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House Passes Trump’s Bill, Millions Will Lose Healthcare

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House Passes Trump’s Bill, Millions Will Lose Healthcare

On July 3, the House of Representatives passed Trump’s controversial bill, 118-114, which will increase the national deficit by almost $4 trillion, and cut services to help working class Americans, in order to give more tax cuts to the very wealthy.

The bill will eliminate $1.3 trillion from Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act exchanges, Medicare and food assistance. According to a press release from Rep. Nanette Barragán, 17 million Americans will lose their health care, and 40 million people will have their food assistance put at risk. The bill also increases ICE’s budget, as well as providing more funding for other immigration enforcement, providing about $350 billion. This includes $46 billion for a border wall, $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention, and the hiring of an additional 10,000 ICE agents.

As previously reported by RLn, across the county, rural hospitals are slated to lose almost $70 billion total, according to a report from the National Rural Health Association. Hundreds of hospitals will close due to bidget cuts.

Every single House Democrat opposed the bill, but only two House Republicans, Thomas Massie and Brian Fitzpatrick, voted no.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke for nearly nine hours to delay the bill, breaking the house’s previous filibuster record.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called the bill a massive scheme to steal from working class Americans, and said that millions will lose their jobs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the bill was a complete moral failure.

“The President and his MAGA enablers are ripping care from cancer patients, meals from children, and money from working families — just to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich. With this measure, Donald J. Trump’s legacy is now forever cemented: he has created a more unequal, more indebted, and more dangerous America. Shame on him,” Newsom said.

Barragán said that House Democrats fought like hell to stop the bill, and heard story after story of families afraid they’d lose their health care, and clinic directors worried they’d need to close their doors.

“We introduced amendment after amendment and stayed up all night in committee hearings to expose Republican lies and cruelty and demanded better for the American people,” Barragán said. “But in the end, Republicans in Congress chose to serve Trump and their donors over their country and constituents.”

The bill will now go to Trump’s desk for his signature.

Note: This story has been edited to the corrected number of 17 million from a previous version that stated 7 million Americans will lose their health care.

LA County to Provide More Services for Homeless Pregnant Women and New Parents

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LA County to Provide More Services for Homeless Pregnant Women and New Parents

On July 1, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to provide additional services to homeless pregnant women and new parents. This is follow up to a motion from the board in 2024 to strengthen services for this vulnerable group, tasking multiple county departments with developing a comprehensive support plan, including the Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), The Department of Public Health, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

The Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health provided a report in February 2025 that outlined ways to expand services, and additional services needed. The report explained that pregnancy was high among homeless women, with 26% of homeless women age 18 to 44 reporting pregnancy, and 40% of homeless women 18 to 24 reporting pregnancy.

The board’s motion states that there are lots of county services to help homeless pregnant women and new parents, but there are still gaps in those services. It states that they may have trouble finding housing due to resource shortages in the Family Coordinated Entry System.

The board’s motion instructs LAHSA, the Department of Public Social Services and other county departments to report back to the board twice a year with an assessment of the capacity of CalWORKs Homeless Programs and the Family Coordinated Entry System. In addition, it tells the Department of Public Health to report back in 90 days on funding options to continue and potentially expand the Department of Public Health’s Project H.O.P.E. and Abundant Birth Project.

Just a week before, on June 24, Federal Judge David O. Carter issued a ruling stating that the City of LA failed to create enough housing for homeless people. Carter’s ruling states that the city must come up with a comprehensive plan for more housing by Oct. 3, 2025.

Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted his own strategy for creating more affordable housing in the state, bypassing environmental review, much to the chagrin of environmentalist groups.

The most recent LA County homeless count was in February 2025. Based on preliminary data, the county believes that homelessness was reduced from 5 to 10% from the previous year.

National Guard Firefighters Return to Frontlines After being Deployed to LA

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National Guard Firefighters Return to Frontlines After being Deployed to LA

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a press release on July 1 stating that fire fighters that are members of the National Guard have been returned to active duty in the areas in the state most vulnerable to fire. They were previously deployed to Los Angeles as part of the Trump administration’s assault on the city of LA, which included ICE arresting immigrants in their place of work, and bringing down military might on anyone who dares to protest.

The firefighters are part of Operation Rattle Snake, a task force of more than 300 Cal Guard members who partner with CAL FIRE to prevent and fight wildfires. This includes clearing brush, cutting fire lines, and working on the frontlines during peak fire season.

For several weeks, more than half the task force was instead in LA, under Trump’s order. This reduced the remaining firefighters to 40% capacity.

This comes on the heels of Newsom’s request that the Trump administration do more to better manage the 57% of forestland in the State of California that is owned by the federal government.

But even with the firefighters returned to active duty, there are still nearly 5,000 soldiers, including National Guard members, still deployed in LA to crack down on any resistance to Trump’s agenda. The national guard members deployed to LA include 385 medical and first responders, 370 service workers, 355 police, law enforcement and corrections officials, and 158 educators and teachers.

Senate Passes Worst Bill Ever — It Still Could Die In House

Paul Rosenberg
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Senate Passes Worst Bill Ever — It Still Could Die In House

Crucial Votes In Favor Came From Former Outspoken Opponents Of Deadly Medicaid Cuts

“Do I like this bill? No.” — GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, after casting the deciding vote for the bill.

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins is famous for voting for things she claims to be against — the entire anti-choice Supreme Court majority, for example. So it was a genuine surprise when she voted against the Senate version of Trump’s murder budget, because it will decimate Maine’s rural hospitals, and her band-aid attempt to save them was rejected.

Nationwide, rural hospitals are slated to lose 21 cents of every Medicaid dollar they now receive — almost $70 billion total, according to a report from the National Rural Health Association. That’s more than 15% greater than the $60 billion cuts in the House version.

But Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski out-Susan-Collinsed Susan Collins this time, telling NBC News’ reporter Ryan Nobles afterwards that she didn’t like the bill, and expressing the vain, irresponsible wish that the House would fix the mess she helped make.

“I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that,” she said. “My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” she went on to say. “I would hope that we would be able to actually do what we used to do around here, which is work back and forth between the two bodies to get a measure that’s going to be better.”

“If you really believe that, then why the hell did you vote for this bill?” Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern said in response. “It’s a dereliction of your duty as a United States senator and as a representative for the people in Alaska. I mean, when was the last time this current House of Representatives has fixed or solved anything? I mean, where have you been, Sen. Murkowski? This Republican House is dysfunction on steroids.”

Indeed, the back-and-forth so far has only made things worse. Most notably, the Senate’s cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) of $1.02 trillion over 10 years are $156.1 billion or 18% larger than the House’s cuts of $863.4 billion. This came after a nationwide poll found there’s not a single congressional district with more than 15% support for such cuts.

“The Senate took the largest health care cuts in history and made them even worse,” said Rep. Nanette Barragán in a press statement. “The Senate’s version of Trump’s Big Ugly Bill would take health care away from nearly 17 million Americans, including nearly 2 million Californians, and raise health care costs for more than 20 million people who rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.”

For generations, Republicans have passed bills to cut taxes for the wealthy, claiming that they will “pay for themselves” by producing more growth and generating more tax revenue. However, a recent study of four decades of such tax cuts across the developed world found that such tax cuts have no impact on economic growth. So, when budget deficits naturally soar as a result, Republicans then turn around and say we have to cut social spending to close the budget gap that their tax cuts created.

But this time it’s different: they’re cutting taxes and social spending in the same bill, resulting in a straightforward transfer of money from poor and working-class people to the rich. But even then, tax cuts for the wealthy are so huge that they will increase the deficit by over $3.3 trillion. Healthcare spending cuts are the largest source of money transferred to the rich, followed by food assistance, about $300 billion in cuts, affecting 40 million people.

But the reverse-Robin-Hood core of the bill isn’t the only dramatically bad thing about it. After casting his tie-breaking vote to pass the Senate bill, Vice President JD Vance — who vehemently warned against smaller Medicaid cuts in 2017 as a betrayal of rural Trump voters — said that none of the traditional GOP budget obsessions mattered: “”Everything else—the CBO score [budget deficit], the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.” Vance wrote on Twitter.

Apart from dismissing a $1 trillion cut in Medicare spending, and the closing of hundreds of rural hospitals as “minutia,” what’s most notable here is Vance’s complete reversal of his argument during the campaign that immigration mattered because it was a Medicare issue. In September, he said, “We’re bankrupting a lot of hospitals by forcing these hospitals to provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country.” But now he himself cast the deciding vote to bankrupt rural hospitals in order to deport more immigrants.

His original claim was false, of course, as experts noted at the time.

“When we speak with our rural hospital members, that is not what we hear,” Shannon Wu, director of payment policy at the American Hospital Association, a trade group representing more than 5,000 hospitals, told KFF Health News in response.

But this time, there’s a germ of truth in what Vance is saying. The “immigration enforcement” spending is not only dramatically larger than anything ever seen before, it would go a long way towards turning America into a classic police state — as evidenced by the Trump administration’s willingness to arrest judges and politicians who stand in the way of its lawless immigration agenda.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick‪, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, outlined the scope of immigration-enforcement funding on Bluesky:

– $51.6 billion for border wall ($46.6 billion for wall, $5 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoints and facilities)

– $45 billion for ICE detention

– $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement

Grand total: $170.7 billion.

This would translate into 10,000 new ICE agents and 100,000 new detention beds at a time when ICE currently can’t find enough criminal immigrants to fill its current quotas, and instead is mass-arresting farmworkers, day laborers and other crucial industry-specific workers.

The bill is massively unpopular with the public, as pollster G Elliott Morris noted on Bluesky. “I haven’t seen a single credible poll with support above 40% of adults. And that’s just if you ask people, ‘Do you support the OBBB,’” he wrote. “If you poll them about the individual components, it’s 30+ points underwater” He posted a screenshot showing it was opposed 49-29% according to Pew, 64-35% according to KFF, 53-27% according to Quinnipiac, 42-23% according the Washington Post, and 59-38% according to Fox.

Republicans are in a hurry trying to get it passed, precisely because it’s so unpopular. They’re hoping they can get away with it, if they do it lightning quick. But whether they will remains to be seen. They’re almost certain to lose their House majority as a result — and possibly their Senate majority as well. Enough swing-district House members have voiced opposition in the past, and then folded. But it only passed by a single vote last time. So the outcome is far from assured.

 

County Supervisors Move to Expand Protections for Immigrants in LA County

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County Supervisors Move to Expand Protections for Immigrants in LA County

On July 1, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion by Supervisor Janice Hahn to expand the RepresentLA program, which originally launched in 2022. The program provides legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation. The motion was co-authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis.

Because of the Trump administration’s recent aggressive attacks on immigrant communities, Hahn argued that it needs expanded funding.

The motion directs the county’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Department of Consumer and Business Affairs to explore options for increasing funding to the program, and to report back within 30 days.

The Office of Immigrant Affairs recommended the county provide $5.5 million annually, in addition to the City of LA contributing $1 million. However, Hahn’s motion argues that more funding is needed, as more people are being arrested and will need legal assistance.

Since 2022, RepresentLA has provided legal services to over 10,000 individuals. RepresentLA’s removal defense pillar has represented 649 individuals, and its affirmative representation pillar has represented more than 1,100 individuals.

In addition, on the same day, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed two motions introduced by Solis protecting rights of LA County residents. The first is to pursue legal action against unconstitutional immigration enforcement tactics, and the second is to educate young people on their rights while protesting.

Gov. Newsom Sends Plan to Trump to Prevent Fires on Federal Forestland in California

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Gov. Newsom Sends Plan to Trump to Prevent Fires on Federal Forestland in California

On July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan to help “make America rake again,” a model executive order on how to manage the forestland in California that is owned by the federal government. This includes 57% of the state’s forestland, as opposed to the 3% owned by the state.

Essentially, Newsom is asking the White House to match the efforts of the state and local authorities to fight and prevent wildfires. In his model executive order, Newsom pointed out that California has provided more than $4 billion for wildfire protection and forest resilience in 2024-25, while the federal government has only provided $7 billion for fiscal year 2024 to manage wildfires on all 238 million acres of federal lands nationwide.

This comes on the heels of Newsom asking the Trump administration to return troops to firefighting duties — instead of invading Los Angeles. California National Guard’s firefighting crews, known as Task Force Rattlesnake, are operating at 40% capacity. This is due to Trump’s deployment of eight out of 14 of these teams are deployed in LA instead.

The title “make America rake again” is a cheeky reference to Trump’s demand that California rake its fires in 2020.

Whether or not Trump will listen remains to be seen. His relationship with Newsom is strained, as Trump called for Newsom’s arrest in June, and Newsom has been very critical of Trump’s use of the military as a political weapon against immigrants in his state.

Welcome to “The Kill Zone”

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Welcome to “The Kill Zone”

Life and Death, Courtesy of Jones Chemicals in the Harbor Gateway

By Rick Thomas, Columnist and Harbor Gateway Community Activist

They call themselves “neighbors.”

And wanted us to respond to them using the same title.

“Them” being Jones Chemicals, Inc., that is.

Neighbors?

How about… polluters?

Residents learned at a recent Harbor Gateway South Neighborhood Council meeting, hosted at Councilman Tim McOsker’s new field office at the Enclave, that Jones Chemicals, Inc. wants to introduce itself to the community.

More on the Enclave as you continue reading… but drumroll please… “Let’s bring to the stage… Jones Chemicals, Inc.!”

For those of us who live in Harbor Gateway, Jones Chemicals, Inc. hasn’t brought goodwill or welcome mats.

Jones Chemicals, Inc.?

They’ve brought nothing more than danger. And misery. And chaos.

They are nothing more than environmental polluters.

Not neighbors.

Jones Chemicals’ footprint is just steps from the modular-built Cheryl Green Boys & Girls Club facility, because the soil is too contaminated for permanent foundations. Also, I live in that neighborhood. What the Del Amo Action Committee now calls “The Kill Zone.”

 

It’s called “The Kill Zone” because of that environmental polluter known as Jones Chemicals, Inc. The place where toxins seep into the ground, cloud the air, and kill residents in the Harbor Gateway.

But silence echoes in the chambers of City Hall.

Until now.

Thanks to the Del Amo Action Committee — DAAC for short — residents are finally organizing.

But let me be clear: one mistake from Jones Chemicals, Inc. dumping chemicals here, one lapse in containment or oversight, and the results could be catastrophic.

I want more Christmases. More time to sing along with The Whispers: “And this Christmas will be a very special Christmas… for me.”

But that future isn’t promised — not here.

Not in “The Kill Zone.”

Cancel Christmas, pal.

Politicians are shaking hands with corporations like Jones Chemicals, Inc., while those same corporations are poisoning us as law enforcement institutions cling to the motto “to protect and serve” — but who, exactly, are they protecting and serving?

Apparently not us.

Here in the “The Kill Zone,” families breathe and step onto chemicals they can’t even pronounce. Children walk past fenced-off “cleanup sites” on their way to school or to the Cheryl Green Boys & Girls Club. Asthma, rashes and unexplained illnesses have become a way of life for those of us living here.

All from the likes of Jones Chemical, Inc.

For a time, I tried to play the game. I believed maybe, just maybe I could be transactional — trade a little favor by being quiet for a little safety — a little leverage for a little peace of mind.

I thought I could work with the system.

Maybe work within the system.

But I can’t sell out my community in the Harbor Gateway.

I just can’t.

That ain’t me.

And that community, by the way, is stretching into the Harbor City section of Tim McOkser’s Council District 15.

More to come on that.

I’d rather work for free, for the people who actually live here — the ones who actually breathe the toxic air and walk on the toxic ground, rather than sell out to weak politicians.

Or sell out to those who are supposed to protect and serve.

Because they are killing us, slowly but surely. Murdering the safety of our communities…

And it’s unacceptable.

There’s no negotiating with rot that allows a company like Jones Chemicals, Inc. to operate just feet from children’s playgrounds and homes.

It’s not a negotiation.

It’s a fight.

I won’t tell the whole story, but I will give a hint or two on what may be coming. But until our air is clean, our soil is safe, and our children can play without fear of contamination, the Del Amo Action Committee isn’t backing down.

And neither am I.

Let’s circle back to that neighborhood council meeting at Tim McOsker’s new office, located in the ultra-modern retail/office complex on 190th Street. You’ve probably driven past the Enclave, but if you blink, you’ll miss it. There’s Nook, the popular coffee shop, Trademark Brewery, the Long Beach Fish Grill (still on my to-do list), and one of my favorites — 123 Pho.

This place is cool.

Buzzing.

Optimistic.

But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see what’s festering beneath the surface of this office complex. Because guess who rents office space at the Enclave along with Councilman Tim McOsker?

Jones Chemicals, Inc.

The environmental polluters.

That’s right — Councilmember McOsker’s office is on the first floor, and Jones Chemicals?

Ninth floor.

Same building.

Same air.

I don’t need PhD-level intelligence to do the math here. Truly my minus-7 credits in a baccalaureate degree in political science at Temple University are enough education for me to be able to read between the lines.

Mama didn’t raise no fool!

Brings to mind the phrase, “There are no secrets in life, just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface.”

That quote comes from an appropriate character in the Showtime television series Dexter. The lead character was a serial killer, so he fits right in with what’s going on with the environmental polluters known as Jones Chemicals, Inc.

I liked Dexter when it was on Showtime, but watching it is different than, well, living it.

At the neighborhood council meeting, sitting right in front of me was Tim Ross, vice president of operations for Jones Chemicals, Inc. He looked familiar, and for a moment I couldn’t place him.

But then it clicked — Tim Ross from Jones Chemicals, Inc. manages the trucks I’ve seen rolling through residential streets, transporting hazardous materials.

I’ve met him before.

That was the first time he was rude to me.

So, when it came time for questions, of course I spoke up. With all the sarcasm I could muster, I asked, “Oh, so your trucks are the ones — marked with ‘JCI’ — driving illegally down residential streets, past children and families and cats and dogs and chickens and ducks and veterans and yes, even gangbangers, right?”

Alright, I embellished a bit, but you see my point.

He didn’t like that.

Not one bit.

But guess what, Tim Ross?

I don’t care.

This community has fought hard to stop tractor trailers and other big rigs from using residential streets to get to the freeways to make their deliveries. We understand fully where we live and that it’s not going to get any better. More real estate is now available for other trucking firms to locate in the Harbor Gateway.

It’s a byproduct of where we reside.

But we don’t have to live in “The Kill Zone.”

We’re going to see a lot of trucks in the hood. We worked with the trucking companies on Denker Avenue to stay the hell off residential streets in the Harbor Gateway. The Los Angeles Police Department collaborated with this community to put up signage to prevent that nasty practice from continuing.

So then I learned from Tim Ross that Jones Chemicals, Inc. was given the OK to roll down residential streets. So, I asked the question aloud, “Who gave you, Jones Chemicals, Inc., permission to go down residential streets in our community?”

I didn’t like the answer. But I can be transactional if I get what I need to protect members of my community. So it’s not about me.

For now.

Back to that neighborhood council meeting.

After my question, Tim Ross from Jones Chemicals, Inc. went on a slight tirade.

He was rude to me, again.

“Our trucks don’t come down those streets and if you see any of our trucks going down those streets, I will fire that driver!” he shouted.

“All right, calm down fool,” I said.

OK I said that to myself. I’m a runner not a fighter.

“Um, Tim Ross from Jones Chemicals, Inc.? Would you like to see the photos… of your trucks… going down Del Amo Boulevard?”

Pissed off. I left. I was done.

Everything stinks here as Jones Chemicals, Inc., the polluters in the Harbor Gateway, are the developers of the so-called “The Kill Zone.” Maybe I should have asked, “Why the hell is Jones Chemicals, Inc., the polluters, not our neighbor, introducing themselves to a community of residents that they are killing?”

In a text that night I wrote to Councilman McOsker about what took place in HIS office.

“I am just stunned.”

Environmental polluters… Jones Chemicals, Inc.

Tim McOsker texted back that he would take care of it in the morning. I texted, “If this were San Pedro we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

There were a lot more words in that conversation. But it’s just another example of how the elected leaders and those that are supposed to be looking out for the best interest of the communities they represent, don’t.

They just don’t.

But “We don’t give up until the clock says zero.” Sports verbiage I heard this year from an NBA all star who competed to the point where he will miss a full year of future contests and competition because of a torn achilles tendon in Game 7 of the NBA championship.

You don’t give up “until the clock says zero.”

“… our office has received numerous concerns from residents regarding truck traffic associated with your facility along Del Amo Boulevard,” Councilman Tim McOsker wrote in a letter to Tim Ross at Jones Chemicals, Inc.

“Our office will be coordinating with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to install the appropriate signage along Del Amo Boulevard to ensure compliance and improve safety and quality of life for nearby residents,” he continued.

I guess sometimes you gotta be a prick, and well, rude, to get shit done.

“Continued violations may result in further enforcement action.”

Well, that could have been a bit stronger, Tim. I might have written something like, “Continued violations WILLresult in further enforcement action.”

Jones Chemicals, Inc. is killing human beings in the Harbor Gateway.

There’s no “may result” rather “will” result.

Jones Chemicals, Inc. went through an Environmental Protection Agency inspection in 2024 and the EPA determined that Jones Chemicals, Inc. had seven… I repeat, seven “areas of concern” that needed to be addressed at their Harbor Gateway facility.

Seven “areas of concern.”

Seven.

Just one area of concern is troubling enough. But seven?

That’s just this location.

Do a search for Jones Chemicals, Inc. and another one of their environmental polluting sites pops up. This is in Caledonia, New York. From the EPA report on issues at that location they wrote, “Spills occurred during the transfer and repackaging of many of these chemicals, contaminating soils and groundwater with hazardous chemicals.”

Jones Chemicals, Inc. are long time, serial, environmental polluters because this report in Caledonia, New York was written by the EPA back in 1986.

Yeah, these are the guys I want to be in bed with so let’s welcome them into the neighborhood, right?

No.

I can easily say no.

In future posts I will focus on the Del Amo Action Committee with respect to Jones Chemicals, Inc. The Del Amo Action Committee wants Jones Chemicals, Inc. shut down.

The community wants them shut down as well.

“As we proceed,” in the words of the philosopher Biggie Smalls, I will share the response to a letter sent to Jeffrey Jones, chairman and CEO of Jones Chemicals, Inc. Said letter was sent by Rep. Nanette Barragán, who represents our community now.

“… the most recent EPA inspection found the company failed to maintain their responsibilities as required by federal law, “ she wrote about their Harbor Gateway location.

Jones Chemicals, Inc. must respond back to her in 60 days from the May 22, 2025 correspondence.

Not “may” respond.

Must.

I’ve met Rep. Nanette Barragán.

Several times.

Um, quick note to Jeffrey Jones, Jones Chemicals, Inc. chairman and CEO…

PSSST!

I would respond back to her sooner rather than later if I were you.

Stay tuned.

This is just the pilot… maybe I should pitch this story to Showtime.

I know.

This is not funny.

In a time where I just want to produce Christian stand up comedy shows and heartwarming content about military wives on military bases saving lost dogs, I gotta deal with the mess about Jones Chemicals, Inc. polluting our community.

OK then, I will.

This is just the first episode of many more episodes to come concerning the drama and the tragedy known as “The Kill Zone,” directed and produced in surround sound, Technicolor and IMAX by the environmental polluters in the Harbor Gateway known as Jones Chemicals, Inc.

Gov. Newsom Signs Bills to Create Affordable Housing Faster by Weakening Environmental Review Law

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Gov. Newsom Signs Bills to Create Affordable Housing Faster by Weakening Environmental Review Law

On June 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills that affect the 2025 to 2026 state budget, increasing affordable housing by bypassing environmental review. Newsom signed the state budget bill on June 27, but signed two trailer bills on June 30, including Assembly Bill 130 (Committee on Budget) and Senate Bill 131 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review). The bills alter the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which requires a review of construction projects to see what environmental impact they will have.

The new bills allow for affordable housing projects to bypass CEQA, and allow for more exemptions to the review process. These include new farmworker housing projects, as well as wildfire risk reduction projects, and community water system projects, as long as they don’t actively harm the environment. It also provides CEQA exemptions to the creation of public parks and trails, and daycare centers, health centers and food banks, and the creation of passenger rail systems.

Many environmental groups opposed the weakening of CEQA, arguing that this will make is easier to build other projects that are harmful to the environment. In a letter endorsed by multiple unions, including the California Federation of Labor Unions, they argued that exempting “advanced manufacturing” industries from CEQA would expose union members and their families to dangers in their workplaces and communities.

In addition, the bills require annual inspections of homeless shelters by cities and counties, whether or not complaints are received.

From San Pedro, CA to NY, Protests Continue Against ICE Raids

Mark Friedman
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From San Pedro, CA to NY, Protests Continue Against ICE Raids

Activists distribute solidarity statement and campaign against U.S. blockade of Cuba

By Mark Friedman, member, International Association of Machinists in LA

 

As the Trump administration continues terrorizing immigrant communities with illegal raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other police agencies, thousands around the country are protesting, often spontaneously, as communities stand up against the brutal assault on workers’ rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Two members of the Japanese American group Nikkei Progressives at a demonstration in San Pedro on June 22, on Harbor Boulevard. Photo by Mark Friedman

In many cities like San Pedro, citizens are organizing into roving teams to challenge police stops and arrests by ICE and other police agencies to ensure that the due process rights of the detained, which now number hundreds in Los Angeles, are honored.

 

ICE arrests two car wash workers in California

On June 22, approximately 20 masked federal agents violently arrested two workers at a Bubble Bath Car Wash in Torrance, shocking customers, employees and family members. The operation took place on June 22, without prior notice or visible identification by the officers. The detainees worked there for more than 15 years.

 

Nationwide ICE and Department of Homeland Security Raids Intensify

On June 26, in Laredo, Texas, a Hispanic worker climbed onto a cherry picker in a desperate attempt to avoid being arrested by immigration agents. The worker was among the 20 undocumented workers who were detained during a raid at a construction site off Mile Marker 13.

 

According to an Oxford Economics report released June 26, net immigration to the United States is expected to fall to 500,000 people in 2025 due to deportations by the Trump administration. Owners of restaurants, farms and hotels complain of large numbers of immigrant workers not coming to work for fear of arrest. The same is happening at schools and hospitals.

 

The report also adds that deportations are resulting in the loss of 300,000 immigrants from the undocumented population, at an annualized rate.

 

Not only Latinos are being targeted

As reported in the Los Angeles newspaper La Opinion on June 28, “what was supposed to be the start of a new chapter ended in an immigration ordeal for Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old Saudi-born woman who was detained by ICE upon returning from her honeymoon. The woman, who lives in Texas, was arrested in February after returning from a trip with her husband to St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

“The young woman had come to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, where she was born, but she didn’t obtain local citizenship because the country only grants it by blood, not by birth, and her parents are originally from Gaza. Her legal status, then, remained trapped in a state of statelessness, with no country officially recognizing her.”

 

Trump Administration to End Deportation Protections for Haitian, Cubans, Venezuelans, Immigrants

The Trump administration said on June 27 that it was terminating long-running deportation protections for Haitians in the United States, called Temporary Protection Status (TPS), declaring that the violence-plagued Caribbean nation was now safe enough for the program to end by September.

 

The announcement, by the Department of Homeland Security, continues the administration’s campaign of revoking special protections afforded to migrants from around the world. Hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who had previously been authorized to remain in the country, including Afghans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, could face deportation.

 

Mass immigration arrests have led to overcrowding in detention facilities.

 

Medications for diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health problems are not provided. In New York and Los Angeles, people have been held for days in cramped rooms designed for brief processing and their lawyers and family members have remained in the dark about their whereabouts. ICE officials deny these truths.

 

As raids on workplaces and arrests at immigration courts continue, despite massive opposition by the majority of people in the U.S., at protests in more than 2,100 cities, more than 56,000 immigrants were in government jails June 15. At least 10 immigrants have died in ICE custody since Jan. 1, including two at the Krome detention center in Miami, where detainees earlier in June formed a human “S.O.S.” sign in the yard.

 

The Trump administration has expanded contracts with private prisons and several government enforcement agencies. The House version of the president’s budget bill proposes $45 billion for immigration detention, more than 10 times the current budget.

 

“Liberal” Democrats Attack Immigrants’ Medical Care.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a budget on June 27 that relied on scaling back health care for undocumented immigrants, even as he and other California Democrats have condemned the Trump administration for cracking down on immigrant workers. In signing the budget, Newsom backtracked on his earlier pledge to insure all low-income residents, regardless of their immigration status.

 

San Pedro Protest

A key organizer and chairperson of the vigil and rally, Maya Suzuki Daniels, addressed the crowd with urgency and conviction.

“As educators, parents, union members, Terminal Island descendants and community advocates, we are demanding that ICE and DHS stop using Terminal Island as a staging ground for their activities in Los Angeles,” Daniels said. “They have unleashed a wave of terror on our city that has impacted small businesses, student attendance and community events. We are calling on our elected leaders to make good on their commitments and get ICE out of LA. We can no longer believe their empty promises about a ‘sanctuary city’ when we see our neighbors, friends and family members brutally kidnapped without warning or due process. The shameful brutality must end.”

The San Pedro protest, held June 27, was one of hundreds nationwide in response to recent ICE raids. The harbor town, where 40% of U.S. imports arrive, drew a crowd of approximately 200 union members, elected officials, religious leaders and community activists.

One of the speakers, Chavo Romero of Unión del Barrio, told the crowd: “We are here to support and train residents for community patrols because they are on the front lines in a political skirmish. Their monitoring of police and ICE actions helps our people and led to the discovery that Terminal Island has 40 to 50 vehicles acting as strike forces leaving every day to kidnap our people. This experiment in repressive tactics in LA is being used to test strategies that will later be deployed in cities across the country.”

United Teachers Los Angeles had a sizable presence. Representing local schools, Maria Miranda addressed the crowd: “The violence will not end until we put an end to it. When I see la migra beat down a man or woman, I see my father or my mother.”

A delegation from Nikkei Progressives, a Japanese American organization, also participated. Representative Joy Yamaguchi spoke about the painful legacy of state-sanctioned detention.

“The taking of immigrants is all too familiar to us,” Yamaguchi said, referencing the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. “We know what happened. It is up to us to make the change. ICE out of LA! We demand that the LAPD stop assisting with the arrests.”

Local politicians and clergy also addressed the crowd. The LA Hands Off Cuba Committee distributed a statement criticizing media narratives and connecting U.S. immigration policy to foreign policy.

“The media gives false narratives of ICE raids, like those spread for decades against Cuba,” the statement read. “A 1960 State Department memo detailed how the blockade in Cuba’s case was explicitly designed to deny ‘money and supplies … to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.’

“Washington uses Cubans who come here, as a result of the hardships its own blockade, trade and travel bans, and sanctions have created, as pawns in its political and economic war. Most Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and other immigrants felt forced to come here because of similar anti-democratic and economic strategies. We won’t let Washington justify its brutal anti-immigrant attacks by trying to convince us that victims of its policies are now the criminals.”

San Pedro and Long Beach to Host Olympic Sailing Competitions

Reporters Desk
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San Pedro and Long Beach to Host Olympic Sailing Competitions

LA28 Games announced on June 30 that the sailing events for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028 would be held in San Pedro and Long Beach. In particular, the Port of Los Angeles will host six sailing events: men’s and women’s dinghy, men’s and women’s Skiff, mixed dinghy and mixed multihull. Belmont Shore in Long Beach will host four events: men’s and women’s windsurfing and men’s and women’s kite.

The competitions will be staged consecutively, first with the Long Beach competitions, then the San Pedro ones.

This is not the first time the Olympics have been to either location, the Port of LA hosted sailing competitions at its outer harbor in 1932, and Long Beach hosted sailing in 1984.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/San-Pedro-games

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