Latino Communities Contend with the Mental Health Toll of Increased Immigration Enforcement

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, September 11, 2025…

• California’s landmark climate program — known as cap-and-trade — could soon be getting new life. Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders reached a deal Wednesday to extend the market-based limits on greenhouse gas emissions until 2045.
• Newsom’s attempt to fast-track his administration’s proposal for a 45-mile-long tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta failed to pass the Legislature. The legislature had until midnight Tuesday to approve bills to streamline the permitting process for Newsom’s tunnel.
• Across Latino communities, the fear of arrest has become a part of daily life under stepped up immigration enforcement. Advocates say that constant stress is wearing on people’s mental health.. And many are carrying the burden quietly.

State Leaders Reach Deal to Extend Cap-and-Trade Program

Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders announced a deal Wednesday that would extend the cap-and-trade program, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California.

The program sets an annually decreasing limit on the pollution that polluters like oil refineries can release. Companies hoping to avoid fines either reduce their emissions or bid on allowances that allow them to pollute above the cap, which in turn raises billions of dollars for California.

The program has been renamed cap-and-invest, emphasizing the intent to reinvest funds raised through auctions for those allowances.

Assembly Bill 1207, would extend cap-and-invest through 2045.

“It is extended in a manner that will help ensure we actually meet our 2045 [greenhouse gas reduction] goals,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California state director for the Environmental Defense Fund. “It addresses affordability concerns and it maintains California as a climate leader.”

Environmental justice advocates said capping statewide emissions does little for residents living near refineries and other pollution hotspots.

Push to Fast-Track Tunnel Hits a Wall

As climate change threatens water supplies, the Newsom administration’s tunnel plan would send more Northern California water south and prop up the State Water Project.

The planned tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has the support of some local water agencies along with agricultural and business groups, but evidently not enough support among legislators currently.

After the trailer bill failed to pass before midnight, the fate of the tunnel plan is now in the hands of the State Water Resources Control Board, which is holding a months-long hearing on the project’s viability and the delicate balance of water rights. That meeting could be extended but will ultimately result in an opinion from the hearing officer as early as next year, followed by a decision from board members on whether to support the tunnel plan.

Board members are simultaneously considering updates to the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan, a massive proposal for protecting the estuary that could reduce the likelihood of extracting water from the river system, essentially making a tunnel project less feasible.

Community Organizations Emphasize Mental Health Support Amid Increasing Immigration Enforcement

In Riverside County, along with connecting residents with resources and advising them of their rights, local organizers are  working to create safe spaces where community members can share their experiences, prepare for difficult encounters and reckon with the looming threat of immigration actions.

In Perris, the TODEC Legal Center works with Latino and immigrant residents who want to seek legal advice, housing assistance and food.

Luz Gallegos, TODEC’s executive director, said that some Latinos they work with view receiving mental health support negatively, but she says safe spaces help break down stigma.

“We break it down to the community that it’s not that we’re crazy, but we’re going through trauma, and we’re calling it trauma,” Gallegos said.

Psychologists warn that the threat of detention and deportation is driving stress, depression and post-traumatic stress in immigrant communities.