Topline:
Recent research from the USC Equity Research Institute estimates that nearly 950,000 undocumented immigrants live in L.A. County. That's more than 9% of people in the county who lack legal status.
What else: When researchers widen the lens to include people who are undocumented or living with an undocumented family member, that number jumps to nearly 20%, or almost one in five people.
Keep reading ... for what we do and don’t know about Angelenos without full legal status.
The Trump administration's laser focus on identifying and uprooting people without legal status in Los Angeles has disrupted normal life in whole swaths of the city since June.
Corridors typically alive with street vendors have been quiet. Volunteers have been monitoring Home Depots for federal agents. And across the region, some people are staying home from work and school, afraid they may encounter ICE agents.
That this is a fractured and frightening time in the region for immigrant communities is undisputed.
Getting a fuller picture of people without legal status who live and work here is more complex.
To better understand our communities and neighbors, LAist looked into what we do and don’t know about Angelenos without full legal status.
The U.S. Census conducted every 10 years is supposed to be a head count of everyone living in the country at that moment in time — and agnostic on their immigration status. The population count affects a whole range of things, notably how political representation is determined and how federal dollars are allocated.
Since 1960, the Census has not asked respondents about their citizenship status. An effort to add that question in 2020 by the first Trump administration was met with significant pushback. Critics said it would have a chilling effect and depress participation of non-citizens and their relatives — ultimately leaving us without a full count of who lives here.
Still, the government keeps estimates of the number of people living in the U.S. without authorization. Academics and organizations also do the work of counting the people living in the U.S. without legal status. Their research offers a closer look at the many people who are undocumented in L.A. and the surrounding area.
Recent research from the USC Equity Research Institute looks at L.A. County specifically, estimating nearly 950,000 undocumented immigrants live here. That's more than 9% of people in the county who lack legal status.
When researchers widen the lens to include people who are undocumented or living with an undocumented family member, that number jumps to nearly 20%, or almost one in five people.
To compile their estimates, USC researchers use surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, take the number of non-citizen immigrants and remove the people that have legal status, according to Prof. Manuel Pastor, director of the Equity Research Institute. The latest data they used is from 2023.
The results indicate the depth and breadth of the impact of ramped-up immigration enforcement in L.A. this summer. Masked federal agents have detained parents, people who have been in the U.S. for decades, and even some U.S. citizens.
" I think it's useful for Angelenos to realize how ubiquitous it is to be without documentation," Pastor said.
California has more immigrants than any other state — around 10.6 million people out of a total population of more than 39 million in 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Most immigrants in California have legal status. More than half are U.S. citizens, according to California officials. In 2022, 83% of immigrants in California either were citizens or had other legal residency status, such as a green card or a visa.
Estimates of exactly how many undocumented people are living in California vary. The Department of Homeland Security estimated 2.6 million unauthorized immigrants were living in California.
According to Pew Research Center, in 2023, California was home to around 2.3 million immigrants without full legal status. That number includes people in a variety of situations, including those with some level of legal protections, like asylum applicants, DACA recipients, and people who have been granted temporary protected status.
California is home to the largest cohort of DACA recipients in the nation. As of 2024, more than a quarter of the around 538,000 active recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals live in California, according to government data. That status protects undocumented young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them work authorization.
People without full legal status in California have a wide range of national origins. Nearly half of the state's undocumented population is from Mexico, according to a report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and UC Merced. The vast majority of that group — 80% — have been in the U.S. for more than 15 years.
In recent years, more people have arrived in the state from Central America and Asia. The report attributes the shifting demographics of new arrivals to improved economic prospects in Mexico and growing economic and political instability in Central America and countries like China and India.
The Trump administration ran on a campaign promise of mass deportations, in part in response to a rise in immigration to the U.S. after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Estimates of exactly how many undocumented people are in the country and how that number has changed vary. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants in 2023 was 14 million, up from 10.5 million in 2021 — a 33% increase.
By comparison, California's unauthorized population grew around 23% in that time period, according to Pew's estimates. In 2023, the state was home to around 2.3 million undocumented immigrants, a bump of around 425,000 compared to 2021.
The increase specifically in Los Angeles was even smaller around that same time period — 15% according to USC’s Pastor.
"We did not get the gigantic influx of shocking new immigrants that the rest of the country did," Pastor told LAist. "We got some, but mostly they went to other parts of the country."
USC estimates that 948,700 people in L.A. County are undocumented, out of a total population of 10.1 million. Most people without legal status have been in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to those estimates. Some 73% arrived in the country more than 10 years ago, while 18% of people have been here for 31 years or more.
Most undocumented immigrants in L.A. County — 83.8% — are Latino. The next largest group is Asian Americans, who make up 10.6% of the county's undocumented immigrants.
The largest share of undocumented immigrants in L.A. County come from Mexico, followed by Guatemala and El Salvador. USC estimates that more than 343,000 Mexican people without legal status live in the county.
A share of L.A.'s undocumented population are Indigenous migrants from Mexico and Central America, but the number is difficult to estimate, according to USC. According to a separate report from the Equity Research Institute and advocacy group CIELO, the county is home to at least 24 Indigenous migrant communities, including Zapotec and K’iche’.
Chinese people make up the fourth-largest group of undocumented people by ancestry, according to the report. That estimate is 32,600.
As the federal government has ramped up deportations across the country, it has made a particularly visible effort here in L.A.
Federal officials have defended the enforcement actions, saying they’re targeting people with criminal records.
LAist found that as an average since last October, only about 18% of those detained in California ICE facilities have had any criminal convictions.
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens in L.A. County live with family members who are undocumented — more than 863,000 according to USC estimates.
Those numbers are particularly striking for children. More than half of citizens living with undocumented family members are younger than 17 years old. In the county, 20% of children under the age of 5 have at least one parent who does not have legal status.
As federal immigration raids in Southern California have separated workers from their families and children, many left behind are struggling with making ends meet and paying rent. Eighty percent of undocumented immigrants in the county are renters.
"With fears around ICE raids and the possibility that undocumented workers may choose not to show up for work, there is also a great risk of missing rent payments and becoming even more vulnerable to losing housing," the USC report reads.
The vast majority of undocumented immigrants in L.A. County are of working age: 90% are between 18 and 64. Just 1% are 65 or older, according to USC's data.
The report points to the major role undocumented workers play in the local economy. According to USC's estimates, 37% of cleaning and maintenance workers and 25% of food preparation and service workers in L.A. County are undocumented.
The industry with the highest percentage of undocumented workers is construction (40%), which is already experiencing a labor shortage and will be key to rebuilding parts of the county destroyed in the January fires.
Immigrants without legal status in the county also contribute billions in taxes. In 2023, USC estimates undocumented immigrants paid more than $3.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
Jordan Rynning contributed to this report.
Topline:
As fire survivors continue to navigate life after disaster, California lawmakers roll out new bills attempting to further regulate insurance companies like State Farm.
Why it matters: Survivors and community organizations that have formed after the fires have asked their local and state elected officials for help in dealing with these varied issues. Some of the bills introduced in response to survivors’ experiences include attempts to address the transparency and timeliness related to insurers’ handling of fire claims.
More stringent requirements for insurers: Senate Bill 876 is a wide-ranging bill that seeks to make various amendments to the state’s insurance code.
Read on... for more new bills.
Jen Egan is still dealing with the aftermath of the Palisades Fire that damaged the home of her 83-year-old father, Paul, last January.
That has meant more than a year of going back and forth with State Farm, which has assigned three different claims adjusters to their case. Egan also hired a public adjuster to help her navigate the process, who she says has been a “saving grace.”
Egan and her father have received some payouts and are preparing to make repairs to the home. But this week, they received an estimate for compensation that falls tens of thousands of dollars short of what Egan said they have already paid out of pocket to address a brush violation issued by the fire department, and to conduct soil testing.
She is growing more frustrated. “No one’s asking for a new jacuzzi,” Egan said. “We want my father to be able to return to a safe and habitable home.”
Stories like the Egans’ are all too common after last year’s deadly Los Angeles County fires. State Farm says it has paid $5 billion so far on more than 13,500 claims. But survivors express frustration over insurers’ poor and delayed communication.
State Farm customer Rebecca McGrew has no outstanding complaints about her claims after her Altadena home burned down — except that she was “drastically under-insured by hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Many others like her have realized — too late — that their insurance payouts won’t cover all of their rebuilding costs.
Survivors and community organizations that have formed after the fires have asked their local and state elected officials for help in dealing with these varied issues. Some of the bills introduced in response to survivors’ experiences include attempts to address the transparency and timeliness related to insurers’ handling of fire claims.
Senate Bill 876 is a wide-ranging bill that seeks to make various amendments to the state’s insurance code. They include getting insurance companies to share their disaster-recovery plans with the insurance department; doubling penalties from $5,000 to $10,000 for each violation of fair claims practices during declared emergencies; and requiring insurers to notify policyholders within five days when they’re assigned a new adjuster.
In addition, the legislation, proposed by new Senate Insurance Committee Chair Steve Padilla and sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara:
“People need a sense, particularly when they face tragedy, that the underwriters they’ve relied on and paid into for decades, will want to help and not get in the way (of recovery),” said Padilla, a Democrat from Chula Vista, in an interview with CalMatters.
He acknowledged that the insurance industry will have objections to his bill, but said the companies know that they need to provide adequate coverage for the health of the insurance market.
Padilla is right about the industry’s opposition. “It appears these measures would worsen the current affordability and availability crisis for Californians just as we are starting to implement the Commissioner’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy to restore a healthy and competitive market,” said Seren Taylor, vice president at Personal Insurance Federation of California, in an email.
Lara’s strategy, which went into effect last January just days before the L.A.-area fires, aims to get insurance companies to start writing policies in the state again, especially in areas at high risk of fires. Many insurers had pulled back from the state in the past few years, complaining of increasing fire risks and state regulations that they said slowed down their ability to match prices to those risks.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 877 would require insurance companies to provide claims-related documents to policyholders within 15 days. Co-authored by Democratic Sens. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena and Ben Allen of El Segundo, the legislation would also require insurers to disclose changes to repair estimates, who approved them and why.
Senate Bill 878 would require insurers to pay interest of 20% annually if they fail to meet deadlines for claims payments. The bill, also written by Pérez and Allen, will compel companies to submit to the state’s insurance department a report, signed by a corporate officer under penalty of perjury, that shows the company’s compliance with prompt payments requirements.
In the Assembly, lawmakers plan to introduce bills that will “continue to make sure we have oversight (of insurers),” said Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, the Los Angeles-area Democrat who also chairs the Assembly Insurance Committee, in an interview. She said she expects bills to address strengthening and modernizing the FAIR Plan, as well as mitigation efforts for natural disasters.
She mentioned that California has to deal with fires, floods, earthquakes and, last year, something rare: “Last year, we had two small tornadoes in urban Los Angeles. I can’t remember another year when it’s happened.”
Calderon is trying again to regulate insurers’ use of drone images by introducing Assembly Bill 1559. Her similar effort last year passed the Assembly and made it through some Senate committees but ultimately didn’t advance. This year’s bill would require companies to notify consumers about when they plan to take aerial images of their properties; ban insurers from ending coverage based on drone images taken more than 180 days before sending notice of that decision to policyholders; and require companies to provide the images to policyholders, allowing them to dispute accuracy and to take action if needed before having their policies terminated.
“We’ve been hearing from consumers that they’ve been blindsided by these images that were inaccurate,” she said. “I believe homeowners should have the right to request an in-person inspection.”
She also intends to introduce legislation to implement recommendations from a forthcoming report about the California Wildfire Fund that she expects to include provisions related to the availability and affordability of property insurance in the state.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Topline:
Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced this morning.
What's next: The awards ceremony will be held on March 15. You can watch the announcement above, or keep reading for a full list of nominees.
Nominations for the 2026 Oscars are out, with Sinners leading the pack with a record 16 nominations for an individual movie. Star Michael B. Jordan, who played twins Smoke and Stack in the horror film set in 1930s Mississippi, was nominated for his first time. The film also garnered nods for best picture, best original screenplay, best directing and more.
First-time acting nominees this year also include Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners), Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another), and much of the cast of the Norwegian drama Sentimental Value, including Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård.
One Battle After Another follows Sinners with 13 nods, including for best picture and a best actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio.
Timothée Chalamet, the star of frenetic table tennis story Marty Supreme, was nominated for best actor for his second year in a row. Last year, he got a nod for A Complete Unknown.
The Oscars will be hosted by Conan O'Brien on Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, airing on ABC and streaming on Hulu.
Best picture
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best animated feature film
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
Best animated short film
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
Achievement in cinematography
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
Achievement in costume design
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners
Achievement in directing
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best documentary feature film
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor
Best documentary short film
All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: Were and Are Gone
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness
Achievement in film editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Best international feature film
The Secret Agent, Brazil
It Was Just an Accident, France
Sentimental Value, Norway
Sirāt, Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia
Achievement in casting
Hamnet, Nina Gold
Marty Supreme, Jennifer Venditti
One Battle after Another, Cassandra Kulukundis
The Secret Agent, Gabriel Domingues
Sinners, Francine Maisler
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
Frankenstein, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey
Kokuho, Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino and Tadashi Nishimatsu
Sinners, Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine and Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine, Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin and Bjoern Rehbein
The Ugly Stepsister, Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg
Original Score
Bugonia, Jerskin Fendrix
Frankenstein, Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet, Max Richter
One Battle after Another, Jonny Greenwood
Sinners, Ludwig Goransson
Original Song
"Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless; music and lyric by Diane Warren
"Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters; music and lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
"I Lied to You" from Sinners; music and lyric by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" from Viva Verdi!; music and lyric by Nicholas Pike
"Train Dreams" from Train Dreams; music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyric by Nick Cave
Achievement in production design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Best live action short film
Butcher's Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen's Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Achievement in sound
F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Achievement in visual effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Bugonia, screenplay by Will Tracy
Frankenstein, written for the screen by Guillermo del Toro
Hamnet, screenplay by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell
One Battle after Another, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Train Dreams, screenplay by Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Blue Moon, written by Robert Kaplow
It Was Just an Accident, written by Jafar Panahi; script collaborators: Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian
Marty Supreme, written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
Sentimental Value, written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
Sinners, written by Ryan Coogler
Copyright 2026 NPR
What to expect: Light rainfall with cool temperatures of mostly in the mid 60s.
What about snow: Any snow fall will reach the 8,000-foot elevation range today, and drop down to 6,000 feet tomorrow.
After a warm spell, winter weather has returned to Southern California.
Thursday's rainfall will be on the drizzly, scattered end of things. The National Weather Service forecasts around a quarter inch of rainfall through Friday. Any snowfall will stick to the 8,000-foot elevation range Thursday, and drop down to around 6,000 feet by Friday.
Chances of light showers coming. Here are some key details. #cawx #larain pic.twitter.com/YS7Z4BUfDb
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) January 21, 2026
As for temperatures, it's going to be another relatively cool day.
We're looking at highs in the mid 60s from the coasts to the valleys, and up to 68 degrees in the Inland Empire. In the Antelope Valley, temperatures will range from 54 to 63 degrees. And in Coachella Valley, expect daytime highs from 69 to 74 degrees and dry conditions.
Topline:
The Sundance Film Festival begins for the last time in Park City, Utah, before heading to Boulder, Colo., next year. It's a bittersweet finale for the country's premier independent film festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1978.
Honoring the festival's history: With a gala, the festival plans to pay tribute to the late actor and director, who died of natural causes in September. This year, the festival will screen films that got their starts at Sundance, including Little Miss Sunshine, which went on to be nominated for best picture at the 2007 Oscars.
What else will be screened? The festival will also screen a remastered print of the 1969 movie Downhill Racer, in which Redford plays a champion skier. Over the years, Sundance has been a launching pad for filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Ava DuVernay, The Coen brothers, Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao and Paul Thomas Anderson.
The Sundance Film Festival begins for the last time in Park City, Utah, before heading to Boulder, Colo., next year. It's a bittersweet finale for the country's premier independent film festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1978.
With a gala, the festival plans to pay tribute to the late actor and director, who died of natural causes in September.
"Before he passed earlier this year, [Redford] shared with us this quote: 'Everybody has a story,'" says the festival's director, Eugene Hernandez. "This notion is such a great framing for a festival that has always been about finding and sharing with audiences the stories that come from all over the world."
This year, the festival will screen films that got their starts at Sundance, including Little Miss Sunshine, which went on to be nominated for best picture at the 2007 Oscars.
The festival will also screen a remastered print of the 1969 movie Downhill Racer, in which Redford plays a champion skier. Redford was also a producer on this indie film.
"He would tell this story year after year about getting Downhill Racer made," recalls Sundance senior programmer John Nein. "It became a way that he understood the notion of protecting independence and protecting the artistic voice of a film. He often used that when he talked to emerging filmmakers, to relate to the struggles that they had in getting their films made the way that they wanted to."
Nein says one way to recognize that legacy is by programming 40 percent of the slate from first-time filmmakers. More than 16,200 films were submitted from 164 countries. Throughout the year, the Sundance Institute hosts labs and programs and provides grants and fellowships for independent filmmakers.
Over the years, Sundance has been a launching pad for filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Ava DuVernay, The Coen brothers, Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Another filmmaker whose career Sundance supported is Rachel Lambert, who says she was inspired by a film Redford directed: Ordinary People.
"It's a profound legacy a single human being can leave an entire nation's culture," she says of Redford. "It's remarkable."
Lambert will premiere her newest film, Carousel, a love story starring Chris Pine and Jenny Slate.
Also showing at Sundance: documentaries about Chicano theater pioneer Luis Valdez, singer Courtney Love, tennis star Billie Jean King, and South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Among the features in competition is The Gallerist with Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega.
Another is The Invite, with Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. The Invite's producer, David Permut, has been faithfully attending Sundance since the late 1980s, when he was in the audience for Steven Soderbergh's breakout Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
"I never miss Sundance. I've been going every year since," says Permut. "I stay for 10 days, I'm not in and out like a lot of people from Hollywood when they're there with their film. I love the second week because it's basically cinephiles from all over the world."
Permut showed his first film at Sundance — Three of Hearts — in 1993. Last year, his film Twinless won the festival's audience award.
"I have 57 movies I want to see this coming Sundance," he says. "For me, it's about discovery."
Some filmmakers have gone to great lengths to get their work screened this year — including the Iranian film The Friend's House is Here.
The drama—set in Tehran's underground art scene — was shot under the radar of Iranian authorities. Amid the country's recent political turmoil, members of the film's crew had to drive 11 hours to smuggle the film over the Turkish border to get it to the festival. According to the film's publicist, the film's two main actresses were not heard from for weeks during Iran's recent unrest. The publicist says the women are now safe but have been denied visas by the United States to attend Sundance.
Copyright 2026 NPR
