In downtown LA over the weekend there was a steady stream of cars lined up to drop off donations at the Full Arepas restaurant on 7th Street.
On Sunday… the government reported 1,450 people are dead from the quakes. Thousands more are hurt… and many more remain missing.
Three years ago the state doled out nearly 140-million dollars in grants through the initiative.
That’s made a big difference for places like Shady Lane Estates in the unincorporated community of Thermal in the Coachella Valley. Shady Lane spent a chunk of its funding to upgrade its antique electrical system. That means residents now have functioning air conditioners….in a region where afternoons regularly top out at 110-degrees.
Shady Lane is one of 28 parks awarded money through the initiative. But that’s only a small fraction of the more than 46-hundred mobile home parks across the state.
The program also received applications for more than twice as much funding as it had available. But, as of now, there’s no indication more money is on the way thanks to a tight budget year in Sacramento.
For years, many of these youths were protected from deportation. Specifically, those who qualify as “special immigrant juveniles,” or SIJ, who’ve suffered abuse, abandonment or neglect. These youths long qualified for deferred action. And deferred action meant they could stay in the U.S. while they applied for work permits or green cards.
But in May, the federal government ended deferred action for youths with SIJ status. And made it impossible for those who have deferred action to renew it. Now, they’re at risk of detention and deportation.
Kristina McKibben Sias works with a lot of unaccompanied minors. She runs an organization based in Sacramento and Fresno called the Community Justice Alliance. She calls it a “complete dismantling of every angle of protection that they’ve had.” She adds that she’s even gotten calls from youths while federal agents were banging on their doors.
Since 2015, more than half a million kids have come to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors. Around 80,000 live in California. Around a quarter million youths have been approved for SIJ status and deferred action protections. They include unaccompanied minors and other immigrant children.
Rachel Davidson is with the non-profit National Immigration Project. The organization sued the federal government to put deferred action back in place. After all, the only way to apply for SIJ status and deferred action is to actually be in the U.S. You can’t apply from your home country.
Davidson says that Congress created special immigrant juvenile status as a pathway to permanent protection for young people who are extremely vulnerable, “and if you interrupt the pathway by deporting them in the middle, that means that you’re not understanding the purpose of the statute, which is to protect them.”
Deferred action for these youths was only introduced in 20-22. Before that, Davidson says most presidential administrations didn’t prioritize deporting them. But a lot has changed since January 2025.
