of the data indicates the pace of actual building may be considerably slower. Bass’s Executive Directive 1 was supposed to slash red tape and accelerate approval times for housing projects that consist entirely of affordable, or below market rate, units. She said builders already had broken ground on 6,000 of them.

Of the 32,838 units plan-approved under ED1 through the end of last year and listed on the case summary dashboard, 4,993 have been issued building permits for new construction, a Crosstown analysis found.

Just 26% of affordable units entitled during ED1’s first year, 2023, have been granted building permits, all of which have been approved for two years or more.

“Mayor Bass was correct in her statement that 6,000 units are currently under construction,” the mayor’s press office said in a statement to Crosstown. The mayor’s office did not provide a clear explanation as to how that total was calculated.

The slower-than-advertised pace of affordable units is just one part of a broader stagnation afflicting the city’s home-building sector. Last year, a total of 7,892 apartment units were permitted, according to data from the Department of Building and Safety. That includes everything from affordable units to luxury apartments. It represents a 1% increase from the year prior but a 34% decrease from 2019.

Los Angeles faces an acute housing shortage, a problem that has exacerbated a longstanding homelessness crisis and has contributed to rising unaffordability that burdens many of the city’s residents. According to the Southern California Association of Governments, the city of Los Angeles must produce 456,643 housing units during the decade, a pace it now appears certain to miss by a wide margin.

Despite the chronic need for more housing, builders say they are up against an array of obstacles in Los Angeles. Production costs are more than double the average costs in Texas, according to a RAND study. The controversial Measure ULA, informally known as the ”mansion tax,” has also been blamed for construction slowdowns. The levy, which went into effect in April 2023, adds a 4% tax on residential and commercial properties sold for $5.3 million or more, and a 5.5% tax on properties sold for over $10.6 million, including apartment blocks. The revenues are intended to be put toward affordable housing. But the extra tax makes building an apartment project and then selling it particularly burdensome.

Ari Kahan, principal of California Landmark Group, said his development firm has significantly scaled back their Los Angeles projects.

“We still explore unique opportunities, but we cannot afford the risk of both ULA and the inevitable other shoe dropping on another related issue in the city of L.A.,” Kahan said.

The city’s housing crisis has been at the forefront of Bass’s first term agenda. ED 1, which went into effect in 2023, was intended to fast-track construction by reducing approval times for affordable housing projects and shelters to 60 days. The directive prompted a flurry of new proposals. But moving those proposals from the drawing board to actual construction has been slow.

Building struggles

ED1 and programs that encouraged affordable housing, such as bonus diversity programs and the Transit Oriented Communities Incentive Program — which incentivizes low-income housing near bus and train stations — have been big enticements for new development. However, Kahan said Measure ULA has made it difficult for developers to turn a profit on those projects, and he predicts that most of them will never be built.

The measure has generated over $1 billion through January 2026. Critics assail the nickname “mansion tax” because the levy equally applies to multifamily apartment buildings and commercial properties, not just expensive single-family homes. Fifty-nine percent of transactions are single-family residences, 25% are commercial properties and 13% are multi-family residences, according to the ULA Revenue Dashboard.

Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition of housing, labor and renters groups behind the measure, defended the tax and said it’s important to let the policy “breathe and take effect” to understand its full impact. He called the measure an economic engine for the city, adding that $400 million in ULA revenue went out to affordable housing developers last fall.

“We’re talking about hundreds of new homes being built, thousands of new construction jobs, investment in neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment like this in a long time,” Donlin said.

Donlin said Los Angeles’ housing struggles are likely due to stubbornly high interest rates, insurance costs and construction material costs around the time Measure ULA went into effect.

Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president of LA Family Housing, said she has been able to sidestep Measure ULA because she manages the properties she builds instead of selling them. For her, one of the biggest affordable housing hurdles is a lack of federal assistance to help low-income tenants pay rent.

“[Los Angeles’s] largest housing gap is for our extremely and very low-income households. In order to make housing affordable to that target income group, it would require a larger allocation of rental subsidies,” Klasky-Gamer said.

President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal aimed to cut over $26 billion from federal rental assistance programs, but the House Appropriations Committee rejected the cuts and increased funding for housing assistance programs. Tenant-based vouchers received $2.4 billion more than they did in the 2025 fiscal year, and the project-based rental assistance program received an extra $1.65 billion.

Westchester grows, downtown dwindles

In a rocky year for issued apartment permits, some Los Angeles neighborhoods showed marked increases, while others saw steep declines.

Westchester had 787 apartment units permitted last year, the most of any neighborhood. North Hollywood had the second most at 502, and Mid-City had the third most with 449.

Downtown saw a substantial dip in permits issued. Last year, 207 units were approved, nearly half as many as the year before and an 87% decrease from 2022.

The regression comes as downtown contends with a massive homelessness population. Downtown had the most non-emergency calls for homeless encampments, 8,417, of any neighborhood in 2025, according to MyLA311 service data.

How we did it: We examined all ED1-related projects on the city’s case summary dashboard and compared those with the Department of Building and Safety’s permits issued for new apartments. In addition, we compiled the number of apartment new units permitted for construction in the city over the past decade. In a previous article, Crosstown used a slightly different methodology to determine the number of permitted apartments in the city. The slight changes in methodology account for the difference in numbers in that article.

Have questions about our data? Write to us at askus@xtown.la

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 24, 2026.

East Los Angeles is home to nearly 119,000 residents, but the community has no mayor or city hall.

So who makes decisions? Who fixes potholes? Who gets called to report illegal dumping?

East L.A. is not a city, and it’s not part of the city of L.A. Instead, it’s an unincorporated part of L.A. County, and even though it’s the most populous unincorporated area in California, community organizers say many residents are unaware of the problems that raises.

According to the L.A. County Planning Department, there are approximately 120 to 125 unincorporated areas in the county, which altogether represent two-thirds of its total area and one-tenth of its population.

“For the 1 million people living in these areas, the Board of Supervisors is their ‘city council’ and the supervisor representing the area is their ‘mayor,’” the department website says.

So what does it mean to live in an unincorporated community?

Let’s break it down:

What is an unincorporated community?

An unincorporated area is land within a county that has not been designated to be a city, meaning that it relies on county services, including for law enforcement, public works and local government.

Instead of being governed by a city council and a mayor, major decisions for East L.A. residents fall under the authority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

East L.A. residents have called for representation that’s more closely tied to their community and financial transparency, saying they want to know how their tax dollars are spent locally.

Who represents East LA?

East L.A., located in Supervisorial District 1, has been represented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis since 2014. Her term is set to end this year.

Solis also makes decisions for the nearly 2 million other residents who live in District 1, which covers more than 20 cities, stretching from Silver Lake to Pomona, as well as various neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights and downtown.

On a state level, East L.A. is represented by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents East L.A. in Congress.

Who provides key services for East LA residents?

Independent cities often provide residents with their own municipal services such as law enforcement, firefighting, animal control, trash collection, road maintenance, library services and parks.

Here’s a list of services available to East L.A. residents:

• First District Field Office – East Los Angeles
  
  • Services: Here’s how you can get in touch with Solis’ office if you have questions or concerns.
  • Location: 4801 E. Third St., Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 881-4601
• East LA Sheriff’s Station 
  
  • Services: In addition to serving East L.A., the station also serves the cities of Commerce, Cudahy and Maywood, as well as unincorporated Belvedere Gardens, City Terrace, Eastmont, Saybrook Park and Union Pacific.
  • Location: 5019 E. Third St., East Los Angeles
  • Contact: (323) 264-4151. For emergencies, call 911. 
  • Website: lasd.org/east-los-angeles
• LA County Fire Department
  
  • Services: The L.A. County Fire Department serves all of the unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, as well as 60 incorporated cities, 59 of which are in Los Angeles County and one in Orange County. 
  • Contact: (323) 881-2411. For emergencies, call 911.
  • Website: fire.lacounty.gov
• Public Works
  
  • Services: L.A. County Public Works responds to calls about graffiti, potholes, illegal dumping, homeless encampments, transportation services and building and safety permits, among other things.
  • Contact: Reports can be submitted online. Urgent requests can be made by calling the 24-hour line at (800) 675-4357.
  • Website: pw.lacounty.gov
• 211 LA County
  
  • Services: 211 L.A. County provides health and social service resources, including housing support, mental health care, financial assistance and recovery resources. During disasters, like wildfires and other crises, the line provides real-time information and can help people find shelter, food, financial help and emotional support.
  • Contact: Dial 211. Those unable to reach 2-1-1 service can call (800) 339-6993. TTY/TDD# (phone for hearing impaired): (800) 660-4026
  • Website: 211la.org

For a full list, check out this guide to unincorporated areas services for District 1.

Why isn’t East LA its own city?

Over the decades, multiple efforts to incorporate East LA into a city have failed. A recent fiscal analysis concluded that cityhood remains financially unviable for the region. Residents have continued their calls for more financial transparency and better representation. A new effort on the horizon may allow citizens to directly advise the county on issues unique to East LA.

How can residents make their voices heard?

The report that deemed cityhood unfeasible for unincorporated East LA last year recommended the formation of a Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) — a formal, citizen-led body that would provide residents with a structure for public input and give stakeholders a direct line of communication to county leadership.

At the first of six community forums on Saturday, Feb. 21, some residents deemed the MAC a stepping stone towards proper incorporation down the line. Others asked for better economic investment and access to a localized, itemized budget every year for residents to understand how their tax dollars are spent on improving social services and local businesses.

“Every problem we have, can be solved if we have a local government,” resident Francisco Cardenas. “We have nobody to complain to.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the MAC and the upcoming community forums where residents are invited to weigh in. The next meeting will take place Thursday at East L.A. Library, located at 4837 E. Third St. Register here.