Leslie Berestein Rojas
My focus is on our coverage of L.A.’s communities of color and immigrant diasporas. Before this, I spent 10 years covering immigrant communities for KPCC.
When I was a kid, my family left Cuba and landed in Huntington Park. I grew up there, speaking Spanish at home and steeped in Southeast L.A.’s beautiful Latinidad. I love telling the stories of L.A. and its people. Now, I get to help shape those stories and work with talented reporters to hone their craft.
I’ve also covered immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border, reported stories in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and done lots more for large newspapers and national magazines.
Among the things I love about L.A.: family, food from everywhere, signs in dozens of languages, the smells of chaparral and dusty freeways, the downtown skyline as you cross a bridge from the east. Mostly, I love that it’s home.
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Bashir and Naseema Kashefi left Anaheim with their three kids in June to visit relatives in Kabul, and got stuck there after the Taliban takeover last month. Finally, they're home safe. -
Hundreds of Afghan refugees will soon be resettling in Southern California. But there are few local refugee resettlement agencies left to help them.
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Bashir and Naseema Kashefi traveled to Afghanistan to visit relatives this summer with their three kids, their first trip back after arriving as refugees in 2017. They were stranded there when the government fell to the Taliban last month.
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The deadline is May 7, 2025, for U.S. citizens to show a federally approved document, such as a REAL ID or a passport, in order to board a domestic flight.
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The U.S. Census Bureau has announced it will complete the 2020 census count a month earlier than planned, with the new deadline to end door-knocking and self-response set for September 30, instead of Oct. 31. In-person canvassing doesn't even start in L.A. County until August 11.
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What does the rule mean to Californians and Angelenos? We have some answers.
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There's been much speculation that a proposed Trump administration residency rule would push immigrant families to drop out of public health, nutrition and other programs out of fear. Enrollment data suggests that it may have played a role.
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Thousands of L.A.-area kids are no longer enrolled in the CalFresh food stamp program. The program's "child only" category tends to draw families with parents who lack legal status.
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After losing in the Supreme Court, the government has started printing census forms without a citizenship question. But on Wednesday President Trump surprised his own administration by tweeting that he's not giving up the fight to include the question.
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The second of two stories for the California Dream series explores how in spite of a growing Latino middle class, with rising median household incomes and Latino poverty rates at an all-time low, many California families continue to struggle.
