The Brief

A seemingly noncontroversial proposal to help California police identify and address instances of violence motivated by international politics is hitting a nerve among South Asian communities who believe they could be targeted by the bill.

The new opposition to a law enforcement training bill by California’s only Sikh state lawmaker is reviving the battle lines from a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed last year that would have banned caste discrimination in the state.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains wrote the new bill after the June 2023 killing of a prominent Sikh activist in Canada that set off a political rift between Canada and India. Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s slaying and a subsequent foiled plot in New York galvanized an estimated 127,000-plus Sikhs to cast a symbolic vote in San Francisco in favor of creating a separate Sikh state from India named Khalistan.

That movement and its tense history with India triggered backlash in the Golden State. Two Hindu temples in the Bay Area were defaced with anti-India and pro-Khalistan graffiti on the cusp of the new year, and the FBI has reportedly begun to visit and call some Sikhs in the state to warn their lives could be under threat.

Bains’ legislation, Assembly Bill 3027, would create a training program for law enforcement to combat and prevent transnational repression, which the FBI defines as foreign governments reaching into the United States to intimidate or harm members of their diaspora. The measure sailed through the Assembly unanimously in May and is coming up for a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing as soon as today.

“U.S. ally or not, India and other foreign governments violating our national sovereignty must be held accountable,” Bains, a Democrat from Bakersfield, said in May on the Assembly floor.

Much like last year’s caste legislation, though, the devil is in the details. The bill lists India alongside Russia, China and Iran as governments that “increasingly rely on transnational repression as their consolidation of control at home pushes dissidents abroad.”

Two of those states, Iran and Russia, have long been adversaries to the U.S., while the U.S. and China are economic rivals who often compete for geopolitical influence. India, by contrast, does not have as strong of a history of direct conflict with the United States. It is regarded as the world’s largest democracy, and has a thriving diaspora in the U.S.

South Asia experts and activists often challenge that view, pointing to the country’s Hindu nationalist government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and division on the lines of caste, religion and class. Last year, those inequalities were on full display when California’s caste-diverse and often working class Sikh community largely backed last year’s anti-discrimination bill, while more-wealthy and caste-privileged Hindu Americans sought to derail it.

This year, some leading conservative Hindu activists oppose Bains’ law enforcement training bill. They want her to remove India from its language and believe the legislation risks teaching officers to overlook violence from the Sikh separatist movement.

They cite examples such as a report that separatists attempted to set fire to the Indian consulate in San Francisco the month after the Canada shooting, an accusation reported by India-aligned media but that the U.S. State Department has not publicly affirmed.

“If you are of Indian origin and if you are countering these radical groups — Islamists, Maoists or Khalistanis, this provision… can be used to silence you,” said Utsav Chakrabarti, executive director of the Hindu advocacy groups HinduPACT USA and HinduACTion during a livestream in July announcing opposition to the bill. “That’s a pretty dangerous situation to be in.”

Chakrabarti did not respond to requests for comment. The organizations have been linked to the Indian government. The Washington Post in a December investigation said both groups were a key spreader of an online campaign by Indian intelligence to discredit critics abroad. A member of HinduPACT told the Post at the time they were not aware of the campaign’s origins and denied any wrongdoing.

Transnational repression in California

Law enforcement agencies, including the California State Sheriff’s Association, support Bains’ bill. They’re looking for training and guidance on crimes that appear motivated by international events.

California, home to more immigrants than any other state, is particularly susceptible.

One prominent California case goes back to 2020, when a Russian asylum seeker was detained in an ICE facility after the Russian government used international alerts to U.S. authorities to accuse him of criminal activity.

He endorsed Bains’ bill.

“My story underscores the pressing need for legislative action to safeguard California residents from international oppression,” wrote Gregory Duralev, now an Orange County resident, in an April statement.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a Delano Democrat , wrote a bill that aims to help California police identify acts of transnational repression, which occur when a foreign government attempts to intimidate members of its diaspora in the U.S.

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In Kern County, on the southern end of the Central Valley home to over 30,000 Sikhs and several Sikh temples, a lack of training among officers has made it difficult to track the prevalence of transnational repression, Sheriff Donny Youngblood told CalMatters.

Currently, officers would probably log such concerns “as a threat” but “in fact, it could go much deeper than that,” he said, such as retribution toward a person’s family by a government back home. “This is a huge issue that really is relatively new to law enforcement.”

The Legislature is well aware of the plight of Sikhs in India. Last July, lawmakers swiftly approved Bains’ resolution that recognized anti-Sikh mobs in 1984 India as a genocide.

Many Sikhs in California who fled that violence “are very concerned about the safety and risk of their loved ones, their children, their folks who are engaged in local politics or who do vocalize their political opinions about India,” said Puneet Kaur, senior state policy manager for the Sikh Coalition, a national civil rights advocacy group. “A huge part of the reason that communities, including Sikhs, migrated here (was) for the purpose of freedom and escaping violence.”

The Indian government has denied allegations by the Canadian government regarding the killing of Nijjar. Indian authorities have previously accused him of terrorism. Bains’ legislation says the training should teach officers that accusations like that can be used by repressive governments to target dissidents abroad, and it’s not just for immigrants from India.

Around the world, 854 direct incidents of transnational repression occurred between 2014 and 2022, according to a 2023 report from Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that tracks such cases.

What will Newsom do?

It’s not yet clear whether Newsom is ready to send a strong rebuke to the governments called out in Bains’ bill. Newsom visited China in October to promote a climate partnership with California.

He also visited India in 2009 when he was mayor of San Francisco.

Recently, South Asian news outlets reported that the governor met with a prominent opponent to last year’s caste legislation.

In early July, Newsom met with Ramesh Kapur, an Indian American political donor who told the San Francisco Chronicle in October 2023 that he helped persuade Newsom to veto the caste bill. Kapur later walked back that statement to the Chronicle and other media, telling the Post that he let the governor know he couldn’t take his support for granted.

Kapur donated $27,000 for the governor’s Campaign for Democracy initiative from April to May, campaign finance records show. He also held a Bay Area fundraiser for Newsom in June, according to the publication Indica News.

Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

His office previously told CalMatters that the governor met with individuals on all sides of the issue, denying that any one meeting influenced his decision. The governor wrote in his veto message last October that the caste bill was legally “unnecessary.”

At Kapur’s Massachusetts home on July 7, Kapur reportedly thanked the governor for last year’s veto and the two affirmed the role of Indian Americans in the state, according to New India Abroad.

Kapur’s pro-India advocacy organization did not respond to requests for comment.

Last year, the caste bill’s author, Sen. Aisha Wahab, a Democrat from Hayward, faced death threats and xenophobic attacks upon introducing the legislation. Bains, one of California’s two South Asian lawmakers and a co-sponsor of that legislation, did not speak out publicly about her support.

This time, she has yet to receive any public opposition from lawmakers.

“In California, where we embrace our diaspora and exile communities, Republicans and Democrats have unanimously supported my legislation,” she wrote in a statement to CalMatters. “My bill simply makes it the policy of the state to protect Americans from foreign governments and gives law enforcement the training and tools to recognize the signs of transnational repression.”

Different views on transnational repression bill

Not all Hindus in California oppose Bains’ bill, and some say they have seen the effects of India’s politics on their ability to express themselves. The liberal group Hindus for Human Rights is blocked on X, formerly known as Twitter, in India.

Raju Rajagopal, a Berkeley-based Hindu activist and a key founder of that group, has long battled with Hindu groups on the right. Bains’ legislation hasn’t sparked the crowds that held rallies over last year’s caste bill, but he said he is hopeful that will happen if opposition from the right grows.

As wounds from last year linger, though, some who oppose Bains’ effort are less confident about their ability to stop the bill.

Jeevan Zutshi, a real estate broker and activist known in many Hindu American circles, said he believes those who accuse other Indians Americans of domestic terrorism could be labeled as foreign agents if the bill is passed. But he noted that last year’s caste bill sailed through the Legislature even though Hindu groups fiercely pushed back.

He’s well aware of the concern about the graffiti on Bay Area Hindu temples. At the same time, he cautioned, authorities there have yet to make an arrest or publicly identify a suspect. Local and national Sikh groups condemned the vandalism at the time.

“We have to be very careful in our life before you start some kind of accusation without evidence, or you make comments which are not healthy for relationships and bringing people together,” he said from his Fremont home. “Sometimes hate begets hate."

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Rabbi Amy Bernstein says the wind-whipped fire in January 2025 that scorched much of the Pacific Palisades, destroying her home and damaging her synagogue, “blew everything open” for the community’s faith leaders.

“If our hearts must break, let them break open,” said the rabbi, who leads Kehillat Israel where 300 families out of 900 lost their homes. “This tragedy has really pushed us closer to one another. We’re working to change the things we need changed.”

Faith leaders both in the Pacific Palisades and in Altadena and Pasadena — devastated by the pair of fires that tore across Southern California — have relied on interfaith and community partnerships to rally congregants who are picking up the pieces 16 months later.

They’ve had to learn on the fly about insurance coverage and local land use regulations while still trying to keep their scattered flock together and raising money for basic needs. Pastors in Altadena have had to fight to protect the rights of Black people who decades ago found pathways to home ownership in that community despite redlining — but now risk losing their land to outside developers who sense an investment opportunity.

And throughout this span, faith leaders have had to cater to the emotional and spiritual needs of their communities and think about how they want to rebuild their sanctuaries that were lost or damaged in the fire. More than a dozen houses of worship burned to the ground or were damaged.

Interfaith relationships have become stronger after the fires

This would have been difficult for faith leaders to handle but for the interfaith relationships that became closer and stronger after the fires, said the Rev. Grace Park, associate pastor at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, which burned down.

Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews and yogis have not just found common ground in human suffering and loss, but have learned how to lean on one another in a time of dire need, she said.

“It’s a sense of mutual affection and respect, learning from each other and leaning on one another,” Park said. “We’re sharing the joys and the deep valleys of what it means to lead through a time of tragedy.”

Brother Satyananda, a senior monk at the Self Realization Fellowship, lost his living quarters and belongings in the fire. Much of the campus, started by Paramahamsa Yogananda who brought ancient spiritual practices from India to the West, fortunately survived the fire.

Satyananda recalls one day when Bernstein picked up on his sadness and offered him “motherly compassion.”

“We share the same profession where we’re tuned to people in need,” he said. “Now, our relationship has changed because we’re tuning into each other. There’s a greater level of trust.”

Pastor BJ King, who leads LoveLand LifeCenter, worked with the late Rev. Cecil B. Murray to heal communities and build interfaith coalitions after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“Back then, there was a choice whether or not to get involved,” he said. “But with these fires, there is no choice. It has affected everybody.”

Pastors have had to acquire new skills

King’s congregation has switched to online services after their leased church building in Altadena suffered smoke damage. Twelve families lost their homes. In addition to helping meet people’s basic needs, King has created a program organizing gatherings to connect therapists with those in need of mental health.

“Many people didn’t even know they needed that,” he said.

One of the most powerful roles faith leaders have played after the fire is to “continue to talk with power, people in charge,” said Pastor Jonathan DeCuir, who leads Victory Bible Church in Pasadena. He and others in the region have continued to meet with local officials and even conferred with Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep things moving for their communities.

DeCuir chairs the board of a nonprofit called Legacy Land Project, which provides financial aid, legal support and guidance on building contractors, as well as medical care to those affected by the fires.

The disaster has brought a level of camaraderie that DeCuir says he has never seen among the region’s clergy.

“Denominational lines have been crossed,” he said. “Even if we have different theological stances or approaches to ministry, we are all now looking at how to care for our people and community. If we don’t come together, Altadena will never ever be the same. The people won’t be there anymore. That, to me, is terrifying.”

While a church is more than a building, physical churches do appear as “beacons of hope” in traumatized communities, said Pastor Mayra Macedo-Nolan, executive director of Clergy Community Coalition in Pasadena. Her group has lobbied for houses of worship to be prioritized on the same footing as businesses in the rebuilding plan.

“When people start seeing churches rebuilding in Altadena, they’re going to feel like it’s going to be OK because the churches are coming back,” she said.

Reimagining a purposeful future

Pastor Jonathan Lewis, fourth from right, holds a groundbreaking service at the site of the burned Fountain of Life Nazarene Church to mark the beginning of its rebuilding in Altadena, Calif., April 26, 2026.

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Members of the congregation join in prayer during the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the burned Fountain of Life Nazarene Church, marking the beginning of its rebuilding, April 26, 2026, in Altadena, Calif.

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Pastor Jonathan Lewis poses for a photo with his congregation during a groundbreaking service at the site of the burned Fountain of Life Nazarene Church, marking the beginning of its rebuilding, April 26, 2026, in Altadena, Calif.

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On April 26, the Altadena Fountain of Life Church broke ground to build a new sanctuary after their house of worship, which had stood for over three decades, was destroyed in the fire. Pastor Jonathan Lewis, who ministers to about 75, hopes the church will be ready in time for Easter next year.

“It’ll be a Resurrection Sunday for our church, too,” he said.

Alexis Duncan, who grew up in Altadena attending that church, came to the groundbreaking with her 6-year-old daughter. She lost both her home and her church building.

“It means everything to me that they’re rebuilding because I want the church to be there for my daughter as she grows up,” she said. “This new beginning gives me and my family hope and the encouragement to come back.”

Some churches like Altadena Community Church, a United Church of Christ congregation, are pausing to rethink their future purpose. The Rev. Michael Lewis, who took over in February after the previous pastor retired, said the congregation is looking into several possibilities for the one-acre lot, including affordable housing.

“We know that a church is not intended to be a landlord and the pastor is no property manager,” he said. “But, we’re also thinking about who is able to return to Altadena? How will this rich, economically diverse community that was scattered by the fire come back?”

The church has been around since the 1940s. A haven for actors, poets and musicians, the former sanctuary also served as a vibrant performance space. Lewis said they hope to incorporate a performance stage into the new facility.

“It’ll look different from what we had before,” he said. “Once we figure out how to build community, we can decide what physical structures will help us support that community.”

As for Kehillat Israel, on May 15, members will carry their Torah scrolls back to their sanctuary, marking one of the first returns by a house of worship to the Palisades since the disaster.

Judaism has had “a long history of starting over,” Bernstein said.

“It’s encoded in our cultural approach to the world, that there are things that can always be taken away from you,” she said. “But what you become can never get taken away.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he has requested a yearlong extension of FEMA funding for L.A. fire survivors. Without the extension, the money will run out July 9.

Now the decision on FEMA support lies with the federal government.

The funds have allowed many survivors to afford temporary housing and other daily needs. Most have yet to return home — 2 in 3 survivors who were living in Altadena or Pacific Palisades at the time of the fires are still displaced, according to the latest survey of more than 2,100 survivors by the nonprofit Department of Angels. Nearly 40% of respondents reported they will either soon run out of temporary housing insurance coverage or have already.

The situation is particularly dire for low-income households: Nearly 80% of respondents making $50,000 or less said they didn’t think they could afford housing for three months once coverage ended.

“The data is clear: This recovery is not over,” said Angela Giacchetti of the Department of Angels at a news conference organized by the Eaton Fire Collaborative in Altadena on Thursday. “If you are a survivor, you know this in your bones. For many families, it has barely begun. People have just begun to stabilize. We need federal support that reflects the scale of this disaster and systems that survivors can actually navigate and access over time.”

FEMA assistance isn’t reaching most survivors

The FEMA Individuals and Households Program can provide funding for survivors of disasters to pay for temporary housing, repair their homes, and respond to other challenges that insurance may not cover. It can also help cover costs if a survivor has no insurance.

Gil Barel has been relying on FEMA funds to pay rent on a small back house for herself and her son for the last year. She said they still haven’t been able to return to their rent-controlled Pasadena apartment because of smoke damage, though she still has to pay the rent for it.

Gil Barel is paying rent on a smoke-damaged apartment in Pasadena while FEMA funds have helped her cut the cost of temporary housing.

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Barel doesn’t know what they’ll do if the FEMA funding runs out.

“ I'm really stressed out,” she said. “I think I'm just kind of trying to put that thought aside and hope for the best.”

But in the 15 months since the fires, most survivors have not accessed FEMA funding. About 60% have received no FEMA assistance beyond the initial $770 payments dispersed in the immediate aftermath of the fires, according to the Department of Angels survey.

Many have faced denials, according to disaster case manager workers with Catholic Charities of L.A. and lawyers with Legal Aid Foundation of L.A.

That’s the situation for Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband, Rasheed, who lost their Altadena home of 15 years in the Eaton Fire. They’ve relied on their insurance to pay for a rental in Montrose, but that’s rapidly running out. And because they have that insurance, FEMA has denied further support.

Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband, Rasheed, lost their home in the Eaton Fire. They plan to rebuild, but the cost is a major hurdle.

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“A lot of our ALE [Additional Living Expenses insurance] is going to run out before we even are able to get into a house,” Nicholls-Ali said.

Without FEMA or insurance support, they’ll have to find a way to pay rent on top of a mortgage. They also face a big gap in the cost of their rebuild versus how much their insurance covers. Nicholls-Ali said without the help of FEMA and other sources of funding, recovering feels further out of reach.

Funds for long-term recovery still in limbo

FEMA funding extensions have been routine in past disasters, including the 2023 wildfires in Hawaii and after devastating flooding in North Carolina in 2024.

But the agency has faced significant cuts during the second Trump administration, and there are indications that disaster aid is becoming increasingly political. For example, President Donald Trump has approved aid for just 23% of requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, compared to 89% for states that with Republican governors and senators, according to an analysis by Politico.

The state has also not received more than $33 billion for long-term recovery, which can help pay for infrastructure upgrades and repairs, as well as help rebuild schools, parks and homes. That money was requested by state and local leaders shortly after the January 2025 fires and hasn’t been appropriated by Congress.

An international team of disease detectives is now racing to connect with the more than two dozen passengers who disembarked the MV Honius cruise ship on the Atlantic island of St. Helena before the hantavirus outbreak was identified.

These individuals have flown across the world, including to the United States.

The risk of further spread of this virus is low since it requires close and prolonged contact with an infected individual — and those infected seem to transmit the virus for only a brief period of time. But public health officials want to make sure the outbreak is contained.

Here's how authorities are using the practice of contact tracing to contain the outbreak and keep the hantavirus from spreading.

Contact tracing 101

The concept of modern contact tracing dates to the 1930s and was part of an effort to stop the spread of syphilis. It involves locating the close contacts of anyone who may have been infected. "By identifying people who are at risk of infection," says Preeti Malani, an infectious disease physician at the University of Michigan, "you try to get ahead when people don't have symptoms yet with the goal of preventing the infection from continuing to propagate."

This is a well-tested approach for containing an infectious disease. "It's the oldest tool in the epidemiologic toolbox," explains Malani. "We thought about this a lot early in the pandemic with COVID. But we also do contact tracing for sexually transmitted infections, for things like meningitis and even measles."

Malani likens contact tracing to monitoring ripples in a pond, "trying to prevent those outer rings from propagating by isolating individuals and by identifying individuals who might be at risk of infection."

The idea that "there's a time period where people don't have symptoms but could be harboring the virus, that's what contact tracing helps identify," says Malani.

It starts by pinpointing someone with an infection or suspected infection of the disease in question — in this case, hantavirus. Epidemiologists then look to see with whom they've recently had close contact since these individuals are more likely to have been infected.

This hunt for those with the greatest probability of infection is important. "Otherwise, it becomes an impossible web to contain because everyone is connected to everyone," says Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases doctor at Emory University. "So you have to stratify by high, intermediate and low-risk contacts."

The next step involves public health agencies ordering precautions for those who are infected or who may be infected but aren't showing symptoms yet. Such measures may include quarantine, so that an individual doesn't come into contact with even more people — who may then become infected.

One challenge that hantavirus presents is that its incubation period can last up to several weeks. In other words, "people take a long time to become symptomatic after they've been exposed," says Titanji. "Some of these primary contacts would have to be monitoring themselves for symptoms for up to 45 days to be at the tail end of that very long incubation period."

Aboard and ashore

The work isn't high-tech but it is painstaking, requiring officials to reconstruct the many interactions someone may have had over days or weeks.

Onboard the cruise ship, "you might have an individual who is a source of an infection," says Titanji, laying out a hypothetical example. "And then they were sitting at a dinner table with one individual who then goes back to their cabin and shares a bed with their partner who has a conversation with someone else on the deck."

Once someone disembarks the ship, the number of potential interactions can grow quite quickly. This is why officials were concerned when a KLM flight attendant fell ill after being aboard a flight with one of the infected cruise ship passengers. Fortunately, the flight attendant ultimately tested negative for hantavirus.

Titanji is heartened by what she's seen playing out so far. "It seems like the international collaborative effort has been really robust and the mechanisms for containment are in place and underway," she says.

Public health officials argue that contact tracing is a powerful approach that will reduce further spread. "We can break this chain of transmission," said Abdi Mahmoud, the director of the World Health Organization's health emergency alert and response efforts, at a press conference on Thursday.

He has good reason to be confident. Contact tracing was vital during the fight against COVID-19 and helped end the Ebola crisis in Liberia, containing the epidemic there more than a decade ago. Some of the contact tracing even involved hours-long hikes through the jungle to a remote village.

Authorities are hoping for similar success with this hantavirus outbreak.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The sky above Los Angeles State Historic Park in Chinatown will be dotted with color Saturday with the annual Kite Festival.

The festival had its beginnings as a joyful protest in 2021, back when a proposal for a Dodger Stadium gondola included cutting through the airspace above the park. Organizers say last year’s Kite Festival drew a crowd of about 7,000.

“The Kite Festival, [for] some people, it’s their favorite day in Los Angeles,” said Sue Bell Yank, executive director of Clockshop, the nonprofit arts org that runs the festival. “It’s the time when they really feel connected to their city. More so than any other time.”

This year’s programming includes a kite-making station where you can build your own flying art for a donation of $5, along with art workshops and the unveiling of a large floating, inflatable sculpture by Guatemalan kite artist Francisco Ramos.