Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, December 12, 2025…
- ICE has released an immigrant from Ukraine who was arrested after her green card interview last week. She says she was held for days inside a federal building in downtown San Diego.
- A Los Angeles high school senior, who’s been in immigration detention since August, has finally been released from federal custody.
- We’re getting into the cold, wet part of the year, and for many people that means it’s time to nestle indoors and stay cozy. But for some, the rain spells a special opportunity – to embark into the woods and forage for wild mushrooms. Over 1500 of these enthusiasts got together recently at a fungus fair in Humboldt County.
ICE Releases Ukrainian Immigrant After Holding Her For Days In Basement Facility In San Diego
Federal immigration officials released a Ukrainian immigrant from detention Tuesday after arresting her last week immediately following a green card interview in downtown San Diego.
Viktoriia Bulavina arrived in the U.S. three years ago under a humanitarian program for people fleeing the war in Ukraine. She is married to a U.S. citizen and is currently in the final stages of applying to be a permanent resident.
In an interview with KPBS Wednesday, Bulavina said ICE officers held her for three days beginning last Thursday inside the lower levels of a federal building downtown. She said she and other women had to use an open toilet in view of the guards and didn’t have room to sleep. One person, she said, had her migraine medication taken away. Bulavina said the detainees were given expired sandwiches and had to huddle together for warmth. When they were moved, she said ICE officers ordered them to line up against the wall and restrained their hands and feet with shackles and chains.
Bulavina’s immigration lawyers don’t know for sure why ICE decided to release her so swiftly after transferring her to a federal detention center, but they strongly suspect that agency officials realized they had made a mistake. In their charging documents, Bulavina’s attorneys said, ICE accused Bulavina of overstaying her original immigration status, a Biden-era humanitarian parole program called Uniting for Ukraine. But according to her attorneys, Bulavina had already applied for and received a separate immigration status called Temporary Protected Status that didn’t expire until 2026.
LAUSD Student Released From Immigration Detention After Four Months
A Van Nuys high school senior in immigration detention since August has been released from federal custody. Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, an 18-year-old, was detained while he walked the family dog on Aug. 8, less than a week before the start of his senior year of high school.
Rep. Luz Rivas, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, announced on the House floor Thursday morning that Guerrero-Cruz is now back home with his family. “My heart goes out to his family, especially his mother, who can hold her son again after months of fear and uncertainty at the hands of ICE,” Rivas said.
In a statement to LAist Thursday evening, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said an immigration judge granted Guerrero-Cruz bond, and that he is now on supervised released as he continues in removal proceedings. “He will have periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement to ensure he is abiding by the terms of [his] release,” the statement noted. Rivas said in a follow-up interview that since his release around Thanksgiving, Guerrero-Cruz has re-enrolled in school and that his immigration case is ongoing.
Mushroom Lovers Gather At Humboldt Fungus Fair
The winter brings cold and wet weather. And while that has many people bundled up, some are taking the opportunity to embark into the woods and forage for wild mushrooms.
At a recent fungus fair in Humboldt County, mushrooms of all shapes and colors were spread across folding tables in the Arcata Community Center. There’s big woody shelf fungi, little slim mushrooms that glow under a blacklight or bruise to the touch.
This early autumn was particularly wet for California, with about 140% of average rainfall. And local foragers set a new record – bringing close to 500 different species of mushrooms to the fair. Kendall Williams is the secretary and event coordinator for the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society. That’s one of nearly a hundred such mushroom clubs nationwide. California has the most out of all the states. And Williams understands the appeal. “Mushrooms are a little bit weird and mushrooms are different and they’re not a plant and they’re not an animal. And I think that, especially since lockdown, a lot of people, especially locally, were out in the forest,” Williams said.
The strange and unique properties of mushrooms have sparked a lot of interest in the last several years. NASA is working on growing furniture out of fungi to use in space colonies. Other enterprises are using fungi to grow fire resistant coatings, and antibiotics, and to eat pollution.
