The Trump administration asked a federal appeals court Monday to allow immigration agents to resume unfettered raids across Southern California, seeking to overturn a federal judge’s order in Los Angeles that barred “roving patrols” in seven counties.
The order “is inflicting irreparable harm by preventing the Executive from ensuring that immigration laws are enforced, severely infringing on the President’s Article II authority,” Department of Justice lawyers wrote in a motion asking for an emergency stay on Monday. “These harms will be compounded the longer that injunction is in place.”
After weeks of aggressive sweeps by masked and heavily armed federal agents, the operations seemingly ceased in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties following a temporary restraining order granted Friday night by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.
A coalition of civil rights groups and private attorneys sued the federal government, challenging the cases of three immigrants and two U.S. citizens swept up in chaotic arrests that have sown terror and sparked widespread protest since June 6.
“It should tell you everything you need to know that the federal government is rushing to appeal an order that instructs them only to follow the Constitution,” said Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney with ACLU of Southern California, who argued the case. “We look forward to defending the temporary restraining order and ensuring that communities across Southern California are safe from the federal government’s violence.”
Despite arguments from the Trump administration that its tactics are valid, Frimpong ruled that using race, ethnicity, language, accent, location or employment as a pretext for immigration enforcement is forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The judge found that preventing detainees from meeting with lawyers violates the right to due process guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
“What the federal government would have this court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening,” she wrote.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem incorrectly referred to Frimpong as a man when responding to the order during a news conference Saturday, saying of the judge’s order: “He’s an idiot.”
“We have all the right in the world to go out on the streets and to uphold the law and to do what we’re going to do. So none of our operations are going to change,” Noem said. “We’re going to appeal it and we’re going to win.”
In addition to blocking roving patrols, the judge also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to open part of its detention facility in Downtown Los Angeles to attorneys and legal aid groups.
“While the district court injunction is a significant victory for immigrants, the whiplash of court orders and appeals breeds uncertainty,” said Ming Hsu Chen, a professor at UC Law San Francisco. “That form of real-world insecurity weakens communities and undermines democratic values in places like LA.”
The Trump administration did not immediately contest the 5th Amendment portion of the ruling. Instead, its attacked the 4th Amendment claim, seeking a stay that would immediately restore the status quo for immigration agents across Southern California while the case is heard by judges from the higher court.
“It is untenable for a district judge to single-handedly ‘restructure the operations’ of federal immigration enforcement,” the appeal argued. “This judicial takeover cannot be allowed to stand.”
But some experts say that’s unlikely.
“Their argument [is] the sky’s falling,” said professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond. “They make very extreme arguments, and that doesn’t necessarily help their case in the 9th Circuit.”
The appeal escalates an already fierce and sprawling legal battle over Trump’s promised mass deportations and the means used to achieve it.
After the president deployed troops to quell anti-ICE protests in June, California sued and won a temporary restraining order that would have stripped the president of command.
The appellate panel swiftly blocked that decision, before overturning it in mid-June, leaving thousands of soldiers in Trump’s hands.
But the Trump appointee who authored the June 19 ruling, Judge Mark J. Bennett of Honolulu, also bristled at the government’s argument that the president’s actions in the case were “unreviewable.”
“Some of the things they say are unorthodox, arguments we don’t usually hear in court,” Chen said. “Instead of framing this as executive overreach, they’re saying the judiciary’s efforts to put limits on executive power is judicial overreach.”
Last week, another 9th Circuit judge challenged that June decision, petitioning the court to rehear the issue with a larger “en banc” panel — a move that could nudge the case to the Supreme Court.
“Before [courts] became so politicized, many judges would often defer to the 3-judge panels that first heard appeals, because they trusted their colleagues,” Tobias said. “Increasing politicization of most appeals courts and somewhat decreased collegiality complicate efforts to predict how the Ninth’s judges will vote in this case.”
Meanwhile, California is gathering evidence to bolster its claim that Marines and National Guard forces participating in immigration enforcement run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids using soldiers to enforce civilian laws.
Compared to those questions, the legal issues in the L.A. appeal are simple, experts said.
“What makes this case different is how much it’s based on facts,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. “It’s much harder for an appellate court to overturn a trial court finding of fact then it is with regard to legal conclusions.”
The city and county of Los Angeles are among the local governments seeking to join a lawsuit calling on the Trump administration to stop “unlawful detentions” during ongoing immigration sweeps in Southern California.
On Tuesday, the governments filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel and immigrant rights groups against the Trump administration last week.
The lawsuit claims that the region is “under siege” by federal agents and aims to stop federal agencies from an “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids.
“These unconstitutional roundups and raids cannot be allowed to continue. They cannot become the new normal,” said Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Feldstein Soto was joined by Mayor Karen Bass and officials from other cities also seeking to join the lawsuit.
The motion from the local governments comes as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Southern California enters its second month. Between June 6 and June 22, federal agents arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Day in and day out, there is no telling who these federal agents will target or when they will strike, since they refuse to coordinate with local authorities,” attorney John Schwab, who is representing Los Angeles and other cities, wrote in the motion to intervene. “All that is certain is that Defendants’ aim is to instill maximum fear in … communities and wreak havoc on the economy of one of the most diverse and vibrant areas in the country.”
The motion argues that the immigration raids are obstructing local governments’ ability to perform critical law enforcement functions and depriving them of tax revenue because of a slowdown in the local economy.
L.A. County and some cities — Culver City, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena — hope to become part of the lawsuit at a hearing Thursday where a judge will consider issuing a temporary restraining order that would bar the administration from making unconstitutional immigration arrests.
“How do we know the difference between this and a kidnapping?” Bass asked at the news conference.
In a statement, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said, “For the past month, we’ve seen individuals picked up at car washes and Home Depot parking lots, then simply disappear without warrants, probable cause, or due process … These actions have created fear, trauma, and instability in our communities. Small businesses are suffering. People are afraid to go to work, take their kids to school, or ride public transportation.”
Feldstein Soto stressed that a temporary restraining order would not stop the Trump administration from conducting legal civil immigration enforcement in L.A.
In a court filing opposing the temporary restraining order, U.S. Department of Justice attorneys argued that L.A. and the other local governments were trying to “interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law.”
L.A. officials had already been considering a lawsuit before filing the motion Tuesday. Seven City Council members signed onto a proposal asking Feldstein Soto to prioritize “immediate legal action” to protect the civil rights of Angelenos. Feldstein Soto said her office would soon have more announcements on litigation against the administration.
The Trump administration has sued the city of Los Angeles as well, claiming that its sanctuary policy is illegal and discriminates against federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a warm day, wiped his brow and pointed out the Folgers coffee can in the corner of his office.
He’s told the story many times, but felt it was worth repeating, given recent events.
For years, Gordo’s parents were undocumented. They crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, when he was a young child, settled in Pasadena and raised their family. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher and cook; his mother was a seamstress in a factory that used to be across from City Hall. The family lived in a converted garage.
“Under my parents’ bed was a Folgers coffee can, and in that can was cash, a list of names and phone numbers, copies of birth certificates and identification cards,” said Gordo, who was the oldest child and describes himself as a latchkey kid.
“If my parents didn’t come home, I was to take that can and go knock on the neighbor’s house” and get help, Gordo said.
The can in his office isn’t the original. It’s a replica, and a reminder.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant parents.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
With federal raids across Southern California, families and neighborhoods have been reeling. People have been afraid to leave the house following arrests at car washes, building supply centers, restaurants, the Garment District and street vending locations.
Gordo knows how they feel.
“We lived in fear, and that’s what’s so offensive about this, and painful, frankly,” he said.
In Pasadena, Gordo said, it hasn’t been clear whether the sweeps are being conducted by legit federal agents or vigilantes. Their cars are unmarked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms don’t answer any questions.
In recent days, a man exited a vehicle in Pasadena and pointed a gun in the direction of protesters before speeding away, emergency lights flashing. At a bus stop, several men were detained, some of whom were on their way to work on construction sites in the post-fire rebuilding of Altadena, according to Gordo.
And the city canceled some swimming and other recreational programs Saturday amid fears of increased federal enforcement activity. Gordo told The Times that masked men with guns and vests had chased several men at Villa Parke.
“They’re creating volatile, dangerous situations,” Gordo told me, saying he fears that bullets will fly through neighborhoods, or that police will arrive on scene and not know what’s what or who’s who.
Even people with legal status are wary, Gordo said, because some of the raids appear to be arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Uranga reported, the majority of those arrested in the first 10 days of June in Southern California had no criminal records, despite Trump’s vow to reel in “the worst of the worst.”
“I’m carrying my passport with me,” Gordo said.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo outside City Hall in Pasadena.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“The overreach is stigmatizing an entire swath of our society. Whether you look or sound like an immigrant, in the eyes of others, you are automatically considered an outsider, and that’s morally and legally wrong.”
Gordo’s positions on immigration enforcement haven’t always gotten straight A’s from immigrant rights advocates. In 2017, L.A. Progressive said Gordo’s coffee can story was compelling, but accused the then-councilman of waffling on a proposed city ordinance prohibiting police contacts with any federal law enforcement agencies.
The article said Gordo was opposed to local police “having contacts with ICE,” but said on one occasion that he “favored an exception for bad guys.”
Gordo ultimately voted in favor of that ordinance, which passed unanimously, and told me he feels now as he did then. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and create opportunities for their families, he said. Same as his family. But there have to be consequences for “bad actors,” he added, and that’s a criminal justice matter, not an immigration issue.
“If the federal government or our own police believe there is someone who has violated the law, they should address that issue,” Gordo said. “But they should do it respecting the Constitution of the United States, and what the federal government is doing now is missing due process.”
Also missing, says Gordo, is any conversation about immigration reform that would serve the needs of employers and give immigrants a pathway to making even greater contributions.
He recalled that when he was about 10, his family moved back to Mexico temporarily as part of the process of establishing legal status in the U.S., which was made possible under the Carter administration. His father is a U.S. citizen, as was his late mother. Gordo and a sibling became attorneys; another is a doctor and yet another is an educator.
Now, said Gordo, there’s no path to legalization. There’s just this hypocritical system in which there is demand for immigrant labor in many industries, along with demonization of these very contributors.
Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told me he’s had differences with Gordo over the years. But he thinks the events of the last month have prompted the mayor to more fully embrace his immigrant identity.
“He’s stepping up to the moment and I’m very proud of what he’s doing,” said Alvarado, who has joined Gordo at vigils and demonstrations. “It’s one thing to tell the story of where you came from, and another thing to … confront the powers … behind these unlawful ICE operations. … I think he’s been fearless.”
Gordo told me he visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 18, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), to check on arrestees. They were denied entry, but Gordo met a distraught woman from Pomona who was not being allowed to deliver heart medication to her husband.
Gordo offered his services as an attorney and was allowed entry along with the woman. He said he later learned that the husband had been arrested during his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been in the country 22 years with no criminal record and was in the process of obtaining a green card.
Gordo said that when he and the woman entered the detention center, the husband and wife were separated by a glass partition.
“She was crying and shaking,” Gordo said. “He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was comforting her, and trying to smile.”
The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t fit their hands through it, but Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.
“All she could muster was, ‘I told you,’” Gordo said. “‘I told you not to go to work.’”
WASHINGTON — Between June 6 and June 22, immigration enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS did not respond to requests for information on how many of those arrested had criminal histories and a breakdown of those convictions.
As immigration arrests have occurred across Southern California, demonstrators have protested the federal government’s actions and bystanders have sometimes confronted immigration officers or videotaped their actions. Between June 6 and June 22, 787 people have been arrested for assault, obstruction and unlawful assembly, a DHS spokesperson said.
Figures about the Los Angeles operation released by the White House on June 11 indicated that about one third of those arrested up until that point had prior criminal convictions.
The “area of responsibility” for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the Central Coast, as well as Orange County to the south, Riverside County to the east and up the coast to San Luis Obispo County.
Data from the first days of the Los Angeles enforcement operation show that a majority of those arrested had never been charged with or convicted of a crime.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Monday that 75% of nationwide arrests under the Trump administration have been of immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges. But data published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement show that figure is lower in recent weeks.
Nationally, the number of people arrested without criminal convictions has jumped significantly and many of those are nonviolent offenders, according to nonpublic data obtained by the Cato Institute that covers the period from last Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, to June 15. The most frequent crimes are immigration and traffic offenses.
Serious violent offenders account for just 7% of those in custody, according to Cato.
Immigration enforcement officers have recently intensified efforts to deliver on President Trump’s promise of mass deportations. In California, that has meant arrests of people in courthouses, on farms and in Home Depot parking lots.
But, with a daily goal of 3,000 arrests nationwide, administration officials still complain that agents are failing to arrest enough immigrants.
Democrats and immigrant community leaders argue that agents are targeting people indiscriminately. Despite the chaotic nature of the raids and protests in Los Angeles, 1,618 arrests by DHS in southern California over more than two weeks is about 101 arrests per day — a relatively small contribution to the daily nationwide goal.
Perhaps the bigger achievement than the arrests themselves, advocates say, is the fear that those actions have stoked.
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
ADELANTO, Calif. — As federal immigration agents conduct mass raids across Southern California, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center is filling so rapidly it is reigniting longtime concerns about safety conditions inside the facility.
In less than two months, the number of detainees in the sprawling complex about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles has surged from around 300 near the end of April to more than 1,200 as of Wednesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The largest detention center in California, Adelanto has for years been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services.
But now, critics — including some staff who work inside — warn that conditions inside have become increasingly unsafe and unsanitary. The facility, they say, is woefully unprepared to handle a massive increase in the number of detainees.
Share via
“It’s dangerous,” a longtime Adelanto detention center staff member told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to lose their job. “We have no staffing for this and not enough experienced staff. They’re just cutting way too many corners, and it affects the safety of everybody in there.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured Adelanto with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid growing concern over the rapidly increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside the facility.
The facility’s manager “has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees,” Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility for nearly two hours.
Some detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms.
“I was just really shocked to hear that they couldn’t get a change of underwear, they couldn’t get socks for 10 days,” Chu told The Times. “They can’t get the PIN number for a telephone call. What about their legal rights? What about the ability to be in contact with their families? That is inhumane.”
Immigration Customs and Enforcement and GEO Group, the Florida-based private prison corporation that manages the Adelanto detention center, did not answer The Times’ questions about staffing or conditions inside the facility. The Times also sent questions to Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, but they were not answered.
Lucero Garcia, third from left, gave an emotional account about her uncle who was taken from his work at an Orange County car wash. She and others were outside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on Tuesday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Over the last two weeks, new detainees have been forced to sleep on the floors of common areas without blankets and pillows and have spent days in the facility before they were provided with clean clothes and underwear, according to interviews with current detention center staff, immigration attorneys, and members of Congress who toured the facility. Some detainees have complained about lack of access to medication, lack of access to drinking water for four hours, and being served dinner as late as 10 p.m.
One detainee was not allowed his high blood pressure pills when family tried to bring it in, said Jennifer Norris, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. In some cases, she said, lax medical care has led to emergencies: a Vietnamese man passed out last week because staff didn’t provide him with his necessary medication.
“It’s clear that with the ramp up enforcement, Adelanto just does not have the staff to keep pace with the aggressive enforcement that’s happening now,” Norris said. “It is bizarre. We spend millions of dollars on ICE detention and they’re not even able to provide basic necessities for the new arrivals.”
Long before Trump administration officials announced in May they were setting a new national goal of arresting 3,000 unauthorized immigrants a day, Adelanto workers worried about understaffing and unsafe conditions as the center processed new detainees.
At the end of last year, the facility held only three people. As of Wednesday, the number had swelled to 1,218, according to the ACLU of Southern California.
The climb is only partly due to the ICE agents’ recent escalation of immigrant raids.
The 1,940-bed Adelanto facility has been operating at a dramatically reduced capacity since 2020 when civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit demanding a drastic reduction in the number of people detained at Adelanto on the basis that they faced severe risk of contracting COVID-19. A federal judge forced the detention center to release detainees and prohibit new intakes and transfers.
But a series of federal court orders this year — the most recent in early June — has allowed the facility to fully reopen just as federal immigration agents fan out into neighborhoods and workplaces.
“As soon as the judge lifted the order, they just started slamming people in there,” an Adelanto staffer told The Times.
Eva Bitrán, director of immigrant rights at the ACLU of Southern California, said “almost everybody” held in the Adelanto facility had no criminal record before they arrived in the detention center.
“But even if they had a criminal record, even if they had served their time in criminal custody and then been brought to the ICE facility, nobody deserves 10 days in the same underwear,” Bitrán said. “Nobody deserves dirty showers, nobody deserves moldy food.”
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Mario Romero, an Indigenous worker from Mexico who was detained June 6 at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse in downtown L.A., was one of dozens who ended up in Adelanto.
His daughter, Yurien Contreras, said she and her family were traumatized after her father was “chained by the hands, feet and waist,” taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown and then “held hostage” in a van from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. with no access to water, food or a restroom.
“Little did we know,” she said, “it was only the beginning of the inhumane treatment our families would endure.”
At Adelanto, she said, officials try to force her father to sign documents without due process or legal representation. The medical care was “less than minimal,” she said, the food was unsustainable and the water tasted like Clorox.
Yurien Contreras’ father was taken by ICE agents from his workplace at Ambiance Apparel in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Lucero Garcia told The Times she was concerned about her 61-year-old uncle, Candido, who was detained June 9 as he worked at his job at Magnolia Car Wash in Fountain Valley.
But when she visited him Saturday, “he didn’t want to share much,” she said. “He’s worried more about us.”
This is not the first time the Adelanto detention center has faced scrutiny.
In 2018, federal inspectors issued a report finding “serious violations” at the facility, including overly restrictive detainee segregation and guards failing to stop detainees from hanging braided bed sheet “nooses.”
But two staffers who spoke to The Times said they had never experienced such unsafe conditions at Adelanto.
As the prison population has increased over the last few months, they said, staff are working long hours without breaks, some even falling asleep driving home after their shifts and having car accidents. Shift duty officers with no security experience were being asked to make decisions in the middle of the night about whether to put detainees who felt threatened in protective custody. Officers, including people from food service, were being sent to the hospital to check on detainees with tuberculosis and hepatitis.
“Everyone’s just overwhelmed,” a staffer said.
Officers working over their allotted schedules were often tired when they were on duty, another staffer said.
In May, a detainee went into anaphylactic shock and ended up intubated in the hospital, the staffer said, because an officer wasn’t paying attention or was new and gave the detainee, who’s allergic to seafood, a tray that contained tuna.
At a May meeting, the warden told all executive staff that they needed to come to work dressed down on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the staffer said, because they would have to start doing janitorial work.
On June 2, a detainee at the Annex facility made his way from a medical holding area, through four locked doors, all the way back to his dorm unescorted, the staffer said — a major security breach.
“If he would’ve wanted to escape he would’ve been gone,” the staffer said. “All he did is push the buttons to access the doors and they were open for him, no questions. Apparently, whoever was in central control was too tired to check or too inexperienced.”
The detention center was becoming unsanitary, the staffer said, with trash bins not promptly emptied, bathrooms not cleaned and floors not mopped as they should be.
As new waves of detainees flooded into the facility over the last two weeks, the staffer said, the facility was chaotic and lacking basic supplies.
“We didn’t have enough to provide right away,” they said, “so we’re scrambling to get clothes and mattresses.”
Mark Ferretiz, who worked as a cook supervisor at Adelanto for 14 years until April, said former colleagues told him officers were working 16- to 20-hour shifts multiple days in a row without breaks, officers were slow to respond to physical fights between detainees, and food was limited for detainees.
“They had five years to prepare,” Ferretiz, who had served as a union steward, said of his former supervisors. “I don’t know the reason why they weren’t prepared.”
While the supply shortages appeared to ease some in recent days — a shipment of clothes and mattresses had arrived by Tuesday, when members of Congress toured — the detention center was still understaffed, the current staffer said.
Detainees were being served food on paper clam-shell to-go boxes, rather than regular trays, a staffer said, because the facility lacked employees to wash up at the end of mealtimes.
“Trash pickup’s not coming fast enough, ” a staffer said, noting that piles of trash sat outside, bagged up, beside the dumpsters.
In a statement last week, GEO Group Executive Chairman George C. Zoley said fully opening the Adelanto facility would allow his company to generate about $31 million in additional annualized revenues.
“We are proud of our approximately 350 employees at the Adelanto Center, whose dedication and professionalism have allowed GEO to establish a long-standing record of providing high-quality support services on behalf of ICE in the state of California,” Zoley said.
But after touring the facility, members of Congress said officials did not provide answers to basic questions.
When Chu asked officials about whether California immigrants were being taken to other states, she said, they said, “We don’t know.”
President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order giving TikTok a 90-day extension to work out a deal with the U.S. government that addresses security concerns over the app’s ties to China.
Significant pressure has been placed on TikTok, known for its popular social video app, after a law was signed in 2024 that required TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations of TikTok or the app would be banned in the U.S.
The new order signed by Trump will give TikTok an extension until Sept. 17. During that period, the Justice Department will not enforce the 2024 law that would have banned TikTok in the country or impose penalties on companies that distribute TikTok, the order said.
“We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office,” TikTok said in a statement.
TikTok has a large presence in Southern California, with offices in Culver City that serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters, and many video creators in the L.A. area produce content for TikTok.
The app has interested buyers, including Amazon and an investment group led by Frank McCourt, a former Dodgers owner, whose bid includes “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary. San Francisco artificial intelligence company Perplexity said in March it wants to “rebuild the TikTok algorithm.”
Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to wage war on illegal immigration the likes of which the United States has never seen. His first big campaign — launched against Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, of course — has proceeded with predictably disastrous results.
On social media Sunday, Trump cawed that he has “directed my entire Administration” to concentrate on identifying and removing as many illegal immigrants as possible as quickly as possible. He vowed especially to crack down on sanctuary cities across the country to supposedly “reverse the tide of Mass Destruction Migration that has turned once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia.” (His Restoration-era capitalization, not mine).
Yet in the president’s social media blathering last week came something shocking: an admission that deportations don’t really work.
For decades, study after study across the political spectrum have shown that illegal immigrants not only don’t take jobs away from native-born U.S. citizens or depress their wages, but that removing them usually makes the economy worse.
There’s the liberal-leaning American Immigration Council, which predicted last year that a decadelong campaign to achieve Trump’s goal of booting 1 million illegal immigrants a year would shave off at least 4.2% from the U.S. gross domestic product. That number is on par with the Great Recession of 2008.
There’s the 618-page tome released in 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and overseen by 14 professors. It concluded that “immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.” and also noted that “the rate of unemployment for native workers decline” with “larger immigration flows.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected last year that the surge in migration during the Biden administration would at first depress wages of native-born workers and legal immigrants but eventually help them increase over a decade.
Center for Immigration Studies director of research Steven Camarota — a man whose whole public persona is arguing that too much immigration of any kind is detrimental to the U.S. — claimed in prepared remarks before Congress last year that his group had “good evidence that immigration reduces wages and employment for some U.S.-born workers.” But he also admitted that parsing out how illegal immigration impacts the job market “is difficult.”
Meanwhile, a 2024 Brookings Institute paper found that three of the five professions with the highest number of illegal immigrants were in the hospitality, agricultural and restaurant industry and that U.S. citizens don’t work in those fields at the rate undocumented people do.
No wonder that later in the day after Trump’s social media about-face, the New York Times reported that a memo went out to ICE regional leaders urging them to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.”
So why pursue mass deportations at all if there’s mucho evidence that they negatively effect American-born workers, a group Trump claims he wants to restore to greatness?
There’s really only one explanation: terror.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks with the media outside the White House.
(Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s main adviser on all things immigration is Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has long advocated for a scorched-earth campaign and dressed down ICE agents just last month for not nabbing and deporting people faster, damn the cost.
The Santa Monica native absorbed this apocalyptic vision from conservative activists in California, who cast the fight against illegal immigration while he was growing up in the 1990s and 2000s not just in economic terms but cultural ones. Xenophobia has always colored this nation’s past crackdowns on immigration legal and not, but the Golden State became a noxious cauldron whose anti-immigrant fumes have infested Americans in a way not seen in a century.
That’s what makes Trump’s campaign so dangerous. His seeming softening against farmers, restaurateurs and hoteliers shows that he knows the country can’t weather the disruptions that deportations cause to important sectors of our economy. If he just took a dollars-and-cents approach to illegal immigration and stopped the language about “Migrant Invasion” destroying big cities, Trump wouldn’t get such righteous pushback from so many.
But that’s not who he is. He inveighs the way he does because he wants undocumented people and the people who care for them to live in fear, to see him as a potentate who can deport people or leave them alone at his mercy and whim.
The historical precedent that Trump wants la migra to follow is Operation Wetback, an Eisenhower administration program the immigration authorities claimed back then deported 1.3 million illegal immigrants in 1954 alone and improved the economic conditions of Americans. Then and now, authorities said people without papers were ruining it for citizens, were causing too much crime and that our southern border was out of control.
The only book-length study of the campaign remains Juan Ramón García’s 1980 “Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954.” The professor went through newspaper clippings, congressional testimony and government reports to paint a picture of a government hell-bent on splashy headlines to scare Mexican migrants into returning to their homeland and deterring others from making the trek to el Norte.
Garcia found that government officials had exaggerated their claims because “they realized that the more impressive the figures, the better congressional response might be to requests for increased budgetary support.”
A 1954 photograph of undocumented Mexican workers (identified as “wetbacks” in a handwritten notation on the negative) awaiting deportation by U.S. authorities to Mexico.
(Los Angeles Times)
Operation Wetback didn’t usher in a new era of American worker prosperity but rather emboldened employers to exploit legal immigrants and citizens who filled in the jobs that illegal immigrants once occupied, Garcia found. It also “helped to strengthen feelings of alienation from U.S. society and to cause further mistrust of the government” for Mexican Americans. You’re seeing that play out right now, as young Latinos wave the flags of Mexico and other Latin American countries and U.S. citizens are being detained by la migra.
Most damningly, the book concluded that Operation Wetback didn’t stop illegal immigration at all — a fact borne out by the fact that here we are arguing about the subject 71 years later. The mass deportations were just a “stopgap measure, doomed to go the way of most stopgap measures,” Garcia wrote, because this country can never quit “the seemingly insatiable appetite for cheap labor” that it’s always had.
Someone tell that to Trump so he stops this madness once and for all.
Driverless Waymo vehicles, coated with graffiti and engulfed in flames. Masked protesters, dancing and cavorting around burning American flags. Anonymous figures brazenly blocking streets and shutting down major freeways, raining bottles and rocks on the police, while their compatriots waved Mexican flags.
The images flowing out of Los Angeles over nearly a week of protests against federal immigration raids have cast America’s second most populous city as a terrifying hellscape, where lawbreakers rule the streets and regular citizens should fear to leave their homes.
In the relentless fever loop of online and broadcast video, it does not matter that the vast majority of Los Angeles neighborhoods remain safe and secure. Digital images create their own reality and it’s one that President Trump and his supporters have used to condemn L.A. as a place that is “out of control” and on the brink of total collapse.
The images and their true meaning and context have become the subject of a furious debate in the media and among political partisans, centered on the true roots and victims of the protests, which erupted on Friday as the Trump administration moved aggressively to expand its arrests of undocumented immigrants.
As the president and his supporters in conservative media tell it, he is the defender of law and order and American values. They cast their opponents as dangerous foreign-born criminals and their feckless enablers in the Democratic Party and mainstream media.
The state’s political leaders and journalists offer a compelling rebuttal: that Trump touched off several days of protest and disruption with raids that went far beyond targeting criminals, as he previously promised, then escalated the conflict by taking the highly unusual step of sending the National Guard and Marines to Southern California.
Reaction to the raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the subsequent turmoil will divide Americans on what have become partisan lines that have become so predictable they are “calcified,” said Lynn Vavreck, a political science professor at UCLA.
“The parties want to build very different worlds, voters know it, and they know which world they want to live in,” said Vavreck, who has focused on the country’s extreme political polarization. “And because the parties are so evenly divided, and this issue is so personal to so many, the stakes are very high for people.”
1
2
3
4
5
1.A demonstrator waves a Mexican flag as a fire that was set on San Pedro street burns on Monday night.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)2.Protesters continue to clash with the Los Angeles Police Department in downtown on Monday.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)3.Protesters continue to clash with the Los Angeles Police Department in downtown Los Angeles on Monday.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)4.Anti-ICE protesters face off with the LAPD on Temple St. on Monday.(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)5.Flowers lay at the feet of federalized California National Guard members as they guard the Federal Building on Tuesday.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
As a curfew was imposed Tuesday, the sharpest street confrontations appeared to be fading and a national poll suggested Americans have mixed feelings about the events that have dominated the news.
The YouGov survey of 4,231 people found that 50% disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of deportations, compared with 39% who approve. Pluralities of those sampled also disagreed with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Southern California.
But 45% of those surveyed by YouGov said they disapprove of the protests that began after recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. Another 36% approved of the protests, with the rest unsure how they feel.
Faced with a middling public response to the ICE raids and subsequent protests, Trump continued to use extreme language to exaggerate the magnitude of the public safety threat and to take credit for the reduction in hostilities as the week progressed.
In a post on his TruthSocial site, he suggested that, without his military intervention, “Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost. Los Angeles right now would be on fire.”
A large crowd hold their fist up with faith leaders outside the Federal building in downtown Los Angeles as demonstrators protest immigration raids in L.A. on Tuesday,.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
In reality, agitators set multiple spot fires in a few neighborhoods, including downtown Los Angeles and Paramount, but the blazes in recent days were tiny and quickly controlled, in contrast to the massive wildfires that devastated broad swaths of Southern California in January.
Trump’s hyperbole continued in a fundraising appeal to his supporters Tuesday. In it, he again praised his decision to deploy the National Guard (without the approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom), concluding: “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
The Republican had assistance in fueling the sense of unease.
His colleagues in Congress introduced a resolution to formally condemn the riots. “Congress steps in amid ‘out-of-control’ Los Angeles riots as Democrats resist federal help,” Fox News reported on the resolution, being led by Rep. Young Kim of Orange County.
A journalist based in New Delhi pronounced, based on unspecified evidence, that Los Angeles “is descending into a full-blown warzone.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins suggested that the harm from the protesters was spreading; announcing in a social media post that a care center for vets in downtown L.A. had been temporarily closed.
“To the violent mobs in Los Angeles rioting in support of illegal immigrants and against the rule of law,” his post on X said, “your actions are interfering with Veterans’ health care.”
A chyron running with a Fox News commentary suggested “Democrats have lost their mind,” as proved by their attempts to downplay the anti-ICE riots.
Many Angelenos mocked the claims of a widespread public safety crisis. One person on X posted a picture of a dog out for a walk along a neatly kept sidewalk in a serene neighborhood, with the caption: “Los Angeles just an absolute warzone, as you can see.”
Federal officers and the National Guard protect the Federal building in downtown Los Angeles as demonstrators protest on Tuesday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
In stark contrast to the photos of Waymo vehicles burning and police cars being pelted with rocks, a video on social media showed a group of protestors line dancing. “Oh my God! They must be stopped before their peaceful and joy filled dance party spreads to a city near you!” the caption read. “Please send in the Marines before they start doing the Cha Cha and the Macarena!”
And many people noted on social media that Sunday’s Pride parade in Hollywood for the LGBTQ+ community went off without incident, as reinforced by multiple videos of dancers and marchers celebrating along a sun-splashed parade route.
But other activists and Democrats signaled that they understand how Trump’s position can be strengthened if it appears they are condoning the more extreme episodes that emerged along with the protests — police being pelted with bottles, businesses being looted and buildings being defaced with graffiti.
On Tuesday, an X post by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reiterated her earlier admonitions: “Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalized Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities,” the mayor wrote. “You will be held accountable.”
The activist group Occupy Democrats posted a message online urging protesters to show their disdain for the violence and property damage.
“The moment violence of property damage begins, EVERY OTHER PROTESTER must immediately sit on the floor or the ground in silence, with signs down,” the advisory suggested. “The media needs to film this. This will reveal paid fake thugs posing as protesters becoming violent. ….The rest of us will demonstrate our non-violent innocence and retain our Constitutional right to peaceful protest.”
Craig Silverman, a journalist and cofounder of Indicator, a site that investigates deception on digital platforms, said that reporting on the context and true scope of the protests would have a hard time competing with the visceral images broadcast into Americans’ homes.
“It’s inevitable that the most extreme and compelling imagery will win the battle for attention on social media and on TV,” Silverman said via email. “It’s particularly challenging to deliver context and facts when social platforms incentivize the most shocking videos and claims, federal and state authorities offer contradictory messages about what’s happening.”
Dan Schnur, who teaches political science at USC and UC Berkeley, agreed. “The overwhelming majority of the protesters are peaceful,” Schnur said, “but they don’t do stories on all the planes that land safely at LAX, either.”
Protesters march in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Though it might be too early to assess the ultimate impact of the L.A. unrest, Schnur suggested that all of the most prominent politicians in the drama might have accomplished their messaging goals: Trump motivated his base and diverted attention from his nasty feud with his former top advisor, Elon Musk, and the lack of progress on peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. Newsom “effectively unified the state and elevated his national profile” by taking on Trump. And Bass, under tough scrutiny for her handling of the city’s wildfire disaster, has also gotten a chance to use Trump as a foil.
What was not disputed was that Trump’s rapid deployment of the National Guard, without the approval of Newsom, had little precedent. And sending the Marines to L.A. was an even more extreme approach, with experts saying challenges to the deployment would test the limits of Trump’s power.
The federal Insurrection Act allows the deployment of the military for law enforcement purposes, but only under certain conditions, such as a national emergency.
California leaders say Trump acted before a true emergency developed, thereby preempting standard protocols, including the institution of curfews and the mobilization of other local police departments in a true emergency.
Even real estate developer Rick Caruso, Bass’ opponent in the last election, suggested Trump acted too hastily.
“There is no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in Los Angeles,” Caruso wrote on X Sunday. “And absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the streets of this or any other Southern California City.”
“We must call for calm in the streets,” Caruso added, “and deployment of the National Guard may prompt just the opposite.”
Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited.
Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday marking the one-year countdown to the tournament’s kickoff, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee, acknowledges there’s still a lot of tidying up that has to be done before the guests arrive.
“As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces,” he said. “Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we signed up for this, we knew we would be working to the end to get ready.”
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest and most complex sporting event in history, with 48 national teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
With more than 6 million fans expected to attend matches and another 6 billion engaging globally, FIFA, the World Cup’s organizer, says the economic impact to the three countries could top $40 billion. But the number of obstacles host cities will have to negotiate are almost as large and complex as the tournament itself.
“Transportation, communications, ticketing, security, the fan fest,” Freedman said. “You name it.”
Hovering over it all like a black cloud are uncertainties over visas, which about half the fans coming to the U.S. for the tournament will need in order to enter the country.
Last week, the Trump administration reneged on a pledge to host an open World Cup by issuing a travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup. Citizens of seven other countries face severe restrictions in obtaining visas.
Before that, the State Department, which is charge of visa issuance, announced plans to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates and reduce its work force by 3,400 at a time when the average wait for a visa application appointment in some countries is more than a year.
And Southern California, which will host the U.S. national team’s first game, has experienced days of civil unrest sparked by widespread immigration raids. After protesters shut down freeways, burned cars and vandalized businesses, the national guard was deployed.
The turmoil could threaten the success of an event that Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive of the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission, considers both a unique opportunity and a major responsibility.
“The thing that keeps me awake at night is how quickly this has been,” she said. “We started in 2017 on this bid and it just always seemed like it was a long way away. Then, all of sudden, poof, we’re at one year out.”
“I want to make a positive impact on people and their memories,” she continued. “That, to me, is the biggest responsibility here because we’re not going to have this event here again in my lifetime. So this is the one opportunity of the world’s biggest event to really do some good in L.A.”
This is already the second World Cup played in the U.S. in Schloessman’s lifetime. The first, in 1994, was the most successful in history, setting records for average and overall attendance and returning a record $50-million profit to its organizing committee, headed by Alan Rothenberg.
A year out from that tournament, Rothenberg had far different concerns. The U.S. didn’t have a first-division soccer league then and its national team had played in just one World Cup since 1950. As a result, soccer was so foreign to most Americans, many of the nine stadiums selected to host games didn’t have fields wide enough to meet FIFA standards.
“We had a keen sense of confidence and yet, at the same time, total apprehension. Because nobody had ever done it before,” Rothenberg said.
“We were reasonably confident about how ticket sales were going to go. A lot was riding on the success of the [U.S.] team. If the team was an embarrassment it would be a real downcast over the entire operation.”
Instead, the U.S. drew Switzerland, beat Colombia and advanced to the knockout round, where it played eventual champion Brazil even for 70 minutes.
That World Cup also introduced a number of features that have since become common, such as fan fests and group-play victories counting for three points instead of two. It was also the first World Cup in which a temporary grass carpet was laid over an artificial-turf field; next summer eight of the 16 stadiums will do that.
Rothenberg even planned a halftime show for the final at the Rose Bowl, signing Whitney Houston to perform. FIFA nixed the idea then but has revived it for 2026.
“Everything we did was like a first, other than the actual playing of the matches,” Rothenberg said.
“I think it really took ‘94 to let the rest of the soccer world accept the fact that ‘OK, the U.S. can be part of our club.’ We were doing some unusual things. We were using celebrities and doing all kinds of entertainment events to build public interest. We had our legacy tour where we were going to city after city, basically traveling the country to get people interested.”
Fans pack the Rose Bowl during a World Cup match between Brazil and Italy on July 17, 1994.
(Lois Bernstein / Associated Press)
And Rothenberg could do that because, as president of U.S. Soccer and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee, he was in charge of the entire tournament. That has changed. FIFA now runs the show, overseeing each of the 16 World Cup cities, who are acting independently of one another.
The financial agreements between FIFA and the World Cup hosts have also changed, which is why it’s highly unlikely any future tournament will be as profitable for the host country as Rothenberg’s was for the U.S. In 1994, FIFA shared some of its earnings with local organizers, who were also allowed to cut their own sponsorship deals. That led to a $50 million surplus that funded the U.S. Soccer Foundation.
This time around FIFA is taking virtually all tournament-related revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcasting, even at the local level, while leaving host cities on the hook for public services, security and stadium operations. The relationship is so one-sided that Chicago, where the World Cup opened in 1994, backed out of the 2026 tournament citing the costs to the public.
Los Angeles threatened to pass on the tournament as well until a privately funded host committee made up of nearly a dozen local sports and civic organizations agreed to cover much of the risks to taxpayers.
In return, a report by Micronomics Economic Research and Consulting estimates Southern California will receive $594 million in economic impact from the tournament, including $343 million in direct spending on hotels, meals, transportation and other services from the estimated 180,000 out-of-town World Cup visitors.
But that’s assuming those visitors show up. According to the State Department website, wait times for a non-immigrant B1/B2 visa — the one World Cup visitors who do not qualify for a visa waiver will need to enter the U.S. — topped a year in Colombia, Honduras and several cities in Mexico.
And things may be getting worse.
“Based on our experience, the approval rate for B1/B2 tourist and/or temporary business visas in Colombia has changed,” said Pamela Monroy, a paralegal who helps prospective U.S. visitors through the immigration process. “There has been a considerable increase in the denial rate for this visa category. We believe this is a result of the ongoing policies and changes in immigration matters being implemented by the Donald Trump administration.”
Those kinds of stories worry Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose district borders SoFi Stadium. Last month Kamlager-Dove sent a letter, signed by a bipartisan group of more than 50 congressional representatives, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to “ensure expeditious and secure visa processing” for the World Cup.
In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kamlager-Dove is a member, Rubio promised he would. But the congresswoman has yet to see proof.
“Show me what that looks like,” she said Monday. “We’re not going to wait too long. We’re all unified, Republicans and Democrats. We want these games to be successful, want them to get their act together and are willing to work with one another to push the State Department to follow through on their commitment.”
The White House, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages. Last month, President Trump opened the first meeting of a task force on the World Cup by saying that “everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.”
A month later he signed the travel ban, effectively limiting the definition of “everyone.”
President Trump signs a soccer ball as Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, right, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino look on at Lusail Palace in Doha, Qatar, on May 14.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
At that same White House meeting in May, Vice President JD Vance, the co-chair of the task force, warned World Cup visitors that they would have to leave immediately after the tournament. “Otherwise,” he said “they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,” referring to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has detained and interrogated people with approved immigration documents at U.S. points of entry.
The last two World Cup hosts — Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022 — allowed visitors to enter their countries with a game ticket essentially doubling as their visa. Both governments also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the tournament.
Trump’s travel ban, which took effect Monday, bars travel to the U.S. for people in 12 countries and severely limits access to people from seven others. In addition to Iran, which has already assured itself a place in the 2026 tournament, those 19 countries include Sudan, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, whose teams still have a chance to earn World Cup bids via regional qualifying tournaments.
An exception to the travel ban will allow athletes, coaches and support staff into the U.S. but not fans, directly contradicting FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who told delegates at last month’s FIFA Congress that “the world is welcome in America … but definitely also all the fans.”
Infantino has built a relationship with Trump, attending the president’s inauguration in January. If the administration’s seemingly contradictory actions caught the FIFA leader by surprise, it also might have convinced some foreign soccer fans to not attend games in the U.S.
Marcel Ott, a 30-year-old software consultant from Leipzig, Germany, has long been saving for a trip to the World Cup but reports of German tourists being detained, some for weeks, at U.S. airports has led him to reconsider.
“Now I’m not so sure because of the political developments in the U.S.,” he said in German. “I don’t know if it’s worth the risk of getting stopped and detained at the airport and risk being deporting back to Germany.”
Germany is one of 42 countries whose citizens are eligible for the visa waiver program, which generally allows them to enter the U.S. for visits of up to 90 days without a visa. However, they must obtain Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and can be turned away at any point of entry by Customs and Border Protection officers.
Ott, who has attended two World Cups, said he may fly to Canada and try to enter the U.S. from there.
“If I get sent back at the border crossing to Canada, I won’t have to fly back to Germany right away,” he said. “I’m thinking the guards at the border to Canada might be a little more relaxed. And there are World Cup games in Canada, too, so it wouldn’t be so bad if I get sent back at the Canadian border.
“To be honest, I am still not sure what to do next year.”
A 21-member FIFA delegation visits SoFi Stadium in 2021.
(Los Angeles World Cup Host Committee)
Marlene, 33, who declined to give her last name, is also uncertain. A city government employee in Berlin, she attended the last two World Cups in Russia and Qatar and planned to travel to the U.S. next summer “but the general events and U.S. politics put me off. I think it would be better for me not to travel to the USA.”
But Volker Heun, who worked as a bank executive in the U.S. and once golfed with Trump, said those fears are misplaced, citing the nearly two million Germans who visited America without issue last year.
“This whole issue is being totally overblown in the German media,” said Heun, who plans to enter a World Cup lottery for tickets to multiple games. “The atmosphere is going to be great.”
In South Korea, Jo Ho-tae, who helps manage the Red Devils, a supporter group that recently followed the country’s national team to a qualifying match in Jordan, said he will rely on government officials to warn of potential problems.
“I haven’t thought too much about Trump’s immigration policy yet,” he said. “But who even knows if our matches will be held in the U.S. and not in Canada or Mexico?”
The White House could always reverse its immigration policy, as it has done repeatedly with tariffs, and prioritize visa requests for World Cup travelers. That’s the solution Freedman, L.A. organizing committee co-chair, is betting on.
“They are looking at this as a showcase event for the country and the host cities. And they understand, it seems, how important it is to welcome the world,” he said. “I am hopeful that it all gets sorted out in a good way.”
Many close observers of World Cup preparations share Freedman’s optimism.
Whether that cautious optimism is justified may soon be known. Tickets for the tournament are expected to go on sale this summer and the draw to determine matchups and venues for the group-play stage of the tournament will be held this winter. Those two events could go a long way toward determining how the World Cup plays out, said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises.
“There’s kind of this stopwatch that begins the moment the draw is complete to figure out [training] camps and logistics and visas and travel arrangements,” he said.
“I do think they’ll make it happen. Is that to say there won’t be any issues? Of course not. There was never going to be a scenario where there’s not significant challenges to get all these people into the country.
“There are times when the rhetoric seems to run contrary to what’s happening on the ground. But it does, at least for the moment, seem like they’re implementing changes that are ultimately going to be helpful.”
Baxter reported from Los Angeles, special correspondent Kirschbaum from Berlin and staff writer Max Kim from Seoul.
LA28 announced Honda its automotive partner for the L.A. Olympics on Monday, securing a major founding-level partnership that will help the private organizing committee cover its estimated $7 billion budget.
Honda, which opened its U.S. headquarters in L.A. in 1959 and is now based in Torrance, will work with LA28 on an accessible vehicle fleet that maximizes electric vehicles for the Games to help move athletes and officials around Southern California. The partnership will support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and the Summer Games in 2028.
Financial terms of the top-tier partnership were not announced. Honda joins Delta and Comcast as LA28’s founding partners expected to lead the way in covering the estimated $2.5 billion in corporate sponsorship needed to stage the first Summer Games held in the United States since 1996.
“As a privately funded games, our mandate is to generate the revenue we need to produce these Games,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said in an interview with The Times. “The biggest line item of that is sponsorship revenue. To be able to announce another big partner with a really spectacular brand who has been invested in Southern California for a long time is both [financially] important but also, in many ways, strategically important. It’s another brand that sees the power of our Olympic platform to tell their story in a community that’s very important to that industry that they’ve been invested in for a long time.”
Honda enters the Olympic and Paralympic arena after Toyota ended its long-running partnership with the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee after the 2024 Games. The Olympic Partners (TOP) program lost several major Japanese sponsors after the Paris Olympics, including Panasonic and Bridgestone, sending shockwaves through the Olympic and Paralympic movements. The TOP program accounts for roughly 30% of the IOC’s revenue — the largest share after broadcast rights — and a portion of the money from the top sponsors contributes to the budget of the national organizing committee’s plan to deliver the Games.
With three years before the Games, LA28 has announced several sponsorship deals in recent weeks. Aviation company Archer will provide air taxis to help alleviate traffic concerns. Saatva signed as the Games’ official mattress sponsor. Snowflake, a cloud-based data storage company, will assist athletes with training data and provide information on fan engagement.
The latest deal puts LA28 on pace to hit its goal of $2 billion in sponsorships by the end of 2025, Wasserman said. IOC contributions, ticket sales and merchandise are among the revenue streams that will help balance the budget. If LA28 goes over budget, Los Angeles city government has agreed to cover the first $270 million in debt with the state of California absorbing up to $270 million.
Along with vacation necessities such as sunblock and a toothbrush, Southern Californians hoping to get away for Memorial Day weekend will also need to bring a hefty supply of patience to freeways and airports.
A record-breaking number of people across the country are opting to travel rather than stay in for the long weekend— the official kickoff to summer, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California, or AAA.
In Southern California, about 3.6 million are expected hit the road or hop on a plane, the third consecutive year of record-breaking travel for Memorial Day weekend.
“Consumers continue to prioritize travel with family and friends after the pandemic,” Jena Miller, vice president of travel products for AAA, said in a statement.
Most people will be behind the wheel for their weekend getaways, according to AAA. Roughly 2.9 million people in Southern California are expected to hit the road starting Thursday, about 3.6% more than last year.
About 45.1 million people across the country will be traveling for the long weekend and most of them — about 39.4 million — will be driving, AAA estimates.
The automobile club said drivers will also be paying less with car rental costs expected to be about 8% lower than last year, and gas prices about 50 to 60 cents cheaper than last May.
More drivers means more potential gridlock, but the midmorning traveler has a better chance of being rewarded with a speedier commute. Experts say before noon is the best time for people to get on the road this weekend.
“Thursday, May 22 and Friday, May 23 are expected to be the busiest travel day,” Gianella Ghiglino, a spokesperson for AAA, said in a statement. “So if you are leaving those days, you want to make sure you avoid that morning rush hour and you still leave before noon.”
In Southern California, the busiest stretch of freeway is expected to be the 5 Freeway from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, where the typical 90-minute drive could take up to three hours during the worst times, according to AAA.
Vacationers looking to hop on a flight this weekend should be prepared for packed airports.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly 54,000 flights are scheduled Thursday, the busiest day of air travel for the weekend and one of the busiest days of the year so far at airports across the country.
That increase will come despite the fact that domestic flights cost about 2% more this year compared with 2024, according to AAA.
The Transportation Security Administration is bracing for the rush of travelers. The agency expects to screen about 18 million passengers and crew members between Thursday and Wednesday.
“TSA is ready for the additional passenger volume, and we look forward to welcoming families traveling during this peak period,” Ha McNeill, TSA acting administrator, said in a statement.
Officials are encouraging air passengers to ensure bags are compliant with TSA regulations and to bring a Real ID or other acceptable identification such as a passport.
A group of California legislators representing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta area said Tuesday that they will fight Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to build a $20-billion water tunnel, contending the project is a threat to their region and would leave millions of Californians paying much higher water bills.
Newsom has said the tunnel project is vital to improving the reliability of water deliveries as climate change shrinks California’s snowpack and alters the timing of runoff. But the Democratic lawmakers criticized Newsom’s latest proposal to accelerate steps toward construction of the 45-mile tunnel by short-cutting permitting for the project and limiting avenues for legal challenges.
“Fast-tracking the Delta Conveyance Project is a direct attack on our region’s environmental integrity, economic stability and public trust,” said Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City). “We are united in our opposition to this project, not just because of what it threatens to destroy, but because of what it represents — a broken process that silences local voices.”
Wilson and other members of the Delta caucus spoke at a news conference in the Capitol. They said the project would harm the Delta’s farmlands, communities and ecosystem, and would place a large financial burden on ratepayers in Southern California.
They said the cost, most recently estimated at $20.1 billion, is likely to be much higher.
“The project would have to be paid for by ratepayers who are already overburdened with soaring utility costs and aren’t even aware of how the cost of this is going to impact them in their pocketbooks,” said state Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton). “This project will set a precedent for bypassing well-established environmental laws.”
The tunnel would transport water from the Sacramento River to the state’s pumping facilities on the south side of the delta, where supplies enter the aqueducts of the State Water Project and are delivered to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland, including parts of the Central Valley.
Supporters of the plan, including water agencies in Southern California and Silicon Valley, say the state needs to build new infrastructure in the delta to protect the water supply in the face of climate change and earthquake risks.
Opponents, including agencies in the delta and environmental advocates, say the project is an expensive boondoggle that would harm the environment and communities, and that the state should pursue other alternatives.
The legislators called for different types of water solutions, including investing in projects to recycle wastewater, boost water storage, and rebuild aging levees in the delta to protect freshwater supplies and reduce earthquake risks.
Newsom, who is set to serve through 2026 and then leave office, has said the tunnel project is critical for the state’s future.
The governor said his latest proposal would simplify permitting by eliminating certain deadlines from water rights permits; narrow legal review to avoid delays from legal challenges; confirm that the state has authority to issue bonds to pay for the project, which would be repaid by water agencies; and accelerate state efforts to acquire land for construction.
The governor’s approach, part of his latest budget proposal, was praised by supporters of the project and managers of water agencies, who said it would reduce regulatory and legal uncertainty.
Charley Wilson, executive director of the nonprofit Southern California Water Coalition, said the ability of the State Water Project to reliably deliver water is declining, while demand continues to rise.
“Southern California stands to lose up to 10% of our water supply from the State Water Project if we don’t act,” Wilson said, calling the project the best path to offsetting those losses.
Graham Bradner, executive director of the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority, said the governor’s proposal would “save years of delay and potentially billions in costs by removing unnecessary hurdles.”
The legislators, however, said they will fight Newsom’s attempt to short-cut the established process.
“The governor is asking for a blank check, without cost caps, without meaningful oversight, without even committee hearings,” said state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento). “What we have before us is a proposal to advance this under the dead of night with no public oversight or input.”
Cabaldon stressed that the public ultimately would pay for the project.
“The real threat here is to the pocketbooks, the monthly water bills, of residents throughout Southern California,” Cabaldon said.
McNerny said he expects the group of legislators will “do pretty well in gathering Senate opposition.”
“There is going to be significant opposition. It’s going to be vocal. It’s going to be harsh,” he said.
The project has been supported by leaders of water agencies in Southern California who are considering investing in it.
In December, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to spend $141.6 million for a large share of the preliminary planning work. The district, which delivers water for 19 million people, isn’t expected to decide whether to invest in building the tunnel until 2027.
The legislators spoke beside leaders of environmental, fishing and tribal groups who oppose the project. Malissa Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, said the project would harm the region and her tribe.
“It seems that to Gov. Newsom, our culture, our ancestors and the environment that sustains us is worth less than the ability to over-divert water from our rivers to send more water and money to commercial water interests,” Tayaba said.
Visiting Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs is a step back in time, and worth the visit not just for the plants but the commentary from its gregarious, white-haired proprietor, Clark Moorten, who usually greets visitors at the entrance.
This quirky, endearing garden is one of the last remnants of old Palm Springs, when there was time to watch little birds flit fearlessly among the thorns, marvel at a palm that grows sideways about 8 feet before it grows up and listen spellbound to Moorten’s wonderful and seemingly endless stories.
The garden itself is small — roughly an acre of mature, artfully arranged cactuses and desert plants along shady dirt paths with hand-lettered signs, decaying desert artifacts and the famous “cactarium,” a word invented by Moorten’s mother, Patricia, who with his father, Chester “Slim” Moorten, began expanding the garden, established in 1938, after they bought the property in 1955.
The cactarium, by the way, is a small weathered Quonset hut stuffed with weird and rare cactuses — some of which wind along the ground like snakes or grow upside down from their pot like a prickly stalactite.
There’s a nursery here too, for people who want to take some plants home. This is a garden visitors can easily traverse in a few minutes, but honestly you’ll want to give yourself time to sit on a bench, browse in the nursery, and, if he’s around, listen to at least a few of Moorten’s stories about old Palm Springs and his remarkable parents. His father, for instance, was a logger as a teenager, who hitchhiked to Hollywood in the 1920s to become a Keystone Kop, then moved to the desert to fight off tuberculosis where he discovered that raising cactus paid better than gold mining — especially when Walt Disney asked him to suggest plants for “a little amusement park” he was creating in Anaheim, and he ended up supplying the plants for Frontier Land.
Moorten, 82, was an only child, and he still talks about his parents as though they’ll walk around the corner at any moment. “I was born with stickers in my butt,” he says on the website, and enough memories and stories to make this endearing garden glow.
Hours: Depends on the season. Between Oct. 1 and May 31, the garden is open every day but Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the summer, June 1-Sept. 30, when the heat is at its fiercest, the garden is open Fridays through Sundays only, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Admission: $7 adults and seniors; $5 veterans, $3 children 5-12. Children under 5 enter free.
Food: No food is sold at the garden, but there is a drinking fountain and they sell bottled water at the entrance. There are tables where visitors can bring prepared food into the garden to eat.
Other: There are restrooms at the back of the garden. The garden trails are compact dirt and wide enough to accommodate wheel chairs, but the cactarium’s narrow aisles and steps are not wheelchair-accessible.
Is there anything more like a fairy tale than thousands of glowing lanterns floating heavenward into the night? Long before the luminescent spectacle awed viewers of Disney’s 2010 film “Tangled,” real-life lantern festivals have been taking place around the world. In China, sky lanterns were first used as a means of communication in warfare during the Eastern Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.
Since then, sky lanterns have taken on a more ceremonial and celebratory significance, marking occasions such as the end of Chinese New Year and the coming of spring. Yet, as wondrously beautiful as these floating mini hot air balloon launches are, the reality is there’s only a fine line — and a gust of wind — that can turn a sky lantern into a free-floating Molotov cocktail. Outlawed in many regions due to the fire risk and environmental hazards, the idea of releasing thousands of them indiscriminately into the sky literally wouldn’t fly here in Southern California, where memories of the January wildfires are all too fresh.
This is why when OC Japan Fair hosted a lantern release as part of its three-day festival at Costa Mesa’s OC Fairgrounds last month, organizers opted for a safer alternative: lantern-shaped helium-filled balloons tethered by string and lit by lithium battery-powered LEDs. I was among the hundreds of people who released their glowing boxy “lanterns” inside the OC Fair’s Hangar after a set by Japanese singer Minmi. For a few seconds, save for a piano playing a few pensive notes, there was silence. All eyes — and cellphones — were focused upward at the flickering white cubes.
“When you let go of a lantern in the air or in the water, you let go of your feelings behind it,” said attendee Charles Mendoza, who drove to the event from West Covina. Anything that’s been weighing your thoughts, “you just let it go.”
Whether you attend a lantern festival to release pent-up emotions, send a message to a loved one you’ve lost or cast a prayer into the great beyond, the experience can become a quiet moment of reflection. Here are four lantern events happening at various locations in and near Southern California until the end of the year, where, at the very least, you will be awed by the beauty and peacefulness of the idea — one that ironically started from war.
Water Lantern Festival, Crestline and Lake Elsinore
When: May 16-17
What: The Water Lantern Festival returns to Southern California. It happens Friday and Saturday at Lake Gregory Regional Park in the city of Crestline, and on Saturday only at Elm Grove Beach in Lake Elsinore. As the festival name and venues suggest, these are water lantern launches. But just like sky lantern events, they will be visually spectacular and, hopefully, spiritually impactful.
Originally launched in Utah in 2018, the Water Lantern Festival first came to Lake Gregory Regional Park in 2020 and has since expanded nationwide. Though it is a for-profit event, the festival has partnered with Water.org, an organization that helps bring clean water and sanitation to communities in need around the world.
Admission is $57.99 at the event. It includes a drawstring bag with one floating lantern kit with a lantern, tealight and marker to write your wishes, hopes or messages. Beyond the lantern release, the festival offers an array of food via food trucks, shopping, and entertainment. You are allowed to bring your own picnic and snacks, but not alcohol as the event is alcohol-free.
What: One of Los Angeles’ beloved summer traditions — the Lotus Festival — is returning to Echo Park Lake. It began in 1972 as “The Day of the Lotus,” created to highlight the contributions of Asian American communities in Los Angeles. It was renamed the Lotus Festival in 1990, and each year since, it has spotlighted a different Asian or Pacific Islander culture. The event is timed with the blooming of the lake’s iconic lotus flowers, which was once the largest outside Asia.
Last year’s celebration honored the Philippines and its L.A.-based diaspora. This year it will honor South Korea, showcasing the richness of Korean culture through live music, traditional dance, cuisine and artisan vendors.
While the highlight of the weekend is usually the Dragon Boat Races — which have drawn competitors and crowds since 1991 — the sentimental favorite is the water lantern release onto the lake. Admission is free, but details on the cost of the water lanterns has yet to be announced. Check the website closer to the date for more information.
What: This fall, Rise Festival returns for three nights at Jean Dry Lake Bed, a desolate patch of Mojave Desert (three miles from Jean, Nev.) that has been used as a filming location for “The Hangover,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and other movies. In its 10th year, Rise is the only sky lantern release festival on this list. But because it also features large scale art installations and a stage that sets up the night with live music, it is the Burning Man of lantern release festivals. (Though unlike at Burning Man, you can drive less than 20 miles to the Las Vegas Strip when it’s done and end your evening with a shower in a hotel room of your choosing.)
Ticket packages start at $129 for the Silver tier, which includes the lantern release ceremony, live performances on two desert stages, access to large-scale art installations, meditation spaces known as Rise Halos, two lanterns per guest, a portable cushion for desert seating, and unlimited water refills. Higher-tier packages add perks such as gourmet dining, open bar access and reserved viewing areas.
What: Celebrated for centuries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, St. Martin’s Day honors the life of Martin of Tours, a 4th century Roman soldier turned monk and bishop. He is best known for a simple but profound act of compassion — sharing his cloak with a freezing beggar on a winter’s night. That moment of generosity defined his legacy.
When he died, his body was carried by boat along the river to Tours. Legend has it that children bid farewell by standing on the riverbank with candles to light the way. Since then lantern processions, or Laternenumzüge, became tradition, symbolizing the light and the enduring warmth of human kindness embodied by the saint.
On Nov. 9 at around 5 p.m., this tradition continues in Huntington Beach’s Old World Village. Children and families will carry illuminated lanterns through the mall while singing traditional songs sung for generations. Hosted by German School Campus of Newport Beach, this St. Martin Lantern Parade is free to attend (but a $5 donation and reserving your spot online is requested).
Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to accelerate his administration’s plan to build a $20-billion water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by short-cutting permitting for the project and limiting avenues for legal challenges.
Newsom urged the Legislature on Wednesday to adopt his plan to “fast-track” the tunnel, called the Delta Conveyance Project, as part of his revised May budget proposal.
“For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in endless red tape, burdened with unnecessary delay. We’re done with barriers,” Newsom said. “Our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future. Let’s get this built.”
The tunnel would create a second route to transport water to the state’s pumping facilities on the south side of the Delta, where supplies enter the aqueducts of the State Water Project and are delivered to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland.
Supporters of the plan, including water agencies in Southern California and Silicon Valley, say the state needs to build new infrastructure in the Delta to protect the water supply in the face of climate change and earthquake risks.
Opponents, including agencies in the Delta and environmental advocates, say the project is an expensive boondoggle that would harm the environment and communities, and that the state should pursue other alternatives.
“It’s a top-down push for an unaffordable, unnecessary tunnel that fails to solve the state’s real water challenges,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of the group Restore the Delta.
She said the governor “wants to bypass the legal and public processes because the project doesn’t pass the economic or environmental standards Californians expect.”
Newsom, who is set to serve through 2026 and then leave office, is pushing to lay the groundwork for the project.
Newsom said his proposal would: simplify permitting by eliminating certain deadlines from water rights permits; narrow legal review to avoid delays from legal challenges; confirm that the state has authority to issue bonds to pay for the project, which would be repaid by water agencies; and accelerate state efforts to acquire land for construction.
Announcing the proposal, the governor’s office said that “while the project has received some necessary permits, its path forward is burdened by complicated regulatory frameworks and bureaucratic delays.”
The State Water Resources Control Board is currently considering a petition by the Newsom administration to amend water rights permits so that flows could be diverted from new points on the Sacramento River where the intakes of the 45-mile tunnel would be built.
The governor’s latest proposal was praised by water agencies including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is currently spending about $142 million on the preliminary planning.
MWD General Manager Deven Upadhyay called Newsom’s proposal a “bold step” toward protecting water supplies, saying the approach would support completion of the planning work, reduce “regulatory and legal uncertainties,” and allow the MWD board to make an informed decision about whether to make a long-term investment to help foot the bill for construction.
Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, said the governor’s approach makes sense to address costly delays and upgrade essential infrastructure that is “in dire need of modernization.”
Environmental and fishing groups, however, called Newsom’s proposal a reckless attempt to bypass the existing legal process and make it harder for opponents to challenge the project over what they contend would be harmful effects on the Delta region and the environment.
Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Assn., a group that represents fishing communities, called Newsom’s proposal “an attack on the salmon fishing industry and the state’s biggest rivers.”
Commercial salmon fishing has been canceled for three consecutive years because of a decline in the Chinook salmon population. Artis said building the tunnel would represent a “nail in the coffin of California’s once mighty salmon runs.”
