Read and listen to immigration coverage from KQED’s reporters.
San Francisco Judge to Weigh the Fate of Trial in ICE Officer Assault Case
‘It Wasn’t Right’: Woman Arrested by ICE at SFO Is a San Francisco Photographer, Barista
How 2 Exiled Russian Journalists Took Refuge in the Bay Area
SFO United Airlines Employee Allegedly Threatens to Call ICE on US Citizen
What’s Happening With Temporary Protected Status After the Major Supreme Court Ruling?
ICE Will Pause Construction on Controversial South Bay Detention Facility
Private Prison Company Sells Two of California’s Immigrant Detention Centers to the Federal Government
Sunnyvale Man Deported to Mexico Sues Trump Administration
After the Supreme Court’s Ruling, What Are US Birthright Citizenship Rules Now?
‘Birthright Citizenship Is the Story of San Francisco’: Advocates Celebrate Ruling
Funding for KQED immigration coverage is provided by The California Endowment.
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"content": "\u003cp>A San Francisco judge will soon decide whether or not to proceed with the criminal trial of a man charged with assaulting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/ice\">an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Caleb Alexander Ranney was arrested on Aug. 8, 2025, at 630 Sansome St., the city’s ICE field office and detention facility, after an hourslong standoff between protesters and ICE agents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Roughly 10 protesters were outside when two vans left the building at 3:18 p.m., escorted by about a dozen uniformed officers who pointed pepper ball rifles and batons at the crowd, according to \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/ice-tackles-detains-protesters/\">\u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which obtained a video detailing the incident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The outlet reported that ICE officers tackled and detained two protesters outside the building at around 3:25 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Protesters at the scene later told \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> that approximately three minutes after detaining the protesters, officers fired pepper balls under the garage door.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12061608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Led by Aztec traditional dancers, demonstrators march around the ICE Field Office on Sansome Street in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2025, calling for the agency’s removal from the city. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors charged Ranney in December with two misdemeanors: assaulting a federal officer and destroying government property. They submitted the charges by information — a document that the U.S. Attorney’s Office files directly, without having to go through a grand jury.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The document alleges that Ranney “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with” an ICE deportation officer it identifies only as “Victim One,” and that he damaged a secure vehicle entrance on the Jackson Street side of the building.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ranney’s defense has asked the U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Hixson, who will preside over the trial, to consider the actions by a different officer at the scene: Federal Protective Service Inspector Stephen Glumaz. The public defenders alleged that Glumaz fired pepper ball rounds into the crowd shortly before the alleged assault. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest motion from Ranney’s defense marks the third allegation that the government mishandled evidence in the case. Hixson has already ruled that agents unconstitutionally searched Ranney’s backpack, and separately sanctioned the government for losing or destroying items taken from it, though he declined to dismiss the case on those grounds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12043374\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anti-ICE protesters chant over SFPD officers during a demonstration outside the ICE offices in San Francisco on June 8, 2025. (Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The defense now argues that those episodes amount to “a pattern of misconduct by government agents with regard to the search in this case, spoliation of evidence, and lying about it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In June, prosecutors left Glumaz off their witness list, and the defense subpoenaed him on July 9 to testify at trial.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Glumaz’s supervisor emailed him on March 25 to inform him that he had been decertified “as a PepperBall and FN303 operator” and could not possess or operate either weapon until further notice. The last line of that email, defense attorneys wrote, said the decertification was “in connection with the use of force incidents” on Aug. 8 and Aug. 20, 2025.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The motion said that prosecutors did not turn that email over until the evening of July 22 — nearly four months after it was sent — and five days before trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whether Glumaz has since regained his certification is not clear from the filings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Not only was this the first time that the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz’s decertification from use of the pepper ball gun was caused by his actions on the date of the charged incident,” the motion stated, “this was also the first time the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz (or any other involved agent who was part of the same team) was involved in the subsequent protest on August 20, 2025.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In an earlier filing, the defense pointed to surveillance footage, saying that it shows “a federal officer firing multiple pepper balls at unarmed protesters less than a minute before Mr. Ranney allegedly assaulted an ICE officer.” The defense said it may argue that Ranney acted in self-defense.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Under the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in \u003cem>Brady v. Maryland\u003c/em>, prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense regardless of whether or not it is requested.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The withheld material supports a claim that officers used excessive force, Assistant Public Defenders Angela Chuang and Samantha Jaffe said, and can help determine whether they were lawfully carrying out their duties when the alleged assault occurred.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>None of the named officers have responded publicly, and prosecutors have not yet filed their response to the motion. Under the schedule Hixson set for July 30, the government’s response is due by end of day Friday. The judge is scheduled to take up the motion at 9 a.m. Monday — the hour the trial is set to begin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12043271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Protesters link arms during an anti-ICE protest on June 8, 2025. (Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors objected at Thursday’s hearing to the defense’s follow-up discovery demands — such as personnel files, use-of-force reports, agent text messages, and records from other San Francisco protests involving the same agents. The defense’s motion said prosecutors called their demands overly broad or unworkable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If Hixson does decline to dismiss the case, the defense said, they are asking him to instruct jurors that the government violated its disclosure obligations. That instruction would allow jurors to weigh the violation when they deliberate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ranney is not in custody and has been under pretrial supervision since December — when his first court appearance took place. According to the motion, Hixson warned prosecutors that failing to meet their disclosure obligations could result in dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors charged Ranney in December with two misdemeanors: assaulting a federal officer and destroying government property. They submitted the charges by information — a document that the U.S. Attorney’s Office files directly, without having to go through a grand jury.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Prosecutors charged Ranney in December with two misdemeanors: assaulting a federal officer and destroying government property. They submitted the charges by information — a document that the U.S. Attorney’s Office files directly, without having to go through a grand jury.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The document alleges that Ranney “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with” an ICE deportation officer it identifies only as “Victim One,” and that he damaged a secure vehicle entrance on the Jackson Street side of the building.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The document alleges that Ranney “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with” an ICE deportation officer it identifies only as “Victim One,” and that he damaged a secure vehicle entrance on the Jackson Street side of the building.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ranney’s defense has asked the U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Hixson, who will preside over the trial, to consider the actions by a different officer at the scene: Federal Protective Service Inspector Stephen Glumaz. The public defenders alleged that Glumaz fired pepper ball rounds into the crowd shortly before the alleged assault. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ranney’s defense has asked the U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Hixson, who will preside over the trial, to consider the actions by a different officer at the scene: Federal Protective Service Inspector Stephen Glumaz. The public defenders alleged that Glumaz fired pepper ball rounds into the crowd shortly before the alleged assault. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The latest motion from Ranney’s defense marks the third allegation that the government mishandled evidence in the case. Hixson has already ruled that agents unconstitutionally searched Ranney’s backpack, and separately sanctioned the government for losing or destroying items taken from it, though he declined to dismiss the case on those grounds. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The latest motion from Ranney’s defense marks the third allegation that the government mishandled evidence in the case. Hixson has already ruled that agents unconstitutionally searched Ranney’s backpack, and separately sanctioned the government for losing or destroying items taken from it, though he declined to dismiss the case on those grounds. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12043374\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anti-ICE protesters chant over SFPD officers during a demonstration outside the ICE offices in San Francisco on June 8, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The defense now argues that those episodes amount to “a pattern of misconduct by government agents with regard to the search in this case, spoliation of evidence, and lying about it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In June, prosecutors left Glumaz off their witness list, and the defense subpoenaed him on July 9 to testify at trial.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Glumaz’s supervisor emailed him on March 25 to inform him that he had been decertified “as a PepperBall and FN303 operator” and could not possess or operate either weapon until further notice. The last line of that email, defense attorneys wrote, said the decertification was “in connection with the use of force incidents” on Aug. 8 and Aug. 20, 2025.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Glumaz’s supervisor emailed him on March 25 to inform him that he had been decertified “as a PepperBall and FN303 operator” and could not possess or operate either weapon until further notice. The last line of that email, defense attorneys wrote, said the decertification was “in connection with the use of force incidents” on Aug. 8 and Aug. 20, 2025.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The motion said that prosecutors did not turn that email over until the evening of July 22 — nearly four months after it was sent — and five days before trial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Whether Glumaz has since regained his certification is not clear from the filings.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Not only was this the first time that the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz’s decertification from use of the pepper ball gun was caused by his actions on the date of the charged incident,” the motion stated, “this was also the first time the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz (or any other involved agent who was part of the same team) was involved in the subsequent protest on August 20, 2025.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In an earlier filing, the defense pointed to surveillance footage, saying that it shows “a federal officer firing multiple pepper balls at unarmed protesters less than a minute before Mr. Ranney allegedly assaulted an ICE officer.” The defense said it may argue that Ranney acted in self-defense.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In an earlier filing, the defense pointed to surveillance footage, saying that it shows “a federal officer firing multiple pepper balls at unarmed protesters less than a minute before Mr. Ranney allegedly assaulted an ICE officer.” The defense said it may argue that Ranney acted in self-defense.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Under the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in \u003cem>Brady v. Maryland\u003c/em>, prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense regardless of whether or not it is requested.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Under the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in \u003cem>Brady v. Maryland\u003c/em>, prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense regardless of whether or not it is requested.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The withheld material supports a claim that officers used excessive force, Assistant Public Defenders Angela Chuang and Samantha Jaffe said, and can help determine whether they were lawfully carrying out their duties when the alleged assault occurred.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The withheld material supports a claim that officers used excessive force, Assistant Public Defenders Angela Chuang and Samantha Jaffe said, and can help determine whether they were lawfully carrying out their duties when the alleged assault occurred.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>None of the named officers have responded publicly, and prosecutors have not yet filed their response to the motion. Under the schedule Hixson set for July 30, the government’s response is due by end of day Friday. The judge is scheduled to take up the motion at 9 a.m. Monday — the hour the trial is set to begin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>None of the named officers have responded publicly, and prosecutors have not yet filed their response to the motion. Under the schedule Hixson set for July 30, the government’s response is due by end of day Friday. The judge is scheduled to take up the motion at 9 a.m. Monday — the hour the trial is set to begin.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Prosecutors objected at Thursday’s hearing to the defense’s follow-up discovery demands — such as personnel files, use-of-force reports, agent text messages, and records from other San Francisco protests involving the same agents. The defense’s motion said prosecutors called their demands overly broad or unworkable.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If Hixson does decline to dismiss the case, the defense said, they are asking him to instruct jurors that the government violated its disclosure obligations. That instruction would allow jurors to weigh the violation when they deliberate.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If Hixson does decline to dismiss the case, the defense said, they are asking him to instruct jurors that the government violated its disclosure obligations. That instruction would allow jurors to weigh the violation when they deliberate.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ranney is not in custody and has been under pretrial supervision since December — when his first court appearance took place. According to the motion, Hixson warned prosecutors that failing to meet their disclosure obligations could result in dismissal.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ranney is not in custody and has been under pretrial supervision since December — when his first court appearance took place. According to the motion, Hixson warned prosecutors that failing to meet their disclosure obligations could result in dismissal.\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Ranney’s lawyers argue that the government withheld critical evidence in his case.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A San Francisco judge will soon decide whether or not to proceed with the criminal trial of a man charged with assaulting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/ice\">an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Caleb Alexander Ranney was arrested on Aug. 8, 2025, at 630 Sansome St., the city’s ICE field office and detention facility, after an hourslong standoff between protesters and ICE agents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Roughly 10 protesters were outside when two vans left the building at 3:18 p.m., escorted by about a dozen uniformed officers who pointed pepper ball rifles and batons at the crowd, according to \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/ice-tackles-detains-protesters/\">\u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which obtained a video detailing the incident.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The outlet reported that ICE officers tackled and detained two protesters outside the building at around 3:25 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Protesters at the scene later told \u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> that approximately three minutes after detaining the protesters, officers fired pepper balls under the garage door.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12061608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251024-ICEPROTEST-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Led by Aztec traditional dancers, demonstrators march around the ICE Field Office on Sansome Street in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2025, calling for the agency’s removal from the city. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors charged Ranney in December with two misdemeanors: assaulting a federal officer and destroying government property. They submitted the charges by information — a document that the U.S. Attorney’s Office files directly, without having to go through a grand jury.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The document alleges that Ranney “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with” an ICE deportation officer it identifies only as “Victim One,” and that he damaged a secure vehicle entrance on the Jackson Street side of the building.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ranney’s defense has asked the U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Hixson, who will preside over the trial, to consider the actions by a different officer at the scene: Federal Protective Service Inspector Stephen Glumaz. The public defenders alleged that Glumaz fired pepper ball rounds into the crowd shortly before the alleged assault. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The latest motion from Ranney’s defense marks the third allegation that the government mishandled evidence in the case. Hixson has already ruled that agents unconstitutionally searched Ranney’s backpack, and separately sanctioned the government for losing or destroying items taken from it, though he declined to dismiss the case on those grounds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12043374\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anti-ICE protesters chant over SFPD officers during a demonstration outside the ICE offices in San Francisco on June 8, 2025. (Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The defense now argues that those episodes amount to “a pattern of misconduct by government agents with regard to the search in this case, spoliation of evidence, and lying about it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In June, prosecutors left Glumaz off their witness list, and the defense subpoenaed him on July 9 to testify at trial.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the motion, Glumaz’s supervisor emailed him on March 25 to inform him that he had been decertified “as a PepperBall and FN303 operator” and could not possess or operate either weapon until further notice. The last line of that email, defense attorneys wrote, said the decertification was “in connection with the use of force incidents” on Aug. 8 and Aug. 20, 2025.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The motion said that prosecutors did not turn that email over until the evening of July 22 — nearly four months after it was sent — and five days before trial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Whether Glumaz has since regained his certification is not clear from the filings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Not only was this the first time that the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz’s decertification from use of the pepper ball gun was caused by his actions on the date of the charged incident,” the motion stated, “this was also the first time the defense was made aware that Inspector Glumaz (or any other involved agent who was part of the same team) was involved in the subsequent protest on August 20, 2025.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In an earlier filing, the defense pointed to surveillance footage, saying that it shows “a federal officer firing multiple pepper balls at unarmed protesters less than a minute before Mr. Ranney allegedly assaulted an ICE officer.” The defense said it may argue that Ranney acted in self-defense.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Under the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in \u003cem>Brady v. Maryland\u003c/em>, prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense regardless of whether or not it is requested.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The withheld material supports a claim that officers used excessive force, Assistant Public Defenders Angela Chuang and Samantha Jaffe said, and can help determine whether they were lawfully carrying out their duties when the alleged assault occurred.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>None of the named officers have responded publicly, and prosecutors have not yet filed their response to the motion. Under the schedule Hixson set for July 30, the government’s response is due by end of day Friday. The judge is scheduled to take up the motion at 9 a.m. Monday — the hour the trial is set to begin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12043271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250608-ICE-OUT-OF-THE-BAY-AC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Protesters link arms during an anti-ICE protest on June 8, 2025. (Aryk Copley for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prosecutors objected at Thursday’s hearing to the defense’s follow-up discovery demands — such as personnel files, use-of-force reports, agent text messages, and records from other San Francisco protests involving the same agents. The defense’s motion said prosecutors called their demands overly broad or unworkable.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If Hixson does decline to dismiss the case, the defense said, they are asking him to instruct jurors that the government violated its disclosure obligations. That instruction would allow jurors to weigh the violation when they deliberate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ranney is not in custody and has been under pretrial supervision since December — when his first court appearance took place. According to the motion, Hixson warned prosecutors that failing to meet their disclosure obligations could result in dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "it-wasnt-right-woman-arrested-by-ice-at-sfo-is-a-san-francisco-photographer-barista",
"title": "‘It Wasn’t Right’: Woman Arrested by ICE at SFO Is a San Francisco Photographer, Barista",
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"headTitle": "‘It Wasn’t Right’: Woman Arrested by ICE at SFO Is a San Francisco Photographer, Barista | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Ukrainian woman who has lived in the U.S. for 16 years was detained by immigration enforcement agents at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a> on Wednesday after a flight home from Portland. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Iryna Gorb, 38, was arrested by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after landing in San Francisco, where she has lived and worked for more than a decade. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She is currently in detention at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073215/judge-orders-ice-to-provide-medical-care-in-largest-immigration-jail-in-california\">California City Detention Facility\u003c/a> in Kern County, according to Andy Eblin, who’s been a friend of Gorb’s for 13 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Videos of Gorb’s arrest circulated on social media Wednesday evening after Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson, who was traveling through the airport at the time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DoriaforRichmond\">posted\u003c/a> footage of the incident on Facebook. She said two ICE agents approached Gorb in a store in Terminal 3.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Doria Robinson speaks at the West Contra Costa United School District rally at Marina Bay Park in Richmond on Dec. 5, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They put hands on her, pulled her down to the ground and we see the agent get on top of her,” Robinson said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the videos, Gorb can be heard yelling: “They’re f—n ICE, I’m from Ukraine, please, somebody.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She can be seen telling the agents to let her go, and heard saying, “You’re f—ing choking me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Robinson said the officials did not respond to bystanders who asked them to identify themselves. They handcuffed Gorb to an airport wheelchair and rolled her away, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t right,” Robinson said. “It just felt in your heart and your soul that that was not right. That was not the way we should be doing things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb called him from an ICE field office in Stockton late Wednesday, and told him she had been detained and would be transferred to the California City Detention Facility. She asked him to tell her boss at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill, where she is a head barista, and a few friends whom she was supposed to cat-sit for this week, that she would not be able to work. Eblin said Gorb also requested that he ask her neighbor to water her plants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a better explanation of Iryna as a person than those concerns,” Eblin said. “She’s a good person that helped out a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said she was “not certain exactly” why she was detained, and as far as he knew, she hadn’t received any paperwork regarding her visa status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Gorb entered the U.S. lawfully in 2010 under a visa that expired in May 2011. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Gorb overstayed her visa and remained in the United States illegally for 15 years in violation of our nation’s laws. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” the spokesperson said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb moved to the U.S. to attend college in Boston before relocating to San Francisco 13 years ago. He said she’s an active part of the city’s coffee and art communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-2000x2667.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-2000x2667.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Iryna Gorb worked as a head barista at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill and was an active member of San Francisco’s coffee community, according to friends. (Courtesy of Andy Eblin)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Gorb is a professional photographer and has run a vintage pop-up over the years, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Her absence leaves a tremendous void in our cafe and in our community,” Better Half, the coffee shop where Gorb works, posted on social media Thursday. “She has been such an important part of this space, and her presence will be deeply missed.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said that when he was able to connect with Gorb again Thursday evening, she had been transferred to California City and sounded “substantially rattled.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said she’s expected to meet with an attorney on Friday afternoon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our predominant concern at this point is getting her released on bond so she’s able to wait out any proceedings in a safe, dignified place and dignified setting, which California City is absolutely not,” Eblin told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the San Francisco Bar Association, immigration advocates began seeing ICE detentions at airports outside of Customs and Border Protection last year anecdotally, but in the last month, they have become a “consistent tactic.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing now is ICE showing up at airports because they have information about travelers, they have ID information,” she said. “The Department of Homeland Security includes TSA, so it just appears that TSA is now cooperating with ICE at a level that we haven’t seen before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said via email that ICE and DHS operate outside the jurisdiction of U.S. airports, and that SFO is “not involved in any decisions about their operations, nor are we notified when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Atkinson said for people who are not U.S. citizens, “now is not a safe time to be traveling through airports unless you’ve spoken to an attorney and you assess what risk there is.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Iryna Gorb, 38, was arrested by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after landing in San Francisco, where she has lived and worked for more than a decade. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She is currently in detention at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073215/judge-orders-ice-to-provide-medical-care-in-largest-immigration-jail-in-california\">California City Detention Facility\u003c/a> in Kern County, according to Andy Eblin, who’s been a friend of Gorb’s for 13 years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Videos of Gorb’s arrest circulated on social media Wednesday evening after Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson, who was traveling through the airport at the time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DoriaforRichmond\">posted\u003c/a> footage of the incident on Facebook. She said two ICE agents approached Gorb in a store in Terminal 3.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Doria Robinson speaks at the West Contra Costa United School District rally at Marina Bay Park in Richmond on Dec. 5, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Robinson said the officials did not respond to bystanders who asked them to identify themselves. They handcuffed Gorb to an airport wheelchair and rolled her away, she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t right,” Robinson said. “It just felt in your heart and your soul that that was not right. That was not the way we should be doing things.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb called him from an ICE field office in Stockton late Wednesday, and told him she had been detained and would be transferred to the California City Detention Facility. She asked him to tell her boss at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill, where she is a head barista, and a few friends whom she was supposed to cat-sit for this week, that she would not be able to work. Eblin said Gorb also requested that he ask her neighbor to water her plants. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a better explanation of Iryna as a person than those concerns,” Eblin said. “She’s a good person that helped out a lot.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eblin said she was “not certain exactly” why she was detained, and as far as he knew, she hadn’t received any paperwork regarding her visa status. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Gorb entered the U.S. lawfully in 2010 under a visa that expired in May 2011. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Gorb overstayed her visa and remained in the United States illegally for 15 years in violation of our nation’s laws. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” the spokesperson said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb moved to the U.S. to attend college in Boston before relocating to San Francisco 13 years ago. He said she’s an active part of the city’s coffee and art communities. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Her absence leaves a tremendous void in our cafe and in our community,” Better Half, the coffee shop where Gorb works, posted on social media Thursday. “She has been such an important part of this space, and her presence will be deeply missed.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Our predominant concern at this point is getting her released on bond so she’s able to wait out any proceedings in a safe, dignified place and dignified setting, which California City is absolutely not,” Eblin told KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the San Francisco Bar Association, immigration advocates began seeing ICE detentions at airports outside of Customs and Border Protection last year anecdotally, but in the last month, they have become a “consistent tactic.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing now is ICE showing up at airports because they have information about travelers, they have ID information,” she said. “The Department of Homeland Security includes TSA, so it just appears that TSA is now cooperating with ICE at a level that we haven’t seen before.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said via email that ICE and DHS operate outside the jurisdiction of U.S. airports, and that SFO is “not involved in any decisions about their operations, nor are we notified when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A friend coordinating her legal aid said the 38-year-old Ukrainian immigrant is in a federal immigration detention facility in California City. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Ukrainian woman who has lived in the U.S. for 16 years was detained by immigration enforcement agents at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a> on Wednesday after a flight home from Portland. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Iryna Gorb, 38, was arrested by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after landing in San Francisco, where she has lived and worked for more than a decade. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She is currently in detention at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073215/judge-orders-ice-to-provide-medical-care-in-largest-immigration-jail-in-california\">California City Detention Facility\u003c/a> in Kern County, according to Andy Eblin, who’s been a friend of Gorb’s for 13 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Videos of Gorb’s arrest circulated on social media Wednesday evening after Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson, who was traveling through the airport at the time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DoriaforRichmond\">posted\u003c/a> footage of the incident on Facebook. She said two ICE agents approached Gorb in a store in Terminal 3.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066313\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251205-WCCUSDSTRIKERALLY01540_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Doria Robinson speaks at the West Contra Costa United School District rally at Marina Bay Park in Richmond on Dec. 5, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They put hands on her, pulled her down to the ground and we see the agent get on top of her,” Robinson said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the videos, Gorb can be heard yelling: “They’re f—n ICE, I’m from Ukraine, please, somebody.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She can be seen telling the agents to let her go, and heard saying, “You’re f—ing choking me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Robinson said the officials did not respond to bystanders who asked them to identify themselves. They handcuffed Gorb to an airport wheelchair and rolled her away, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It wasn’t right,” Robinson said. “It just felt in your heart and your soul that that was not right. That was not the way we should be doing things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb called him from an ICE field office in Stockton late Wednesday, and told him she had been detained and would be transferred to the California City Detention Facility. She asked him to tell her boss at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill, where she is a head barista, and a few friends whom she was supposed to cat-sit for this week, that she would not be able to work. Eblin said Gorb also requested that he ask her neighbor to water her plants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a better explanation of Iryna as a person than those concerns,” Eblin said. “She’s a good person that helped out a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said she was “not certain exactly” why she was detained, and as far as he knew, she hadn’t received any paperwork regarding her visa status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Gorb entered the U.S. lawfully in 2010 under a visa that expired in May 2011. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Gorb overstayed her visa and remained in the United States illegally for 15 years in violation of our nation’s laws. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” the spokesperson said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said Gorb moved to the U.S. to attend college in Boston before relocating to San Francisco 13 years ago. He said she’s an active part of the city’s coffee and art communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-2000x2667.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-2000x2667.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260724-SFO-ICE-02-KQED-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Iryna Gorb worked as a head barista at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill and was an active member of San Francisco’s coffee community, according to friends. (Courtesy of Andy Eblin)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Gorb is a professional photographer and has run a vintage pop-up over the years, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Her absence leaves a tremendous void in our cafe and in our community,” Better Half, the coffee shop where Gorb works, posted on social media Thursday. “She has been such an important part of this space, and her presence will be deeply missed.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eblin said that when he was able to connect with Gorb again Thursday evening, she had been transferred to California City and sounded “substantially rattled.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He said she’s expected to meet with an attorney on Friday afternoon. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our predominant concern at this point is getting her released on bond so she’s able to wait out any proceedings in a safe, dignified place and dignified setting, which California City is absolutely not,” Eblin told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the San Francisco Bar Association, immigration advocates began seeing ICE detentions at airports outside of Customs and Border Protection last year anecdotally, but in the last month, they have become a “consistent tactic.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing now is ICE showing up at airports because they have information about travelers, they have ID information,” she said. “The Department of Homeland Security includes TSA, so it just appears that TSA is now cooperating with ICE at a level that we haven’t seen before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said via email that ICE and DHS operate outside the jurisdiction of U.S. airports, and that SFO is “not involved in any decisions about their operations, nor are we notified when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Atkinson said for people who are not U.S. citizens, “now is not a safe time to be traveling through airports unless you’ve spoken to an attorney and you assess what risk there is.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-two-exiled-russian-journalists-took-refuge-in-the-bay-area",
"title": "How 2 Exiled Russian Journalists Took Refuge in the Bay Area",
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"headTitle": "How 2 Exiled Russian Journalists Took Refuge in the Bay Area | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Roman Badanin was at home in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> seven months ago when he heard a knock on his door. To the independent Russian journalist’s surprise, two FBI agents had come to see him in the middle of the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was not in any trouble locally, the agents said. They had come to inform him that he was likely a person of interest for a foreign intelligence service.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin could imagine what country they were talking about, the agents said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although an FBI visit was a “new experience” for Badanin, the Russian state’s intrusion into his life was not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia. (Courtesy of George Porteous)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Proekt’s full-time staff of 17 people is scattered across the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A winding path to journalism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The decision to flee \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adjusting to life in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George Porteous is editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "A winding path to journalism",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A winding path to journalism\u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George Porteous is editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Roman Badanin was at home in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> seven months ago when he heard a knock on his door. To the independent Russian journalist’s surprise, two FBI agents had come to see him in the middle of the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was not in any trouble locally, the agents said. They had come to inform him that he was likely a person of interest for a foreign intelligence service.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin could imagine what country they were talking about, the agents said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although an FBI visit was a “new experience” for Badanin, the Russian state’s intrusion into his life was not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia. (Courtesy of George Porteous)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Proekt’s full-time staff of 17 people is scattered across the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A winding path to journalism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The decision to flee \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adjusting to life in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George Porteous is editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sfo-united-airlines-employee-allegedly-threatens-to-call-ice-on-us-citizen",
"title": "SFO United Airlines Employee Allegedly Threatens to Call ICE on US Citizen",
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"headTitle": "SFO United Airlines Employee Allegedly Threatens to Call ICE on US Citizen | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Bay Area resident accused a United Airlines employee of threatening to call federal immigration authorities after a confrontation at the airline’s counter at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a> on Tuesday, prompting an internal probe by the airline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident was captured on video by the passenger, San Ramon business owner Julio Varela, and widely \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1uynxya/new_video_follow_up_with_racist_united_airlines/\">circulated on Reddit\u003c/a>. In the footage, a person who appears to be a United employee is seen recording Varela with a cellphone before stating: “Maybe we should call ICE on you. You’re not acting like a citizen.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela, a Mexican American and naturalized United States citizen, was traveling to Montreal with his wife and two daughters. KQED has reviewed Varela’s ticket and videos of the encounter and was able to confirm he was at the airport at that time. He told KQED the employee’s conduct was discriminatory and unprovoked. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I am Mexican. I was born in Mexico, I am a U.S. citizen. I own my own business. I pay taxes. I employ people,” Varela said on Friday. “For her, especially with what’s going on right now in America … to say that to a minority, especially a Hispanic person, I think it’s really, really hateful and it’s really racist.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHMdIwkuegQ\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>United Airlines declined to answer specific questions regarding the employee’s conduct or employment status.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking into the interaction in this video, but don’t have anything additional to share at this time,” a United media relations spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said he, his wife and two of their daughters arrived at SFO around 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday for an 11:40 a.m. flight to Montreal, Canada, where his wife was attending a work conference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Weeks prior, he said, his wife had accidentally entered their daughter’s middle name in the last name field when booking through United for a flight operated by Air Canada. Varela said they spent roughly 15 hours on the phone in the two weeks leading up to the trip trying to fix the error, and were bounced repeatedly between the two airlines’ customer service lines.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077958\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Passengers wait for their flights inside San Francisco International Airport on Dec. 10, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the airport, the family spent nearly three hours walking back and forth between the United and Air Canada counters, he said. According to Varela, Air Canada agents were trying to help, but needed United to release the ticket in their system. Four minutes before the family was supposed to board, he said, an Air Canada supervisor walked over to the United counter to plead the family’s case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said the United employee he spoke with was dismissive, allegedly telling the Air Canada supervisor that she didn’t care if the family missed their flight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She said, ‘I’m not dealing with it, it ain’t my problem,’” Varela said. “That is when I was like, man, you’re so lazy, so rude. And she was like, ‘Why are you calling me this?’ I go, ‘Yeah, what’s your name?’ That’s when I pulled out my phone.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the footage, the United employee — wearing a badge identifying her as an International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union steward — refused to give her name and began recording Varela with her own phone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When she reemerges from a back room, Varela again asks for her name.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That was when she could be heard making the comment about involving U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That’s when I lost my s—,” Varela said. “I was like, ‘Are you serious? Call ICE on me right now.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said that, as the argument escalated, the employee stepped out from behind the counter and shoved his hand away, causing him to stop the recording. His 14-year-old daughter, standing next to him, was crying, he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The family eventually made their flight after another United representative stepped in to finalize the ticket release.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are aware of a video being circulated online, but we have no verification of its authenticity or the full context,” the IAM Union said in a statement. “As depicted, the comments made in the video do not reflect the views or values of the IAM Union. Any potential matters arising from this incident will be handled through the appropriate processes established by the collective bargaining agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFO officials declined to comment, directing inquiries to United Airlines.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident comes amid mounting fear among travelers of federal immigration enforcement at transit hubs. On July 13, video footage captured plainclothes ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/video/plainclothes-ice-officers-attempt-to-detain-man-las-vegas-airport/\">agents tackling and attempting to handcuff\u003c/a> a 57-year-old man at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In March, plainclothes ICE agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077292/is-ice-at-sfo-heres-what-we-know-about-videos-of-woman-being-forcefully-detained\">detained Angelina Lopez-Jimenez\u003c/a>, a Contra Costa County mother and her 9-year-old daughter at SFO’s Terminal 3. The two were deported to Guatemala within 48 hours. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12073262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A person sits on a bench at San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 9, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That arrest, which was prompted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077581/bay-area-officials-raise-privacy-concerns-after-ice-arrest-at-sfo\">data-sharing between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE\u003c/a>, drew intense backlash from civil rights advocates and prompted the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082395/san-francisco-condemns-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-actions-at-sfo-airport\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> to pass a resolution condemning federal immigration enforcement at the airport.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though San Francisco is a sanctuary city, local policies cannot physically bar federal ICE agents from operating within the airport.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Every time I fly, I’m like, ‘Are they going to let me in?’” Varela said. “You could be an American citizen born here. It doesn’t matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said that he heard through a personal connection at the airline that the employee had been suspended pending an investigation, though United did not confirm this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident, he said, has cast a shadow over his family’s vacation, and he is currently considering seeking legal counsel regarding a potential civil rights violation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t normalize racism. You can’t treat racists with empathy,” Varela said. “I definitely hope she gets fired.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The incident was captured on video by the passenger, San Ramon business owner Julio Varela, and widely \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1uynxya/new_video_follow_up_with_racist_united_airlines/\">circulated on Reddit\u003c/a>. In the footage, a person who appears to be a United employee is seen recording Varela with a cellphone before stating: “Maybe we should call ICE on you. You’re not acting like a citizen.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Varela, a Mexican American and naturalized United States citizen, was traveling to Montreal with his wife and two daughters. KQED has reviewed Varela’s ticket and videos of the encounter and was able to confirm he was at the airport at that time. He told KQED the employee’s conduct was discriminatory and unprovoked. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Varela, a Mexican American and naturalized United States citizen, was traveling to Montreal with his wife and two daughters. KQED has reviewed Varela’s ticket and videos of the encounter and was able to confirm he was at the airport at that time. He told KQED the employee’s conduct was discriminatory and unprovoked. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I am Mexican. I was born in Mexico, I am a U.S. citizen. I own my own business. I pay taxes. I employ people,” Varela said on Friday. “For her, especially with what’s going on right now in America … to say that to a minority, especially a Hispanic person, I think it’s really, really hateful and it’s really racist.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re looking into the interaction in this video, but don’t have anything additional to share at this time,” a United media relations spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Varela said he, his wife and two of their daughters arrived at SFO around 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday for an 11:40 a.m. flight to Montreal, Canada, where his wife was attending a work conference. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Weeks prior, he said, his wife had accidentally entered their daughter’s middle name in the last name field when booking through United for a flight operated by Air Canada. Varela said they spent roughly 15 hours on the phone in the two weeks leading up to the trip trying to fix the error, and were bounced repeatedly between the two airlines’ customer service lines.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Weeks prior, he said, his wife had accidentally entered their daughter’s middle name in the last name field when booking through United for a flight operated by Air Canada. Varela said they spent roughly 15 hours on the phone in the two weeks leading up to the trip trying to fix the error, and were bounced repeatedly between the two airlines’ customer service lines.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At the airport, the family spent nearly three hours walking back and forth between the United and Air Canada counters, he said. According to Varela, Air Canada agents were trying to help, but needed United to release the ticket in their system. Four minutes before the family was supposed to board, he said, an Air Canada supervisor walked over to the United counter to plead the family’s case.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>At the airport, the family spent nearly three hours walking back and forth between the United and Air Canada counters, he said. According to Varela, Air Canada agents were trying to help, but needed United to release the ticket in their system. Four minutes before the family was supposed to board, he said, an Air Canada supervisor walked over to the United counter to plead the family’s case.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Varela said the United employee he spoke with was dismissive, allegedly telling the Air Canada supervisor that she didn’t care if the family missed their flight.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“She said, ‘I’m not dealing with it, it ain’t my problem,’” Varela said. “That is when I was like, man, you’re so lazy, so rude. And she was like, ‘Why are you calling me this?’ I go, ‘Yeah, what’s your name?’ That’s when I pulled out my phone.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When she reemerges from a back room, Varela again asks for her name.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That was when she could be heard making the comment about involving U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That’s when I lost my s—,” Varela said. “I was like, ‘Are you serious? Call ICE on me right now.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Varela said that, as the argument escalated, the employee stepped out from behind the counter and shoved his hand away, causing him to stop the recording. His 14-year-old daughter, standing next to him, was crying, he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The family eventually made their flight after another United representative stepped in to finalize the ticket release.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We are aware of a video being circulated online, but we have no verification of its authenticity or the full context,” the IAM Union said in a statement. “As depicted, the comments made in the video do not reflect the views or values of the IAM Union. Any potential matters arising from this incident will be handled through the appropriate processes established by the collective bargaining agreement.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>SFO officials declined to comment, directing inquiries to United Airlines.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The incident comes amid mounting fear among travelers of federal immigration enforcement at transit hubs. On July 13, video footage captured plainclothes ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/video/plainclothes-ice-officers-attempt-to-detain-man-las-vegas-airport/\">agents tackling and attempting to handcuff\u003c/a> a 57-year-old man at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The incident comes amid mounting fear among travelers of federal immigration enforcement at transit hubs. On July 13, video footage captured plainclothes ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/video/plainclothes-ice-officers-attempt-to-detain-man-las-vegas-airport/\">agents tackling and attempting to handcuff\u003c/a> a 57-year-old man at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In March, plainclothes ICE agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077292/is-ice-at-sfo-heres-what-we-know-about-videos-of-woman-being-forcefully-detained\">detained Angelina Lopez-Jimenez\u003c/a>, a Contra Costa County mother and her 9-year-old daughter at SFO’s Terminal 3. The two were deported to Guatemala within 48 hours. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That arrest, which was prompted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077581/bay-area-officials-raise-privacy-concerns-after-ice-arrest-at-sfo\">data-sharing between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE\u003c/a>, drew intense backlash from civil rights advocates and prompted the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082395/san-francisco-condemns-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-actions-at-sfo-airport\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> to pass a resolution condemning federal immigration enforcement at the airport.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That arrest, which was prompted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077581/bay-area-officials-raise-privacy-concerns-after-ice-arrest-at-sfo\">data-sharing between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE\u003c/a>, drew intense backlash from civil rights advocates and prompted the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082395/san-francisco-condemns-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-actions-at-sfo-airport\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> to pass a resolution condemning federal immigration enforcement at the airport.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Though San Francisco is a sanctuary city, local policies cannot physically bar federal ICE agents from operating within the airport.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Every time I fly, I’m like, ‘Are they going to let me in?’” Varela said. “You could be an American citizen born here. It doesn’t matter.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Varela said that he heard through a personal connection at the airline that the employee had been suspended pending an investigation, though United did not confirm this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The incident, he said, has cast a shadow over his family’s vacation, and he is currently considering seeking legal counsel regarding a potential civil rights violation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You can’t normalize racism. You can’t treat racists with empathy,” Varela said. “I definitely hope she gets fired.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A ticketing mix-up ahead of a family vacation to Canada escalated into a viral confrontation after a United Airlines worker allegedly told a Mexican-American passenger, “Maybe we should call ICE on you. You’re not acting like a citizen.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Bay Area resident accused a United Airlines employee of threatening to call federal immigration authorities after a confrontation at the airline’s counter at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a> on Tuesday, prompting an internal probe by the airline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident was captured on video by the passenger, San Ramon business owner Julio Varela, and widely \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/comments/1uynxya/new_video_follow_up_with_racist_united_airlines/\">circulated on Reddit\u003c/a>. In the footage, a person who appears to be a United employee is seen recording Varela with a cellphone before stating: “Maybe we should call ICE on you. You’re not acting like a citizen.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela, a Mexican American and naturalized United States citizen, was traveling to Montreal with his wife and two daughters. KQED has reviewed Varela’s ticket and videos of the encounter and was able to confirm he was at the airport at that time. He told KQED the employee’s conduct was discriminatory and unprovoked. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I am Mexican. I was born in Mexico, I am a U.S. citizen. I own my own business. I pay taxes. I employ people,” Varela said on Friday. “For her, especially with what’s going on right now in America … to say that to a minority, especially a Hispanic person, I think it’s really, really hateful and it’s really racist.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/HHMdIwkuegQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/HHMdIwkuegQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>United Airlines declined to answer specific questions regarding the employee’s conduct or employment status.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking into the interaction in this video, but don’t have anything additional to share at this time,” a United media relations spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said he, his wife and two of their daughters arrived at SFO around 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday for an 11:40 a.m. flight to Montreal, Canada, where his wife was attending a work conference. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Weeks prior, he said, his wife had accidentally entered their daughter’s middle name in the last name field when booking through United for a flight operated by Air Canada. Varela said they spent roughly 15 hours on the phone in the two weeks leading up to the trip trying to fix the error, and were bounced repeatedly between the two airlines’ customer service lines.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077958\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/United-Airlines-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Passengers wait for their flights inside San Francisco International Airport on Dec. 10, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the airport, the family spent nearly three hours walking back and forth between the United and Air Canada counters, he said. According to Varela, Air Canada agents were trying to help, but needed United to release the ticket in their system. Four minutes before the family was supposed to board, he said, an Air Canada supervisor walked over to the United counter to plead the family’s case.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said the United employee he spoke with was dismissive, allegedly telling the Air Canada supervisor that she didn’t care if the family missed their flight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She said, ‘I’m not dealing with it, it ain’t my problem,’” Varela said. “That is when I was like, man, you’re so lazy, so rude. And she was like, ‘Why are you calling me this?’ I go, ‘Yeah, what’s your name?’ That’s when I pulled out my phone.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the footage, the United employee — wearing a badge identifying her as an International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union steward — refused to give her name and began recording Varela with her own phone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When she reemerges from a back room, Varela again asks for her name.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That was when she could be heard making the comment about involving U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That’s when I lost my s—,” Varela said. “I was like, ‘Are you serious? Call ICE on me right now.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said that, as the argument escalated, the employee stepped out from behind the counter and shoved his hand away, causing him to stop the recording. His 14-year-old daughter, standing next to him, was crying, he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The family eventually made their flight after another United representative stepped in to finalize the ticket release.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are aware of a video being circulated online, but we have no verification of its authenticity or the full context,” the IAM Union said in a statement. “As depicted, the comments made in the video do not reflect the views or values of the IAM Union. Any potential matters arising from this incident will be handled through the appropriate processes established by the collective bargaining agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFO officials declined to comment, directing inquiries to United Airlines.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident comes amid mounting fear among travelers of federal immigration enforcement at transit hubs. On July 13, video footage captured plainclothes ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/video/plainclothes-ice-officers-attempt-to-detain-man-las-vegas-airport/\">agents tackling and attempting to handcuff\u003c/a> a 57-year-old man at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In March, plainclothes ICE agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077292/is-ice-at-sfo-heres-what-we-know-about-videos-of-woman-being-forcefully-detained\">detained Angelina Lopez-Jimenez\u003c/a>, a Contra Costa County mother and her 9-year-old daughter at SFO’s Terminal 3. The two were deported to Guatemala within 48 hours. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12073262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260209-SFOSLEEPING-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A person sits on a bench at San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 9, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That arrest, which was prompted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077581/bay-area-officials-raise-privacy-concerns-after-ice-arrest-at-sfo\">data-sharing between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE\u003c/a>, drew intense backlash from civil rights advocates and prompted the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082395/san-francisco-condemns-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-actions-at-sfo-airport\">San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> to pass a resolution condemning federal immigration enforcement at the airport.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though San Francisco is a sanctuary city, local policies cannot physically bar federal ICE agents from operating within the airport.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Every time I fly, I’m like, ‘Are they going to let me in?’” Varela said. “You could be an American citizen born here. It doesn’t matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Varela said that he heard through a personal connection at the airline that the employee had been suspended pending an investigation, though United did not confirm this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The incident, he said, has cast a shadow over his family’s vacation, and he is currently considering seeking legal counsel regarding a potential civil rights violation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t normalize racism. You can’t treat racists with empathy,” Varela said. “I definitely hope she gets fired.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "whats-happening-with-temporary-protected-status-after-the-major-supreme-court-ruling",
"title": "What’s Happening With Temporary Protected Status After the Major Supreme Court Ruling?",
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"headTitle": "What’s Happening With Temporary Protected Status After the Major Supreme Court Ruling? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Jhony Silva has lived in the Bay Area since he was a toddler. The 30-year-old was a nursing assistant at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But since \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras\">the expiration of \u003c/a>Temporary Protected Status for his birth country, Honduras, last September, Silva’s life has been shaken. He lost his job — which he held while also going to school to become a registered nurse — and he frequently fears getting deported and separated from his family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have a 9-year-old that I worry about,” he said. “Getting that TPS status taken away from me was a very rude awakening, and it’s left me in a really unpleasant situation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of people on TPS are likely to be in a similar situation. In late June, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the power \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians without court oversight\u003c/a>, attacking a decades-old federal program that allows people to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088937\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A protester holds a sign calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in front of the court in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The decision can have ripple effects by jeopardizing the status of individuals from other TPS-designated countries like Venezuela and Nepal. According to federal data from early last year, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS20844\">1.3 million people\u003c/a> from 17 different countries are TPS holders, with almost 80,000 living in California. KQED published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088988/on-tps-in-california-what-you-should-know-after-the-supreme-court-ruling\">a Q&A with lawyers and experts\u003c/a> from the Supreme Court case shortly after the decision in June. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want people to realize that we are not what Donald Trump says we are,” Silva said. “We are hardworking people that want to make a life for ourselves out here, and support our family and try to pursue our own version of the American Dream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We all deserve better, and we all need to come together and work on figuring out how to better this situation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To learn more about the fallout of the TPS ruling and the context around it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914391/the-fallout-from-the-supreme-courts-tps-ruling\">KQED’s \u003cem>Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> spoke to Jazmine Ulloa, \u003cem>The New York Times \u003c/em>national reporter covering immigration, and Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What is Temporary Protected Status?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emi MacLean: \u003c/strong>Temporary Protected Status is a form of humanitarian immigration protection for people whose countries are in crisis. These are people who are in the United States and cannot safely return to their home countries because their countries are at war, there’s a humanitarian crisis or there’s a natural disaster. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a 1990 law that is intended to limit executive discretion and create rules for when countries can be designated for TPS and how countries’ designations for TPS can end. It ended a period where there was complete executive discretion. It was Congress’s intent at the time to create rules that govern how countries can get TPS and how individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries can be protected against deportation, detention and be provided work authorization while they’re living in the United States. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12089188\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long are TPS holders in the country for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>Each individual designation is up to 18 months, but the law is clear that at the end of a period of a country’s designation, the government must review the conditions in the country. If it’s still unsafe for individuals to return to that country, their TPS designation must be extended. And we know that wars, natural disasters, humanitarian crises don’t come in 12- or 18-month intervals. Sometimes countries can be in crisis for five years, 10 years or more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The law is clear that TPS must be extended if the country’s conditions remain unsafe and may be terminated only if it is safe for individuals to return to that country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The National TPS Alliance and others who have been fighting for TPS holders recognize that TPS, or humanitarian protection, is critical. But there needs to be a path to permanent protection that’s available for people, especially people who cannot return home for a period of time and who build lives here, who have U.S. citizen children, who own homes, who are working long-term in jobs and who become part of the fabric of this country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They should not be permanently in limbo just because their countries are going through a protracted crisis. So certainly there should be reforms to the system. There should be reforms in a lot of ways that provide pathways to status for people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the Trump administration saying about TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jazmine Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This falls more into this broader shift away from these international commitments that the United States has held for decades — that the U.S. took on in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t necessarily said they want to terminate the program altogether, but they’ve suggested it in the way that they’ve approached it. They’re making it harder for refugees to enter; they’ve cut the number of refugees to record lows; they have made it much harder for asylum seekers to seek asylum in the courts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/ap26090784092005-scaled-e1781134932262.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\" class=\"wp-image-12085478\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This is part of that much broader movement, this broader shift away from establishing those humanitarian protections for people. More than a dozen countries have now been eliminated. Only four remain standing: El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What I’m hearing from folks is just how the legal landscape is just quickly changing underneath their feet: where one person can be legally here in the United States on one day, they feel like by the next day they won’t be. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does that mean that the Supreme Court, in its decision, essentially said that the federal courts need to stay out of TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Under the law, the administration has the authority to terminate TPS designations for individual countries — but only where they follow certain criteria. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the central issues that was before the Supreme Court is: “Does the government \u003cem>have \u003c/em>to follow the law?” And essentially, the government’s argument was, ‘In no uncertain terms, there’s nothing the courts can do about it.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5804707/supreme-court-tps\">question from a Supreme Court justice\u003c/a> was: “If the secretary made a decision relying on a Ouija board, rather than evaluating country conditions, would we be able to have any review?” The Solicitor General, one of the top lawyers in the United States, said: “There would be no judicial review in that case.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088821\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Temporary Protected Status holders, along with union leaders and advocates, rally as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in Mullin v. Doe on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The case will determine whether the Trump administration may terminate the TPS designations. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So the law is clear that there are processes that must be followed for a TPS designation to be terminated — where hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. And a central question now is: can courts do anything about it when they completely violate the law? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It doesn’t completely eliminate all avenues for judicial review, but it severely constrains the avenues that are available for judicial review. And it essentially gives the administration what it was asking for. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are more than a dozen cases across the country before all sorts of judges where TPS holders are challenging the Trump administration’s illegal terminations of TPS. And every single judge in every single case had recognized that there must be checks and balances. There must be oversight. Otherwise, the TPS statute is just advisory. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And the Supreme Court endorsed the extreme position that the government presented, which is that it is effectively advisory. What the Supreme Court did say is that there may still be constitutional claims, including claims related to the unconstitutional termination of TPS because the TPS terminations were motivated by racism.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But one of the arguments made was that this \u003cem>was \u003c/em>motivated by racism. How did the Trump administration respond to that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration essentially asked the justices to close their eyes and their ears to the clearly racist statements by President Trump and the then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The constitutionality of the TPS termination question was related directly to the termination of TPS for Haiti. We will all remember during the campaign, and while Trump was president, he talked about Haitians — and Haitian TPS holders in particular — as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006797/haitians-in-ca-worry-of-long-term-effects-from-false-political-rhetoric\">eating cats and dogs of their neighbors\u003c/a>. He talked about Haitian as poisoning the blood of the country. And he described Haiti, and in the context of talking about TPS, as a “shit country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Essentially what the Solicitor General was saying is, those are just statements of policy differences. And in an egregious majority decision by the supermajority in a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court agreed and said, “This is heated language and an expression of policy differences.” And they essentially ignored the very clearly racist statements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But they did not prevent TPS holders from continuing to bring constitutional challenges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this ruling mean for other TPS holders not from Haiti or Syria?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration remains locked in litigation over whether it can end protections for more than a million people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And so I’ve been talking to TPS holders from many of these nations who are scrambling to find other forms of protection and are trying to make life-and-death decisions right now about whether to stay in the country or be forced to return to countries that they say are still very, very unstable. And they’re doing so at a time when the administration is ramping up arrests all across the country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this mean for people who have lost TPS? Does it essentially mean they are subject to deportation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> There are 1.3 million people who had TPS at the start of this administration. And as Jazmine was saying, virtually all of the TPS designations have been terminated to date, except for a few that have not yet come up for review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are about 700,000 people who have already lost their TPS status because the legal challenges have allowed for those TPS terminations to go into effect. There are about 350,000 Haitian and Syrian TPS holders that are expected to lose their status within days as a result of the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the government’s arguments defending their TPS terminations, and there are some others where the challenges continue to be making their way through the courts, but are going to be much harder because of the Supreme Court’s decisions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12080887\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A family attends Mass at St. Jarlath’s Church in Oakland during a vigil for immigrant families on Oct. 28, 2025. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we know is that TPS holders who have lost status have been at risk of detention and deportation, and they have, in many cases, already lost their employment authorization and are living on the margins where previously they were able to contribute to their families, contribute to their communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I spend a lot of time in this very rural conservative area in Iowa, where more than a dozen Ukrainians have arrived since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, and they’ve been able to establish themselves. They’ve been able to buy homes and work various jobs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now they have to stay home. Their employers have been fighting to bring them back to work. I spoke to one employer who said, “These two women here who learned how to frame, how to paint windows and frame the doorways, it’s very specialized, skilled work that they were able to learn in two years.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He’s paid thousands of dollars to try to get them visas, but those are very difficult processes and can take many years to establish, and the administration is only making it harder in so many different ways, whether it’s in the courts whether through these administrative processes. So it’s putting people in very dire situations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What process exists for TPS holders to be able to get a status that is not temporary? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Temporary Protected Status is supposed to mean something that is different from permanent status. What that means is that for as long as it is unsafe for an individual to return to their home country, they should be able to stay here, but they are consistently in limbo. And so it is not a great status for people to be in for long periods of time, but sometimes it’s the only available status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I talked this morning to a Haitian TPS holder who’s lived here since she was a child. Every single other member of her family has a permanent status. She applied more than five years ago to adjust through a family member. That wait list is probably going to be six to 10 years. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Her employer wants her to be able to stay and sought employment authorization for her with an H-1B visa, but the administration has blocked the processing of immigration applications for Haitians and for many people from many other countries. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> That doesn’t mean that Congress could not create a pathway to status. And there are actually bills that currently exist in Congress that would provide a path to permanent legal status — green cards — for TPS holders. It is very important now that, in addition to providing longer-term protections for TPS holders, a path to permanent relief and a moratorium on deportations, that the statute has judicial review restored.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It’s a convenient retort that Trump and the DHS secretaries will say: just follow the rules, get in line, apply through the normal process. But they’re doing literally everything in their power to prevent people from getting any permanent status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And they are, in fact, engaging with this mass de-documentation program. Some 1.3 million people will lose status effectively overnight through their actions. They are the ones who are making people undocumented and preventing them from having another path to getting status.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are the impacts of the TPS ruling on communities and economies? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve looked at it at a large-scale level and at the interpersonal level and personal level and familial level. There were multiple Nobel Prize-winning economists who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court about the billions of dollars that are going to be lost to the U.S. economy from the de-documentation of TPS holders. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many TPS holders — including a large number of the 350,000 Haitian TPS holders who are on the eve of losing their status — work in vital care industries as doctors, nurses and home health aides. Patients rely on them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/GettyImages-1059576326-e1549920421190.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11725430\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People demonstrate in front of the White House against the decision by the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for people from six countries in November 2018. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve also done studies at a smaller level of members of the National TPS Alliance who we represent in TPS challenges in court about what the effect was on individuals, and on their families from the loss of TPS status. We found that of the people who responded to the study, virtually all had stable, long-term committed employment, some for many years. And then overnight, the majority of people effectively lost all of their income. So that is devastating for individuals. It’s also devastating for communities that are then forced to pick up the pieces. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> A problem that a lot of TPS holders are encountering is that sometimes their work permit has not necessarily been terminated, but there’s a lot of confusion as to when. And so some employers have already let staff go, thinking that they’re going to have to do so anyway, so why not just do it now? Others are trying to work with lawyers, with their legal assistants, to figure out exactly what the regulations are. Many worry about facing steep fines if they do not meet the government’s new approach to this program.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The U.S. has stripped TPS status for some of these countries, but don’t they \u003cem>also\u003c/em> have travel advisories warning people not to go there? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The inconsistency and incoherence between the two parts of the government cannot be ignored. That you have the State Department saying on their website, no part of Syria is safe, and saying, if you’re going to travel to Haiti, \u003ca href=\"https://ht.usembassy.gov/travel-advisory-haiti-july-2026/\">prepare a will in advance\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And yet, in the decisions terminating TPS for Haiti and Syria, the DHS secretary said it can be safe to return, there’s only sporadic violence in Syria, there are improvements in Haiti. There’s no way that that’s true. The termination decisions are founded on lies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The Venezuela earthquake is a really poignant and deeply devastating example. The earthquake is exactly the type of thing that would have sparked a TPS designation under any other administration, or many other administrations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We know that there was a deportation flight from Miami to Venezuela the day before the earthquake. We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5875287/venezuela-deportees-us-quakes\">there were TPS holders on that flight, and we know that they died\u003c/a>. They were in a hotel that collapsed. There’s been no acknowledgment, no remorse, no recognition of that. And still there are Venezuelan TPS holders, a large number of them who are detained and awaiting deportation, and there’s been no mention of any consideration of designating Venezuela for TPS because of the earthquake. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>There are quite a number of lawmakers who have recognized the concern for the Venezuelan population and even the concern for the termination of TPS for Venezuela, including Republican lawmakers in Florida who are willing to post on their social media that they’re concerned about TPS for Venezuela but unwilling to do anything about it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about the countries \u003cem>with\u003c/em> protection? When do those come up for renewal? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I’m definitely hearing from people from El Salvador who are on TPS that they are very, very worried. And these TPS holders from El Salvador are particularly striking because many of them have been in the country for 30 years, and it is because of their struggle to find legal pathways in this country that we even have the program to begin with. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This program was created, as we said earlier, in the 1990s, and it was driven by a bipartisan push in Congress largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/temporary-protected-status-whats-up-with-that/\">because people from El Salvador were fleeing their native country\u003c/a> and coming into the United States; they were fleeing a very violent civil war and they were ending up here and they were trying to find sanctuary in churches, and they were lobbying members of Congress for this protection. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It is striking to many of them to now, years later, have built lives. Many of them have kids who have now gone on to college. They are still struggling for the same type of protection and still fearing this war or very unstable situations back in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are there any new legal avenues being pursued by TPS advocates?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> We do think that with more evidence about the motivations for the TPS terminations, it should be clear that the TPS terminations were motivated by racism, which is against the Constitution. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s an open question about whether the Supreme Court is going to find a violation of the Constitution for anything if they’re not willing to recognize these clearly, blatantly racist statements as evidence of racism, but we plan to and will bring even more evidence than was available at the Supreme Court. We also believe that there are other constitutional challenges that have not been brought, that we intend to move forward in the courts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s clear that this will not immediately protect the TPS holders at risk. Deportations are happening now. Detentions are happening. Now the harm is happening to TPS holders, their families and their communities, many of whom have lived here for a long time. We will continue to fight, but it is really critical that there is a political solution as well, given the real limitations that the Supreme Court has placed on legal avenues for relief.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jhony Silva has lived in the Bay Area since he was a toddler. The 30-year-old was a nursing assistant at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Jhony Silva has lived in the Bay Area since he was a toddler. The 30-year-old was a nursing assistant at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But since \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras\">the expiration of \u003c/a>Temporary Protected Status for his birth country, Honduras, last September, Silva’s life has been shaken. He lost his job — which he held while also going to school to become a registered nurse — and he frequently fears getting deported and separated from his family. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But since \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras\">the expiration of \u003c/a>Temporary Protected Status for his birth country, Honduras, last September, Silva’s life has been shaken. He lost his job — which he held while also going to school to become a registered nurse — and he frequently fears getting deported and separated from his family. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I have a 9-year-old that I worry about,” he said. “Getting that TPS status taken away from me was a very rude awakening, and it’s left me in a really unpleasant situation.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I have a 9-year-old that I worry about,” he said. “Getting that TPS status taken away from me was a very rude awakening, and it’s left me in a really unpleasant situation.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of people on TPS are likely to be in a similar situation. In late June, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the power \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians without court oversight\u003c/a>, attacking a decades-old federal program that allows people to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of people on TPS are likely to be in a similar situation. In late June, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the power \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians without court oversight\u003c/a>, attacking a decades-old federal program that allows people to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088937\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A protester holds a sign calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in front of the court in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088937\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A protester holds a sign calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in front of the court in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The decision can have ripple effects by jeopardizing the status of individuals from other TPS-designated countries like Venezuela and Nepal. According to federal data from early last year, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS20844\">1.3 million people\u003c/a> from 17 different countries are TPS holders, with almost 80,000 living in California. KQED published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088988/on-tps-in-california-what-you-should-know-after-the-supreme-court-ruling\">a Q&A with lawyers and experts\u003c/a> from the Supreme Court case shortly after the decision in June. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The decision can have ripple effects by jeopardizing the status of individuals from other TPS-designated countries like Venezuela and Nepal. According to federal data from early last year, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS20844\">1.3 million people\u003c/a> from 17 different countries are TPS holders, with almost 80,000 living in California. KQED published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088988/on-tps-in-california-what-you-should-know-after-the-supreme-court-ruling\">a Q&A with lawyers and experts\u003c/a> from the Supreme Court case shortly after the decision in June. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I want people to realize that we are not what Donald Trump says we are,” Silva said. “We are hardworking people that want to make a life for ourselves out here, and support our family and try to pursue our own version of the American Dream.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I want people to realize that we are not what Donald Trump says we are,” Silva said. “We are hardworking people that want to make a life for ourselves out here, and support our family and try to pursue our own version of the American Dream.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We all deserve better, and we all need to come together and work on figuring out how to better this situation.”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“We all deserve better, and we all need to come together and work on figuring out how to better this situation.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To learn more about the fallout of the TPS ruling and the context around it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914391/the-fallout-from-the-supreme-courts-tps-ruling\">KQED’s \u003cem>Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> spoke to Jazmine Ulloa, \u003cem>The New York Times \u003c/em>national reporter covering immigration, and Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To learn more about the fallout of the TPS ruling and the context around it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914391/the-fallout-from-the-supreme-courts-tps-ruling\">KQED’s \u003cem>Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> spoke to Jazmine Ulloa, \u003cem>The New York Times \u003c/em>national reporter covering immigration, and Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What is Temporary Protected Status?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What is Temporary Protected Status?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emi MacLean: \u003c/strong>Temporary Protected Status is a form of humanitarian immigration protection for people whose countries are in crisis. These are people who are in the United States and cannot safely return to their home countries because their countries are at war, there’s a humanitarian crisis or there’s a natural disaster. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emi MacLean: \u003c/strong>Temporary Protected Status is a form of humanitarian immigration protection for people whose countries are in crisis. These are people who are in the United States and cannot safely return to their home countries because their countries are at war, there’s a humanitarian crisis or there’s a natural disaster. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s a 1990 law that is intended to limit executive discretion and create rules for when countries can be designated for TPS and how countries’ designations for TPS can end. It ended a period where there was complete executive discretion. It was Congress’s intent at the time to create rules that govern how countries can get TPS and how individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries can be protected against deportation, detention and be provided work authorization while they’re living in the United States. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s a 1990 law that is intended to limit executive discretion and create rules for when countries can be designated for TPS and how countries’ designations for TPS can end. It ended a period where there was complete executive discretion. It was Congress’s intent at the time to create rules that govern how countries can get TPS and how individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries can be protected against deportation, detention and be provided work authorization while they’re living in the United States. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12089188\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12089188\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long are TPS holders in the country for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long are TPS holders in the country for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>Each individual designation is up to 18 months, but the law is clear that at the end of a period of a country’s designation, the government must review the conditions in the country. If it’s still unsafe for individuals to return to that country, their TPS designation must be extended. And we know that wars, natural disasters, humanitarian crises don’t come in 12- or 18-month intervals. Sometimes countries can be in crisis for five years, 10 years or more. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>Each individual designation is up to 18 months, but the law is clear that at the end of a period of a country’s designation, the government must review the conditions in the country. If it’s still unsafe for individuals to return to that country, their TPS designation must be extended. And we know that wars, natural disasters, humanitarian crises don’t come in 12- or 18-month intervals. Sometimes countries can be in crisis for five years, 10 years or more. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The law is clear that TPS must be extended if the country’s conditions remain unsafe and may be terminated only if it is safe for individuals to return to that country. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The law is clear that TPS must be extended if the country’s conditions remain unsafe and may be terminated only if it is safe for individuals to return to that country. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The National TPS Alliance and others who have been fighting for TPS holders recognize that TPS, or humanitarian protection, is critical. But there needs to be a path to permanent protection that’s available for people, especially people who cannot return home for a period of time and who build lives here, who have U.S. citizen children, who own homes, who are working long-term in jobs and who become part of the fabric of this country. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The National TPS Alliance and others who have been fighting for TPS holders recognize that TPS, or humanitarian protection, is critical. But there needs to be a path to permanent protection that’s available for people, especially people who cannot return home for a period of time and who build lives here, who have U.S. citizen children, who own homes, who are working long-term in jobs and who become part of the fabric of this country. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They should not be permanently in limbo just because their countries are going through a protracted crisis. So certainly there should be reforms to the system. There should be reforms in a lot of ways that provide pathways to status for people. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They should not be permanently in limbo just because their countries are going through a protracted crisis. So certainly there should be reforms to the system. There should be reforms in a lot of ways that provide pathways to status for people. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the Trump administration saying about TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the Trump administration saying about TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jazmine Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This falls more into this broader shift away from these international commitments that the United States has held for decades — that the U.S. took on in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jazmine Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This falls more into this broader shift away from these international commitments that the United States has held for decades — that the U.S. took on in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t necessarily said they want to terminate the program altogether, but they’ve suggested it in the way that they’ve approached it. They’re making it harder for refugees to enter; they’ve cut the number of refugees to record lows; they have made it much harder for asylum seekers to seek asylum in the courts. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t necessarily said they want to terminate the program altogether, but they’ve suggested it in the way that they’ve approached it. They’re making it harder for refugees to enter; they’ve cut the number of refugees to record lows; they have made it much harder for asylum seekers to seek asylum in the courts. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/ap26090784092005-scaled-e1781134932262.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\" class=\"wp-image-12085478\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/ap26090784092005-scaled-e1781134932262.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\" class=\"wp-image-12085478\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This is part of that much broader movement, this broader shift away from establishing those humanitarian protections for people. More than a dozen countries have now been eliminated. Only four remain standing: El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This is part of that much broader movement, this broader shift away from establishing those humanitarian protections for people. More than a dozen countries have now been eliminated. Only four remain standing: El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What I’m hearing from folks is just how the legal landscape is just quickly changing underneath their feet: where one person can be legally here in the United States on one day, they feel like by the next day they won’t be. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What I’m hearing from folks is just how the legal landscape is just quickly changing underneath their feet: where one person can be legally here in the United States on one day, they feel like by the next day they won’t be. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does that mean that the Supreme Court, in its decision, essentially said that the federal courts need to stay out of TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does that mean that the Supreme Court, in its decision, essentially said that the federal courts need to stay out of TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Under the law, the administration has the authority to terminate TPS designations for individual countries — but only where they follow certain criteria. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Under the law, the administration has the authority to terminate TPS designations for individual countries — but only where they follow certain criteria. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of the central issues that was before the Supreme Court is: “Does the government \u003cem>have \u003c/em>to follow the law?” And essentially, the government’s argument was, ‘In no uncertain terms, there’s nothing the courts can do about it.’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of the central issues that was before the Supreme Court is: “Does the government \u003cem>have \u003c/em>to follow the law?” And essentially, the government’s argument was, ‘In no uncertain terms, there’s nothing the courts can do about it.’” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5804707/supreme-court-tps\">question from a Supreme Court justice\u003c/a> was: “If the secretary made a decision relying on a Ouija board, rather than evaluating country conditions, would we be able to have any review?” The Solicitor General, one of the top lawyers in the United States, said: “There would be no judicial review in that case.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5804707/supreme-court-tps\">question from a Supreme Court justice\u003c/a> was: “If the secretary made a decision relying on a Ouija board, rather than evaluating country conditions, would we be able to have any review?” The Solicitor General, one of the top lawyers in the United States, said: “There would be no judicial review in that case.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088821\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Temporary Protected Status holders, along with union leaders and advocates, rally as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in Mullin v. Doe on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The case will determine whether the Trump administration may terminate the TPS designations.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088821\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Temporary Protected Status holders, along with union leaders and advocates, rally as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in Mullin v. Doe on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The case will determine whether the Trump administration may terminate the TPS designations.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So the law is clear that there are processes that must be followed for a TPS designation to be terminated — where hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. And a central question now is: can courts do anything about it when they completely violate the law? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So the law is clear that there are processes that must be followed for a TPS designation to be terminated — where hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. And a central question now is: can courts do anything about it when they completely violate the law? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It doesn’t completely eliminate all avenues for judicial review, but it severely constrains the avenues that are available for judicial review. And it essentially gives the administration what it was asking for. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It doesn’t completely eliminate all avenues for judicial review, but it severely constrains the avenues that are available for judicial review. And it essentially gives the administration what it was asking for. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are more than a dozen cases across the country before all sorts of judges where TPS holders are challenging the Trump administration’s illegal terminations of TPS. And every single judge in every single case had recognized that there must be checks and balances. There must be oversight. Otherwise, the TPS statute is just advisory. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There are more than a dozen cases across the country before all sorts of judges where TPS holders are challenging the Trump administration’s illegal terminations of TPS. And every single judge in every single case had recognized that there must be checks and balances. There must be oversight. Otherwise, the TPS statute is just advisory. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And the Supreme Court endorsed the extreme position that the government presented, which is that it is effectively advisory. What the Supreme Court did say is that there may still be constitutional claims, including claims related to the unconstitutional termination of TPS because the TPS terminations were motivated by racism.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And the Supreme Court endorsed the extreme position that the government presented, which is that it is effectively advisory. What the Supreme Court did say is that there may still be constitutional claims, including claims related to the unconstitutional termination of TPS because the TPS terminations were motivated by racism.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But one of the arguments made was that this \u003cem>was \u003c/em>motivated by racism. How did the Trump administration respond to that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But one of the arguments made was that this \u003cem>was \u003c/em>motivated by racism. How did the Trump administration respond to that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration essentially asked the justices to close their eyes and their ears to the clearly racist statements by President Trump and the then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration essentially asked the justices to close their eyes and their ears to the clearly racist statements by President Trump and the then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The constitutionality of the TPS termination question was related directly to the termination of TPS for Haiti. We will all remember during the campaign, and while Trump was president, he talked about Haitians — and Haitian TPS holders in particular — as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006797/haitians-in-ca-worry-of-long-term-effects-from-false-political-rhetoric\">eating cats and dogs of their neighbors\u003c/a>. He talked about Haitian as poisoning the blood of the country. And he described Haiti, and in the context of talking about TPS, as a “shit country.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The constitutionality of the TPS termination question was related directly to the termination of TPS for Haiti. We will all remember during the campaign, and while Trump was president, he talked about Haitians — and Haitian TPS holders in particular — as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006797/haitians-in-ca-worry-of-long-term-effects-from-false-political-rhetoric\">eating cats and dogs of their neighbors\u003c/a>. He talked about Haitian as poisoning the blood of the country. And he described Haiti, and in the context of talking about TPS, as a “shit country.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Essentially what the Solicitor General was saying is, those are just statements of policy differences. And in an egregious majority decision by the supermajority in a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court agreed and said, “This is heated language and an expression of policy differences.” And they essentially ignored the very clearly racist statements. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Essentially what the Solicitor General was saying is, those are just statements of policy differences. And in an egregious majority decision by the supermajority in a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court agreed and said, “This is heated language and an expression of policy differences.” And they essentially ignored the very clearly racist statements. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But they did not prevent TPS holders from continuing to bring constitutional challenges. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But they did not prevent TPS holders from continuing to bring constitutional challenges. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this ruling mean for other TPS holders not from Haiti or Syria?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this ruling mean for other TPS holders not from Haiti or Syria?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration remains locked in litigation over whether it can end protections for more than a million people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration remains locked in litigation over whether it can end protections for more than a million people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And so I’ve been talking to TPS holders from many of these nations who are scrambling to find other forms of protection and are trying to make life-and-death decisions right now about whether to stay in the country or be forced to return to countries that they say are still very, very unstable. And they’re doing so at a time when the administration is ramping up arrests all across the country. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And so I’ve been talking to TPS holders from many of these nations who are scrambling to find other forms of protection and are trying to make life-and-death decisions right now about whether to stay in the country or be forced to return to countries that they say are still very, very unstable. And they’re doing so at a time when the administration is ramping up arrests all across the country. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this mean for people who have lost TPS? Does it essentially mean they are subject to deportation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this mean for people who have lost TPS? Does it essentially mean they are subject to deportation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> There are 1.3 million people who had TPS at the start of this administration. And as Jazmine was saying, virtually all of the TPS designations have been terminated to date, except for a few that have not yet come up for review. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> There are 1.3 million people who had TPS at the start of this administration. And as Jazmine was saying, virtually all of the TPS designations have been terminated to date, except for a few that have not yet come up for review. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are about 700,000 people who have already lost their TPS status because the legal challenges have allowed for those TPS terminations to go into effect. There are about 350,000 Haitian and Syrian TPS holders that are expected to lose their status within days as a result of the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the government’s arguments defending their TPS terminations, and there are some others where the challenges continue to be making their way through the courts, but are going to be much harder because of the Supreme Court’s decisions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There are about 700,000 people who have already lost their TPS status because the legal challenges have allowed for those TPS terminations to go into effect. There are about 350,000 Haitian and Syrian TPS holders that are expected to lose their status within days as a result of the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the government’s arguments defending their TPS terminations, and there are some others where the challenges continue to be making their way through the courts, but are going to be much harder because of the Supreme Court’s decisions. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12080887\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A family attends Mass at St. Jarlath’s Church in Oakland during a vigil for immigrant families on Oct. 28, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12080887\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A family attends Mass at St. Jarlath’s Church in Oakland during a vigil for immigrant families on Oct. 28, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What we know is that TPS holders who have lost status have been at risk of detention and deportation, and they have, in many cases, already lost their employment authorization and are living on the margins where previously they were able to contribute to their families, contribute to their communities. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What we know is that TPS holders who have lost status have been at risk of detention and deportation, and they have, in many cases, already lost their employment authorization and are living on the margins where previously they were able to contribute to their families, contribute to their communities. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I spend a lot of time in this very rural conservative area in Iowa, where more than a dozen Ukrainians have arrived since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, and they’ve been able to establish themselves. They’ve been able to buy homes and work various jobs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I spend a lot of time in this very rural conservative area in Iowa, where more than a dozen Ukrainians have arrived since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, and they’ve been able to establish themselves. They’ve been able to buy homes and work various jobs. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Now they have to stay home. Their employers have been fighting to bring them back to work. I spoke to one employer who said, “These two women here who learned how to frame, how to paint windows and frame the doorways, it’s very specialized, skilled work that they were able to learn in two years.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Now they have to stay home. Their employers have been fighting to bring them back to work. I spoke to one employer who said, “These two women here who learned how to frame, how to paint windows and frame the doorways, it’s very specialized, skilled work that they were able to learn in two years.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He’s paid thousands of dollars to try to get them visas, but those are very difficult processes and can take many years to establish, and the administration is only making it harder in so many different ways, whether it’s in the courts whether through these administrative processes. So it’s putting people in very dire situations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He’s paid thousands of dollars to try to get them visas, but those are very difficult processes and can take many years to establish, and the administration is only making it harder in so many different ways, whether it’s in the courts whether through these administrative processes. So it’s putting people in very dire situations. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What process exists for TPS holders to be able to get a status that is not temporary? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What process exists for TPS holders to be able to get a status that is not temporary? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Temporary Protected Status is supposed to mean something that is different from permanent status. What that means is that for as long as it is unsafe for an individual to return to their home country, they should be able to stay here, but they are consistently in limbo. And so it is not a great status for people to be in for long periods of time, but sometimes it’s the only available status. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Temporary Protected Status is supposed to mean something that is different from permanent status. What that means is that for as long as it is unsafe for an individual to return to their home country, they should be able to stay here, but they are consistently in limbo. And so it is not a great status for people to be in for long periods of time, but sometimes it’s the only available status. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I talked this morning to a Haitian TPS holder who’s lived here since she was a child. Every single other member of her family has a permanent status. She applied more than five years ago to adjust through a family member. That wait list is probably going to be six to 10 years. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I talked this morning to a Haitian TPS holder who’s lived here since she was a child. Every single other member of her family has a permanent status. She applied more than five years ago to adjust through a family member. That wait list is probably going to be six to 10 years. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Her employer wants her to be able to stay and sought employment authorization for her with an H-1B visa, but the administration has blocked the processing of immigration applications for Haitians and for many people from many other countries. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Her employer wants her to be able to stay and sought employment authorization for her with an H-1B visa, but the administration has blocked the processing of immigration applications for Haitians and for many people from many other countries. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> That doesn’t mean that Congress could not create a pathway to status. And there are actually bills that currently exist in Congress that would provide a path to permanent legal status — green cards — for TPS holders. It is very important now that, in addition to providing longer-term protections for TPS holders, a path to permanent relief and a moratorium on deportations, that the statute has judicial review restored.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> That doesn’t mean that Congress could not create a pathway to status. And there are actually bills that currently exist in Congress that would provide a path to permanent legal status — green cards — for TPS holders. It is very important now that, in addition to providing longer-term protections for TPS holders, a path to permanent relief and a moratorium on deportations, that the statute has judicial review restored.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It’s a convenient retort that Trump and the DHS secretaries will say: just follow the rules, get in line, apply through the normal process. But they’re doing literally everything in their power to prevent people from getting any permanent status. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It’s a convenient retort that Trump and the DHS secretaries will say: just follow the rules, get in line, apply through the normal process. But they’re doing literally everything in their power to prevent people from getting any permanent status. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And they are, in fact, engaging with this mass de-documentation program. Some 1.3 million people will lose status effectively overnight through their actions. They are the ones who are making people undocumented and preventing them from having another path to getting status.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And they are, in fact, engaging with this mass de-documentation program. Some 1.3 million people will lose status effectively overnight through their actions. They are the ones who are making people undocumented and preventing them from having another path to getting status.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are the impacts of the TPS ruling on communities and economies? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are the impacts of the TPS ruling on communities and economies? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve looked at it at a large-scale level and at the interpersonal level and personal level and familial level. There were multiple Nobel Prize-winning economists who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court about the billions of dollars that are going to be lost to the U.S. economy from the de-documentation of TPS holders. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve looked at it at a large-scale level and at the interpersonal level and personal level and familial level. There were multiple Nobel Prize-winning economists who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court about the billions of dollars that are going to be lost to the U.S. economy from the de-documentation of TPS holders. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Many TPS holders — including a large number of the 350,000 Haitian TPS holders who are on the eve of losing their status — work in vital care industries as doctors, nurses and home health aides. Patients rely on them. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Many TPS holders — including a large number of the 350,000 Haitian TPS holders who are on the eve of losing their status — work in vital care industries as doctors, nurses and home health aides. Patients rely on them. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/GettyImages-1059576326-e1549920421190.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11725430\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People demonstrate in front of the White House against the decision by the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for people from six countries in November 2018.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/GettyImages-1059576326-e1549920421190.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11725430\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People demonstrate in front of the White House against the decision by the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for people from six countries in November 2018.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve also done studies at a smaller level of members of the National TPS Alliance who we represent in TPS challenges in court about what the effect was on individuals, and on their families from the loss of TPS status. We found that of the people who responded to the study, virtually all had stable, long-term committed employment, some for many years. And then overnight, the majority of people effectively lost all of their income. So that is devastating for individuals. It’s also devastating for communities that are then forced to pick up the pieces. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve also done studies at a smaller level of members of the National TPS Alliance who we represent in TPS challenges in court about what the effect was on individuals, and on their families from the loss of TPS status. We found that of the people who responded to the study, virtually all had stable, long-term committed employment, some for many years. And then overnight, the majority of people effectively lost all of their income. So that is devastating for individuals. It’s also devastating for communities that are then forced to pick up the pieces. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> A problem that a lot of TPS holders are encountering is that sometimes their work permit has not necessarily been terminated, but there’s a lot of confusion as to when. And so some employers have already let staff go, thinking that they’re going to have to do so anyway, so why not just do it now? Others are trying to work with lawyers, with their legal assistants, to figure out exactly what the regulations are. Many worry about facing steep fines if they do not meet the government’s new approach to this program.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> A problem that a lot of TPS holders are encountering is that sometimes their work permit has not necessarily been terminated, but there’s a lot of confusion as to when. And so some employers have already let staff go, thinking that they’re going to have to do so anyway, so why not just do it now? Others are trying to work with lawyers, with their legal assistants, to figure out exactly what the regulations are. Many worry about facing steep fines if they do not meet the government’s new approach to this program.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The U.S. has stripped TPS status for some of these countries, but don’t they \u003cem>also\u003c/em> have travel advisories warning people not to go there? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The U.S. has stripped TPS status for some of these countries, but don’t they \u003cem>also\u003c/em> have travel advisories warning people not to go there? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The inconsistency and incoherence between the two parts of the government cannot be ignored. That you have the State Department saying on their website, no part of Syria is safe, and saying, if you’re going to travel to Haiti, \u003ca href=\"https://ht.usembassy.gov/travel-advisory-haiti-july-2026/\">prepare a will in advance\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The inconsistency and incoherence between the two parts of the government cannot be ignored. That you have the State Department saying on their website, no part of Syria is safe, and saying, if you’re going to travel to Haiti, \u003ca href=\"https://ht.usembassy.gov/travel-advisory-haiti-july-2026/\">prepare a will in advance\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And yet, in the decisions terminating TPS for Haiti and Syria, the DHS secretary said it can be safe to return, there’s only sporadic violence in Syria, there are improvements in Haiti. There’s no way that that’s true. The termination decisions are founded on lies. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And yet, in the decisions terminating TPS for Haiti and Syria, the DHS secretary said it can be safe to return, there’s only sporadic violence in Syria, there are improvements in Haiti. There’s no way that that’s true. The termination decisions are founded on lies. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The Venezuela earthquake is a really poignant and deeply devastating example. The earthquake is exactly the type of thing that would have sparked a TPS designation under any other administration, or many other administrations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The Venezuela earthquake is a really poignant and deeply devastating example. The earthquake is exactly the type of thing that would have sparked a TPS designation under any other administration, or many other administrations. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We know that there was a deportation flight from Miami to Venezuela the day before the earthquake. We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5875287/venezuela-deportees-us-quakes\">there were TPS holders on that flight, and we know that they died\u003c/a>. They were in a hotel that collapsed. There’s been no acknowledgment, no remorse, no recognition of that. And still there are Venezuelan TPS holders, a large number of them who are detained and awaiting deportation, and there’s been no mention of any consideration of designating Venezuela for TPS because of the earthquake. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We know that there was a deportation flight from Miami to Venezuela the day before the earthquake. We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5875287/venezuela-deportees-us-quakes\">there were TPS holders on that flight, and we know that they died\u003c/a>. They were in a hotel that collapsed. There’s been no acknowledgment, no remorse, no recognition of that. And still there are Venezuelan TPS holders, a large number of them who are detained and awaiting deportation, and there’s been no mention of any consideration of designating Venezuela for TPS because of the earthquake. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>There are quite a number of lawmakers who have recognized the concern for the Venezuelan population and even the concern for the termination of TPS for Venezuela, including Republican lawmakers in Florida who are willing to post on their social media that they’re concerned about TPS for Venezuela but unwilling to do anything about it. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>There are quite a number of lawmakers who have recognized the concern for the Venezuelan population and even the concern for the termination of TPS for Venezuela, including Republican lawmakers in Florida who are willing to post on their social media that they’re concerned about TPS for Venezuela but unwilling to do anything about it. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about the countries \u003cem>with\u003c/em> protection? When do those come up for renewal? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I’m definitely hearing from people from El Salvador who are on TPS that they are very, very worried. And these TPS holders from El Salvador are particularly striking because many of them have been in the country for 30 years, and it is because of their struggle to find legal pathways in this country that we even have the program to begin with. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I’m definitely hearing from people from El Salvador who are on TPS that they are very, very worried. And these TPS holders from El Salvador are particularly striking because many of them have been in the country for 30 years, and it is because of their struggle to find legal pathways in this country that we even have the program to begin with. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This program was created, as we said earlier, in the 1990s, and it was driven by a bipartisan push in Congress largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/temporary-protected-status-whats-up-with-that/\">because people from El Salvador were fleeing their native country\u003c/a> and coming into the United States; they were fleeing a very violent civil war and they were ending up here and they were trying to find sanctuary in churches, and they were lobbying members of Congress for this protection. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>This program was created, as we said earlier, in the 1990s, and it was driven by a bipartisan push in Congress largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/temporary-protected-status-whats-up-with-that/\">because people from El Salvador were fleeing their native country\u003c/a> and coming into the United States; they were fleeing a very violent civil war and they were ending up here and they were trying to find sanctuary in churches, and they were lobbying members of Congress for this protection. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It is striking to many of them to now, years later, have built lives. Many of them have kids who have now gone on to college. They are still struggling for the same type of protection and still fearing this war or very unstable situations back in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It is striking to many of them to now, years later, have built lives. Many of them have kids who have now gone on to college. They are still struggling for the same type of protection and still fearing this war or very unstable situations back in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are there any new legal avenues being pursued by TPS advocates?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> We do think that with more evidence about the motivations for the TPS terminations, it should be clear that the TPS terminations were motivated by racism, which is against the Constitution. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> We do think that with more evidence about the motivations for the TPS terminations, it should be clear that the TPS terminations were motivated by racism, which is against the Constitution. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s an open question about whether the Supreme Court is going to find a violation of the Constitution for anything if they’re not willing to recognize these clearly, blatantly racist statements as evidence of racism, but we plan to and will bring even more evidence than was available at the Supreme Court. We also believe that there are other constitutional challenges that have not been brought, that we intend to move forward in the courts. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it’s clear that this will not immediately protect the TPS holders at risk. Deportations are happening now. Detentions are happening. Now the harm is happening to TPS holders, their families and their communities, many of whom have lived here for a long time. We will continue to fight, but it is really critical that there is a political solution as well, given the real limitations that the Supreme Court has placed on legal avenues for relief.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But it’s clear that this will not immediately protect the TPS holders at risk. Deportations are happening now. Detentions are happening. Now the harm is happening to TPS holders, their families and their communities, many of whom have lived here for a long time. We will continue to fight, but it is really critical that there is a political solution as well, given the real limitations that the Supreme Court has placed on legal avenues for relief.\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "What are experts and lawyers saying weeks after the Supreme Court decision that dealt a massive blow to Temporary Protected Status holders?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jhony Silva has lived in the Bay Area since he was a toddler. The 30-year-old was a nursing assistant at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But since \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras\">the expiration of \u003c/a>Temporary Protected Status for his birth country, Honduras, last September, Silva’s life has been shaken. He lost his job — which he held while also going to school to become a registered nurse — and he frequently fears getting deported and separated from his family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have a 9-year-old that I worry about,” he said. “Getting that TPS status taken away from me was a very rude awakening, and it’s left me in a really unpleasant situation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of people on TPS are likely to be in a similar situation. In late June, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the power \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">to end TPS for Haitians and Syrians without court oversight\u003c/a>, attacking a decades-old federal program that allows people to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088937\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A protester holds a sign calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in front of the court in Washington, D.C., on March 16, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The decision can have ripple effects by jeopardizing the status of individuals from other TPS-designated countries like Venezuela and Nepal. According to federal data from early last year, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS20844\">1.3 million people\u003c/a> from 17 different countries are TPS holders, with almost 80,000 living in California. KQED published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088988/on-tps-in-california-what-you-should-know-after-the-supreme-court-ruling\">a Q&A with lawyers and experts\u003c/a> from the Supreme Court case shortly after the decision in June. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want people to realize that we are not what Donald Trump says we are,” Silva said. “We are hardworking people that want to make a life for ourselves out here, and support our family and try to pursue our own version of the American Dream.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We all deserve better, and we all need to come together and work on figuring out how to better this situation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To learn more about the fallout of the TPS ruling and the context around it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101914391/the-fallout-from-the-supreme-courts-tps-ruling\">KQED’s \u003cem>Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> spoke to Jazmine Ulloa, \u003cem>The New York Times \u003c/em>national reporter covering immigration, and Emi MacLean, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mina Kim: What is Temporary Protected Status?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Emi MacLean: \u003c/strong>Temporary Protected Status is a form of humanitarian immigration protection for people whose countries are in crisis. These are people who are in the United States and cannot safely return to their home countries because their countries are at war, there’s a humanitarian crisis or there’s a natural disaster. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a 1990 law that is intended to limit executive discretion and create rules for when countries can be designated for TPS and how countries’ designations for TPS can end. It ended a period where there was complete executive discretion. It was Congress’s intent at the time to create rules that govern how countries can get TPS and how individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries can be protected against deportation, detention and be provided work authorization while they’re living in the United States. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12089188\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long are TPS holders in the country for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>Each individual designation is up to 18 months, but the law is clear that at the end of a period of a country’s designation, the government must review the conditions in the country. If it’s still unsafe for individuals to return to that country, their TPS designation must be extended. And we know that wars, natural disasters, humanitarian crises don’t come in 12- or 18-month intervals. Sometimes countries can be in crisis for five years, 10 years or more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The law is clear that TPS must be extended if the country’s conditions remain unsafe and may be terminated only if it is safe for individuals to return to that country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The National TPS Alliance and others who have been fighting for TPS holders recognize that TPS, or humanitarian protection, is critical. But there needs to be a path to permanent protection that’s available for people, especially people who cannot return home for a period of time and who build lives here, who have U.S. citizen children, who own homes, who are working long-term in jobs and who become part of the fabric of this country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They should not be permanently in limbo just because their countries are going through a protracted crisis. So certainly there should be reforms to the system. There should be reforms in a lot of ways that provide pathways to status for people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the Trump administration saying about TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jazmine Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This falls more into this broader shift away from these international commitments that the United States has held for decades — that the U.S. took on in the aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t necessarily said they want to terminate the program altogether, but they’ve suggested it in the way that they’ve approached it. They’re making it harder for refugees to enter; they’ve cut the number of refugees to record lows; they have made it much harder for asylum seekers to seek asylum in the courts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/ap26090784092005-scaled-e1781134932262.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March.\" class=\"wp-image-12085478\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump holds his signed executive order that calls for restricting voting by mail in the White House’s Oval Office in March. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa: \u003c/strong>This is part of that much broader movement, this broader shift away from establishing those humanitarian protections for people. More than a dozen countries have now been eliminated. Only four remain standing: El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What I’m hearing from folks is just how the legal landscape is just quickly changing underneath their feet: where one person can be legally here in the United States on one day, they feel like by the next day they won’t be. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Does that mean that the Supreme Court, in its decision, essentially said that the federal courts need to stay out of TPS?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Under the law, the administration has the authority to terminate TPS designations for individual countries — but only where they follow certain criteria. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the central issues that was before the Supreme Court is: “Does the government \u003cem>have \u003c/em>to follow the law?” And essentially, the government’s argument was, ‘In no uncertain terms, there’s nothing the courts can do about it.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5804707/supreme-court-tps\">question from a Supreme Court justice\u003c/a> was: “If the secretary made a decision relying on a Ouija board, rather than evaluating country conditions, would we be able to have any review?” The Solicitor General, one of the top lawyers in the United States, said: “There would be no judicial review in that case.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088821\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/TPSGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Temporary Protected Status holders, along with union leaders and advocates, rally as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in Mullin v. Doe on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. The case will determine whether the Trump administration may terminate the TPS designations. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So the law is clear that there are processes that must be followed for a TPS designation to be terminated — where hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. And a central question now is: can courts do anything about it when they completely violate the law? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It doesn’t completely eliminate all avenues for judicial review, but it severely constrains the avenues that are available for judicial review. And it essentially gives the administration what it was asking for. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are more than a dozen cases across the country before all sorts of judges where TPS holders are challenging the Trump administration’s illegal terminations of TPS. And every single judge in every single case had recognized that there must be checks and balances. There must be oversight. Otherwise, the TPS statute is just advisory. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And the Supreme Court endorsed the extreme position that the government presented, which is that it is effectively advisory. What the Supreme Court did say is that there may still be constitutional claims, including claims related to the unconstitutional termination of TPS because the TPS terminations were motivated by racism.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But one of the arguments made was that this \u003cem>was \u003c/em>motivated by racism. How did the Trump administration respond to that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration essentially asked the justices to close their eyes and their ears to the clearly racist statements by President Trump and the then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> The constitutionality of the TPS termination question was related directly to the termination of TPS for Haiti. We will all remember during the campaign, and while Trump was president, he talked about Haitians — and Haitian TPS holders in particular — as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12006797/haitians-in-ca-worry-of-long-term-effects-from-false-political-rhetoric\">eating cats and dogs of their neighbors\u003c/a>. He talked about Haitian as poisoning the blood of the country. And he described Haiti, and in the context of talking about TPS, as a “shit country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Essentially what the Solicitor General was saying is, those are just statements of policy differences. And in an egregious majority decision by the supermajority in a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court agreed and said, “This is heated language and an expression of policy differences.” And they essentially ignored the very clearly racist statements. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But they did not prevent TPS holders from continuing to bring constitutional challenges. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this ruling mean for other TPS holders not from Haiti or Syria?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> The Trump administration remains locked in litigation over whether it can end protections for more than a million people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And so I’ve been talking to TPS holders from many of these nations who are scrambling to find other forms of protection and are trying to make life-and-death decisions right now about whether to stay in the country or be forced to return to countries that they say are still very, very unstable. And they’re doing so at a time when the administration is ramping up arrests all across the country. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What does this mean for people who have lost TPS? Does it essentially mean they are subject to deportation? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> There are 1.3 million people who had TPS at the start of this administration. And as Jazmine was saying, virtually all of the TPS designations have been terminated to date, except for a few that have not yet come up for review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are about 700,000 people who have already lost their TPS status because the legal challenges have allowed for those TPS terminations to go into effect. There are about 350,000 Haitian and Syrian TPS holders that are expected to lose their status within days as a result of the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the government’s arguments defending their TPS terminations, and there are some others where the challenges continue to be making their way through the courts, but are going to be much harder because of the Supreme Court’s decisions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12080887\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/20251028_Immigrant-Mass-_Hernandez-7_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A family attends Mass at St. Jarlath’s Church in Oakland during a vigil for immigrant families on Oct. 28, 2025. (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What we know is that TPS holders who have lost status have been at risk of detention and deportation, and they have, in many cases, already lost their employment authorization and are living on the margins where previously they were able to contribute to their families, contribute to their communities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I spend a lot of time in this very rural conservative area in Iowa, where more than a dozen Ukrainians have arrived since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, and they’ve been able to establish themselves. They’ve been able to buy homes and work various jobs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now they have to stay home. Their employers have been fighting to bring them back to work. I spoke to one employer who said, “These two women here who learned how to frame, how to paint windows and frame the doorways, it’s very specialized, skilled work that they were able to learn in two years.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He’s paid thousands of dollars to try to get them visas, but those are very difficult processes and can take many years to establish, and the administration is only making it harder in so many different ways, whether it’s in the courts whether through these administrative processes. So it’s putting people in very dire situations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What process exists for TPS holders to be able to get a status that is not temporary? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> Temporary Protected Status is supposed to mean something that is different from permanent status. What that means is that for as long as it is unsafe for an individual to return to their home country, they should be able to stay here, but they are consistently in limbo. And so it is not a great status for people to be in for long periods of time, but sometimes it’s the only available status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I talked this morning to a Haitian TPS holder who’s lived here since she was a child. Every single other member of her family has a permanent status. She applied more than five years ago to adjust through a family member. That wait list is probably going to be six to 10 years. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Her employer wants her to be able to stay and sought employment authorization for her with an H-1B visa, but the administration has blocked the processing of immigration applications for Haitians and for many people from many other countries. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> That doesn’t mean that Congress could not create a pathway to status. And there are actually bills that currently exist in Congress that would provide a path to permanent legal status — green cards — for TPS holders. It is very important now that, in addition to providing longer-term protections for TPS holders, a path to permanent relief and a moratorium on deportations, that the statute has judicial review restored.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> It’s a convenient retort that Trump and the DHS secretaries will say: just follow the rules, get in line, apply through the normal process. But they’re doing literally everything in their power to prevent people from getting any permanent status. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And they are, in fact, engaging with this mass de-documentation program. Some 1.3 million people will lose status effectively overnight through their actions. They are the ones who are making people undocumented and preventing them from having another path to getting status.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are the impacts of the TPS ruling on communities and economies? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve looked at it at a large-scale level and at the interpersonal level and personal level and familial level. There were multiple Nobel Prize-winning economists who filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court about the billions of dollars that are going to be lost to the U.S. economy from the de-documentation of TPS holders. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many TPS holders — including a large number of the 350,000 Haitian TPS holders who are on the eve of losing their status — work in vital care industries as doctors, nurses and home health aides. Patients rely on them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/02/GettyImages-1059576326-e1549920421190.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11725430\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People demonstrate in front of the White House against the decision by the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for people from six countries in November 2018. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>We’ve also done studies at a smaller level of members of the National TPS Alliance who we represent in TPS challenges in court about what the effect was on individuals, and on their families from the loss of TPS status. We found that of the people who responded to the study, virtually all had stable, long-term committed employment, some for many years. And then overnight, the majority of people effectively lost all of their income. So that is devastating for individuals. It’s also devastating for communities that are then forced to pick up the pieces. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> A problem that a lot of TPS holders are encountering is that sometimes their work permit has not necessarily been terminated, but there’s a lot of confusion as to when. And so some employers have already let staff go, thinking that they’re going to have to do so anyway, so why not just do it now? Others are trying to work with lawyers, with their legal assistants, to figure out exactly what the regulations are. Many worry about facing steep fines if they do not meet the government’s new approach to this program.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The U.S. has stripped TPS status for some of these countries, but don’t they \u003cem>also\u003c/em> have travel advisories warning people not to go there? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The inconsistency and incoherence between the two parts of the government cannot be ignored. That you have the State Department saying on their website, no part of Syria is safe, and saying, if you’re going to travel to Haiti, \u003ca href=\"https://ht.usembassy.gov/travel-advisory-haiti-july-2026/\">prepare a will in advance\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And yet, in the decisions terminating TPS for Haiti and Syria, the DHS secretary said it can be safe to return, there’s only sporadic violence in Syria, there are improvements in Haiti. There’s no way that that’s true. The termination decisions are founded on lies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>The Venezuela earthquake is a really poignant and deeply devastating example. The earthquake is exactly the type of thing that would have sparked a TPS designation under any other administration, or many other administrations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We know that there was a deportation flight from Miami to Venezuela the day before the earthquake. We know \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5875287/venezuela-deportees-us-quakes\">there were TPS holders on that flight, and we know that they died\u003c/a>. They were in a hotel that collapsed. There’s been no acknowledgment, no remorse, no recognition of that. And still there are Venezuelan TPS holders, a large number of them who are detained and awaiting deportation, and there’s been no mention of any consideration of designating Venezuela for TPS because of the earthquake. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean: \u003c/strong>There are quite a number of lawmakers who have recognized the concern for the Venezuelan population and even the concern for the termination of TPS for Venezuela, including Republican lawmakers in Florida who are willing to post on their social media that they’re concerned about TPS for Venezuela but unwilling to do anything about it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about the countries \u003cem>with\u003c/em> protection? When do those come up for renewal? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ulloa:\u003c/strong> I’m definitely hearing from people from El Salvador who are on TPS that they are very, very worried. And these TPS holders from El Salvador are particularly striking because many of them have been in the country for 30 years, and it is because of their struggle to find legal pathways in this country that we even have the program to begin with. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This program was created, as we said earlier, in the 1990s, and it was driven by a bipartisan push in Congress largely \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/temporary-protected-status-whats-up-with-that/\">because people from El Salvador were fleeing their native country\u003c/a> and coming into the United States; they were fleeing a very violent civil war and they were ending up here and they were trying to find sanctuary in churches, and they were lobbying members of Congress for this protection. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It is striking to many of them to now, years later, have built lives. Many of them have kids who have now gone on to college. They are still struggling for the same type of protection and still fearing this war or very unstable situations back in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are there any new legal avenues being pursued by TPS advocates?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MacLean:\u003c/strong> We do think that with more evidence about the motivations for the TPS terminations, it should be clear that the TPS terminations were motivated by racism, which is against the Constitution. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s an open question about whether the Supreme Court is going to find a violation of the Constitution for anything if they’re not willing to recognize these clearly, blatantly racist statements as evidence of racism, but we plan to and will bring even more evidence than was available at the Supreme Court. We also believe that there are other constitutional challenges that have not been brought, that we intend to move forward in the courts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s clear that this will not immediately protect the TPS holders at risk. Deportations are happening now. Detentions are happening. Now the harm is happening to TPS holders, their families and their communities, many of whom have lived here for a long time. We will continue to fight, but it is really critical that there is a political solution as well, given the real limitations that the Supreme Court has placed on legal avenues for relief.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "ICE Will Pause Construction on Controversial South Bay Detention Facility",
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"content": "\u003cp>Construction will pause on a controversial planned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083600/santa-clara-county-leaders-say-theyll-fight-planned-ice-facility-in-gilroy\">immigration detention facility\u003c/a> outside Gilroy in Santa Clara County. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The federal government has agreed to hold off on construction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility being developed just east of central Gilroy through Sept. 9. The voluntary stoppage is part of a scheduling compromise with attorneys for Santa Clara County and the Attorney General’s office, officials announced Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office and the county have sued ICE, and that lawsuit will continue despite the temporary stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This pause in the construction, demolition and development at the site of the challenged ICE facility is a significant step toward protecting our people, our communities and our environment while the case remains ongoing,” Bonta said in a joint statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The county and the state are suing ICE over what they call the illegal development of a detention facility at 7240 Holsclaw Road, aiming to block it in the short- and long-term. They claim it violates environmental law and also intergovernmental cooperation laws, as they allege the federal government began working on it in secret, without notifying local or state officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal generated immediate pushback from community members and local elected leaders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The initial lawsuit was filed on June 10, and later that month, the coalition also filed a request for a preliminary injunction, asking a judge to halt the project immediately. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The hearing for that request was set for October, and the federal government would have had to file its formal opposition statements to the court by Monday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the agreement with the county and state, attorneys for ICE will get more time to respond to the request for the preliminary injunction, but the hearing for the request would be moved up to Sept. 8, according to court filings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The federal judge in the case, Eumi K. Lee, signed off on the agreement on Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our lawsuit lays out the many ways the federal government and private property owner violated the law when they charged ahead with this project in secrecy,” Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we’re pleased that the defendants have agreed to halt construction in advance of the court’s hearing on our request for a preliminary injunction,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The federal government has agreed to hold off on construction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility being developed just east of central Gilroy through Sept. 9. The voluntary stoppage is part of a scheduling compromise with attorneys for Santa Clara County and the Attorney General’s office, officials announced Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The federal government has agreed to hold off on construction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility being developed just east of central Gilroy through Sept. 9. The voluntary stoppage is part of a scheduling compromise with attorneys for Santa Clara County and the Attorney General’s office, officials announced Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office and the county have sued ICE, and that lawsuit will continue despite the temporary stoppage.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This pause in the construction, demolition and development at the site of the challenged ICE facility is a significant step toward protecting our people, our communities and our environment while the case remains ongoing,” Bonta said in a joint statement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The county and the state are suing ICE over what they call the illegal development of a detention facility at 7240 Holsclaw Road, aiming to block it in the short- and long-term. They claim it violates environmental law and also intergovernmental cooperation laws, as they allege the federal government began working on it in secret, without notifying local or state officials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The proposal generated immediate pushback from community members and local elected leaders.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The initial lawsuit was filed on June 10, and later that month, the coalition also filed a request for a preliminary injunction, asking a judge to halt the project immediately. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The hearing for that request was set for October, and the federal government would have had to file its formal opposition statements to the court by Monday.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the agreement with the county and state, attorneys for ICE will get more time to respond to the request for the preliminary injunction, but the hearing for the request would be moved up to Sept. 8, according to court filings. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The federal judge in the case, Eumi K. Lee, signed off on the agreement on Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Our lawsuit lays out the many ways the federal government and private property owner violated the law when they charged ahead with this project in secrecy,” Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we’re pleased that the defendants have agreed to halt construction in advance of the court’s hearing on our request for a preliminary injunction,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The federal government will pause construction on a controversial planned immigration detention facility in South Santa Clara County. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Construction will pause on a controversial planned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083600/santa-clara-county-leaders-say-theyll-fight-planned-ice-facility-in-gilroy\">immigration detention facility\u003c/a> outside Gilroy in Santa Clara County. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The federal government has agreed to hold off on construction of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility being developed just east of central Gilroy through Sept. 9. The voluntary stoppage is part of a scheduling compromise with attorneys for Santa Clara County and the Attorney General’s office, officials announced Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office and the county have sued ICE, and that lawsuit will continue despite the temporary stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This pause in the construction, demolition and development at the site of the challenged ICE facility is a significant step toward protecting our people, our communities and our environment while the case remains ongoing,” Bonta said in a joint statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The county and the state are suing ICE over what they call the illegal development of a detention facility at 7240 Holsclaw Road, aiming to block it in the short- and long-term. They claim it violates environmental law and also intergovernmental cooperation laws, as they allege the federal government began working on it in secret, without notifying local or state officials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal generated immediate pushback from community members and local elected leaders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The initial lawsuit was filed on June 10, and later that month, the coalition also filed a request for a preliminary injunction, asking a judge to halt the project immediately. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The hearing for that request was set for October, and the federal government would have had to file its formal opposition statements to the court by Monday.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the agreement with the county and state, attorneys for ICE will get more time to respond to the request for the preliminary injunction, but the hearing for the request would be moved up to Sept. 8, according to court filings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The federal judge in the case, Eumi K. Lee, signed off on the agreement on Monday evening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Our lawsuit lays out the many ways the federal government and private property owner violated the law when they charged ahead with this project in secrecy,” Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we’re pleased that the defendants have agreed to halt construction in advance of the court’s hearing on our request for a preliminary injunction,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Private Prison Company Sells Two of California’s Immigrant Detention Centers to the Federal Government",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The private prison company CoreCivic has sold two of the largest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/detention-centers\">immigration detention facilities\u003c/a> in California to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a deal worth $1.5 billion, the company announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CoreCivic said it anticipates that the sale of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County will bring the company an estimated net proceeds of approximately $1.1 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sale closed on July 2, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1070985/000119312526295590/d110529d8k.htm\">according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\u003c/a>, with the federal government paying $739.2 million for the 1994-bed Otay Mesa facility and $732.6 million for the newly-opened 2,560-bed California City facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two properties were sold under separate purchase agreements, signed and completed on the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CoreCivic said \u003ca href=\"https://ir.corecivic.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corecivic-sells-two-detention-facilities\">in a news release\u003c/a> that it expects to continue running the day-to-day operations of both facilities under existing management contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company acknowledged in its filing that the terms of those contracts could be renegotiated now that the federal government owns both properties outright.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no guarantee CoreCivic will keep its operating contracts, the company said in the SEC filing. The California City contract runs through August 2027, and the Otay Mesa contract runs through December 2029, with an option to extend for five more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078016\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk out the main entrance of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Feb. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California law allows state and local officials to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/10/ice-detention-center-inspections/\">inspect immigrant detention centers\u003c/a>, and Democratic leaders have drawn attention to conditions at both sites since President Donald Trump began his second term. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/04/new-ice-detention-center-mcfarland/\">Eight ICE detention centers\u003c/a> are operating within the state, up from six since former President Joe Biden left office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Otay Mesa facility has been at the center of an ongoing legal fight over local health inspections. San Diego County officials sued the federal government and CoreCivic in March after claiming health inspectors were blocked from a full inspection under a 2024 state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge later granted county health officials \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/06/otay-mesa-san-diego-inspection-2/\">access to the detention center\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12089337 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260219-SunnyvaleDeported-09-BL_qed.jpg']California City opened last year in eastern Kern County about 100 miles north of Los Angeles in a site the company previously operated as a state prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also disclosed that it is having ongoing talks with ICE about selling the federal government additional detention facilities, though it said those discussions are in the early stages of a deal and may not close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maryland-based CoreCivic said the proceeds from the sale, which would be about $1.1 billion after taxes and transaction costs, could go toward paying down its bank credit and retiring $238.5 billion in senior notes coming due in 2027. Any remaining funds are earmarked for further debt reduction or possibly stock buybacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Swindle, the president of CoreCivic, said in the news release, “We are pleased with the sales of these two mission-critical facilities for the Company’s government partner, while reflecting our role as a long-term, flexible solutions provider to government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/corecivic-sells-ice-detention-centers/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The private prison company CoreCivic has sold two of the largest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/detention-centers\">immigration detention facilities\u003c/a> in California to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a deal worth $1.5 billion, the company announced Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CoreCivic said it anticipates that the sale of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and the California City Detention Facility in Kern County will bring the company an estimated net proceeds of approximately $1.1 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sale closed on July 2, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1070985/000119312526295590/d110529d8k.htm\">according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\u003c/a>, with the federal government paying $739.2 million for the 1994-bed Otay Mesa facility and $732.6 million for the newly-opened 2,560-bed California City facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two properties were sold under separate purchase agreements, signed and completed on the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CoreCivic said \u003ca href=\"https://ir.corecivic.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corecivic-sells-two-detention-facilities\">in a news release\u003c/a> that it expects to continue running the day-to-day operations of both facilities under existing management contracts with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company acknowledged in its filing that the terms of those contracts could be renegotiated now that the federal government owns both properties outright.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no guarantee CoreCivic will keep its operating contracts, the company said in the SEC filing. The California City contract runs through August 2027, and the Otay Mesa contract runs through December 2029, with an option to extend for five more years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078016\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/022026_Padilla-Otay-Mesa_AH_08_CM_scr-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk out the main entrance of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Feb. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California law allows state and local officials to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/10/ice-detention-center-inspections/\">inspect immigrant detention centers\u003c/a>, and Democratic leaders have drawn attention to conditions at both sites since President Donald Trump began his second term. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/04/new-ice-detention-center-mcfarland/\">Eight ICE detention centers\u003c/a> are operating within the state, up from six since former President Joe Biden left office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Otay Mesa facility has been at the center of an ongoing legal fight over local health inspections. San Diego County officials sued the federal government and CoreCivic in March after claiming health inspectors were blocked from a full inspection under a 2024 state law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge later granted county health officials \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/06/otay-mesa-san-diego-inspection-2/\">access to the detention center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California City opened last year in eastern Kern County about 100 miles north of Los Angeles in a site the company previously operated as a state prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also disclosed that it is having ongoing talks with ICE about selling the federal government additional detention facilities, though it said those discussions are in the early stages of a deal and may not close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maryland-based CoreCivic said the proceeds from the sale, which would be about $1.1 billion after taxes and transaction costs, could go toward paying down its bank credit and retiring $238.5 billion in senior notes coming due in 2027. Any remaining funds are earmarked for further debt reduction or possibly stock buybacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Swindle, the president of CoreCivic, said in the news release, “We are pleased with the sales of these two mission-critical facilities for the Company’s government partner, while reflecting our role as a long-term, flexible solutions provider to government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/corecivic-sells-ice-detention-centers/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Sunnyvale carpenter who was rushed to the emergency room during an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028303/ice-arrest-left-bay-area-man-hospitalized-struggling-breathe-attorney-says\">immigration arrest\u003c/a> last year is suing the Trump administration, saying violent treatment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and months of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075152/a-year-after-ice-detained-south-bay-immigrant-family-trauma-lingers\">medical neglect in ICE detention\u003c/a> left him seriously disabled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ulises Peña López, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077703/its-inhumane-after-sunnyvale-fathers-deportation-family-trauma-lingers\">deported to Mexico\u003c/a> in October after eight months in custody, said ICE officers beat him until he lost consciousness, despite the fact that he and his wife warned them that he’d been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. ICE denies the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Peña López, 32, said he’s paralyzed on the right side of his body and walks with a cane, his vision and hearing are impaired, and he can’t work to support himself or pay for the medical care he needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want more than anything, I can’t get back: to recover my health, to be with my wife and daughter, and to be able to work again,” he said in a recent phone interview from an aunt’s home in Michoacán, where he lives now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His U.S.-born wife, Aby Peña, who has remained in California with the couple’s now-5-year-old daughter, Emily, said she doesn’t understand how ICE officers could treat another human being as her husband was treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just inhumane,” she said. “And it also affects children because they’re being separated, and it’s a damage that is irreversible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074623\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Family photos hang on the wall at Aby Peña and Ulises Peña Lopez’s home in Sunnyvale on Feb. 19, 2026. Peña Lopez was deported to Mexico after being taken into ICE custody outside their home in February 2025, leaving his wife and young daughter in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday, his lawyers say the arrest, on Feb. 21, 2025, led to “a cascade of harms,” including lasting trauma for Peña and their daughter, who witnessed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By law, the complaint said, ICE “bears responsibility for the safety and well-being of individuals” it detains. Yet court records indicate the arrest triggered a heart attack and stroke. And the lawsuit said ICE and private prison contractors failed to get Peña López critical follow-up care, including an urgent neurological workup and physical therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also alleges that staff at both facilities where he was held — Golden State Annex and California City Detention Facility, both in Kern County — denied him disability accommodations, such as glasses and hearing aids, as required by law.[aside postID=news_12086891 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/BirthrightCitizenshipAP.jpg']In one example cited in the complaint, the private prison staff at Golden State Annex allegedly assigned Peña López to a top bunk: “Ulises’s weakness and numbness on the right side of his body prevented him from safely climbing to a top bunk. He asked detention staff to reassign him to a bottom bunk but was told that they could not make that change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages to compensate Peña López and his family and to punish the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement emailed to KQED, an unnamed Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE arrested Peña López “during targeted operations.” It said “he resisted multiple lawful commands made by ICE officers,” but it didn’t address the lawsuit’s allegations that he was beaten. At the time of the arrest, an ICE spokesman \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028303/ice-arrest-left-bay-area-man-hospitalized-struggling-breathe-attorney-says\">told KQED\u003c/a> the allegation that officers beat Peña López was “absolutely inaccurate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ICE statement said, “Any claims of subprime medical care at ICE facilities is FALSE,” and reiterated boilerplate language asserting that the agency provides comprehensive care that “for many illegal aliens … is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Murchie, an attorney with Disability Law United and a member of Peña López’s legal team, disputes that. She said his health worsened in detention because he did not get the medical care he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>As arrests spike, advocates say detention conditions are dangerous\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Peña López entered the U.S. illegally in 2013, when he was 18. He said he was unaware that ICE had an expedited removal order from that time, allowing for a fast-track deportation. He had four misdemeanor convictions, though his immigration lawyer, Priya Patel, noted that none involved physical violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers say what happened to Peña López in the early weeks of the second Trump administration was a sign of things to come, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5566785/ice-dhs-immigration-tactics-more-violent\">violent, even fatal, immigration raids \u003c/a>rolling out in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077656/how-a-bay-area-attorney-aims-to-hold-us-agents-accountable-for-violence-in-minneapolis\">Minneapolis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just this tenor of impunity that ICE officers have, that’s letting them get away with acting worse more often,” Murchie said. “More people are getting swept up into their impunity and violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074725\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1760px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12074725 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1760\" height=\"1174\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5.jpg 1760w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1760px) 100vw, 1760px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nearly 400,000 people were arrested by ICE last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-2-immigration-1st-year\">more than four times\u003c/a> as many as in 2024. The number of people in ICE detention \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/ice-detention-trends\">peaked\u003c/a> in January at a record high of over 70,000, 80% more than when President Joe Biden left office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those surging numbers and the conditions in detention facilities have led to a spike in deaths. Since Trump’s second inauguration, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/06/25/dying-in-detention/rising-deaths-in-an-expanding-us-immigration-detention-system\">52 people have died\u003c/a> in ICE custody — a mortality rate four times that during the Biden administration and higher even than during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watchdog entities, including Disability Rights California and the California Attorney General’s office, have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062774/conditions-at-massive-new-california-immigration-facility-are-alarming-report-finds\">raised alarms\u003c/a> about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038087/california-sent-investigators-ice-facilities-found-more-detainees-health-care-gaps\">lack of adequate medical care\u003c/a> at ICE facilities in California, including the two where Peña López was held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054610\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center stands in the Kern County desert awaiting reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California City, California, on July 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Margot Mendelson, executive director of the San Quentin prison-based Prison Law Office, said ICE detention is “extraordinarily dangerous” for people with serious health concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone can have a medical need while they’re in custody, and they’re often not addressed in a safe and adequate manner,” she said. “It is particularly dangerous for people who show up with pre-existing medical conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendelson’s group filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of detainees, alleging “crisis-level” conditions at the California City facility, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054544/californias-newest-immigration-facility-is-also-its-biggest-is-it-operating-legally\">opened abruptly\u003c/a> last August. In February, a federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073215/judge-orders-ice-to-provide-medical-care-in-largest-immigration-jail-in-california\">ordered\u003c/a> the facility to provide adequate medical care and appointed an independent medical expert to monitor the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lack of critical care leaves lasting damage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Six months before Peña López’s arrest, doctors diagnosed a vertebral artery dissection, a tear inside a blood vessel to the brain, that likely came from lifting heavy loads at his construction job. The condition was well managed, according to the lawsuit, but it put him at risk for a stroke or heart attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After he suffered the heart attack during his arrest, ICE summoned paramedics, who took him by ambulance to El Camino Health in Mountain View, where he was kept overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two days later, he collapsed in the yard at Golden State Annex and was taken to a nearby emergency room with sharp chest pain, difficulty breathing and tingling in his chest, face and arms, according to the complaint. The hospital discharged him with instructions for a swift follow-up appointment, but he never received it, despite emphatic letters from his neurologist back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11925813\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11925813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut.jpg\" alt='A large sign outside that says \"GEO Golden State.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gathered outside the Golden State Annex immigrant detention center in McFarland on May 29, 2022. The event was part of a statewide effort to call attention to conditions for immigrant detainees. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Joyce Xi and the Dignity Not Detention Coalition)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A week after that, Peña López was hospitalized again, with a severe headache and sudden numbness on the right side of his body. Doctors said a neurology consultation was “urgent,” but ICE didn’t arrange one until four months later, according to the claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His paralysis is visible in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DU9U4NRkn2O/\">video\u003c/a> posted early this year to social media by an immigrant advocacy group in San Francisco. In contrast, earlier family videos \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DNV5Li0RHcG/\">show him\u003c/a> as an able-bodied dad with his young daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To recover from his injuries, Peña López requires an operation to place a stent, according to the lawsuit, as well as ongoing medication, monitoring by specialists and intensive rehabilitation. The operation alone is estimated to cost about $30,000, money his family doesn’t have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he was arrested, Peña López had health insurance through his work. In Mexico, he has none, said his wife, a licensed vocational nurse.[aside postID=news_12089505 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GettyImages-2269380398.jpg']“The medication is really expensive, so he hasn’t even been able to keep up with that. But without it, he has a higher risk of getting a blood clot,” she said. “If he had been here, the insurance here would have covered it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Peña López recently lost an appeal of his deportation, so his prospects of returning to the U.S. are slim. The family has tried to stay connected over video calls, with Peña López reading Emily a bedtime story and saying a nightly prayer with her. They even invented a version of hide-and-seek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’d leave the phone on the bed and run off to hide,” he said. “Meanwhile, she’d be talking to me, saying I had to find her. And even though I couldn’t see her, when I told her I spotted her, she’d scream with excitement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lately his internet connection in Mexico has been so poor that even phone calls are often impossible, leaving them all feeling frustrated and sad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peña recently decided to give up the Sunnyvale apartment she and her husband had shared. For months, her daughter has been living with her parents near Chico because Peña couldn’t find child care to match her 13-hour shifts at a dialysis clinic. And every week, she drives hours to spend days off with Emily. But the strain has become too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I decided it would be best for me to get a transfer through my job to a clinic closer to my parents, so that I can be with my daughter every day,” she said. “Rent’s a lot cheaper over there, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074622\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074622\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aby Peña holds a photo of herself and her husband, Ulises Peña Lopez, at her home in Sunnyvale on Feb. 19, 2026. Peña Lopez was deported to Mexico after being taken into ICE custody outside their home in February 2025, leaving his wife and young daughter in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If they win their claim against ICE, Peña said she hopes it will provide funds for the surgery her husband needs. But that’s not the main thing motivating them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important for justice and for awareness, so people can be aware of the truth of what happens with many of these cases,” she said. “It’s not just us. It’s a lot of immigrants who are going through the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peña López said ICE has tried to portray immigrants like him as violent and dangerous to society. He said he hoped the lawsuit would shine a light on the violence and neglect he said ICE is inflicting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who’s the real danger to society?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murchie, the attorney, said the case is an attempt “to hold accountable an agency that thinks it’s above the law.” And, she said, “it’s about standing by someone while they’re going through one of the worst things that’s happened in their life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Sunnyvale carpenter who was rushed to the emergency room during an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028303/ice-arrest-left-bay-area-man-hospitalized-struggling-breathe-attorney-says\">immigration arrest\u003c/a> last year is suing the Trump administration, saying violent treatment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and months of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12075152/a-year-after-ice-detained-south-bay-immigrant-family-trauma-lingers\">medical neglect in ICE detention\u003c/a> left him seriously disabled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ulises Peña López, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077703/its-inhumane-after-sunnyvale-fathers-deportation-family-trauma-lingers\">deported to Mexico\u003c/a> in October after eight months in custody, said ICE officers beat him until he lost consciousness, despite the fact that he and his wife warned them that he’d been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. ICE denies the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Peña López, 32, said he’s paralyzed on the right side of his body and walks with a cane, his vision and hearing are impaired, and he can’t work to support himself or pay for the medical care he needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I want more than anything, I can’t get back: to recover my health, to be with my wife and daughter, and to be able to work again,” he said in a recent phone interview from an aunt’s home in Michoacán, where he lives now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His U.S.-born wife, Aby Peña, who has remained in California with the couple’s now-5-year-old daughter, Emily, said she doesn’t understand how ICE officers could treat another human being as her husband was treated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just inhumane,” she said. “And it also affects children because they’re being separated, and it’s a damage that is irreversible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074623\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074623\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Family photos hang on the wall at Aby Peña and Ulises Peña Lopez’s home in Sunnyvale on Feb. 19, 2026. Peña Lopez was deported to Mexico after being taken into ICE custody outside their home in February 2025, leaving his wife and young daughter in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday, his lawyers say the arrest, on Feb. 21, 2025, led to “a cascade of harms,” including lasting trauma for Peña and their daughter, who witnessed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By law, the complaint said, ICE “bears responsibility for the safety and well-being of individuals” it detains. Yet court records indicate the arrest triggered a heart attack and stroke. And the lawsuit said ICE and private prison contractors failed to get Peña López critical follow-up care, including an urgent neurological workup and physical therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also alleges that staff at both facilities where he was held — Golden State Annex and California City Detention Facility, both in Kern County — denied him disability accommodations, such as glasses and hearing aids, as required by law.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In one example cited in the complaint, the private prison staff at Golden State Annex allegedly assigned Peña López to a top bunk: “Ulises’s weakness and numbness on the right side of his body prevented him from safely climbing to a top bunk. He asked detention staff to reassign him to a bottom bunk but was told that they could not make that change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages to compensate Peña López and his family and to punish the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement emailed to KQED, an unnamed Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE arrested Peña López “during targeted operations.” It said “he resisted multiple lawful commands made by ICE officers,” but it didn’t address the lawsuit’s allegations that he was beaten. At the time of the arrest, an ICE spokesman \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028303/ice-arrest-left-bay-area-man-hospitalized-struggling-breathe-attorney-says\">told KQED\u003c/a> the allegation that officers beat Peña López was “absolutely inaccurate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ICE statement said, “Any claims of subprime medical care at ICE facilities is FALSE,” and reiterated boilerplate language asserting that the agency provides comprehensive care that “for many illegal aliens … is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Murchie, an attorney with Disability Law United and a member of Peña López’s legal team, disputes that. She said his health worsened in detention because he did not get the medical care he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>As arrests spike, advocates say detention conditions are dangerous\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Peña López entered the U.S. illegally in 2013, when he was 18. He said he was unaware that ICE had an expedited removal order from that time, allowing for a fast-track deportation. He had four misdemeanor convictions, though his immigration lawyer, Priya Patel, noted that none involved physical violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers say what happened to Peña López in the early weeks of the second Trump administration was a sign of things to come, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5566785/ice-dhs-immigration-tactics-more-violent\">violent, even fatal, immigration raids \u003c/a>rolling out in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077656/how-a-bay-area-attorney-aims-to-hold-us-agents-accountable-for-violence-in-minneapolis\">Minneapolis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just this tenor of impunity that ICE officers have, that’s letting them get away with acting worse more often,” Murchie said. “More people are getting swept up into their impunity and violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074725\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1760px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12074725 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1760\" height=\"1174\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5.jpg 1760w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/ice-badge-69a05cdd559c5-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1760px) 100vw, 1760px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nearly 400,000 people were arrested by ICE last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-2-immigration-1st-year\">more than four times\u003c/a> as many as in 2024. The number of people in ICE detention \u003ca href=\"https://www.vera.org/ice-detention-trends\">peaked\u003c/a> in January at a record high of over 70,000, 80% more than when President Joe Biden left office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those surging numbers and the conditions in detention facilities have led to a spike in deaths. Since Trump’s second inauguration, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/06/25/dying-in-detention/rising-deaths-in-an-expanding-us-immigration-detention-system\">52 people have died\u003c/a> in ICE custody — a mortality rate four times that during the Biden administration and higher even than during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watchdog entities, including Disability Rights California and the California Attorney General’s office, have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062774/conditions-at-massive-new-california-immigration-facility-are-alarming-report-finds\">raised alarms\u003c/a> about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12038087/california-sent-investigators-ice-facilities-found-more-detainees-health-care-gaps\">lack of adequate medical care\u003c/a> at ICE facilities in California, including the two where Peña López was held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12054610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12054610\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/CoreCivicKernCountyGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center stands in the Kern County desert awaiting reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California City, California, on July 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Margot Mendelson, executive director of the San Quentin prison-based Prison Law Office, said ICE detention is “extraordinarily dangerous” for people with serious health concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone can have a medical need while they’re in custody, and they’re often not addressed in a safe and adequate manner,” she said. “It is particularly dangerous for people who show up with pre-existing medical conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendelson’s group filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of detainees, alleging “crisis-level” conditions at the California City facility, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054544/californias-newest-immigration-facility-is-also-its-biggest-is-it-operating-legally\">opened abruptly\u003c/a> last August. In February, a federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12073215/judge-orders-ice-to-provide-medical-care-in-largest-immigration-jail-in-california\">ordered\u003c/a> the facility to provide adequate medical care and appointed an independent medical expert to monitor the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lack of critical care leaves lasting damage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Six months before Peña López’s arrest, doctors diagnosed a vertebral artery dissection, a tear inside a blood vessel to the brain, that likely came from lifting heavy loads at his construction job. The condition was well managed, according to the lawsuit, but it put him at risk for a stroke or heart attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After he suffered the heart attack during his arrest, ICE summoned paramedics, who took him by ambulance to El Camino Health in Mountain View, where he was kept overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two days later, he collapsed in the yard at Golden State Annex and was taken to a nearby emergency room with sharp chest pain, difficulty breathing and tingling in his chest, face and arms, according to the complaint. The hospital discharged him with instructions for a swift follow-up appointment, but he never received it, despite emphatic letters from his neurologist back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11925813\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11925813\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut.jpg\" alt='A large sign outside that says \"GEO Golden State.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS56703_20220529-16-44-13-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gathered outside the Golden State Annex immigrant detention center in McFarland on May 29, 2022. The event was part of a statewide effort to call attention to conditions for immigrant detainees. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Joyce Xi and the Dignity Not Detention Coalition)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A week after that, Peña López was hospitalized again, with a severe headache and sudden numbness on the right side of his body. Doctors said a neurology consultation was “urgent,” but ICE didn’t arrange one until four months later, according to the claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His paralysis is visible in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DU9U4NRkn2O/\">video\u003c/a> posted early this year to social media by an immigrant advocacy group in San Francisco. In contrast, earlier family videos \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DNV5Li0RHcG/\">show him\u003c/a> as an able-bodied dad with his young daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To recover from his injuries, Peña López requires an operation to place a stent, according to the lawsuit, as well as ongoing medication, monitoring by specialists and intensive rehabilitation. The operation alone is estimated to cost about $30,000, money his family doesn’t have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he was arrested, Peña López had health insurance through his work. In Mexico, he has none, said his wife, a licensed vocational nurse.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The medication is really expensive, so he hasn’t even been able to keep up with that. But without it, he has a higher risk of getting a blood clot,” she said. “If he had been here, the insurance here would have covered it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Peña López recently lost an appeal of his deportation, so his prospects of returning to the U.S. are slim. The family has tried to stay connected over video calls, with Peña López reading Emily a bedtime story and saying a nightly prayer with her. They even invented a version of hide-and-seek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’d leave the phone on the bed and run off to hide,” he said. “Meanwhile, she’d be talking to me, saying I had to find her. And even though I couldn’t see her, when I told her I spotted her, she’d scream with excitement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But lately his internet connection in Mexico has been so poor that even phone calls are often impossible, leaving them all feeling frustrated and sad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peña recently decided to give up the Sunnyvale apartment she and her husband had shared. For months, her daughter has been living with her parents near Chico because Peña couldn’t find child care to match her 13-hour shifts at a dialysis clinic. And every week, she drives hours to spend days off with Emily. But the strain has become too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I decided it would be best for me to get a transfer through my job to a clinic closer to my parents, so that I can be with my daughter every day,” she said. “Rent’s a lot cheaper over there, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074622\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074622\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260219-SUNNYVALEDEPORTED-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aby Peña holds a photo of herself and her husband, Ulises Peña Lopez, at her home in Sunnyvale on Feb. 19, 2026. Peña Lopez was deported to Mexico after being taken into ICE custody outside their home in February 2025, leaving his wife and young daughter in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If they win their claim against ICE, Peña said she hopes it will provide funds for the surgery her husband needs. But that’s not the main thing motivating them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important for justice and for awareness, so people can be aware of the truth of what happens with many of these cases,” she said. “It’s not just us. It’s a lot of immigrants who are going through the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peña López said ICE has tried to portray immigrants like him as violent and dangerous to society. He said he hoped the lawsuit would shine a light on the violence and neglect he said ICE is inflicting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who’s the real danger to society?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Murchie, the attorney, said the case is an attempt “to hold accountable an agency that thinks it’s above the law.” And, she said, “it’s about standing by someone while they’re going through one of the worst things that’s happened in their life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-decision-trump-who-is-us-citizen-14th-amendment",
"title": "After the Supreme Court’s Ruling, What Are US Birthright Citizenship Rules Now?",
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"headTitle": "After the Supreme Court’s Ruling, What Are US Birthright Citizenship Rules Now? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086891/supreme-court-upholds-birthright-citizenship\">struck down\u003c/a> an executive order from President Donald Trump that would have drastically changed the rules for which children born in the U.S. get to claim American citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12089306/birthright-citizenship-is-the-story-of-san-francisco-advocates-celebrate-ruling\">Bay Area immigrant rights advocates\u003c/a> and legal experts celebrated the court’s decision in \u003cem>Trump v. Barbara, \u003c/em>which affirmed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015449/a-129-year-old-san-francisco-lawsuit-could-stop-trump-from-ending-birthright-citizenship\">long-standing\u003c/a> interpretation of the \u003ca href=\"https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/\">14th Amendment\u003c/a> of the U.S. Constitution to mean that all babies born on American soil are U.S. citizens, with some minor exceptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their opinions closely referenced a 1898 Supreme Court ruling in a case involving a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">San Francisco-born man, Wong Kim Ark\u003c/a>, which decided that the 14th Amendment also included the children of immigrants, regardless of their parents’ origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community, ” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority on Tuesday. “We keep that promise today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#CouldTrumptryagaintochangebirthrightcitizenship\">Could Trump try again to change birthright citizenship?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what to know about birthright citizenship in the U.S. right now — especially if you’re planning on having a baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“I am an American” in various languages is etched into a plaque honoring Wong Kim Ark in San Francisco’s Chinatown on June 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What should parents know about US birthright citizenship rules?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order blocking automatic U.S. citizenship not just for children born to undocumented immigrants, but to all newborns who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. In its \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-365/383785/20251106155818044_25-365%20Trump%20v.%20Barbara.pdf\">case briefs\u003c/a>, the administration argued that these children are not “subject to the United States’ jurisdiction and therefore not entitled to birthright citizenship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that order has now been declared unconstitutional by the highest court in the land, said UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are the children of undocumented immigrants U.S. citizens? Yes,” he said. “Are the children of temporary immigrants U.S. citizens? Yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089188\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C, on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights. President Donald Trump said Friday he can now push through a raft of controversial policies after the Supreme Court handed him a “giant win” by curbing the ability of lone judges to block his powers nationwide. In a 6-3 ruling stemming from Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, the court said nationwide injunctions issued by individual district court judges likely exceed their authority. \u003ccite>(Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen,” he said, with very narrow exceptions for children of diplomats or of an invading military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has claimed \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/one-thing/episodes/929a9656-29c6-11ef-8cc2-ab0e7162e086\">multiple times\u003c/a> that the U.S. is the “only country in the world” that grants citizenship automatically if a baby is born on its soil. But that is an exaggeration, UC Law professor Ming Chen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s true many European and Asian nations base a child’s citizenship on their parents’ origin — a policy called \u003cem>jus sanguis\u003c/em> in Latin — Chen points out that there’s a historical reason why the U.S. and other countries in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/31/us-style-birthright-citizenship-is-uncommon-around-the-world/\">Western Hemisphere \u003c/a>have adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/about-immigration/birthright-citizenship/\">\u003cem>jus solis\u003c/em>\u003c/a> instead — basing citizenship on where a baby is born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The countries of the ‘New World’ tend to use \u003cem>jus solis\u003c/em> precisely because they want to encourage migration and growth of their nation,” she said. “This original purpose and interpretation are directly relevant for a place like California that has so many immigrants who have come to the U.S. to settle down and make a life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expecting a baby? Get their birth certificate — and keep it safe\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If immigrant parents are expecting a baby soon, they won’t need to worry about Trump’s executive order after Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling, Chin said. But, he added, it’s still important for parents to confirm that they receive a birth certificate when their baby is born, to prove in the future that their child \u003cem>was \u003c/em>born in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With [current] immigration enforcement that’s often \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/racial-profiling-rampant-after-supreme-court-ruling/\">based on race\u003c/a>, every individual has to be prepared — particularly non-white individuals — to prove that they are U.S. citizens,” he said. Receiving a birth certificate is standard routine in hospital births, but Chin said that once parents have this document, “hang on to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several Bay Area immigration law experts KQED spoke with agreed with Chin’s recommendation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836-1536x1040.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Cecillia Wang speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. President Donald Trump attended in person as the U.S. Supreme Court heard a landmark case weighing the constitutionality of his contentious bid to end birthright citizenship, an extraordinary and possibly unprecedented move for the nation’s highest office. \u003ccite>(Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lourdes Martínez, co-director of the immigrants rights program at Oakland’s Centro Legal de la Raza, pointed out that some parents without a legal immigration status may be thinking about returning to their country of origin in response to other restrictive immigration policies by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s what parents are planning, Martínez recommended they should be familiar with the rights that their U.S.-born children have if they leave the country with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citizens always retain the ability to return to the U.S. and to live here,” she said, pointing out that keeping a child’s birth certificate safe will protect their claim to U.S. citizenship in the future. “There’s a very strong message of belonging to this nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even if parents don’t have a clear path to U.S. citizenship, Martínez added they can talk with their children about what it means to be a citizen of a nation. In the U.S., that includes the right to vote in elections once a person turns 18 and the obligation to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050406/jury-duty-california-summons-notice-time-reschedule-who-is-exempt\">serve on a jury\u003c/a> when called upon. Men — both citizens and most non-citizens — must also sign up for the\u003ca href=\"https://www.sss.gov/register/\"> Selective Service\u003c/a> between the ages of 18-25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court has reaffirmed a fundamental constitutional principle that birthright citizenship is not subject to political wins or executive overreach,” Martínez said. “It’s based on the principle that a person’s citizenship should come from their place of birth in the United States and not from their parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"CouldTrumptryagaintochangebirthrightcitizenship\">\u003c/a>Can Trump still try to change birthright citizenship?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A few hours after the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump celebrated \u003ca href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116840065501020055\">on Truth Social\u003c/a> that the justices had sided with him in other legal battles, while adding: “We also had the Birthright Citizenship loss, which we will work to correct in Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Justice Brett Kavanaugh ended up agreeing with the court’s ruling, he wrote a separate opinion arguing that Trump’s executive order violated a federal statute which grants immigrants’ children citizenship, but that it didn’t violate the Constitution — suggesting birthright citizenship might not be guaranteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress “could amend” that law, Kavanaugh wrote, “or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country. But,” he said, “Congress has not yet done so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11697068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11697068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/gettyimages-1041985118_custom-19024f8ba9ae85df4961b836de1a900a745fd244-e1538846620436.jpg\" alt=\"Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 27. The Senate is taking a final vote on his nomination on Saturday.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1235\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But as Chin from UC Davis stressed, the court’s majority explicitly affirmed that the 14th Amendment protects birthright citizenship. And regular legislation from Congress cannot overrule the Constitution, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a constitutional decision,” Chin said. “They can propose a constitutional amendment, but the chances that it would pass are very low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any amendment to the Constitution would require the votes of two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with the approval of three-fourths of state governments — that’s at least 37 out of the 50 states voting in favor of the change.[aside postID=news_12089306 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268794801-scaled.jpg']Republicans currently have complete control over 29 state legislatures, still far below what they need. And Democrats have made it clear that they are not interested in limiting birthright citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Birthright citizenship as a legal matter is over. As a political matter, maybe not,” Chin said, adding that the Trump administration remains committed to a restrictive immigration agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this ruling is still a relief for many immigrant parents, Huy Tran, executive director of the San José-based SIREN Immigrant Rights, said. “If you are expecting, focus on your family,” he said. “Focus on giving birth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if parents do not have a legal immigration status at the moment, Tran recommended that they should \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026817/ice-schools-and-children-what-families-should-know\">still plan\u003c/a> for an immigration enforcement operation that could split up their family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes, he added, learning how to accurately identify officers from agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reporting any sightings to a local rapid response network — volunteers who work \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050993/a-day-in-the-life-of-san-joses-rapid-response-network-built-to-resist-ice-fear\">around the clock\u003c/a> to verify possible ICE activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are folks who have any questions about their status or need some legal help, call your rapid response network,” Tran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rapid response networks in the Bay Area:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership: 510-241-4011\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin County: 415-991-4545\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco: 415-200-1548\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Mateo County: 203-666-4472\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County: 408-290-1144\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stand Together Contra Costa: 925-900-5151\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties: 707-800-4544\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Supreme Court overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. Here’s what the ruling means for immigrant families, expecting parents and the future of the 14th Amendment. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086891/supreme-court-upholds-birthright-citizenship\">struck down\u003c/a> an executive order from President Donald Trump that would have drastically changed the rules for which children born in the U.S. get to claim American citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12089306/birthright-citizenship-is-the-story-of-san-francisco-advocates-celebrate-ruling\">Bay Area immigrant rights advocates\u003c/a> and legal experts celebrated the court’s decision in \u003cem>Trump v. Barbara, \u003c/em>which affirmed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015449/a-129-year-old-san-francisco-lawsuit-could-stop-trump-from-ending-birthright-citizenship\">long-standing\u003c/a> interpretation of the \u003ca href=\"https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/\">14th Amendment\u003c/a> of the U.S. Constitution to mean that all babies born on American soil are U.S. citizens, with some minor exceptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their opinions closely referenced a 1898 Supreme Court ruling in a case involving a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">San Francisco-born man, Wong Kim Ark\u003c/a>, which decided that the 14th Amendment also included the children of immigrants, regardless of their parents’ origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community, ” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority on Tuesday. “We keep that promise today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#CouldTrumptryagaintochangebirthrightcitizenship\">Could Trump try again to change birthright citizenship?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what to know about birthright citizenship in the U.S. right now — especially if you’re planning on having a baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“I am an American” in various languages is etched into a plaque honoring Wong Kim Ark in San Francisco’s Chinatown on June 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What should parents know about US birthright citizenship rules?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order blocking automatic U.S. citizenship not just for children born to undocumented immigrants, but to all newborns who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. In its \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-365/383785/20251106155818044_25-365%20Trump%20v.%20Barbara.pdf\">case briefs\u003c/a>, the administration argued that these children are not “subject to the United States’ jurisdiction and therefore not entitled to birthright citizenship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that order has now been declared unconstitutional by the highest court in the land, said UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are the children of undocumented immigrants U.S. citizens? Yes,” he said. “Are the children of temporary immigrants U.S. citizens? Yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089188\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2221594152-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators hold up an anti-Trump sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C, on June 27, 2025. The Supreme Court is to issue its final rulings on Friday ahead of its summer break, including cases involving birthright citizenship, porn site age verification, students and LGBTQ-themed content, and voting rights. President Donald Trump said Friday he can now push through a raft of controversial policies after the Supreme Court handed him a “giant win” by curbing the ability of lone judges to block his powers nationwide. In a 6-3 ruling stemming from Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, the court said nationwide injunctions issued by individual district court judges likely exceed their authority. \u003ccite>(Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen,” he said, with very narrow exceptions for children of diplomats or of an invading military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has claimed \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/one-thing/episodes/929a9656-29c6-11ef-8cc2-ab0e7162e086\">multiple times\u003c/a> that the U.S. is the “only country in the world” that grants citizenship automatically if a baby is born on its soil. But that is an exaggeration, UC Law professor Ming Chen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s true many European and Asian nations base a child’s citizenship on their parents’ origin — a policy called \u003cem>jus sanguis\u003c/em> in Latin — Chen points out that there’s a historical reason why the U.S. and other countries in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/31/us-style-birthright-citizenship-is-uncommon-around-the-world/\">Western Hemisphere \u003c/a>have adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/about-immigration/birthright-citizenship/\">\u003cem>jus solis\u003c/em>\u003c/a> instead — basing citizenship on where a baby is born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The countries of the ‘New World’ tend to use \u003cem>jus solis\u003c/em> precisely because they want to encourage migration and growth of their nation,” she said. “This original purpose and interpretation are directly relevant for a place like California that has so many immigrants who have come to the U.S. to settle down and make a life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expecting a baby? Get their birth certificate — and keep it safe\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If immigrant parents are expecting a baby soon, they won’t need to worry about Trump’s executive order after Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling, Chin said. But, he added, it’s still important for parents to confirm that they receive a birth certificate when their baby is born, to prove in the future that their child \u003cem>was \u003c/em>born in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With [current] immigration enforcement that’s often \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu-wi.org/news/racial-profiling-rampant-after-supreme-court-ruling/\">based on race\u003c/a>, every individual has to be prepared — particularly non-white individuals — to prove that they are U.S. citizens,” he said. Receiving a birth certificate is standard routine in hospital births, but Chin said that once parents have this document, “hang on to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several Bay Area immigration law experts KQED spoke with agreed with Chin’s recommendation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2268796836-1536x1040.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Cecillia Wang speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. President Donald Trump attended in person as the U.S. Supreme Court heard a landmark case weighing the constitutionality of his contentious bid to end birthright citizenship, an extraordinary and possibly unprecedented move for the nation’s highest office. \u003ccite>(Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lourdes Martínez, co-director of the immigrants rights program at Oakland’s Centro Legal de la Raza, pointed out that some parents without a legal immigration status may be thinking about returning to their country of origin in response to other restrictive immigration policies by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s what parents are planning, Martínez recommended they should be familiar with the rights that their U.S.-born children have if they leave the country with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citizens always retain the ability to return to the U.S. and to live here,” she said, pointing out that keeping a child’s birth certificate safe will protect their claim to U.S. citizenship in the future. “There’s a very strong message of belonging to this nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even if parents don’t have a clear path to U.S. citizenship, Martínez added they can talk with their children about what it means to be a citizen of a nation. In the U.S., that includes the right to vote in elections once a person turns 18 and the obligation to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050406/jury-duty-california-summons-notice-time-reschedule-who-is-exempt\">serve on a jury\u003c/a> when called upon. Men — both citizens and most non-citizens — must also sign up for the\u003ca href=\"https://www.sss.gov/register/\"> Selective Service\u003c/a> between the ages of 18-25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court has reaffirmed a fundamental constitutional principle that birthright citizenship is not subject to political wins or executive overreach,” Martínez said. “It’s based on the principle that a person’s citizenship should come from their place of birth in the United States and not from their parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"CouldTrumptryagaintochangebirthrightcitizenship\">\u003c/a>Can Trump still try to change birthright citizenship?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A few hours after the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump celebrated \u003ca href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116840065501020055\">on Truth Social\u003c/a> that the justices had sided with him in other legal battles, while adding: “We also had the Birthright Citizenship loss, which we will work to correct in Congress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Justice Brett Kavanaugh ended up agreeing with the court’s ruling, he wrote a separate opinion arguing that Trump’s executive order violated a federal statute which grants immigrants’ children citizenship, but that it didn’t violate the Constitution — suggesting birthright citizenship might not be guaranteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress “could amend” that law, Kavanaugh wrote, “or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country. But,” he said, “Congress has not yet done so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11697068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11697068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/gettyimages-1041985118_custom-19024f8ba9ae85df4961b836de1a900a745fd244-e1538846620436.jpg\" alt=\"Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 27. The Senate is taking a final vote on his nomination on Saturday.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1235\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But as Chin from UC Davis stressed, the court’s majority explicitly affirmed that the 14th Amendment protects birthright citizenship. And regular legislation from Congress cannot overrule the Constitution, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a constitutional decision,” Chin said. “They can propose a constitutional amendment, but the chances that it would pass are very low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any amendment to the Constitution would require the votes of two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with the approval of three-fourths of state governments — that’s at least 37 out of the 50 states voting in favor of the change.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Republicans currently have complete control over 29 state legislatures, still far below what they need. And Democrats have made it clear that they are not interested in limiting birthright citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Birthright citizenship as a legal matter is over. As a political matter, maybe not,” Chin said, adding that the Trump administration remains committed to a restrictive immigration agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this ruling is still a relief for many immigrant parents, Huy Tran, executive director of the San José-based SIREN Immigrant Rights, said. “If you are expecting, focus on your family,” he said. “Focus on giving birth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if parents do not have a legal immigration status at the moment, Tran recommended that they should \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026817/ice-schools-and-children-what-families-should-know\">still plan\u003c/a> for an immigration enforcement operation that could split up their family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes, he added, learning how to accurately identify officers from agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reporting any sightings to a local rapid response network — volunteers who work \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050993/a-day-in-the-life-of-san-joses-rapid-response-network-built-to-resist-ice-fear\">around the clock\u003c/a> to verify possible ICE activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are folks who have any questions about their status or need some legal help, call your rapid response network,” Tran said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rapid response networks in the Bay Area:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership: 510-241-4011\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin County: 415-991-4545\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco: 415-200-1548\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Mateo County: 203-666-4472\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County: 408-290-1144\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stand Together Contra Costa: 925-900-5151\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties: 707-800-4544\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the first time in months, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033789/lets-fight-back-127-years-after-momentous-supreme-court-ruling-san-francisco-honors-wong-kim-ark\">Norman Wong\u003c/a> breathed a sigh of relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area resident and great-grandson of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">Wong Kim Ark\u003c/a> — a San Francisco-born Chinese American cook whose case helped establish birthright citizenship 128 years ago — spent the last year crisscrossing the country, defending a right he couldn’t believe was in jeopardy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086891/supreme-court-upholds-birthright-citizenship\">rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts\u003c/a> to undo the right with a 2025 executive order, Norman Wong allowed himself a rare moment of celebration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nice not to be mad. It is nice to be happy,” Norman Wong said. “I don’t consider it a personal victory. I consider it a victory for America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling in \u003cem>Trump v. Barbara\u003c/em> preserved a constitutional right that has stood for more than a century: that nearly anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen. For Norman Wong and other immigrants-rights advocates, and local officials who helped challenge Trump’s order, the decision was a vindication and a warning. While they hailed the ruling as an affirmation of the 14th Amendment, some noted that the ideological divide on the court and a broad wave of restrictive immigration rulings signaled the fight was far from over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The landmark legal victory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088650/how-chinese-immigrants-from-san-francisco-helped-establish-birthright-citizenship\">traces back to 1898, when Wong\u003c/a>, a cook born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, was detained on a steamship when he tried to return from visiting China. Wong sued the U.S. government and his case went all the way to the Supreme Court — which affirmed that the Constitution recognized Wong as a citizen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088381\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088381\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norman Wong stands in front of a mural made by Twin and Walls Mural Company depicting his great-grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, on the corner of Sacramento and Grant streets in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Sunday, June 14, 2026. Wong, 76, was unaware of his connection to the landmark Supreme Court case won by his great-grandfather for most of his life, but now works to share his family’s story and history. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Norman Wong grew up knowing none of this family history. His father rarely spoke of the past, and Norman Wong only learned of his connection to the landmark case in his 50s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I grew up, even when I was five years old, I knew I was American,” he said. He compared the executive order to suddenly relitigating whether women can vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was settled law for over a hundred years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was the central authority cited by the justices in issuing their opinions, though each used it differently, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/breaking-down-the-birthright-citizenship-decision/\">\u003cem>SCOTUSblog\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12086891 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/BirthrightCitizenshipAP.jpg']Chief Justice John Roberts referenced \u003cem>Wong Kim Ark\u003c/em> 16 times, and Justice Clarence Thomas, in his more than 27,000-word dissent, referenced it a remarkable 49 times, both arguing that the case supported their opinions. As a citizen, Norman Wong said standing up for the right was his responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Birthright citizenship for the few, when the few are actually being targeted, that means everybody’s right is being jeopardized. So we need to stand for everyone, because ultimately that’s our own rights too that are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco was the first city in the country to sue over Trump’s order, filing within 24 hours of his second inauguration, according to City Attorney David Chiu — a birthright citizen and the first Asian American to lead the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know my place in this country is possible because of the 14th Amendment and the courage of Wong Kim Ark 128 years ago, and immigrants like my parents,” said Chiu, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s. The story of birthright citizenship, he said, “is the story of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winnie Kao, senior counsel at the Asian Law Caucus and part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said the executive order “felt very personal.” Wong Kim Ark “was born just blocks from our Chinatown office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083331\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City Attorney David Chiu speaks during a press conference at the parking lot on 3rd and Harrison streets to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Yick Wo v. Hopkins in San Francisco on Monday, May 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She noted that the Wong Kim Ark ruling came during a period of extreme hostility toward Chinese immigrants. Wong’s victory came at the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1882 law restricting Chinese immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 14th Amendment, initially introduced in response to laws restricting the freedoms of Black Americans after slavery, was meant to guarantee “a broader principle that applied to others,” as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in her concurrence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Had the court ruled the other way, Chiu said the decision would have created “a permanent multi-generational underclass” of stateless children, who would be unable to naturalize here or obtain citizenship elsewhere, living “under constant threat of deportation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao said the consequences would have rippled far beyond immigrant families, forcing a re-examination of “vast swaths of U.S. law” premised on birthright citizenship — and creating “a total administrative and bureaucratic nightmare for everyone, even for parents who are U.S. citizens,” if the government had to verify a newborn’s citizenship by checking a parent’s status rather than a birth certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055174\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left to right: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy attend U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, D.C. President Trump was expected to address Congress on his early achievements of his presidency and his upcoming legislative agenda. \u003ccite>(Win McNamee/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen,” UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin said, with narrow exceptions for children of diplomats or occupying forces. His advice, given heightened immigration enforcement “that often is based on race”: get a birth certificate and hold onto it. “Every individual has to be prepared — particularly non-white individuals — to prove that they are U.S. citizens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though legal scholars described the decision as decisive on the law, questions were left open about whether birthright citizenship could ever not be constitutionally guaranteed. Huy Tran, executive director of the San José immigrant rights group SIREN, noted that in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion, he concluded that Congress could amend laws to create exceptions to birthright citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is one of those cases that should have been a slam dunk,” Tran said. “Instead, what we have now is that Justice Kavanaugh has basically rolled out a blueprint for how birthright citizenship can be challenged again in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for now, the ruling continues to cover almost anyone born in the territory of the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is basically Wong Kim Ark II,” Chin said. “It comes out the same way, and it will put the issue to rest as a legal matter for a couple of generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“I am an American” in various languages is etched into a plaque honoring Wong Kim Ark in San Francisco’s Chinatown on June 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chiu acknowledged the victory but reminded that “this past week the same Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">told asylum seekers\u003c/a> that they could be turned away, told millions of immigrants with\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088898/supreme-court-ruling-leaves-tps-holders-confronting-an-uncertain-future\"> temporary protected status\u003c/a> … that they might have to go back to violent, unstable countries. We cannot normalize these attacks on immigrant communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Norman Wong, the ruling, days before the Fourth of July, will give the holiday a new meaning. He said he planned to celebrate “what it stands for,” not “the pomp and ceremony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about taking real pride in our country,” he said. “Not the flag — our country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tychehendricks\">\u003cem>Tyche Hendricks\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomeli\">\u003cem>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kmizuguchi\">\u003cem>Keith Mizuguchi\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time in months, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033789/lets-fight-back-127-years-after-momentous-supreme-court-ruling-san-francisco-honors-wong-kim-ark\">Norman Wong\u003c/a> breathed a sigh of relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area resident and great-grandson of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">Wong Kim Ark\u003c/a> — a San Francisco-born Chinese American cook whose case helped establish birthright citizenship 128 years ago — spent the last year crisscrossing the country, defending a right he couldn’t believe was in jeopardy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086891/supreme-court-upholds-birthright-citizenship\">rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts\u003c/a> to undo the right with a 2025 executive order, Norman Wong allowed himself a rare moment of celebration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nice not to be mad. It is nice to be happy,” Norman Wong said. “I don’t consider it a personal victory. I consider it a victory for America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling in \u003cem>Trump v. Barbara\u003c/em> preserved a constitutional right that has stood for more than a century: that nearly anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen. For Norman Wong and other immigrants-rights advocates, and local officials who helped challenge Trump’s order, the decision was a vindication and a warning. While they hailed the ruling as an affirmation of the 14th Amendment, some noted that the ideological divide on the court and a broad wave of restrictive immigration rulings signaled the fight was far from over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The landmark legal victory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088650/how-chinese-immigrants-from-san-francisco-helped-establish-birthright-citizenship\">traces back to 1898, when Wong\u003c/a>, a cook born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, was detained on a steamship when he tried to return from visiting China. Wong sued the U.S. government and his case went all the way to the Supreme Court — which affirmed that the Constitution recognized Wong as a citizen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088381\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088381\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260614-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norman Wong stands in front of a mural made by Twin and Walls Mural Company depicting his great-grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, on the corner of Sacramento and Grant streets in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Sunday, June 14, 2026. Wong, 76, was unaware of his connection to the landmark Supreme Court case won by his great-grandfather for most of his life, but now works to share his family’s story and history. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Norman Wong grew up knowing none of this family history. His father rarely spoke of the past, and Norman Wong only learned of his connection to the landmark case in his 50s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I grew up, even when I was five years old, I knew I was American,” he said. He compared the executive order to suddenly relitigating whether women can vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was settled law for over a hundred years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case was the central authority cited by the justices in issuing their opinions, though each used it differently, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/breaking-down-the-birthright-citizenship-decision/\">\u003cem>SCOTUSblog\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chief Justice John Roberts referenced \u003cem>Wong Kim Ark\u003c/em> 16 times, and Justice Clarence Thomas, in his more than 27,000-word dissent, referenced it a remarkable 49 times, both arguing that the case supported their opinions. As a citizen, Norman Wong said standing up for the right was his responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Birthright citizenship for the few, when the few are actually being targeted, that means everybody’s right is being jeopardized. So we need to stand for everyone, because ultimately that’s our own rights too that are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco was the first city in the country to sue over Trump’s order, filing within 24 hours of his second inauguration, according to City Attorney David Chiu — a birthright citizen and the first Asian American to lead the office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know my place in this country is possible because of the 14th Amendment and the courage of Wong Kim Ark 128 years ago, and immigrants like my parents,” said Chiu, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s. The story of birthright citizenship, he said, “is the story of San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winnie Kao, senior counsel at the Asian Law Caucus and part of the legal team for the plaintiffs, said the executive order “felt very personal.” Wong Kim Ark “was born just blocks from our Chinatown office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083331\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083331\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260511-YICKWOCOMMEMORATION-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">City Attorney David Chiu speaks during a press conference at the parking lot on 3rd and Harrison streets to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Yick Wo v. Hopkins in San Francisco on Monday, May 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She noted that the Wong Kim Ark ruling came during a period of extreme hostility toward Chinese immigrants. Wong’s victory came at the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1882 law restricting Chinese immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 14th Amendment, initially introduced in response to laws restricting the freedoms of Black Americans after slavery, was meant to guarantee “a broader principle that applied to others,” as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in her concurrence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Had the court ruled the other way, Chiu said the decision would have created “a permanent multi-generational underclass” of stateless children, who would be unable to naturalize here or obtain citizenship elsewhere, living “under constant threat of deportation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao said the consequences would have rippled far beyond immigrant families, forcing a re-examination of “vast swaths of U.S. law” premised on birthright citizenship — and creating “a total administrative and bureaucratic nightmare for everyone, even for parents who are U.S. citizens,” if the government had to verify a newborn’s citizenship by checking a parent’s status rather than a birth certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055174\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Brett-Kavanaugh-Getty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left to right: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy attend U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, D.C. President Trump was expected to address Congress on his early achievements of his presidency and his upcoming legislative agenda. \u003ccite>(Win McNamee/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen,” UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin said, with narrow exceptions for children of diplomats or occupying forces. His advice, given heightened immigration enforcement “that often is based on race”: get a birth certificate and hold onto it. “Every individual has to be prepared — particularly non-white individuals — to prove that they are U.S. citizens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though legal scholars described the decision as decisive on the law, questions were left open about whether birthright citizenship could ever not be constitutionally guaranteed. Huy Tran, executive director of the San José immigrant rights group SIREN, noted that in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion, he concluded that Congress could amend laws to create exceptions to birthright citizenship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is one of those cases that should have been a slam dunk,” Tran said. “Instead, what we have now is that Justice Kavanaugh has basically rolled out a blueprint for how birthright citizenship can be challenged again in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for now, the ruling continues to cover almost anyone born in the territory of the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is basically Wong Kim Ark II,” Chin said. “It comes out the same way, and it will put the issue to rest as a legal matter for a couple of generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088372\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088372\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260607-ChinatownActivism-JY-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“I am an American” in various languages is etched into a plaque honoring Wong Kim Ark in San Francisco’s Chinatown on June 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chiu acknowledged the victory but reminded that “this past week the same Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088417/supreme-court-immigration-decision-leaves-thousands-of-californians-in-limbo\">told asylum seekers\u003c/a> that they could be turned away, told millions of immigrants with\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088898/supreme-court-ruling-leaves-tps-holders-confronting-an-uncertain-future\"> temporary protected status\u003c/a> … that they might have to go back to violent, unstable countries. We cannot normalize these attacks on immigrant communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Norman Wong, the ruling, days before the Fourth of July, will give the holiday a new meaning. He said he planned to celebrate “what it stands for,” not “the pomp and ceremony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about taking real pride in our country,” he said. “Not the flag — our country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tychehendricks\">\u003cem>Tyche Hendricks\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ccabreralomeli\">\u003cem>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kmizuguchi\">\u003cem>Keith Mizuguchi\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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},
"science-friday": {
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