The Brief

Two Inland Empire Congress members were locked out at the gate of Adelanto ICE Processing Center last week as they attempted to check on constituents held there.

The episode illustrates the obstacles some Democratic lawmakers have experienced trying to observe conditions in ICE detention centers, and what they say are restrictive rules that interfere with Congressional oversight.

Rep. Raul Ruiz, a Palm Desert Democrat, planned to learn if detainees had legal representation and had seen an immigration judge, and whether they had access to healthcare, hygiene and nutrition.

“I had a questionnaire that was prepared with staff and the ACLU and other organizations that asked if they, for example, were allowed a lawyer, phone calls, if they were able to communicate with their loved ones, if they were read their rights,” Ruiz said.

On Monday, July 7, he submitted a request to ICE to tour the facility last Friday with Rep. Norma Torres, an Ontario Democrat. An Instagram post by the two lawmakers showed an earlier message from Torres’ office on July 3, also asking to schedule a visit.

Both requests complied with ICE requirements for 72 hours notice, Ruiz said. But those were courtesy gestures, he said, since federal law doesn’t require advance notice for Congressional oversight visits. When Ruiz and Torres arrived, ICE turned them away.

“They turn around and tell me it’s now seven days notice,” he said. “They keep moving the goal post. We showed up in the hopes that Congressmember Norma Torres and I could enter the facility and speak with an ICE agent and do our jobs. As soon as they saw us they shut the gate and locked it with a chain and a deadbolt.”

The two lawmakers posted a video outside the locked gate, demanding to enter and calling for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The same day, Ruiz said, Rep. Jay Obernolte, a Hesperia Republican, also scheduled a visit and was allowed inside.

A statement from ICE said Obernolte had provided seven days notice for touring the detention facility, but Ruiz and Torres had not.

“Congressman Raul Ruiz and Congresswoman Norma Torres showed up to Rep. Obernolte’s approved visit; ignoring the established DHS directive regarding visiting ICE facilities,” the agency stated. “They were advised that ICE would be more than happy to accommodate their visit—provided it was scheduled in accordance with DHS policy.”

In a message on X after the visit Friday, Obernolte said he was satisfied with the conditions he observed. He toured the dormitories, cafeteria and recreation facilities, observed the meals and confirmed that detainees had access to legal counsel.

“It’s clear to me that this facility is doing its job: ensuring that detainees are treated humanely – with access to medical care, legal representation, and timely hearings – while helping ICE carry out its mission to enforce our immigration laws,” Obernolte wrote.

An earlier group of Southern California lawmakers who visited the facility in June reported problems with the facility. They found detainees were held “without enough food, clean clothing, the ability to call their families or access to a lawyer,” according to Rep. Judy Chu, a Pasadena Democrat.

Ruiz said the 72 hour notice requirement - and even more so the seven day notice period - makes it hard to tell if the facility is consistently maintaining humane conditions, or has spruced them up in advance of a Congressional visit.

He’ll try to schedule a visit again with at least seven days notice. If he still can’t get access, he’ll consider legal action to challenge the restrictions. The effort to access immigration detention facilities is about due process and also the workings of democracy, Ruiz said.

“When you have an executive branch who’s purposely denying a member of the legislative branch to provide oversight of the executive branch, then you're starting to go down a very dangerous slippery slope that is contrary to the Constitution and ideas of the founding fathers and three co-equal branches of government,” Ruiz said. “They precisely did not want a single figure to act like a king.”

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

Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration’s new policy of hiding the locations of tens of thousands of detainees with final deportation orders.

The policy, adopted suddenly last month to expedite deportations, interferes with immigration lawyers’ rights by making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to locate their clients, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston. It asks a judge to issue an order blocking the “unlawful and inhumane” change.

“No one should be denied a meaningful opportunity to defend their rights because the government has made it impossible for their lawyer to find them,” said Jacquelynne Bowman, executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, one of the four groups listed as plaintiffs. “This arbitrary new administrative change leaves hundreds of thousands of people at risk of potentially life-altering consequences without essential legal help.”

The lawsuit challenges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s decision, first reported by The Associated Press, to remove the locations of people facing final removal orders from its Online Detainee Locator System and to instruct staff not to reveal their whereabouts. As of last month, the move affected more than 16,000 of the nearly 69,000 detainees who were in ICE custody.

ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The agencies have not publicly confirmed the change, but have said they are prioritizing people with final removal orders for deportation. They have also said they are facing a “historic number of injunctions” from courts blocking their efforts. The agencies have denied that they are disappearing detainees, saying they remain free to make phone calls.

Since 2010, lawyers and family members have used the online system to track detainees as they get moved from facility to facility through ICE’s sprawling detention network.

Approximately 1.4 million people living in the U.S. are subject to final orders of removal, which means an immigration judge has ruled they should be deported and the decision has been upheld on appeal or not appealed.

Those individuals still have several options to challenge the conditions of their detention and looming deportations, including asking to reopen proceedings, seeking relief from removal to third countries and challenging violations of their rights. Federal judges have ruled thousands of times that detainees should be released or granted bond hearings.

Since the change went into effect, lawyers have been unable to find clients and potential clients and have spent “significantly more time” tracking down others, the lawsuit says. Calls to ICE, including to its Detention and Removal Information Line, “lead to long wait times on hold, sudden hang-ups, a general lack of information or no answer at all,” it says.

As a workaround, some lawyers have tried to find their clients through an ICE program that schedules legal calls, but only a small percentage of detention centers use it, the lawsuit says. The result has been delayed or missed legal filings and fewer cases taken, according to the organizations.

The lawsuit argues the change violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it was adopted without explanation and the First Amendment, which protects lawyers’ ability to advise people of their legal rights and seek prospective client

Local leaders mourned the death of civil rights icon Dolores Huerta on Wednesday and honored her legacy as a dedicated advocate for workers’ and women’s rights. 

Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!,” died Wednesday at home, her family said in a statement. She was 96. 

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said they considered Huerta a friend and credited her as a source of inspiration in their work. 

“Dolores inspired so many of us to activism. I admired her from a very young age, and it was an incredible honor and privilege not only to meet and know her, but to call her a friend,” Bass said in a statement. “She inspired me through tough times and taught me to never give up. She supported me in every campaign and challenge I faced.”

“Dolores carried the fight into every arena where people were denied a voice. She championed women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and gender equality, and she organized communities, here in Los Angeles and across the nation, so that all people had a stronger voice in the decisions that shape their lives. Her legacy is one of dignity and equality for all, and proof of what ordinary people can accomplish when they organize,” her statement continued. 

“Dolores reminded us that no matter the odds, no matter the obstacle, we can build a greater life for ourselves, our community, our city, and our country. She never, never stopped working. She was fighting for civil rights every day, into her nineties,” Bass added. “Rest in power, Dolores. Thank you for everything.”

Solis described Huerta as “a source of strength, a trusted friend and a partner in some of the most important fights of my career.”

“Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, I rarely saw Latinas in positions of leadership. Dolores was one of the few women who showed me what was possible. I remember seeing the iconic photograph of her holding the ‘Huelga’ sign and drawing strength from her example. She helped me understand that women like us had a place in public life and a responsibility to speak up for those too often ignored. That lesson stayed with me throughout my career,” Solis added.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, looks at an iconic photograph of herself as she tours her exhibition, “Viva la Causa! Dolores Huerta and the Struggle for Justice,” at La Plaza de la Cultura y Artes museum downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

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Damian Dovarganes

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Associated Press

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Solis described how she and Huerta stood side by side at rallies and demonstrations in Sacramento and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, advocating for workers’ rights and women’s rights.

“Dolores understood the importance of showing up, bearing witness and refusing to let the suffering of women go ignored. I will always remember standing beside her in that fight,” her statement continued. 

In 2024, Solis authored a motion to proclaim Dolores Huerta Day in L.A. County every year on Huerta’s birthday, recognizing her lifelong commitment to workers’ rights, justice and equality.

Solis also acknowledged Huerta’s revelation earlier this year that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by César Chávez, co-founder of the farmworkers movement.

“Her decision to speak publicly about what she endured deserves to be met with compassion and respect. I stand with Dolores and all survivors who deserve to be heard and treated with dignity. … Dolores helped build that movement, and her contributions must be recognized without being overshadowed by the actions of others,” her statement continued.

“She spent her life reminding us that progress takes persistence and that lasting change comes when people stand together. I have lost a dear friend whose example will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Solis added.

Civil rights legend Dolores Huerta, 95, speaks at a rally in Los Angeles, Monday, June 9, 2025, calling for the release of labor union leader David Huerta, who was arrested during a protest on June 6

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Damian Dovarganes

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Associated Press

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District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado also shared personal memories of the late labor leader. 

“When I took office, it was Dolores who swore me in. I didn’t take that moment lightly, and I never will. I raised my hand knowing I wasn’t just making a promise to CD14. I was accepting a responsibility she passed on: to fight for workers, for immigrant families, for women, for the people too often left out of the room,” Jurado said in a statement. “Her legacy lives on in me, in our office, and in every organizer she trained. Descansa en poder, Dolores. We’ll keep going.” 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in her honor, sharing in a statement, “Dolores represented the best of us. California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”

Solis also ordered all L.A. County flags to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Huerta until her services, she said in a statement Wednesday. 

The post ‘A source of strength’: LA leaders mourn Dolores Huerta’s death appeared first on LA Local.

Almost two years since the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County, many fire survivors are still displaced, running out of money and waiting for long-term federal disaster aid that may not come.

If survivors have received insurance payouts, they may have depleted that money for temporary housing. Some survivors received Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for housing, too. For renters, that aid ran out on Oct. 9. Any future federal aid is up in the air — and could depend on what happens in the midterm elections.

“I’ve never been at a point in my life where I don’t know what to do, where to go, who to turn to,” said Kate Adams, who received money from FEMA toward rent for an apartment in Duarte after the Eaton Fire damaged the Altadena apartment she and her daughters had lived in for 10 years.

Adams, a real estate agent, also got some money from a local nonprofit and a California Association of Realtors grant. But even with those contributions, the cost of rent and replacing damaged belongings has exhausted Adams’ savings. She and her daughters are running out of options because there’s no more aid coming in.

“I’ve got two teenage daughters who are just starting their lives,” Adams said. “I don’t know how to keep a roof over our heads.”

A construction worker works on a house in a residential area in Altadena, on Aug. 3, 2026. The area was burned during the Eaton Fire in 2025.

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Jules Hotz

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Adams is just one of many survivors, especially renters, facing the prospect of having no place to go.

A recent survey by the Department of Angels, a nonprofit group that’s tracking recovery efforts, found that 28% of all survivors have run out of displacement coverage. The survey also found that survivors want elected officials to prioritize insurance availability and affordability; financial and tax relief; and speeding up permitting and rebuilding.

Katie Clark, co-founder of the Altadena Tenants Union, said the “situation on the ground is dire,” especially for renters. “People are wondering if they have to live out of their cars, and pull their kids out of school. We need money and housing. This is not rocket science.”

Pushing for federal funding

While officials at every level of government push for federal funding, fire survivors have traveled to Washington, D.C., to do the same. But the Trump administration has been slow to release funding to California, and it’s unclear when the billions of dollars in long-term disaster recovery money the state has requested will come — if at all. FEMA has told states they will need to handle most disasters themselves, according to a recent leaked recording from the National Emergency Management Association’s annual conference.

That alarms people like Sierra Lindsey Kos, co-founder of national nonprofit organization Extreme Weather Survivors, who said a federal funding gap strains local and state budgets.

“California communities are already confronting devastating wildfires, flooding, extreme heat, and a growing insurance affordability crisis,” Kos said. “Reducing federal disaster assistance would place even more pressure on families and communities navigating these challenges.”

President Donald Trump did not include Los Angeles County wildfire relief funding in his administration’s budget request for Congress this summer. Two members of Congress from California say the outcome of the November elections could be key to unlocking more federal aid.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from Los Angeles whose district includes Pasadena, recently helped pressure FEMA into releasing $6.6 million to pay the state back for services provided by case managers who helped people deal with insurance, FEMA aid permits for rebuilding and more.

The state requested additional funding to continue the program and was denied, but appealed. Chu said almost 1,400 open cases are waiting to be resolved. She called the program essential for survivors’ mental health.

The Department of Angels survey also asked survivors to rank their five most urgent issues right now. Mental health and long-term financial concerns came in first and second, respectively.

Chu and others are advocating for long-term federal funding, too. California has requested $16 billion through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program — $8 billion each for the Eaton and Palisades fires.

“Basic FEMA funding cannot possibly do the job,” Chu said. “(Community development grant) funds will allow for individual recovery plus other essential causes that will help Altadena to rebuild.”

Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat who represents the Inland Empire, lost her Pomona home to a fire more than 20 years ago.

“I know what these families are going through,” Torres said. “Right now we should be trying anything and everything to bring some relief to victims.”

Gil Barel moves the blinds up to let in more light into her living room in Pasadena on Aug. 2, 2026. Barel is currently not living in her apartment because of the Eaton Fire of January 2025.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Torres and Chu both said that if Democrats win the House of Representatives in November, federal aid to California and other states hit by disaster could start to flow.

Torres said her office is trying to find Republican lawmakers willing to advocate for disaster aid alongside Democrats. But she said because the president has not called for the aid, they are reluctant to lend their names to any effort to do so.

“I’m hoping after the midterms that my Republican colleagues have a different perspective and try to approach things in a more humane way,” Torres said.

Chu agreed: “My hope is that the mood of Republicans will be quite different when they lose the House and possibly the Senate. And they may see this as their only ability to shape what can come to their members.”

Some Eaton Fire survivors recently went to the nation’s capital to advocate for federal aid. They were joined by survivors of the 2025 floods in Texas and of the storms and subsequent prolonged power outages in Gary, Ind., when they met with staffers of U.S. lawmakers to ask about long-term federal disaster funds.

“We’re pursuing opportunities to get members of both parties in the room and have them hear directly from survivors,” said Sylvie Andrews, whose Altadena home burned down. “I really hope they were listening to us. They seemed sympathetic.”

Bill Gould, another Eaton Fire survivor who also lost his Altadena home — along with his prosthetics because he’s a left-arm amputee — said some staffers told them it was unusual to have direct contact with fire survivors. Both he and Andrews were underinsured and have yet to rebuild; federal aid could help them.

“It will be interesting to see how midterms maybe shake some of this up,” Gould said. “At the same time, time is not our friend. For us, with our (additional living expenses coverage) and our insurance, you don’t have forever for these things to resolve.”

Local and state efforts

Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met with Trump to ask for help for their constituents as well as for the county for its infrastructure needs. Altadena has more than $2 billion worth of infrastructure to repair and rebuild, said Anish Saraiya, Barger’s director of recovery for Altadena. He also said the county is working on establishing a financial assistance program.

“While we wait for federal resources, the supervisor says we’ll find every dollar out there,” Saraiya said.

Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said California has committed more than $100 million toward affordable multifamily housing in the area. He also said the state will keep pressing the federal government for more funding that can support renters, including through the community development program.

The long-term aid program is usually administered by the Housing and Urban Development Department.

“Over the last 10 years, California has received billions in federal disaster aid for wildfires, but state and local leaders have not been good stewards of those funds to help their communities recover,” HUD said in an unsigned email response to CalMatters. “HUD remains committed to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, ensuring every cent goes to serving those in need."

The federal agency did not respond to follow-up questions.

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

Election officials from across California questioned the accuracy of the federal government's methodology for finding noncitizen voters after the Trump administration threatened them with criminal charges last week.

The counties on Friday were given 48 hours to commit to working with federal authorities and to segregate ballots from a list of people federal authorities claimed were likely noncitizens.

The letters said the list of names were from the same group of 20,000 people that the Trump administration flagged as noncitizens and then sued California over, demanding that state officials not count those ballots until they verify the voters’ citizenship.

State officials have questioned the accuracy of the data and have refused to comply, saying the federal government risks disenfranchising thousands of voters in an attempt to illegally meddle in state elections. On Tuesday, a federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal arguments.

Meanwhile, the letters counties received last week threatened potential criminal charges for election officials who “knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens.”

Butte County Clerk-Recorder Keaton Denlay said he received one such letter and a demand to not count ballots from a list of 47 people.

“Upon inspection of the list of names, it appeared to be a print screen of a poorly formatted excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information,” he said in a statement.

Denlay said he reviewed the list and found that 32 of the people were not on Butte County's active voter rolls and were not sent ballots. Seven others “did not have sufficient information … to match to our voter list with confidence” since the list only contained partial names, partial addresses, no dates of birth, no drivers’ license numbers or Social Security numbers.

Six of the names belonged to people who may not be eligible to vote, but Denlay said California law requires those challenging a voter’s eligibility to have extraordinary levels of proof.

“Given the overall inaccuracy of the list provided and its lack of specificity, I believe the Department of Justice has not met that burden,” Denlay said. “There will be no further action taken at this time.”

Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus also received a letter, but he said he couldn't tell how many ballots federal prosecutors wanted him to segregate, since the “not particularly legible” list was a printed sheet, in small font, and “not in a format that facilitates counting or reviewing.” He said the county already follows state and federal voter registration laws.

“We will not be deviating from those legal requirements for this letter,” Kus told CalMatters in an email.

Francisco Diaz, San Benito County registrar of voters, said his office received a demand with 33 names. A preliminary review found that some on the list weren’t registered to vote.

“Hand-delivering a letter via armed federal agents with an arbitrary 48-hour deadline does not circumvent state law,” Diaz said in a statement. “We will not be intimidated by agents with guns for simply doing our jobs, nor will we be rushed into compromising confidential voter data.”

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he wasn’t notified of a letter alleging his county had 1,754 “likely aliens” on the voter rolls until after business hours on Friday.

That's because, he told reporters in an email, federal prosecutors had addressed and hand-delivered the letter not to Page but to Orange County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen, who handles such documents as marriage licenses and property deeds.

On Monday, Page said federal agents delivered a correctly addressed letter to his office, along with a “data storage drive.”

Page planned to respond by the Wednesday deadline, he said.

The messy voter lists counties described fits a pattern, said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore trust in the American election system

He noted that the Department of Homeland Security recently claimed that Nevada had nearly 16,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls. DHS sent the state the names of only 185 voters. Nevada officials confirmed the voters had attested they were all U.S. citizens.

Becker said the Trump administration has been making “broad political claims made with great fanfare” only to have them “fall apart as they’re subjected to scrutiny.”

“I’m not entirely sure the DOJ wants to get into court and defend its evidentiary claims because I think they would fall apart, just as we’ve seen in other states,” said Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney.

In federal court on Tuesday, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, insisted the federal list of 20,000 people was accurate.

“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”

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