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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 CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california-high-speed-rail\">California’s high-speed rail\u003c/a> authority resigned late Wednesday, saying he needs to focus on “important personal and family priorities,” according to a copy of the emailed resignation obtained by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has not been an easy decision, as leading the Authority has been one of the most meaningful and rewarding chapters of my professional life,” wrote Chief Executive Ian Choudri.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He will be replaced by Joe Stephenshaw, who has led the state Department of Finance since July 2022 after working as a policy analyst in the state Legislature for more than a decade, the board announced Thursday morning following a closed session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The abrupt announcement comes in the midst of a two-day meeting of the board that oversees the project, which continues Thursday. It follows Choudri’s tumultuous two-year tenure, which has been troubled by budget woes, project delays, transparency concerns and various scandals including the misuse of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/09/california-high-speed-rail-travel-expenses/\">nearly $600,000 in taxpayer money\u003c/a> for questionable trips by rail authority consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Choudri, the authority also lost $4 billion in federal funding under President Donald Trump’s administration, after the agency repeatedly missed deadlines required by the funding agreement to buy trains. The state initially sued Trump for the funding but abruptly dropped the lawsuit in December 2025, blaming Trump as “not a reliable partner” and turning to private investors instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri did not respond to an email or a text from CalMatters requesting comment Wednesday night. His resignation took effect immediately, board chair Steve Kawa said Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s news reflects the board’s commitment to accountability and transparency, consistent with the governor’s mandate,” Kawa said. “Californians deserve a project they can trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Investigative-Report-2026-Allegations-of-Wasteful-and-Unallowable-Travel-Expenses-for-Contracted-Consultants-A11Y.pdf\">State investigators\u003c/a> last month found the rail agency’s consultants flew first class, hailed premium rides and traveled to a nightclub, cigar lounge and restaurants on taxpayers’ dime, sometimes at Choudri’s request. Many of the trips involved traveling to Folsom, the Sacramento suburb where Choudri has a home, sometimes after hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12100017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12100017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction on the high-speed rail project over a ramp above Highway 99 in south Fresno on March 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters via CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The board voted earlier this month to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-high-speed-rail-board-contracts/\">limit Choudri’s contracting authority\u003c/a> following the probe, requiring the in-house legal counsel to sign off first on contracts under $25 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has been weighing additional disciplinary action against Choudri for weeks, including possible termination, according to a source with the authority who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California voters in 2008 approved a $10 billion bond to build a bullet train connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020, with a projected cost of $45 billion. But progress stalled amid rising costs, legal fights and funding uncertainties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Final-Business-Plan-060126-A11Y.pdf\">latest business plan\u003c/a> said the project could now cost between $126 billion and $231 billion, with the current 171-mile leg between Merced and Bakersfield under construction, and a full buildout expected by 2040.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board was supposed to decide at the meeting this week if Choudri qualified for a potential $25,000 bonus based on his performance this year, agency spokesperson Micah Flores told CalMatters last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri’s compensation this year is more than $534,000, according to agency spokesperson Annie Parker.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cost overruns, project delays, legal challenges\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Choudri was hired in August 2024 after spending decades in transportation engineering, with experience building high-speed rail in France and Spain. The board hired him in part due to his “strong understanding of complex transportation projects,” according to then-board chair Tom Richards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Choudri, the agency has continued construction of the Central Valley segment and is on the cusp of getting environmental clearance from the state for all 500 miles of planned railway between San Francisco and Southern California. Newsom, a big supporter of the rail project, has committed $1 billion a year from the state’s climate fund toward the rail project until 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri has also led efforts to cut consultant contract costs, attract private investments and speed up contracting, rail authority chief of staff Mark Tollefson said during a \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-10-28-PPT-CEO-Report-A11Y.pdf\">Wednesday presentation\u003c/a> touting Choudri’s achievements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12107256\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12107256\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ian Choudri, CEO of California High Speed Rail, speaks during a press conference on the high-speed rail project at the Wasco Rail Yard facility in Wasco on Feb. 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the board unanimously approved a $772.1 million contract to Germany-based Siemens Mobility, Inc. to design, build and test three seven-car high-speed bullet trains by 2030. The authority will also pay up to $63.7 million in import duties and tariffs, because the trains will be designed and built in Germany.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote comes three years after the agency first opened bidding for six trainsets in August 2023 to qualify for more than $3 billion in federal grants, before ultimately losing the funding following missed deadlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his resignation letter, Choudri said he was proud to have transformed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I took on a project facing significant challenges and serious questions about its prospects for success, and led its turnaround into a successful program,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the project has continued to face significant cost overruns, schedule delays and lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A viaduct runs alongside Highway 99 in south Fresno on March 27, 2019. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The train agency could run out of cash by December 2027, the office of inspector general \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/OIG-HSR-Review-of-2026-Business-Plan-A11Y.pdf\">warned in July.\u003c/a> Meanwhile, the authority failed to make clear in its latest business plan that the Central Valley segment is now expected to be completed by 2034 at a cost likely exceeding $40 billion, the inspector general said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority also based its project schedule on the assumption it would achieve legislative proposals it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/09/high-speed-rail-legislative-wins-losses/\">failed to push through this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To save money, the authority proposed shrinking the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment by 9 miles and moving the downtown Merced station to South Merced, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB198\">in apparent violation of state law\u003c/a>. It also requested an \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2026090282\">exemption from environmental regulations\u003c/a> and solicited contractors for the new location, prompting a lawsuit this month from the Central Valley coalition Community Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This challenge follows an unlawful pattern of behavior by the HSRA — proposing to relocate the downtown Merced station, then acting as if that move has been approved when it has not,” the complaint said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Questionable trips plague the authority\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Between 2024 and 2026, employees from four consulting firms working for Choudri’s agency billed the state for questionable trips to locations including gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge, according to last month’s probe by the inspector general’s office overseeing the rail agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many trips were poorly justified, yet the agency routinely reimbursed them without sufficient vetting, the inspector general said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One legal consultant traveled between Denver and Sacramento 30 times in a year, charging the state $86,500 in “travel time” payments and an additional $40,800 in reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12105834 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260601_SMARTFILE_GC-9-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a testy meeting earlier this month, the board accused them of using the agency as a “piggy bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-10-28-PPT-CEO-Report-A11Y.pdf\">authority staff reported\u003c/a> that the consulting firms have paid nearly $1.3 million in reimbursements to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters filed a public records request last month seeking the questionable travel invoices from the inspector general’s office. The agency provided records only from one firm, Nossaman, arguing that the records for other consultants are related to audits or investigations and therefore are not required to be publicly disclosed under a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb169\">recent law\u003c/a> signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The records that were released were heavily redacted by both the inspector general’s office and the rail agency, which argued much of the information is protected by attorney-client privilege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-high-speed-rail-ceo-resigns/\">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",
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"excerpt": "Ian Choudri, who has led the train agency since 2024, leaves a troublesome legacy marked by budget woes, project delays and various scandals, including questionable taxpayer-funded trips by consultants.",
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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 CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california-high-speed-rail\">California’s high-speed rail\u003c/a> authority resigned late Wednesday, saying he needs to focus on “important personal and family priorities,” according to a copy of the emailed resignation obtained by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has not been an easy decision, as leading the Authority has been one of the most meaningful and rewarding chapters of my professional life,” wrote Chief Executive Ian Choudri.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He will be replaced by Joe Stephenshaw, who has led the state Department of Finance since July 2022 after working as a policy analyst in the state Legislature for more than a decade, the board announced Thursday morning following a closed session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The abrupt announcement comes in the midst of a two-day meeting of the board that oversees the project, which continues Thursday. It follows Choudri’s tumultuous two-year tenure, which has been troubled by budget woes, project delays, transparency concerns and various scandals including the misuse of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/09/california-high-speed-rail-travel-expenses/\">nearly $600,000 in taxpayer money\u003c/a> for questionable trips by rail authority consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Choudri, the authority also lost $4 billion in federal funding under President Donald Trump’s administration, after the agency repeatedly missed deadlines required by the funding agreement to buy trains. The state initially sued Trump for the funding but abruptly dropped the lawsuit in December 2025, blaming Trump as “not a reliable partner” and turning to private investors instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri did not respond to an email or a text from CalMatters requesting comment Wednesday night. His resignation took effect immediately, board chair Steve Kawa said Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s news reflects the board’s commitment to accountability and transparency, consistent with the governor’s mandate,” Kawa said. “Californians deserve a project they can trust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Investigative-Report-2026-Allegations-of-Wasteful-and-Unallowable-Travel-Expenses-for-Contracted-Consultants-A11Y.pdf\">State investigators\u003c/a> last month found the rail agency’s consultants flew first class, hailed premium rides and traveled to a nightclub, cigar lounge and restaurants on taxpayers’ dime, sometimes at Choudri’s request. Many of the trips involved traveling to Folsom, the Sacramento suburb where Choudri has a home, sometimes after hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12100017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12100017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/CMHighSpeedRail2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction on the high-speed rail project over a ramp above Highway 99 in south Fresno on March 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters via CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The board voted earlier this month to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-high-speed-rail-board-contracts/\">limit Choudri’s contracting authority\u003c/a> following the probe, requiring the in-house legal counsel to sign off first on contracts under $25 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board has been weighing additional disciplinary action against Choudri for weeks, including possible termination, according to a source with the authority who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California voters in 2008 approved a $10 billion bond to build a bullet train connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020, with a projected cost of $45 billion. But progress stalled amid rising costs, legal fights and funding uncertainties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-Final-Business-Plan-060126-A11Y.pdf\">latest business plan\u003c/a> said the project could now cost between $126 billion and $231 billion, with the current 171-mile leg between Merced and Bakersfield under construction, and a full buildout expected by 2040.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board was supposed to decide at the meeting this week if Choudri qualified for a potential $25,000 bonus based on his performance this year, agency spokesperson Micah Flores told CalMatters last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri’s compensation this year is more than $534,000, according to agency spokesperson Annie Parker.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cost overruns, project delays, legal challenges\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Choudri was hired in August 2024 after spending decades in transportation engineering, with experience building high-speed rail in France and Spain. The board hired him in part due to his “strong understanding of complex transportation projects,” according to then-board chair Tom Richards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Choudri, the agency has continued construction of the Central Valley segment and is on the cusp of getting environmental clearance from the state for all 500 miles of planned railway between San Francisco and Southern California. Newsom, a big supporter of the rail project, has committed $1 billion a year from the state’s climate fund toward the rail project until 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choudri has also led efforts to cut consultant contract costs, attract private investments and speed up contracting, rail authority chief of staff Mark Tollefson said during a \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-10-28-PPT-CEO-Report-A11Y.pdf\">Wednesday presentation\u003c/a> touting Choudri’s achievements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12107256\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12107256\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/HighSpeedRail2-40058538-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ian Choudri, CEO of California High Speed Rail, speaks during a press conference on the high-speed rail project at the Wasco Rail Yard facility in Wasco on Feb. 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the board unanimously approved a $772.1 million contract to Germany-based Siemens Mobility, Inc. to design, build and test three seven-car high-speed bullet trains by 2030. The authority will also pay up to $63.7 million in import duties and tariffs, because the trains will be designed and built in Germany.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote comes three years after the agency first opened bidding for six trainsets in August 2023 to qualify for more than $3 billion in federal grants, before ultimately losing the funding following missed deadlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his resignation letter, Choudri said he was proud to have transformed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I took on a project facing significant challenges and serious questions about its prospects for success, and led its turnaround into a successful program,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the project has continued to face significant cost overruns, schedule delays and lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083557\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_4619_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A viaduct runs alongside Highway 99 in south Fresno on March 27, 2019. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The train agency could run out of cash by December 2027, the office of inspector general \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/OIG-HSR-Review-of-2026-Business-Plan-A11Y.pdf\">warned in July.\u003c/a> Meanwhile, the authority failed to make clear in its latest business plan that the Central Valley segment is now expected to be completed by 2034 at a cost likely exceeding $40 billion, the inspector general said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority also based its project schedule on the assumption it would achieve legislative proposals it \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/09/high-speed-rail-legislative-wins-losses/\">failed to push through this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To save money, the authority proposed shrinking the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment by 9 miles and moving the downtown Merced station to South Merced, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB198\">in apparent violation of state law\u003c/a>. It also requested an \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2026090282\">exemption from environmental regulations\u003c/a> and solicited contractors for the new location, prompting a lawsuit this month from the Central Valley coalition Community Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This challenge follows an unlawful pattern of behavior by the HSRA — proposing to relocate the downtown Merced station, then acting as if that move has been approved when it has not,” the complaint said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Questionable trips plague the authority\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Between 2024 and 2026, employees from four consulting firms working for Choudri’s agency billed the state for questionable trips to locations including gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar and a cigar lounge, according to last month’s probe by the inspector general’s office overseeing the rail agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many trips were poorly justified, yet the agency routinely reimbursed them without sufficient vetting, the inspector general said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One legal consultant traveled between Denver and Sacramento 30 times in a year, charging the state $86,500 in “travel time” payments and an additional $40,800 in reimbursements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a testy meeting earlier this month, the board accused them of using the agency as a “piggy bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-10-28-PPT-CEO-Report-A11Y.pdf\">authority staff reported\u003c/a> that the consulting firms have paid nearly $1.3 million in reimbursements to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters filed a public records request last month seeking the questionable travel invoices from the inspector general’s office. The agency provided records only from one firm, Nossaman, arguing that the records for other consultants are related to audits or investigations and therefore are not required to be publicly disclosed under a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb169\">recent law\u003c/a> signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The records that were released were heavily redacted by both the inspector general’s office and the rail agency, which argued much of the information is protected by attorney-client privilege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-high-speed-rail-ceo-resigns/\">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\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-supervisor-takes-a-page-from-big-grocers-playbook-to-lower-food-prices",
"title": "San Francisco Supervisor Takes a Page From Big Grocer’s Playbook to Lower Food Prices",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Supervisor Takes a Page From Big Grocer’s Playbook to Lower Food Prices | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and the Food and Agriculture Action Coalition Toward Sovereignty are launching a new pilot program that they say will put more power in the hands of small grocers while lowering grocery prices for residents contending with a staggering affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mahmood and FAACTS announced the creation of a micro-Group Purchasing Organization on Thursday — a model which would allow neighborhood nonprofits and small grocers to pool together their orders for produce. The goal is to lower wholesale costs by around 10% for grocers and nonprofits in neighborhoods like the Fillmore, the Tenderloin, Haight Ashbury and Western Addition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Known as the District 5 Grocery Affordability Initiative, Mahmood said it’s a first-of-its-kind program to leverage group purchasing at a neighborhood level. It’s modeled after similar programs in Philadelphia and Paris. \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/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12090127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Bilal Mahmood speaks during a rally at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on July 7, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large grocers such as Safeway and Whole Foods are able to buy food at higher discounts than smaller grocers and offer customers lower prices, Mahmood said, because they buy products in larger quantities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The innovation here was basically, how can we take what happens with larger chains and provide the same benefit for smaller independent grocers?” Mahmood told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initial pilot program, funded through $50,000 in seed funding from former congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, will mostly involve Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and nonprofit Farming Hope at first, Mahmood said. He expects at least five independent grocers will participate later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The micro-organization will also help negotiate pricing on behalf of the independent grocers, according to Mahmood. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shakirah Simley, executive director of Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and a FAACTS SF founding steering committee member, said the center’s food justice program has felt the impacts of lack of food access like federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, CalFresh in California, and the closing of two neighborhood full-service grocery stores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The pilot is an urgent and creative solution toward solving food access and uplifting the good work already happening in our communities,” Simley said in a statement. “Food access impacts everyone, and we hope this initiative will serve as a model for larger-scale solutions in San Francisco.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program is part of a larger package of initiatives spearheaded by Mahmood to reduce grocery costs as some grocery stores have left San Francisco neighborhoods. In recent months, Mahmood proposed imposing a tax on vacant grocery stores and pharmacies and a faster process for permitting requirements for grocery stores and pharmacies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Political support for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12090511/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-blocks-vacant-grocery-store-tax-proposal\">vacant grocery store tax initiative collapsed\u003c/a> after a run-in with Mayor Daniel Lurie and grocery giant Amazon at City Hall, Mahmood told KQED over the summer. Since then, the supervisor has changed tack. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Whether you’re an immigrant family in the Tenderloin or a tech worker in the Marina, the price of the groceries are going up for everyone,” Mahmood said. “We’re finding more and more that the affordability crisis is hitting everyone, and we have to be doing everything in our power right now to not just lower the cost of rent but lower the cost of food.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mahmood said he hopes the program will be made permanent after success, aiming to receive city funding for a citywide program during the next budget cycle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pilot program will be running by mid 2027.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Large grocers such as Safeway and Whole Foods are able to buy food at higher discounts than smaller grocers and offer customers lower prices, Mahmood said, because they buy products in larger quantities.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Shakirah Simley, executive director of Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and a FAACTS SF founding steering committee member, said the center’s food justice program has felt the impacts of lack of food access like federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, CalFresh in California, and the closing of two neighborhood full-service grocery stores. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The pilot is an urgent and creative solution toward solving food access and uplifting the good work already happening in our communities,” Simley said in a statement. “Food access impacts everyone, and we hope this initiative will serve as a model for larger-scale solutions in San Francisco.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Whether you’re an immigrant family in the Tenderloin or a tech worker in the Marina, the price of the groceries are going up for everyone,” Mahmood said. “We’re finding more and more that the affordability crisis is hitting everyone, and we have to be doing everything in our power right now to not just lower the cost of rent but lower the cost of food.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Supervisor Bilal Mahmood says the program is meant to make groceries more affordable for small businesses and residents.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and the Food and Agriculture Action Coalition Toward Sovereignty are launching a new pilot program that they say will put more power in the hands of small grocers while lowering grocery prices for residents contending with a staggering affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mahmood and FAACTS announced the creation of a micro-Group Purchasing Organization on Thursday — a model which would allow neighborhood nonprofits and small grocers to pool together their orders for produce. The goal is to lower wholesale costs by around 10% for grocers and nonprofits in neighborhoods like the Fillmore, the Tenderloin, Haight Ashbury and Western Addition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Known as the District 5 Grocery Affordability Initiative, Mahmood said it’s a first-of-its-kind program to leverage group purchasing at a neighborhood level. It’s modeled after similar programs in Philadelphia and Paris. \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/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12090127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/20260707_SFRally_GC-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supervisor Bilal Mahmood speaks during a rally at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on July 7, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large grocers such as Safeway and Whole Foods are able to buy food at higher discounts than smaller grocers and offer customers lower prices, Mahmood said, because they buy products in larger quantities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The innovation here was basically, how can we take what happens with larger chains and provide the same benefit for smaller independent grocers?” Mahmood told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The initial pilot program, funded through $50,000 in seed funding from former congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, will mostly involve Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and nonprofit Farming Hope at first, Mahmood said. He expects at least five independent grocers will participate later on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The micro-organization will also help negotiate pricing on behalf of the independent grocers, according to Mahmood. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shakirah Simley, executive director of Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and a FAACTS SF founding steering committee member, said the center’s food justice program has felt the impacts of lack of food access like federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, CalFresh in California, and the closing of two neighborhood full-service grocery stores. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The pilot is an urgent and creative solution toward solving food access and uplifting the good work already happening in our communities,” Simley said in a statement. “Food access impacts everyone, and we hope this initiative will serve as a model for larger-scale solutions in San Francisco.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program is part of a larger package of initiatives spearheaded by Mahmood to reduce grocery costs as some grocery stores have left San Francisco neighborhoods. In recent months, Mahmood proposed imposing a tax on vacant grocery stores and pharmacies and a faster process for permitting requirements for grocery stores and pharmacies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Political support for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12090511/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-blocks-vacant-grocery-store-tax-proposal\">vacant grocery store tax initiative collapsed\u003c/a> after a run-in with Mayor Daniel Lurie and grocery giant Amazon at City Hall, Mahmood told KQED over the summer. Since then, the supervisor has changed tack. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Whether you’re an immigrant family in the Tenderloin or a tech worker in the Marina, the price of the groceries are going up for everyone,” Mahmood said. “We’re finding more and more that the affordability crisis is hitting everyone, and we have to be doing everything in our power right now to not just lower the cost of rent but lower the cost of food.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mahmood said he hopes the program will be made permanent after success, aiming to receive city funding for a citywide program during the next budget cycle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pilot program will be running by mid 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-the-san-francisco-chinese-communitys-fight-for-belonging-shaped-bilingual-education",
"title": "How the San Francisco Chinese Community’s Fight for Belonging Shaped Bilingual Education",
"publishDate": 1793282400,
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"headTitle": "How the San Francisco Chinese Community’s Fight for Belonging Shaped Bilingual Education | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Laureen Chew, 78, still remembers her first day of kindergarten at Washington Irving Elementary School in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. It was the day she began to question her cultural heritage. Growing up in the city’s North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods, Chew only spoke Cantonese. Born and raised in the U.S., Chew was raised primarily by her Chinese immigrant mother, who couldn’t speak English, and her world — up until then — was a tight-knit community of other Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I remember going to school the first day being very excited because everybody said school was fun. All the kids there were Chinese Cantonese speakers; very few had English skills,” Chew said. “But then, the first thing that came out of the teacher’s mouth was English, and we were freaking out. And in fact, I didn’t wanna go back to school the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chew said that by the time she was in the third grade, the language barriers evolved into a source of shame.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The teachers did a very good job of downgrading our native language at school,” she said, reflecting on recess time in the schoolyard. “We’d be playing and speaking in Cantonese to each other, and they’d ring the bell and say, ‘You’re in American school now, speak English!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn’t until Chew became a student activist during college in the 1960s that she began to reclaim her cultural identity. She also discovered how to best help her community: by teaching and advocating for multilingual Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Bilingual ed is not only about language … It’s about identity so that you can feel that you’re worthy,” Chew said. “It’s about keeping a positive sense of who I am to help me express my voice in this country without feeling inferior.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chinese community has played an important role in advancing bilingual education in San Francisco and across the country. The foundations of that advocacy trace back to the 19th-century Exclusion era when early Chinese immigrants fought for the most basic of education rights, like access to public schools. As they did in other arenas, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">birthright citizenship\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">due process and equal protection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096279/chinese-immigrants-led-the-first-mass-resistance-to-americas-deportation-system\">the right to remain in the country\u003c/a>, Chinese immigrants leveraged the legal system and the resources afforded by a highly organized San Francisco Chinatown network to make their case for equal education. Their efforts have helped expand the protections available to immigrant families and their children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, Chinese Americans and immigrants continue to grapple with questions of belonging, identity and equity in education. But as the Chinese population has changed over the generations, so too have the terms of their activism. The education debates within the community have become increasingly complex — and sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">deeply divisive\u003c/a> — yet a throughline persists: a continuing negotiation over what meaningful inclusion looks like, and who gets to define it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Education organizing remains an important way for Chinese community members to assert their place in American society, and to claim a stake in its future. And people like Chew say it’s especially critical now as the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are impacting things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096573/under-proposed-trump-rule-head-start-would-be-english-only\">language rights\u003c/a> for student English learners. She said by fighting for bilingual education, she can help to protect and nurture a multiracial democracy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before bilingual education, the fight for a seat in the classroom\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chinese immigrants in San Francisco began fighting in the 1850s for access to education. The concept of public education — universally available, state-funded and free — gained traction in the 1830s, and one of its stated goals was to prepare young people to be capable voters who could safeguard American democracy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That principle helps explain why public education has remained a contentious issue when it comes to immigrants, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor and immigration law scholar at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Children become the source of a great hope and the source of a great threat,” Motomura said. “As a threat, I think it’s realizing that if you let kids become citizens or get educated, [there’s] the sense that they’re going to displace you … Education is the key to immigrant integration.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1338\" height=\"1099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg 1338w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778-160x131.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1338px) 100vw, 1338px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A portrait of Chinese Primary School students in 1890. As noted in historian Mae Ngai’s book “The Lucky Ones,” Mamie Tape is the girl sitting in the center of the second row. (Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 19th-century San Francisco, access to public education was largely reserved for white children. Although California law eventually required public schools to admit all children, Black, Asian and American Indian students were segregated from their white peers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1871, as animosity and violence against the Chinese community \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10429550/boomtown-history-2b\">intensified in San Francisco\u003c/a>, Chinese children were banned from even segregated public schools. Throughout the next decade, both the San Francisco school board and the state legislature ignored petitions by thousands of Chinese residents for admission to public schools. That is until one Chinese family in particular spoke up: the Tape family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the 1880s, an estimated 1,000 Chinese school-age children were living in the city, and most of them were American-born, including 8-year-old Mamie Tape. Her parents, Joseph and Mary Tape, were atypical Chinese immigrants: they were Americanized, spoke excellent English, adopted Western-style manners and clothing and lived outside of Chinatown in a white, middle-class neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1884, Mamie’s parents attempted to enroll her at the all-white Spring Valley School. But when they arrived, the school’s principal, Jennie Hurley, refused to let her in, citing the district’s policy against admitting Chinese children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, Mamie’s father Joseph waged a legal battle that garnered widespread attention, captivating white and Chinese people alike. There was a lot at stake: would the privileges and benefits of U.S. citizenship be afforded to the American-born children of the much-reviled Chinese immigrant population? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eventually, the Tapes won their case in San Francisco’s Superior Court, a decision that was upheld in the California Supreme Court in 1885’s historic case \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/1885/66-cal-473.html\">\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The court affirmed that Chinese children born in the U.S. were entitled to public education under the Constitution. However, the school board rushed an act through the state legislature, authorizing segregated schools for Chinese students; Mamie could attend a public school, but only a segregated one for Chinese children. In response, Mamie’s mother Mary wrote a long fiery letter to the school board in a local newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? … My children don’t dress like the other Chinese … It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary declared that Mamie would not attend any Chinese-only schools, but eventually she and her brother Frank were among the first students to enroll in the Chinese Primary School when it opened. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of \u003cem>The Lucky Ones\u003c/em>, a book about the Tape family, called the ruling a “partial victory.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was an exclusion case, not a segregation case,” she said. “In fact, the Chinese were so excluded that they got promoted to being segregated … they were not even on par with Black people and Native Americans in 19th-century California,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ngai believes that the Tape’s argument, that Mamie should be admitted because the family identified with the white population, shouldn’t be seen as an aspirational strategy for the Chinese community today: “I don’t think it’s healthy for us to say people of color are only worthy when they deny their own cultures and languages and heritages,” Ngai said. “[The case] is maybe cautionary … if your idea is to convince the mainstream that you’re just going to be like white people.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nevertheless, \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was a fundamental case for the country’s earliest immigrants, Ngai said. “Education is a central issue of settlement. ‘We’re here, we’re not citizens, but our children are born here, they are citizens, and we are here to stay.’ That is the message.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How the Civil Rights era reshaped San Francisco’s classrooms — and the fight for equity\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That tension — between gaining access to American institutions and submitting to cultural erasure — would become more explicit in the decades that followed, especially as the Chinese community fought for bilingual education. There were a series of historical milestones that set the stage for that fight, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education\">\u003cem>Brown v. Board of Education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, arrivals to the U.S. dramatically shifted with the 1965 \u003ca href=\"https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/Immigration-and-Nationality-Act-of-1965/\">Immigration and Nationality Act\u003c/a>, which eliminated decades-long immigration restrictions from Asian and African countries. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant population surged, and with it, the school district’s Chinese student population. But while school segregation was legally unconstitutional, de facto segregation — driven primarily by redlining and discriminatory housing policies — meant that schools in areas like Chinatown reflected the segregation of the surrounding neighborhoods. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106969\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa-160x102.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Police arrest Black Student Union member John Cleveland during the student strike at San Francisco State College 1968-69, which resulted in the creation of a College of Ethnic Studies. (Courtesy of San Francisco State University Photographic Timeline Project)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of immigrant and Chinese-speaking youth emerged, which increased the need for different resources, including language services at schools. Being placed in English-only classrooms meant many Chinese students were effectively excluded from participating in class, and that their academic progress — if any — was significantly slower than their peers’.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 1974 California Law Review article describing those challenges said that Chinese students in these learning conditions were “doomed to poor achievement, illiteracy, and disproportionately high dropout rates” and that the isolating environment created psychological harm, making students feel inferior.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the social problems in Chinatown, a new political consciousness was growing. Chew was part of a generation of young Chinese Americans who were returning to the neighborhood after monumental social upheavals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a student at San Francisco State, she participated in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">1968-69 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes\u003c/a>, the longest student strike in U.S. history, where a coalition of student groups at SF State and UC Berkeley worked in solidarity to achieve their goals, including academic reforms and non-Eurocentric curricula. The term “Asian American” was formed at that time to create a political and organizing pan-ethnic identity, and the strike resulted in the formation of the nation’s first ethnic studies programs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Up until then, Chew’s educational experience had left her feeling angry and invisible, but she said that joining the historic student movement was pivotal and “opened up a whole new world for me.” Working alongside Black, Chicano, Filipino, Native American and other student organizers, and questioning institutional power together, she learned to not only reembrace her community — she became motivated to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1478\" height=\"986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106629\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg 1478w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1478px) 100vw, 1478px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew taught second graders at Commodore Stockton during the 1970s. She said her roots in San Francisco Chinatown inspired her advocacy for Chinese English learner students. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I was so entrenched in the strike, but the strike wasn’t just about the strike,” Chew said. “That involvement made me think about [getting involved] in my community, in my context of being a Chinese American.” She wanted to help Chinese immigrant students embrace their language and cultural identity — an experience that she didn’t have growing up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After graduating in 1972 and enlisting in the National Teacher Corps, Chew began teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary. The building, which was once the segregated school for Chinese students that Mamie Tape attended, was now the site of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual program, made possible by the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chew said it was a unique time to join the school because, in addition to the pilot bilingual program, the district had just implemented \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/facing-our-past-changing-our-future-part-ii-five-decades-desegregation-sfusd-1971-today\">busing\u003c/a> to integrate the city’s elementary schools following \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/339/1315/1460757/\">\u003cem>Johnson v. SFUSD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Black families sued the district over school segregation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106877\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew holds a film slide showing a teaching event she attended in the past, in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chinese immigrant parents largely opposed the court-ordered school busing program. One of their chief concerns was that it would scatter their children away from critical language resources at their neighborhood schools, like Commodore Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Chew, who spent six years teaching second graders at Commodore, the overlap of bilingual teaching and the busing effort proved to be challenging yet exciting. While there were racial frictions between the kids from Chinatown and the Black students bussed in from Bayview-Hunter’s Point, she saw the benefits of bilingual education beyond language itself. As students learned English and Chinese together, it bridged the differences between them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I came from a different frame because of the [TWLF] strikes,” she said. “I was able to try a lot of different things during that time in terms of building humanity in a classroom and then more importantly, building community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The case for bilingual education: a new kind of grassroots movement in Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even as the pilot bilingual program at Commodore Stockton took shape, there still weren’t adequate linguistic resources for all Chinese students in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1970, a group of Chinese American students filed a class-action lawsuit against SFUSD arguing an estimated 1,800 Chinese-speaking students were unable to meaningfully participate in their education because they were in English-only classrooms without any language support.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the families in the case were low-income Chinese immigrant families who lived in Chinatown single room occupancy buildings. The lead plaintiff was Kinney Kinmon Lau, a Chinese American first grader attending Jean Parker Elementary School. The case was filed with the Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), one of the progressive Asian American civil rights and social services organizations that emerged in the late ’60s and early ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1613\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106762\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-160x129.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-1536x1239.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students watching a Chinese New Year program at Jean Parker Elementary School in 1970. The San Francisco school was at the center of the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols. (Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Political power was starting to shift in Chinatown. Since the 1800s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association\u003c/a>, or the Chinese Six Companies — a group of family associations — had been the major player behind the fight for Chinese immigrant rights. The case for bilingual education demonstrated a new kind of grassroots resistance, one that was younger, multiracial, intersectional and based in self-determination. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They’re younger activists who are able to connect what they’re seeing in Chinatown to the broader civil rights movement,” CAA’s current co-Executive Director Vincent Pan said. “That’s the difference. And they’re marrying that with parents who do have a very important interest in seeing their kids get a better education.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trish Morita-Mullaney, author of the book \u003cem>Lau v. Nichols and Chinese American Language Rights,\u003c/em> called the \u003cem>\u003c/em>case an “emergency response” to what was happening in the community and indicative of the growing language rights movement across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There was precedent set within the Latino community … [and here], the thinking around language rights is that ‘I really want my kid to have access to the instruction and because my kids are not proficient, we need differentiation of instruction, and Cantonese should be one of those options.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The District Court ruled in favor of SFUSD, stating that there was no constitutional responsibility to provide special language programs, a decision later upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that SFUSD’s “English-only” policy denied them equal protection. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chinese plaintiffs, deciding that not providing non-English-speaking students with supplemental language courses was a violation of several legal precedents, namely the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act\">Civil Rights Act of 1964\u003c/a>, delivering a victory for bilingual instruction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision set a national precedent that education needed to be responsive to the different language needs and identities of students, Morita-Mullaney said. While the Court didn’t specify the steps school districts needed to take, it mandated supplemental instruction for English language learners. SFUSD took the bilingual education route, entering into a federal legal agreement, called the Lau Consent Decree, which legally bound the district to provide specialized language instruction and equal educational access to all non-English-speaking students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pan sees the \u003cem>Lau victory\u003c/em> as part of the struggle for Chinese Americans and immigrants to participate fully in American society that \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> began nearly 90 years earlier. While \u003cem>Tape\u003c/em> was a fight for the Chinese people to be “seen as humans,” Pan said \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> took it a step further “to get at the issue of ‘you’re human even if you don’t speak English well.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does fair and equitable public education mean now?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a recent evening at the Southeast Community Center in Bayview-Hunters Point, six candidates running for San Francisco’s District 10 supervisor’s seat addressed a room full of students and families. CAA was co-hosting the event, and managing director of policy Annie Lee posed questions to the candidates. One by one, they each weighed in on a wide range of community issues, including Flock cameras and mental health services inside schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the district is a historically Black community, \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/79500US0607507-san-francisco-county-south-central-bayview-hunters-point-puma-ca/\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its population is Asian, and more than 60% of the residents speak a language that isn’t English at home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/chinese-americans-san-francisco-neighborhoods-22458761.php\">Recent reporting\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the Chinese population grew by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2024. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">District 10 Supervisor candidate J.R. Eppler speaks during a youth-led candidate forum at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the crowd that evening were a few Chinese parents who wore headsets, as interpreters on the sidelines translated the conversation into Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of them was 43-year-old Christina Ouyang, a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter who works part-time doing community outreach with CAA.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I came here to learn more about the programming and opportunities available to children in the school district,” Ouyang said in Cantonese, sharing that she was most concerned about the safety and well-being of her daughter, who had faced bullying at her school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the D10 candidates didn’t address that specific issue, the attendance of Chinese parents at events like these demonstrates that despite the language barriers, education remains a central way that they engage in the larger community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12106818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christina Ouyang attends a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. Ouyang is a parent in the district and attended the forum to gather more information that might help her child. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Interpreter Gladys Chiu holds a script while translating English into Chinese during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s the kind of work that CAA remains dedicated to today, and Pan sees it as a continuation of the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> case’s legacy. In the past, they’ve helped immigrant parents have a say in their children’s education, including with efforts like helping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11680868/voter-registration-for-non-citizens-begins-in-s-f-school-board-election\">noncitizens vote in school board elections\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Who doesn’t want parents to be involved? … It’ll make the schools better for everyone, but because of all the rhetoric against immigrants, you can see that’s being demonized right now,” Pan said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Education — often positioned as a gateway to American society — has become a contentious, hot-button issue for the Asian American community, especially around the recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action\u003c/a>, and the threats to ethnic studies. CAA often finds itself confronting divisions within the community, Pan said. Many Asian Americans were vocal and proactive in helping dismantle affirmative action, while others have called for the end of ethnic studies curriculum, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091955/lowell-high-school-group-sues-sfusd-over-newly-adopted-ethnic-studies-curriculum\">including recently at Lowell High School in San Francisco\u003c/a>. He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ivy Zhou listens to a Chinese interpretation through an earpiece as Laura Quan translates behind her during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Unfortunately, when the stakes are high, people can get emotional. What we really also need to do is to be able to think clear-headed about what the effective public policies might be,” Pan said. “The more viable common sense practical path is to actually expand opportunity as opposed to fight for limited seats in a system that makes high quality education very scarce.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the second-term Trump administration has done the opposite of expanding opportunities for English learners. In addition to weakening federal civil rights oversight of language access and terminating grants and support for English-learner programs, President Trump signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/\">an executive order\u003c/a> last year, declaring English as the nation’s only official language. The order states: “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s a sentiment that flies in the face of everything Laureen Chew feels about the power of bilingual education to help “newcomers” engage in their broader communities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, she’s working with the CAA and The Association of Chinese Teachers (another advocacy organization founded in the 1960s) to reactivate the bilingual teacher training track at SF State, to ensure there are teachers to help replace the generation of Cantonese bilingual teachers who are retiring. While there have been some heritage language preservation efforts in the city, like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953666/city-college-of-san-francisco-withdraws-previously-approved-cantonese-program\">Save Cantonese\u003c/a>,” Chew said there’s still a need to provide bilingual language resources to the city’s most vulnerable Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bilingual education is also under pressure as districts like SFUSD face low enrollment numbers, less state funding and an emphasis on test scores.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2019 — 45 years after the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision — SFUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2019-07-01-lau-consent-decree-sunsets-sfusd\">sunsetted\u003c/a> the Lau Consent Decree, relieving the district of the federal mandate to provide services for English language learners. Officials declared that the district remained committed to supporting students, even without the oversight. But Morita-Mullaney said many have expressed concerns. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106633\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There’s a lot of people I’ve talked to in Chinatown that are not happy about that because it was done very quietly.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She explained that as more Chinese Americans become English-dominant, some teachers may adopt the same expectations and norms that prioritize English proficiency, weakening support for accountability measures that were designed to protect English learners. That’s why remembering the legacy of fights like Lau v. Nichols helps place bilingual education’s importance into context, Morita-Mullaney said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“What Lau does for us is it says go back to the people. We are talking about the humanity of language learners, and what is their rightful case for language access. And so it is about the curriculum, it is about progress … but the beneficiaries are the students, and you don’t see that foregrounded in policy in the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Chew, the attacks on immigrants can be disheartening. But as she approaches 80, she remains committed to the work, drawing on the lessons of a life spent challenging who gets to belong: from her childhood as a Chinese student taught to reject her native language to her work as one of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual teachers. Each step has shaped her conviction that education should make room for everyone. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I embrace this country for what it aspires to be … No matter how strange everything is nowadays, I still believe in [its] foundation, even though [the founders] were all flawed. Isn’t that interesting?” she said, with a laugh. “And yet, they had this idealistic version of what a country can be, and we’re all still trying to live by it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Laureen Chew, 78, still remembers her first day of kindergarten at Washington Irving Elementary School in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. It was the day she began to question her cultural heritage. Growing up in the city’s North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods, Chew only spoke Cantonese. Born and raised in the U.S., Chew was raised primarily by her Chinese immigrant mother, who couldn’t speak English, and her world — up until then — was a tight-knit community of other Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Laureen Chew, 78, still remembers her first day of kindergarten at Washington Irving Elementary School in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. It was the day she began to question her cultural heritage. Growing up in the city’s North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods, Chew only spoke Cantonese. Born and raised in the U.S., Chew was raised primarily by her Chinese immigrant mother, who couldn’t speak English, and her world — up until then — was a tight-knit community of other Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I remember going to school the first day being very excited because everybody said school was fun. All the kids there were Chinese Cantonese speakers; very few had English skills,” Chew said. “But then, the first thing that came out of the teacher’s mouth was English, and we were freaking out. And in fact, I didn’t wanna go back to school the next day.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I remember going to school the first day being very excited because everybody said school was fun. All the kids there were Chinese Cantonese speakers; very few had English skills,” Chew said. “But then, the first thing that came out of the teacher’s mouth was English, and we were freaking out. And in fact, I didn’t wanna go back to school the next day.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chew said that by the time she was in the third grade, the language barriers evolved into a source of shame.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Chew said that by the time she was in the third grade, the language barriers evolved into a source of shame.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The teachers did a very good job of downgrading our native language at school,” she said, reflecting on recess time in the schoolyard. “We’d be playing and speaking in Cantonese to each other, and they’d ring the bell and say, ‘You’re in American school now, speak English!”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The teachers did a very good job of downgrading our native language at school,” she said, reflecting on recess time in the schoolyard. “We’d be playing and speaking in Cantonese to each other, and they’d ring the bell and say, ‘You’re in American school now, speak English!”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until Chew became a student activist during college in the 1960s that she began to reclaim her cultural identity. She also discovered how to best help her community: by teaching and advocating for multilingual Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until Chew became a student activist during college in the 1960s that she began to reclaim her cultural identity. She also discovered how to best help her community: by teaching and advocating for multilingual Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Bilingual ed is not only about language … It’s about identity so that you can feel that you’re worthy,” Chew said. “It’s about keeping a positive sense of who I am to help me express my voice in this country without feeling inferior.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Bilingual ed is not only about language … It’s about identity so that you can feel that you’re worthy,” Chew said. “It’s about keeping a positive sense of who I am to help me express my voice in this country without feeling inferior.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106630\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Chinese community has played an important role in advancing bilingual education in San Francisco and across the country. The foundations of that advocacy trace back to the 19th-century Exclusion era when early Chinese immigrants fought for the most basic of education rights, like access to public schools. As they did in other arenas, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">birthright citizenship\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">due process and equal protection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096279/chinese-immigrants-led-the-first-mass-resistance-to-americas-deportation-system\">the right to remain in the country\u003c/a>, Chinese immigrants leveraged the legal system and the resources afforded by a highly organized San Francisco Chinatown network to make their case for equal education. Their efforts have helped expand the protections available to immigrant families and their children.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Chinese community has played an important role in advancing bilingual education in San Francisco and across the country. The foundations of that advocacy trace back to the 19th-century Exclusion era when early Chinese immigrants fought for the most basic of education rights, like access to public schools. As they did in other arenas, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">birthright citizenship\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">due process and equal protection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096279/chinese-immigrants-led-the-first-mass-resistance-to-americas-deportation-system\">the right to remain in the country\u003c/a>, Chinese immigrants leveraged the legal system and the resources afforded by a highly organized San Francisco Chinatown network to make their case for equal education. Their efforts have helped expand the protections available to immigrant families and their children.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, Chinese Americans and immigrants continue to grapple with questions of belonging, identity and equity in education. But as the Chinese population has changed over the generations, so too have the terms of their activism. The education debates within the community have become increasingly complex — and sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">deeply divisive\u003c/a> — yet a throughline persists: a continuing negotiation over what meaningful inclusion looks like, and who gets to define it. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Today, Chinese Americans and immigrants continue to grapple with questions of belonging, identity and equity in education. But as the Chinese population has changed over the generations, so too have the terms of their activism. The education debates within the community have become increasingly complex — and sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">deeply divisive\u003c/a> — yet a throughline persists: a continuing negotiation over what meaningful inclusion looks like, and who gets to define it. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Education organizing remains an important way for Chinese community members to assert their place in American society, and to claim a stake in its future. And people like Chew say it’s especially critical now as the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are impacting things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096573/under-proposed-trump-rule-head-start-would-be-english-only\">language rights\u003c/a> for student English learners. She said by fighting for bilingual education, she can help to protect and nurture a multiracial democracy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Education organizing remains an important way for Chinese community members to assert their place in American society, and to claim a stake in its future. And people like Chew say it’s especially critical now as the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are impacting things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096573/under-proposed-trump-rule-head-start-would-be-english-only\">language rights\u003c/a> for student English learners. She said by fighting for bilingual education, she can help to protect and nurture a multiracial democracy.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants in San Francisco began fighting in the 1850s for access to education. The concept of public education — universally available, state-funded and free — gained traction in the 1830s, and one of its stated goals was to prepare young people to be capable voters who could safeguard American democracy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrants in San Francisco began fighting in the 1850s for access to education. The concept of public education — universally available, state-funded and free — gained traction in the 1830s, and one of its stated goals was to prepare young people to be capable voters who could safeguard American democracy. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That principle helps explain why public education has remained a contentious issue when it comes to immigrants, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor and immigration law scholar at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That principle helps explain why public education has remained a contentious issue when it comes to immigrants, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor and immigration law scholar at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Children become the source of a great hope and the source of a great threat,” Motomura said. “As a threat, I think it’s realizing that if you let kids become citizens or get educated, [there’s] the sense that they’re going to displace you … Education is the key to immigrant integration.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Children become the source of a great hope and the source of a great threat,” Motomura said. “As a threat, I think it’s realizing that if you let kids become citizens or get educated, [there’s] the sense that they’re going to displace you … Education is the key to immigrant integration.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg 1338w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778-160x131.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A portrait of Chinese Primary School students in 1890. As noted in historian Mae Ngai’s book “The Lucky Ones,” Mamie Tape is the girl sitting in the center of the second row. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106752\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A portrait of Chinese Primary School students in 1890. As noted in historian Mae Ngai’s book “The Lucky Ones,” Mamie Tape is the girl sitting in the center of the second row. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 19th-century San Francisco, access to public education was largely reserved for white children. Although California law eventually required public schools to admit all children, Black, Asian and American Indian students were segregated from their white peers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 19th-century San Francisco, access to public education was largely reserved for white children. Although California law eventually required public schools to admit all children, Black, Asian and American Indian students were segregated from their white peers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1871, as animosity and violence against the Chinese community \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10429550/boomtown-history-2b\">intensified in San Francisco\u003c/a>, Chinese children were banned from even segregated public schools. Throughout the next decade, both the San Francisco school board and the state legislature ignored petitions by thousands of Chinese residents for admission to public schools. That is until one Chinese family in particular spoke up: the Tape family.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1871, as animosity and violence against the Chinese community \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10429550/boomtown-history-2b\">intensified in San Francisco\u003c/a>, Chinese children were banned from even segregated public schools. Throughout the next decade, both the San Francisco school board and the state legislature ignored petitions by thousands of Chinese residents for admission to public schools. That is until one Chinese family in particular spoke up: the Tape family.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By the 1880s, an estimated 1,000 Chinese school-age children were living in the city, and most of them were American-born, including 8-year-old Mamie Tape. Her parents, Joseph and Mary Tape, were atypical Chinese immigrants: they were Americanized, spoke excellent English, adopted Western-style manners and clothing and lived outside of Chinatown in a white, middle-class neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>By the 1880s, an estimated 1,000 Chinese school-age children were living in the city, and most of them were American-born, including 8-year-old Mamie Tape. Her parents, Joseph and Mary Tape, were atypical Chinese immigrants: they were Americanized, spoke excellent English, adopted Western-style manners and clothing and lived outside of Chinatown in a white, middle-class neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1884, Mamie’s parents attempted to enroll her at the all-white Spring Valley School. But when they arrived, the school’s principal, Jennie Hurley, refused to let her in, citing the district’s policy against admitting Chinese children. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1884, Mamie’s parents attempted to enroll her at the all-white Spring Valley School. But when they arrived, the school’s principal, Jennie Hurley, refused to let her in, citing the district’s policy against admitting Chinese children. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In response, Mamie’s father Joseph waged a legal battle that garnered widespread attention, captivating white and Chinese people alike. There was a lot at stake: would the privileges and benefits of U.S. citizenship be afforded to the American-born children of the much-reviled Chinese immigrant population? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In response, Mamie’s father Joseph waged a legal battle that garnered widespread attention, captivating white and Chinese people alike. There was a lot at stake: would the privileges and benefits of U.S. citizenship be afforded to the American-born children of the much-reviled Chinese immigrant population? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Tapes won their case in San Francisco’s Superior Court, a decision that was upheld in the California Supreme Court in 1885’s historic case \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/1885/66-cal-473.html\">\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The court affirmed that Chinese children born in the U.S. were entitled to public education under the Constitution. However, the school board rushed an act through the state legislature, authorizing segregated schools for Chinese students; Mamie could attend a public school, but only a segregated one for Chinese children. In response, Mamie’s mother Mary wrote a long fiery letter to the school board in a local newspaper.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Tapes won their case in San Francisco’s Superior Court, a decision that was upheld in the California Supreme Court in 1885’s historic case \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/1885/66-cal-473.html\">\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The court affirmed that Chinese children born in the U.S. were entitled to public education under the Constitution. However, the school board rushed an act through the state legislature, authorizing segregated schools for Chinese students; Mamie could attend a public school, but only a segregated one for Chinese children. In response, Mamie’s mother Mary wrote a long fiery letter to the school board in a local newspaper.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? … My children don’t dress like the other Chinese … It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? … My children don’t dress like the other Chinese … It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mary declared that Mamie would not attend any Chinese-only schools, but eventually she and her brother Frank were among the first students to enroll in the Chinese Primary School when it opened. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mary declared that Mamie would not attend any Chinese-only schools, but eventually she and her brother Frank were among the first students to enroll in the Chinese Primary School when it opened. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of \u003cem>The Lucky Ones\u003c/em>, a book about the Tape family, called the ruling a “partial victory.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of \u003cem>The Lucky Ones\u003c/em>, a book about the Tape family, called the ruling a “partial victory.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was an exclusion case, not a segregation case,” she said. “In fact, the Chinese were so excluded that they got promoted to being segregated … they were not even on par with Black people and Native Americans in 19th-century California,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was an exclusion case, not a segregation case,” she said. “In fact, the Chinese were so excluded that they got promoted to being segregated … they were not even on par with Black people and Native Americans in 19th-century California,” she said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ngai believes that the Tape’s argument, that Mamie should be admitted because the family identified with the white population, shouldn’t be seen as an aspirational strategy for the Chinese community today: “I don’t think it’s healthy for us to say people of color are only worthy when they deny their own cultures and languages and heritages,” Ngai said. “[The case] is maybe cautionary … if your idea is to convince the mainstream that you’re just going to be like white people.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ngai believes that the Tape’s argument, that Mamie should be admitted because the family identified with the white population, shouldn’t be seen as an aspirational strategy for the Chinese community today: “I don’t think it’s healthy for us to say people of color are only worthy when they deny their own cultures and languages and heritages,” Ngai said. “[The case] is maybe cautionary … if your idea is to convince the mainstream that you’re just going to be like white people.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was a fundamental case for the country’s earliest immigrants, Ngai said. “Education is a central issue of settlement. ‘We’re here, we’re not citizens, but our children are born here, they are citizens, and we are here to stay.’ That is the message.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was a fundamental case for the country’s earliest immigrants, Ngai said. “Education is a central issue of settlement. ‘We’re here, we’re not citizens, but our children are born here, they are citizens, and we are here to stay.’ That is the message.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "How the Civil Rights era reshaped San Francisco’s classrooms — and the fight for equity",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That tension — between gaining access to American institutions and submitting to cultural erasure — would become more explicit in the decades that followed, especially as the Chinese community fought for bilingual education. There were a series of historical milestones that set the stage for that fight, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That tension — between gaining access to American institutions and submitting to cultural erasure — would become more explicit in the decades that followed, especially as the Chinese community fought for bilingual education. There were a series of historical milestones that set the stage for that fight, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education\">\u003cem>Brown v. Board of Education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, arrivals to the U.S. dramatically shifted with the 1965 \u003ca href=\"https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/Immigration-and-Nationality-Act-of-1965/\">Immigration and Nationality Act\u003c/a>, which eliminated decades-long immigration restrictions from Asian and African countries. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education\">\u003cem>Brown v. Board of Education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, arrivals to the U.S. dramatically shifted with the 1965 \u003ca href=\"https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/Immigration-and-Nationality-Act-of-1965/\">Immigration and Nationality Act\u003c/a>, which eliminated decades-long immigration restrictions from Asian and African countries. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant population surged, and with it, the school district’s Chinese student population. But while school segregation was legally unconstitutional, de facto segregation — driven primarily by redlining and discriminatory housing policies — meant that schools in areas like Chinatown reflected the segregation of the surrounding neighborhoods. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant population surged, and with it, the school district’s Chinese student population. But while school segregation was legally unconstitutional, de facto segregation — driven primarily by redlining and discriminatory housing policies — meant that schools in areas like Chinatown reflected the segregation of the surrounding neighborhoods. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106969\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa-160x102.png 160w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Police arrest Black Student Union member John Cleveland during the student strike at San Francisco State College 1968-69, which resulted in the creation of a College of Ethnic Studies.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco State University Photographic Timeline Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106969\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Police arrest Black Student Union member John Cleveland during the student strike at San Francisco State College 1968-69, which resulted in the creation of a College of Ethnic Studies.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco State University Photographic Timeline Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of immigrant and Chinese-speaking youth emerged, which increased the need for different resources, including language services at schools. Being placed in English-only classrooms meant many Chinese students were effectively excluded from participating in class, and that their academic progress — if any — was significantly slower than their peers’.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of immigrant and Chinese-speaking youth emerged, which increased the need for different resources, including language services at schools. Being placed in English-only classrooms meant many Chinese students were effectively excluded from participating in class, and that their academic progress — if any — was significantly slower than their peers’.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A 1974 California Law Review article describing those challenges said that Chinese students in these learning conditions were “doomed to poor achievement, illiteracy, and disproportionately high dropout rates” and that the isolating environment created psychological harm, making students feel inferior.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A 1974 California Law Review article describing those challenges said that Chinese students in these learning conditions were “doomed to poor achievement, illiteracy, and disproportionately high dropout rates” and that the isolating environment created psychological harm, making students feel inferior.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite the social problems in Chinatown, a new political consciousness was growing. Chew was part of a generation of young Chinese Americans who were returning to the neighborhood after monumental social upheavals.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Despite the social problems in Chinatown, a new political consciousness was growing. Chew was part of a generation of young Chinese Americans who were returning to the neighborhood after monumental social upheavals.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As a student at San Francisco State, she participated in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">1968-69 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes\u003c/a>, the longest student strike in U.S. history, where a coalition of student groups at SF State and UC Berkeley worked in solidarity to achieve their goals, including academic reforms and non-Eurocentric curricula. The term “Asian American” was formed at that time to create a political and organizing pan-ethnic identity, and the strike resulted in the formation of the nation’s first ethnic studies programs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As a student at San Francisco State, she participated in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">1968-69 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes\u003c/a>, the longest student strike in U.S. history, where a coalition of student groups at SF State and UC Berkeley worked in solidarity to achieve their goals, including academic reforms and non-Eurocentric curricula. The term “Asian American” was formed at that time to create a political and organizing pan-ethnic identity, and the strike resulted in the formation of the nation’s first ethnic studies programs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Up until then, Chew’s educational experience had left her feeling angry and invisible, but she said that joining the historic student movement was pivotal and “opened up a whole new world for me.” Working alongside Black, Chicano, Filipino, Native American and other student organizers, and questioning institutional power together, she learned to not only reembrace her community — she became motivated to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Up until then, Chew’s educational experience had left her feeling angry and invisible, but she said that joining the historic student movement was pivotal and “opened up a whole new world for me.” Working alongside Black, Chicano, Filipino, Native American and other student organizers, and questioning institutional power together, she learned to not only reembrace her community — she became motivated to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106629\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg 1478w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew taught second graders at Commodore Stockton during the 1970s. She said her roots in San Francisco Chinatown inspired her advocacy for Chinese English learner students.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106629\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew taught second graders at Commodore Stockton during the 1970s. She said her roots in San Francisco Chinatown inspired her advocacy for Chinese English learner students.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I was so entrenched in the strike, but the strike wasn’t just about the strike,” Chew said. “That involvement made me think about [getting involved] in my community, in my context of being a Chinese American.” She wanted to help Chinese immigrant students embrace their language and cultural identity — an experience that she didn’t have growing up. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I was so entrenched in the strike, but the strike wasn’t just about the strike,” Chew said. “That involvement made me think about [getting involved] in my community, in my context of being a Chinese American.” She wanted to help Chinese immigrant students embrace their language and cultural identity — an experience that she didn’t have growing up. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After graduating in 1972 and enlisting in the National Teacher Corps, Chew began teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary. The building, which was once the segregated school for Chinese students that Mamie Tape attended, was now the site of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual program, made possible by the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>After graduating in 1972 and enlisting in the National Teacher Corps, Chew began teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary. The building, which was once the segregated school for Chinese students that Mamie Tape attended, was now the site of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual program, made possible by the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chew said it was a unique time to join the school because, in addition to the pilot bilingual program, the district had just implemented \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/facing-our-past-changing-our-future-part-ii-five-decades-desegregation-sfusd-1971-today\">busing\u003c/a> to integrate the city’s elementary schools following \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/339/1315/1460757/\">\u003cem>Johnson v. SFUSD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Black families sued the district over school segregation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Chew said it was a unique time to join the school because, in addition to the pilot bilingual program, the district had just implemented \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/facing-our-past-changing-our-future-part-ii-five-decades-desegregation-sfusd-1971-today\">busing\u003c/a> to integrate the city’s elementary schools following \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/339/1315/1460757/\">\u003cem>Johnson v. SFUSD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Black families sued the district over school segregation. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106877\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew holds a film slide showing a teaching event she attended in the past, in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106877\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew holds a film slide showing a teaching event she attended in the past, in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrant parents largely opposed the court-ordered school busing program. One of their chief concerns was that it would scatter their children away from critical language resources at their neighborhood schools, like Commodore Stockton.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Chinese immigrant parents largely opposed the court-ordered school busing program. One of their chief concerns was that it would scatter their children away from critical language resources at their neighborhood schools, like Commodore Stockton.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Chew, who spent six years teaching second graders at Commodore, the overlap of bilingual teaching and the busing effort proved to be challenging yet exciting. While there were racial frictions between the kids from Chinatown and the Black students bussed in from Bayview-Hunter’s Point, she saw the benefits of bilingual education beyond language itself. As students learned English and Chinese together, it bridged the differences between them. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For Chew, who spent six years teaching second graders at Commodore, the overlap of bilingual teaching and the busing effort proved to be challenging yet exciting. While there were racial frictions between the kids from Chinatown and the Black students bussed in from Bayview-Hunter’s Point, she saw the benefits of bilingual education beyond language itself. As students learned English and Chinese together, it bridged the differences between them. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I came from a different frame because of the [TWLF] strikes,” she said. “I was able to try a lot of different things during that time in terms of building humanity in a classroom and then more importantly, building community.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I came from a different frame because of the [TWLF] strikes,” she said. “I was able to try a lot of different things during that time in terms of building humanity in a classroom and then more importantly, building community.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The case for bilingual education: a new kind of grassroots movement in Chinatown",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The case for bilingual education: a new kind of grassroots movement in Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The case for bilingual education: a new kind of grassroots movement in Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Even as the pilot bilingual program at Commodore Stockton took shape, there still weren’t adequate linguistic resources for all Chinese students in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Even as the pilot bilingual program at Commodore Stockton took shape, there still weren’t adequate linguistic resources for all Chinese students in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1970, a group of Chinese American students filed a class-action lawsuit against SFUSD arguing an estimated 1,800 Chinese-speaking students were unable to meaningfully participate in their education because they were in English-only classrooms without any language support.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1970, a group of Chinese American students filed a class-action lawsuit against SFUSD arguing an estimated 1,800 Chinese-speaking students were unable to meaningfully participate in their education because they were in English-only classrooms without any language support.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most of the families in the case were low-income Chinese immigrant families who lived in Chinatown single room occupancy buildings. The lead plaintiff was Kinney Kinmon Lau, a Chinese American first grader attending Jean Parker Elementary School. The case was filed with the Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), one of the progressive Asian American civil rights and social services organizations that emerged in the late ’60s and early ’70s.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Most of the families in the case were low-income Chinese immigrant families who lived in Chinatown single room occupancy buildings. The lead plaintiff was Kinney Kinmon Lau, a Chinese American first grader attending Jean Parker Elementary School. The case was filed with the Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), one of the progressive Asian American civil rights and social services organizations that emerged in the late ’60s and early ’70s.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106762\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-160x129.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-1536x1239.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students watching a Chinese New Year program at Jean Parker Elementary School in 1970. The San Francisco school was at the center of the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106762\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students watching a Chinese New Year program at Jean Parker Elementary School in 1970. The San Francisco school was at the center of the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Political power was starting to shift in Chinatown. Since the 1800s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association\u003c/a>, or the Chinese Six Companies — a group of family associations — had been the major player behind the fight for Chinese immigrant rights. The case for bilingual education demonstrated a new kind of grassroots resistance, one that was younger, multiracial, intersectional and based in self-determination. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Political power was starting to shift in Chinatown. Since the 1800s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association\u003c/a>, or the Chinese Six Companies — a group of family associations — had been the major player behind the fight for Chinese immigrant rights. The case for bilingual education demonstrated a new kind of grassroots resistance, one that was younger, multiracial, intersectional and based in self-determination. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They’re younger activists who are able to connect what they’re seeing in Chinatown to the broader civil rights movement,” CAA’s current co-Executive Director Vincent Pan said. “That’s the difference. And they’re marrying that with parents who do have a very important interest in seeing their kids get a better education.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They’re younger activists who are able to connect what they’re seeing in Chinatown to the broader civil rights movement,” CAA’s current co-Executive Director Vincent Pan said. “That’s the difference. And they’re marrying that with parents who do have a very important interest in seeing their kids get a better education.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Trish Morita-Mullaney, author of the book \u003cem>Lau v. Nichols and Chinese American Language Rights,\u003c/em> called the \u003cem>\u003c/em>case an “emergency response” to what was happening in the community and indicative of the growing language rights movement across the country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Trish Morita-Mullaney, author of the book \u003cem>Lau v. Nichols and Chinese American Language Rights,\u003c/em> called the \u003cem>\u003c/em>case an “emergency response” to what was happening in the community and indicative of the growing language rights movement across the country.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There was precedent set within the Latino community … [and here], the thinking around language rights is that ‘I really want my kid to have access to the instruction and because my kids are not proficient, we need differentiation of instruction, and Cantonese should be one of those options.’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“There was precedent set within the Latino community … [and here], the thinking around language rights is that ‘I really want my kid to have access to the instruction and because my kids are not proficient, we need differentiation of instruction, and Cantonese should be one of those options.’” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The District Court ruled in favor of SFUSD, stating that there was no constitutional responsibility to provide special language programs, a decision later upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that SFUSD’s “English-only” policy denied them equal protection. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The District Court ruled in favor of SFUSD, stating that there was no constitutional responsibility to provide special language programs, a decision later upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that SFUSD’s “English-only” policy denied them equal protection. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chinese plaintiffs, deciding that not providing non-English-speaking students with supplemental language courses was a violation of several legal precedents, namely the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act\">Civil Rights Act of 1964\u003c/a>, delivering a victory for bilingual instruction. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chinese plaintiffs, deciding that not providing non-English-speaking students with supplemental language courses was a violation of several legal precedents, namely the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act\">Civil Rights Act of 1964\u003c/a>, delivering a victory for bilingual instruction. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision set a national precedent that education needed to be responsive to the different language needs and identities of students, Morita-Mullaney said. While the Court didn’t specify the steps school districts needed to take, it mandated supplemental instruction for English language learners. SFUSD took the bilingual education route, entering into a federal legal agreement, called the Lau Consent Decree, which legally bound the district to provide specialized language instruction and equal educational access to all non-English-speaking students.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision set a national precedent that education needed to be responsive to the different language needs and identities of students, Morita-Mullaney said. While the Court didn’t specify the steps school districts needed to take, it mandated supplemental instruction for English language learners. SFUSD took the bilingual education route, entering into a federal legal agreement, called the Lau Consent Decree, which legally bound the district to provide specialized language instruction and equal educational access to all non-English-speaking students.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Pan sees the \u003cem>Lau victory\u003c/em> as part of the struggle for Chinese Americans and immigrants to participate fully in American society that \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> began nearly 90 years earlier. While \u003cem>Tape\u003c/em> was a fight for the Chinese people to be “seen as humans,” Pan said \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> took it a step further “to get at the issue of ‘you’re human even if you don’t speak English well.’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Pan sees the \u003cem>Lau victory\u003c/em> as part of the struggle for Chinese Americans and immigrants to participate fully in American society that \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> began nearly 90 years earlier. While \u003cem>Tape\u003c/em> was a fight for the Chinese people to be “seen as humans,” Pan said \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> took it a step further “to get at the issue of ‘you’re human even if you don’t speak English well.’” \u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
"text": "What does fair and equitable public education mean now?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does fair and equitable public education mean now?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On a recent evening at the Southeast Community Center in Bayview-Hunters Point, six candidates running for San Francisco’s District 10 supervisor’s seat addressed a room full of students and families. CAA was co-hosting the event, and managing director of policy Annie Lee posed questions to the candidates. One by one, they each weighed in on a wide range of community issues, including Flock cameras and mental health services inside schools. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On a recent evening at the Southeast Community Center in Bayview-Hunters Point, six candidates running for San Francisco’s District 10 supervisor’s seat addressed a room full of students and families. CAA was co-hosting the event, and managing director of policy Annie Lee posed questions to the candidates. One by one, they each weighed in on a wide range of community issues, including Flock cameras and mental health services inside schools. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the district is a historically Black community, \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/79500US0607507-san-francisco-county-south-central-bayview-hunters-point-puma-ca/\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its population is Asian, and more than 60% of the residents speak a language that isn’t English at home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/chinese-americans-san-francisco-neighborhoods-22458761.php\">Recent reporting\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the Chinese population grew by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2024. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While the district is a historically Black community, \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/79500US0607507-san-francisco-county-south-central-bayview-hunters-point-puma-ca/\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its population is Asian, and more than 60% of the residents speak a language that isn’t English at home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/chinese-americans-san-francisco-neighborhoods-22458761.php\">Recent reporting\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the Chinese population grew by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2024. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-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\">District 10 Supervisor candidate J.R. Eppler speaks during a youth-led candidate forum at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102814\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">District 10 Supervisor candidate J.R. Eppler speaks during a youth-led candidate forum at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Among the crowd that evening were a few Chinese parents who wore headsets, as interpreters on the sidelines translated the conversation into Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Among the crowd that evening were a few Chinese parents who wore headsets, as interpreters on the sidelines translated the conversation into Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of them was 43-year-old Christina Ouyang, a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter who works part-time doing community outreach with CAA.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I came here to learn more about the programming and opportunities available to children in the school district,” Ouyang said in Cantonese, sharing that she was most concerned about the safety and well-being of her daughter, who had faced bullying at her school.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of them was 43-year-old Christina Ouyang, a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter who works part-time doing community outreach with CAA.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I came here to learn more about the programming and opportunities available to children in the school district,” Ouyang said in Cantonese, sharing that she was most concerned about the safety and well-being of her daughter, who had faced bullying at her school.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the D10 candidates didn’t address that specific issue, the attendance of Chinese parents at events like these demonstrates that despite the language barriers, education remains a central way that they engage in the larger community. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While the D10 candidates didn’t address that specific issue, the attendance of Chinese parents at events like these demonstrates that despite the language barriers, education remains a central way that they engage in the larger community. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106818\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christina Ouyang attends a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. Ouyang is a parent in the district and attended the forum to gather more information that might help her child.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102818\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Interpreter Gladys Chiu holds a script while translating English into Chinese during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of work that CAA remains dedicated to today, and Pan sees it as a continuation of the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> case’s legacy. In the past, they’ve helped immigrant parents have a say in their children’s education, including with efforts like helping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11680868/voter-registration-for-non-citizens-begins-in-s-f-school-board-election\">noncitizens vote in school board elections\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s the kind of work that CAA remains dedicated to today, and Pan sees it as a continuation of the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> case’s legacy. In the past, they’ve helped immigrant parents have a say in their children’s education, including with efforts like helping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11680868/voter-registration-for-non-citizens-begins-in-s-f-school-board-election\">noncitizens vote in school board elections\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Who doesn’t want parents to be involved? … It’ll make the schools better for everyone, but because of all the rhetoric against immigrants, you can see that’s being demonized right now,” Pan said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Who doesn’t want parents to be involved? … It’ll make the schools better for everyone, but because of all the rhetoric against immigrants, you can see that’s being demonized right now,” Pan said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Education — often positioned as a gateway to American society — has become a contentious, hot-button issue for the Asian American community, especially around the recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action\u003c/a>, and the threats to ethnic studies. CAA often finds itself confronting divisions within the community, Pan said. Many Asian Americans were vocal and proactive in helping dismantle affirmative action, while others have called for the end of ethnic studies curriculum, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091955/lowell-high-school-group-sues-sfusd-over-newly-adopted-ethnic-studies-curriculum\">including recently at Lowell High School in San Francisco\u003c/a>. He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Education — often positioned as a gateway to American society — has become a contentious, hot-button issue for the Asian American community, especially around the recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action\u003c/a>, and the threats to ethnic studies. CAA often finds itself confronting divisions within the community, Pan said. Many Asian Americans were vocal and proactive in helping dismantle affirmative action, while others have called for the end of ethnic studies curriculum, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091955/lowell-high-school-group-sues-sfusd-over-newly-adopted-ethnic-studies-curriculum\">including recently at Lowell High School in San Francisco\u003c/a>. He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-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\">Ivy Zhou listens to a Chinese interpretation through an earpiece as Laura Quan translates behind her during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102817\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ivy Zhou listens to a Chinese interpretation through an earpiece as Laura Quan translates behind her during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, when the stakes are high, people can get emotional. What we really also need to do is to be able to think clear-headed about what the effective public policies might be,” Pan said. “The more viable common sense practical path is to actually expand opportunity as opposed to fight for limited seats in a system that makes high quality education very scarce.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, when the stakes are high, people can get emotional. What we really also need to do is to be able to think clear-headed about what the effective public policies might be,” Pan said. “The more viable common sense practical path is to actually expand opportunity as opposed to fight for limited seats in a system that makes high quality education very scarce.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the second-term Trump administration has done the opposite of expanding opportunities for English learners. In addition to weakening federal civil rights oversight of language access and terminating grants and support for English-learner programs, President Trump signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/\">an executive order\u003c/a> last year, declaring English as the nation’s only official language. The order states: “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But the second-term Trump administration has done the opposite of expanding opportunities for English learners. In addition to weakening federal civil rights oversight of language access and terminating grants and support for English-learner programs, President Trump signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/\">an executive order\u003c/a> last year, declaring English as the nation’s only official language. The order states: “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s a sentiment that flies in the face of everything Laureen Chew feels about the power of bilingual education to help “newcomers” engage in their broader communities.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s a sentiment that flies in the face of everything Laureen Chew feels about the power of bilingual education to help “newcomers” engage in their broader communities.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, she’s working with the CAA and The Association of Chinese Teachers (another advocacy organization founded in the 1960s) to reactivate the bilingual teacher training track at SF State, to ensure there are teachers to help replace the generation of Cantonese bilingual teachers who are retiring. While there have been some heritage language preservation efforts in the city, like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953666/city-college-of-san-francisco-withdraws-previously-approved-cantonese-program\">Save Cantonese\u003c/a>,” Chew said there’s still a need to provide bilingual language resources to the city’s most vulnerable Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Today, she’s working with the CAA and The Association of Chinese Teachers (another advocacy organization founded in the 1960s) to reactivate the bilingual teacher training track at SF State, to ensure there are teachers to help replace the generation of Cantonese bilingual teachers who are retiring. While there have been some heritage language preservation efforts in the city, like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953666/city-college-of-san-francisco-withdraws-previously-approved-cantonese-program\">Save Cantonese\u003c/a>,” Chew said there’s still a need to provide bilingual language resources to the city’s most vulnerable Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bilingual education is also under pressure as districts like SFUSD face low enrollment numbers, less state funding and an emphasis on test scores.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2019 — 45 years after the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision — SFUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2019-07-01-lau-consent-decree-sunsets-sfusd\">sunsetted\u003c/a> the Lau Consent Decree, relieving the district of the federal mandate to provide services for English language learners. Officials declared that the district remained committed to supporting students, even without the oversight. But Morita-Mullaney said many have expressed concerns. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2019 — 45 years after the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision — SFUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2019-07-01-lau-consent-decree-sunsets-sfusd\">sunsetted\u003c/a> the Lau Consent Decree, relieving the district of the federal mandate to provide services for English language learners. Officials declared that the district remained committed to supporting students, even without the oversight. But Morita-Mullaney said many have expressed concerns. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106633\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106633\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of people I’ve talked to in Chinatown that are not happy about that because it was done very quietly.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She explained that as more Chinese Americans become English-dominant, some teachers may adopt the same expectations and norms that prioritize English proficiency, weakening support for accountability measures that were designed to protect English learners. That’s why remembering the legacy of fights like Lau v. Nichols helps place bilingual education’s importance into context, Morita-Mullaney said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She explained that as more Chinese Americans become English-dominant, some teachers may adopt the same expectations and norms that prioritize English proficiency, weakening support for accountability measures that were designed to protect English learners. That’s why remembering the legacy of fights like Lau v. Nichols helps place bilingual education’s importance into context, Morita-Mullaney said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What Lau does for us is it says go back to the people. We are talking about the humanity of language learners, and what is their rightful case for language access. And so it is about the curriculum, it is about progress … but the beneficiaries are the students, and you don’t see that foregrounded in policy in the same way.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“What Lau does for us is it says go back to the people. We are talking about the humanity of language learners, and what is their rightful case for language access. And so it is about the curriculum, it is about progress … but the beneficiaries are the students, and you don’t see that foregrounded in policy in the same way.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Chew, the attacks on immigrants can be disheartening. But as she approaches 80, she remains committed to the work, drawing on the lessons of a life spent challenging who gets to belong: from her childhood as a Chinese student taught to reject her native language to her work as one of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual teachers. Each step has shaped her conviction that education should make room for everyone. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For Chew, the attacks on immigrants can be disheartening. But as she approaches 80, she remains committed to the work, drawing on the lessons of a life spent challenging who gets to belong: from her childhood as a Chinese student taught to reject her native language to her work as one of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual teachers. Each step has shaped her conviction that education should make room for everyone. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I embrace this country for what it aspires to be … No matter how strange everything is nowadays, I still believe in [its] foundation, even though [the founders] were all flawed. Isn’t that interesting?” she said, with a laugh. “And yet, they had this idealistic version of what a country can be, and we’re all still trying to live by it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I embrace this country for what it aspires to be … No matter how strange everything is nowadays, I still believe in [its] foundation, even though [the founders] were all flawed. Isn’t that interesting?” she said, with a laugh. “And yet, they had this idealistic version of what a country can be, and we’re all still trying to live by it.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "For generations, Chinese immigrants and their children have pursued educational equity. Their fights helped redefine what it means to belong in America.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Laureen Chew, 78, still remembers her first day of kindergarten at Washington Irving Elementary School in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. It was the day she began to question her cultural heritage. Growing up in the city’s North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods, Chew only spoke Cantonese. Born and raised in the U.S., Chew was raised primarily by her Chinese immigrant mother, who couldn’t speak English, and her world — up until then — was a tight-knit community of other Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I remember going to school the first day being very excited because everybody said school was fun. All the kids there were Chinese Cantonese speakers; very few had English skills,” Chew said. “But then, the first thing that came out of the teacher’s mouth was English, and we were freaking out. And in fact, I didn’t wanna go back to school the next day.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chew said that by the time she was in the third grade, the language barriers evolved into a source of shame.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The teachers did a very good job of downgrading our native language at school,” she said, reflecting on recess time in the schoolyard. “We’d be playing and speaking in Cantonese to each other, and they’d ring the bell and say, ‘You’re in American school now, speak English!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn’t until Chew became a student activist during college in the 1960s that she began to reclaim her cultural identity. She also discovered how to best help her community: by teaching and advocating for multilingual Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Bilingual ed is not only about language … It’s about identity so that you can feel that you’re worthy,” Chew said. “It’s about keeping a positive sense of who I am to help me express my voice in this country without feeling inferior.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-06-MC-KQED-18f00d22-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chinese community has played an important role in advancing bilingual education in San Francisco and across the country. The foundations of that advocacy trace back to the 19th-century Exclusion era when early Chinese immigrants fought for the most basic of education rights, like access to public schools. As they did in other arenas, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12088125/as-america-turns-250-san-franciscos-role-in-defining-citizenship-endures\">birthright citizenship\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">due process and equal protection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096279/chinese-immigrants-led-the-first-mass-resistance-to-americas-deportation-system\">the right to remain in the country\u003c/a>, Chinese immigrants leveraged the legal system and the resources afforded by a highly organized San Francisco Chinatown network to make their case for equal education. Their efforts have helped expand the protections available to immigrant families and their children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, Chinese Americans and immigrants continue to grapple with questions of belonging, identity and equity in education. But as the Chinese population has changed over the generations, so too have the terms of their activism. The education debates within the community have become increasingly complex — and sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">deeply divisive\u003c/a> — yet a throughline persists: a continuing negotiation over what meaningful inclusion looks like, and who gets to define it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Education organizing remains an important way for Chinese community members to assert their place in American society, and to claim a stake in its future. And people like Chew say it’s especially critical now as the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are impacting things like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12096573/under-proposed-trump-rule-head-start-would-be-english-only\">language rights\u003c/a> for student English learners. She said by fighting for bilingual education, she can help to protect and nurture a multiracial democracy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before bilingual education, the fight for a seat in the classroom\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chinese immigrants in San Francisco began fighting in the 1850s for access to education. The concept of public education — universally available, state-funded and free — gained traction in the 1830s, and one of its stated goals was to prepare young people to be capable voters who could safeguard American democracy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That principle helps explain why public education has remained a contentious issue when it comes to immigrants, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor and immigration law scholar at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Children become the source of a great hope and the source of a great threat,” Motomura said. “As a threat, I think it’s realizing that if you let kids become citizens or get educated, [there’s] the sense that they’re going to displace you … Education is the key to immigrant integration.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1338\" height=\"1099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106752\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778.jpg 1338w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-02-KQED-45e99778-160x131.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1338px) 100vw, 1338px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A portrait of Chinese Primary School students in 1890. As noted in historian Mae Ngai’s book “The Lucky Ones,” Mamie Tape is the girl sitting in the center of the second row. (Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 19th-century San Francisco, access to public education was largely reserved for white children. Although California law eventually required public schools to admit all children, Black, Asian and American Indian students were segregated from their white peers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1871, as animosity and violence against the Chinese community \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10429550/boomtown-history-2b\">intensified in San Francisco\u003c/a>, Chinese children were banned from even segregated public schools. Throughout the next decade, both the San Francisco school board and the state legislature ignored petitions by thousands of Chinese residents for admission to public schools. That is until one Chinese family in particular spoke up: the Tape family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the 1880s, an estimated 1,000 Chinese school-age children were living in the city, and most of them were American-born, including 8-year-old Mamie Tape. Her parents, Joseph and Mary Tape, were atypical Chinese immigrants: they were Americanized, spoke excellent English, adopted Western-style manners and clothing and lived outside of Chinatown in a white, middle-class neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1884, Mamie’s parents attempted to enroll her at the all-white Spring Valley School. But when they arrived, the school’s principal, Jennie Hurley, refused to let her in, citing the district’s policy against admitting Chinese children. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, Mamie’s father Joseph waged a legal battle that garnered widespread attention, captivating white and Chinese people alike. There was a lot at stake: would the privileges and benefits of U.S. citizenship be afforded to the American-born children of the much-reviled Chinese immigrant population? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eventually, the Tapes won their case in San Francisco’s Superior Court, a decision that was upheld in the California Supreme Court in 1885’s historic case \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/1885/66-cal-473.html\">\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The court affirmed that Chinese children born in the U.S. were entitled to public education under the Constitution. However, the school board rushed an act through the state legislature, authorizing segregated schools for Chinese students; Mamie could attend a public school, but only a segregated one for Chinese children. In response, Mamie’s mother Mary wrote a long fiery letter to the school board in a local newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? … My children don’t dress like the other Chinese … It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary declared that Mamie would not attend any Chinese-only schools, but eventually she and her brother Frank were among the first students to enroll in the Chinese Primary School when it opened. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of \u003cem>The Lucky Ones\u003c/em>, a book about the Tape family, called the ruling a “partial victory.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“\u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was an exclusion case, not a segregation case,” she said. “In fact, the Chinese were so excluded that they got promoted to being segregated … they were not even on par with Black people and Native Americans in 19th-century California,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ngai believes that the Tape’s argument, that Mamie should be admitted because the family identified with the white population, shouldn’t be seen as an aspirational strategy for the Chinese community today: “I don’t think it’s healthy for us to say people of color are only worthy when they deny their own cultures and languages and heritages,” Ngai said. “[The case] is maybe cautionary … if your idea is to convince the mainstream that you’re just going to be like white people.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nevertheless, \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> was a fundamental case for the country’s earliest immigrants, Ngai said. “Education is a central issue of settlement. ‘We’re here, we’re not citizens, but our children are born here, they are citizens, and we are here to stay.’ That is the message.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How the Civil Rights era reshaped San Francisco’s classrooms — and the fight for equity\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That tension — between gaining access to American institutions and submitting to cultural erasure — would become more explicit in the decades that followed, especially as the Chinese community fought for bilingual education. There were a series of historical milestones that set the stage for that fight, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education\">\u003cem>Brown v. Board of Education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, arrivals to the U.S. dramatically shifted with the 1965 \u003ca href=\"https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/Immigration-and-Nationality-Act-of-1965/\">Immigration and Nationality Act\u003c/a>, which eliminated decades-long immigration restrictions from Asian and African countries. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Francisco’s Chinese immigrant population surged, and with it, the school district’s Chinese student population. But while school segregation was legally unconstitutional, de facto segregation — driven primarily by redlining and discriminatory housing policies — meant that schools in areas like Chinatown reflected the segregation of the surrounding neighborhoods. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106969\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa.png 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/1495678.750x-f09c70aa-160x102.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Police arrest Black Student Union member John Cleveland during the student strike at San Francisco State College 1968-69, which resulted in the creation of a College of Ethnic Studies. (Courtesy of San Francisco State University Photographic Timeline Project)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new generation of immigrant and Chinese-speaking youth emerged, which increased the need for different resources, including language services at schools. Being placed in English-only classrooms meant many Chinese students were effectively excluded from participating in class, and that their academic progress — if any — was significantly slower than their peers’.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 1974 California Law Review article describing those challenges said that Chinese students in these learning conditions were “doomed to poor achievement, illiteracy, and disproportionately high dropout rates” and that the isolating environment created psychological harm, making students feel inferior.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the social problems in Chinatown, a new political consciousness was growing. Chew was part of a generation of young Chinese Americans who were returning to the neighborhood after monumental social upheavals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a student at San Francisco State, she participated in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">1968-69 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Strikes\u003c/a>, the longest student strike in U.S. history, where a coalition of student groups at SF State and UC Berkeley worked in solidarity to achieve their goals, including academic reforms and non-Eurocentric curricula. The term “Asian American” was formed at that time to create a political and organizing pan-ethnic identity, and the strike resulted in the formation of the nation’s first ethnic studies programs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Up until then, Chew’s educational experience had left her feeling angry and invisible, but she said that joining the historic student movement was pivotal and “opened up a whole new world for me.” Working alongside Black, Chicano, Filipino, Native American and other student organizers, and questioning institutional power together, she learned to not only reembrace her community — she became motivated to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1478\" height=\"986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106629\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce.jpg 1478w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-03-MC-KQED-1ce735ce-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1478px) 100vw, 1478px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew taught second graders at Commodore Stockton during the 1970s. She said her roots in San Francisco Chinatown inspired her advocacy for Chinese English learner students. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I was so entrenched in the strike, but the strike wasn’t just about the strike,” Chew said. “That involvement made me think about [getting involved] in my community, in my context of being a Chinese American.” She wanted to help Chinese immigrant students embrace their language and cultural identity — an experience that she didn’t have growing up. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After graduating in 1972 and enlisting in the National Teacher Corps, Chew began teaching at Commodore Stockton Elementary. The building, which was once the segregated school for Chinese students that Mamie Tape attended, was now the site of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual program, made possible by the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chew said it was a unique time to join the school because, in addition to the pilot bilingual program, the district had just implemented \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/facing-our-past-changing-our-future-part-ii-five-decades-desegregation-sfusd-1971-today\">busing\u003c/a> to integrate the city’s elementary schools following \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/339/1315/1460757/\">\u003cem>Johnson v. SFUSD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, in which Black families sued the district over school segregation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106877\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-01-MC_qed-2456ef2f-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew holds a film slide showing a teaching event she attended in the past, in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chinese immigrant parents largely opposed the court-ordered school busing program. One of their chief concerns was that it would scatter their children away from critical language resources at their neighborhood schools, like Commodore Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Chew, who spent six years teaching second graders at Commodore, the overlap of bilingual teaching and the busing effort proved to be challenging yet exciting. While there were racial frictions between the kids from Chinatown and the Black students bussed in from Bayview-Hunter’s Point, she saw the benefits of bilingual education beyond language itself. As students learned English and Chinese together, it bridged the differences between them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I came from a different frame because of the [TWLF] strikes,” she said. “I was able to try a lot of different things during that time in terms of building humanity in a classroom and then more importantly, building community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The case for bilingual education: a new kind of grassroots movement in Chinatown\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even as the pilot bilingual program at Commodore Stockton took shape, there still weren’t adequate linguistic resources for all Chinese students in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1970, a group of Chinese American students filed a class-action lawsuit against SFUSD arguing an estimated 1,800 Chinese-speaking students were unable to meaningfully participate in their education because they were in English-only classrooms without any language support.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the families in the case were low-income Chinese immigrant families who lived in Chinatown single room occupancy buildings. The lead plaintiff was Kinney Kinmon Lau, a Chinese American first grader attending Jean Parker Elementary School. The case was filed with the Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), one of the progressive Asian American civil rights and social services organizations that emerged in the late ’60s and early ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1613\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106762\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-160x129.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261027-Fight-For-Education-and-Belonging-03-KQED-9a45685c-1536x1239.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students watching a Chinese New Year program at Jean Parker Elementary School in 1970. The San Francisco school was at the center of the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols. (Courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Political power was starting to shift in Chinatown. Since the 1800s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050233/how-a-chinese-laundryman-shaped-us-civil-rights-from-san-francisco\">Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association\u003c/a>, or the Chinese Six Companies — a group of family associations — had been the major player behind the fight for Chinese immigrant rights. The case for bilingual education demonstrated a new kind of grassroots resistance, one that was younger, multiracial, intersectional and based in self-determination. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They’re younger activists who are able to connect what they’re seeing in Chinatown to the broader civil rights movement,” CAA’s current co-Executive Director Vincent Pan said. “That’s the difference. And they’re marrying that with parents who do have a very important interest in seeing their kids get a better education.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trish Morita-Mullaney, author of the book \u003cem>Lau v. Nichols and Chinese American Language Rights,\u003c/em> called the \u003cem>\u003c/em>case an “emergency response” to what was happening in the community and indicative of the growing language rights movement across the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There was precedent set within the Latino community … [and here], the thinking around language rights is that ‘I really want my kid to have access to the instruction and because my kids are not proficient, we need differentiation of instruction, and Cantonese should be one of those options.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The District Court ruled in favor of SFUSD, stating that there was no constitutional responsibility to provide special language programs, a decision later upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that SFUSD’s “English-only” policy denied them equal protection. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Chinese plaintiffs, deciding that not providing non-English-speaking students with supplemental language courses was a violation of several legal precedents, namely the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act\">Civil Rights Act of 1964\u003c/a>, delivering a victory for bilingual instruction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision set a national precedent that education needed to be responsive to the different language needs and identities of students, Morita-Mullaney said. While the Court didn’t specify the steps school districts needed to take, it mandated supplemental instruction for English language learners. SFUSD took the bilingual education route, entering into a federal legal agreement, called the Lau Consent Decree, which legally bound the district to provide specialized language instruction and equal educational access to all non-English-speaking students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pan sees the \u003cem>Lau victory\u003c/em> as part of the struggle for Chinese Americans and immigrants to participate fully in American society that \u003cem>Tape v. Hurley\u003c/em> began nearly 90 years earlier. While \u003cem>Tape\u003c/em> was a fight for the Chinese people to be “seen as humans,” Pan said \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> took it a step further “to get at the issue of ‘you’re human even if you don’t speak English well.’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does fair and equitable public education mean now?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a recent evening at the Southeast Community Center in Bayview-Hunters Point, six candidates running for San Francisco’s District 10 supervisor’s seat addressed a room full of students and families. CAA was co-hosting the event, and managing director of policy Annie Lee posed questions to the candidates. One by one, they each weighed in on a wide range of community issues, including Flock cameras and mental health services inside schools. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the district is a historically Black community, \u003ca href=\"https://censusreporter.org/profiles/79500US0607507-san-francisco-county-south-central-bayview-hunters-point-puma-ca/\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its population is Asian, and more than 60% of the residents speak a language that isn’t English at home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/chinese-americans-san-francisco-neighborhoods-22458761.php\">Recent reporting\u003c/a> from \u003cem>The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the Chinese population grew by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2024. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">District 10 Supervisor candidate J.R. Eppler speaks during a youth-led candidate forum at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the crowd that evening were a few Chinese parents who wore headsets, as interpreters on the sidelines translated the conversation into Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of them was 43-year-old Christina Ouyang, a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter who works part-time doing community outreach with CAA.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I came here to learn more about the programming and opportunities available to children in the school district,” Ouyang said in Cantonese, sharing that she was most concerned about the safety and well-being of her daughter, who had faced bullying at her school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the D10 candidates didn’t address that specific issue, the attendance of Chinese parents at events like these demonstrates that despite the language barriers, education remains a central way that they engage in the larger community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12106818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-ChineseEducation-JY-16-KQED-76919386-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christina Ouyang attends a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. Ouyang is a parent in the district and attended the forum to gather more information that might help her child. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102818\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Interpreter Gladys Chiu holds a script while translating English into Chinese during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s the kind of work that CAA remains dedicated to today, and Pan sees it as a continuation of the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> case’s legacy. In the past, they’ve helped immigrant parents have a say in their children’s education, including with efforts like helping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11680868/voter-registration-for-non-citizens-begins-in-s-f-school-board-election\">noncitizens vote in school board elections\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Who doesn’t want parents to be involved? … It’ll make the schools better for everyone, but because of all the rhetoric against immigrants, you can see that’s being demonized right now,” Pan said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Education — often positioned as a gateway to American society — has become a contentious, hot-button issue for the Asian American community, especially around the recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954612/u-s-supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-barring-california-private-universities-from-considering-race-in-admissions\">U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action\u003c/a>, and the threats to ethnic studies. CAA often finds itself confronting divisions within the community, Pan said. Many Asian Americans were vocal and proactive in helping dismantle affirmative action, while others have called for the end of ethnic studies curriculum, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12091955/lowell-high-school-group-sues-sfusd-over-newly-adopted-ethnic-studies-curriculum\">including recently at Lowell High School in San Francisco\u003c/a>. He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He notes these friction points reflect generational and class shifts: while some Chinese families advocate for strict meritocracy as the surest route to advancement, others see those moves as chipping away at the multiracial coalitions that secured rights for vulnerable learners in the first place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102817\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/260930-CHINESEEDUCATION-JY-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ivy Zhou listens to a Chinese interpretation through an earpiece as Laura Quan translates behind her during a youth-led candidate forum for District 10 Supervisor at Southeast Community Center in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 2026. The 3rd Street Youth Center and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) partnered to host the forum for local residents. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Unfortunately, when the stakes are high, people can get emotional. What we really also need to do is to be able to think clear-headed about what the effective public policies might be,” Pan said. “The more viable common sense practical path is to actually expand opportunity as opposed to fight for limited seats in a system that makes high quality education very scarce.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the second-term Trump administration has done the opposite of expanding opportunities for English learners. In addition to weakening federal civil rights oversight of language access and terminating grants and support for English-learner programs, President Trump signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/\">an executive order\u003c/a> last year, declaring English as the nation’s only official language. The order states: “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s a sentiment that flies in the face of everything Laureen Chew feels about the power of bilingual education to help “newcomers” engage in their broader communities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, she’s working with the CAA and The Association of Chinese Teachers (another advocacy organization founded in the 1960s) to reactivate the bilingual teacher training track at SF State, to ensure there are teachers to help replace the generation of Cantonese bilingual teachers who are retiring. While there have been some heritage language preservation efforts in the city, like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953666/city-college-of-san-francisco-withdraws-previously-approved-cantonese-program\">Save Cantonese\u003c/a>,” Chew said there’s still a need to provide bilingual language resources to the city’s most vulnerable Chinese students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bilingual education is also under pressure as districts like SFUSD face low enrollment numbers, less state funding and an emphasis on test scores.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2019 — 45 years after the \u003cem>Lau\u003c/em> decision — SFUSD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2019-07-01-lau-consent-decree-sunsets-sfusd\">sunsetted\u003c/a> the Lau Consent Decree, relieving the district of the federal mandate to provide services for English language learners. Officials declared that the district remained committed to supporting students, even without the oversight. But Morita-Mullaney said many have expressed concerns. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106633\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/101926-TheFightForEducationandBelonging-13-MC-KQED-f516ded8-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Laureen Chew poses for a portrait in her home in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 2026. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There’s a lot of people I’ve talked to in Chinatown that are not happy about that because it was done very quietly.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She explained that as more Chinese Americans become English-dominant, some teachers may adopt the same expectations and norms that prioritize English proficiency, weakening support for accountability measures that were designed to protect English learners. That’s why remembering the legacy of fights like Lau v. Nichols helps place bilingual education’s importance into context, Morita-Mullaney said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“What Lau does for us is it says go back to the people. We are talking about the humanity of language learners, and what is their rightful case for language access. And so it is about the curriculum, it is about progress … but the beneficiaries are the students, and you don’t see that foregrounded in policy in the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Chew, the attacks on immigrants can be disheartening. But as she approaches 80, she remains committed to the work, drawing on the lessons of a life spent challenging who gets to belong: from her childhood as a Chinese student taught to reject her native language to her work as one of San Francisco’s first Cantonese bilingual teachers. Each step has shaped her conviction that education should make room for everyone. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I embrace this country for what it aspires to be … No matter how strange everything is nowadays, I still believe in [its] foundation, even though [the founders] were all flawed. Isn’t that interesting?” she said, with a laugh. “And yet, they had this idealistic version of what a country can be, and we’re all still trying to live by it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Is California’s Proposed Billionaire Tax in Trouble? New Polls Find Bad News",
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"headTitle": "Is California’s Proposed Billionaire Tax in Trouble? New Polls Find Bad News | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A proposal to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106033/the-political-calculus-behind-newsoms-opposition-to-californias-billionaire-tax\">tax California’s billionaires\u003c/a> to fund healthcare is trailing in two public, nonpartisan polls released this week, surveys that also found strong opposition to a separate ballot measure that would require voters to show identification at the polls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-40\">Proposition 40\u003c/a>, which would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the overall wealth of the state’s billionaires, was tracking below the majority needed to pass in polls from both UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California. With days left to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election, IGS found just 8% of likely voters still undecided on the measure, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104645/sf-billionaire-chris-larsen-on-ai-this-is-an-incredibly-dangerous-moment\">billionaires\u003c/a> have spent more than $300 million to defeat. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-39\">Proposition 39\u003c/a>, the voter ID initiative, was also trailing by 20 points in the IGS poll, with just 37% of likely voters saying they were voting yes and 5% undecided. PPIC’s poll found slightly stronger support for the measure, but still had it losing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Support for Proposition 40 appears to be slipping heading into Election Day. Last month’s PPIC poll had a slim majority in favor before the slide this month.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in the IGS poll released this week, half of likely voters said they will vote no on Proposition 40, while 42% said they are voting yes. That’s a shift from last month, when the IGS poll found 42% of voters against the measure and 45% backing it.\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/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A T-shirt with a campaign message is seen before the start of a rally led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026. Sanders is seeking the support of California voters for a November ballot initiative of an emergency tax on billionaires to help the state’s healthcare system. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS Poll, said the No on Proposition 40 side is clearly benefiting from the huge amounts of money being poured into defeating the wealth tax. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“A well-funded no side campaign usually has the advantage over yes campaigns, just because all they have to do is raise doubts,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The poll found Proposition 40 backed by strong majorities of Democrats and voters under 40, and opposed by Republicans and voters over 50. Independents are split.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DiCamillo said the disparity between how younger and older voters view the proposed tax is indicative of a growing split that did not used to exist among the California electorate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The generational divide is growing over time, just because the younger set is having a hard time. They can’t afford a house, they can’t reach the American dream,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Those are the segments that are now migrating to the Democratic socialists…. They really don’t like the disparity in wealth.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fate of the proposed wealth tax will not swing solely on Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both polls also showed close contests in Propositions 41 and 42, measures put on the ballot by billionaires with language that would nullify the tax if they pass with more votes than Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-41\">Proposition 41\u003c/a> would require ongoing audits of state programs that are funded by “special” taxes — those earmarked for a specific purpose. It also would make any new special taxes subject to the state’s existing spending limit. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-42\">Proposition 42\u003c/a> would prohibit new taxes on financial assets — such as stocks — and other personal property, and also prohibit most retroactive taxes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While IGS’s survey showed Propositions 41 and 42 slightly ahead, DiCamillo noted they also found double-digit percentages of likely voters still undecided — and those who have moved since IGS’s September survey have largely turned against the billionaire-backed measures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The no side has gained 11 [points] while the yes side is static,” DiCamillo said of Proposition 42.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Proposition 39, the voter ID measure placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers, has also lost ground since IGS’s poll last month, with the no side gaining 7 percentage points. The survey found Republicans are the only group backing the measure. Likely voters who list no party preference are against it by a 15-point margin in the IGS poll, and majorities of voters in nearly all subgroups — age, race and gender — are opposed.\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/10/2026/10/Prop39-voterID-scaled-e1791403746790.jpg\" alt=\"People in suits present at a podium surrounded by signs that read "Require Voter ID."\" class=\"wp-image-12101931\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Tony Strickland speaks at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on Monday, March 2, 2026, for a press conference highlighting voter signatures in favor of placing a voter ID measure on the November ballot. (Anjali Sharif-Paul/MediaNews Group/The Sun via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPIC found similar opposition: That survey has Proposition 39 down by 17 points, with 58% of likely voters saying they will vote no.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DiCamillo said voters appear to be linking the voter ID measure to President Donald Trump’s push for changes to election laws, which are unpopular with Democrats and independents.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I think Trump is a factor,” he said. “That really is the winning argument: You go after Trump.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPIC also polled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-45\">Proposition 45\u003c/a>, the ballot measure written by the California Chamber of Commerce to speed up environmental reviews of construction projects. The survey found likely voters split on the changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, with 46% saying they are voting yes and 50% voting no. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IGS poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 19-25, and included 2,787 registered voters. The PPIC poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 16-22 and included 1,728 California adult residents.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both polls have a sampling error of plus or minus 3%.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A proposal to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106033/the-political-calculus-behind-newsoms-opposition-to-californias-billionaire-tax\">tax California’s billionaires\u003c/a> to fund healthcare is trailing in two public, nonpartisan polls released this week, surveys that also found strong opposition to a separate ballot measure that would require voters to show identification at the polls. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-40\">Proposition 40\u003c/a>, which would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the overall wealth of the state’s billionaires, was tracking below the majority needed to pass in polls from both UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California. With days left to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election, IGS found just 8% of likely voters still undecided on the measure, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104645/sf-billionaire-chris-larsen-on-ai-this-is-an-incredibly-dangerous-moment\">billionaires\u003c/a> have spent more than $300 million to defeat. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-40\">Proposition 40\u003c/a>, which would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the overall wealth of the state’s billionaires, was tracking below the majority needed to pass in polls from both UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California. With days left to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election, IGS found just 8% of likely voters still undecided on the measure, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104645/sf-billionaire-chris-larsen-on-ai-this-is-an-incredibly-dangerous-moment\">billionaires\u003c/a> have spent more than $300 million to defeat. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-39\">Proposition 39\u003c/a>, the voter ID initiative, was also trailing by 20 points in the IGS poll, with just 37% of likely voters saying they were voting yes and 5% undecided. PPIC’s poll found slightly stronger support for the measure, but still had it losing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-39\">Proposition 39\u003c/a>, the voter ID initiative, was also trailing by 20 points in the IGS poll, with just 37% of likely voters saying they were voting yes and 5% undecided. PPIC’s poll found slightly stronger support for the measure, but still had it losing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Support for Proposition 40 appears to be slipping heading into Election Day. Last month’s PPIC poll had a slim majority in favor before the slide this month.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Support for Proposition 40 appears to be slipping heading into Election Day. Last month’s PPIC poll had a slim majority in favor before the slide this month.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But in the IGS poll released this week, half of likely voters said they will vote no on Proposition 40, while 42% said they are voting yes. That’s a shift from last month, when the IGS poll found 42% of voters against the measure and 45% backing it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But in the IGS poll released this week, half of likely voters said they will vote no on Proposition 40, while 42% said they are voting yes. That’s a shift from last month, when the IGS poll found 42% of voters against the measure and 45% backing it.\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/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-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 T-shirt with a campaign message is seen before the start of a rally led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026. Sanders is seeking the support of California voters for a November ballot initiative of an emergency tax on billionaires to help the state’s healthcare system.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\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/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093728\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A T-shirt with a campaign message is seen before the start of a rally led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026. Sanders is seeking the support of California voters for a November ballot initiative of an emergency tax on billionaires to help the state’s healthcare system.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS Poll, said the No on Proposition 40 side is clearly benefiting from the huge amounts of money being poured into defeating the wealth tax. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS Poll, said the No on Proposition 40 side is clearly benefiting from the huge amounts of money being poured into defeating the wealth tax. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“A well-funded no side campaign usually has the advantage over yes campaigns, just because all they have to do is raise doubts,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“A well-funded no side campaign usually has the advantage over yes campaigns, just because all they have to do is raise doubts,” he said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The poll found Proposition 40 backed by strong majorities of Democrats and voters under 40, and opposed by Republicans and voters over 50. Independents are split.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The poll found Proposition 40 backed by strong majorities of Democrats and voters under 40, and opposed by Republicans and voters over 50. Independents are split.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>DiCamillo said the disparity between how younger and older voters view the proposed tax is indicative of a growing split that did not used to exist among the California electorate.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>DiCamillo said the disparity between how younger and older voters view the proposed tax is indicative of a growing split that did not used to exist among the California electorate.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The generational divide is growing over time, just because the younger set is having a hard time. They can’t afford a house, they can’t reach the American dream,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The generational divide is growing over time, just because the younger set is having a hard time. They can’t afford a house, they can’t reach the American dream,” he said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Those are the segments that are now migrating to the Democratic socialists…. They really don’t like the disparity in wealth.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Those are the segments that are now migrating to the Democratic socialists…. They really don’t like the disparity in wealth.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fate of the proposed wealth tax will not swing solely on Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The fate of the proposed wealth tax will not swing solely on Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Both polls also showed close contests in Propositions 41 and 42, measures put on the ballot by billionaires with language that would nullify the tax if they pass with more votes than Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Both polls also showed close contests in Propositions 41 and 42, measures put on the ballot by billionaires with language that would nullify the tax if they pass with more votes than Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-41\">Proposition 41\u003c/a> would require ongoing audits of state programs that are funded by “special” taxes — those earmarked for a specific purpose. It also would make any new special taxes subject to the state’s existing spending limit. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-42\">Proposition 42\u003c/a> would prohibit new taxes on financial assets — such as stocks — and other personal property, and also prohibit most retroactive taxes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-41\">Proposition 41\u003c/a> would require ongoing audits of state programs that are funded by “special” taxes — those earmarked for a specific purpose. It also would make any new special taxes subject to the state’s existing spending limit. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-42\">Proposition 42\u003c/a> would prohibit new taxes on financial assets — such as stocks — and other personal property, and also prohibit most retroactive taxes. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While IGS’s survey showed Propositions 41 and 42 slightly ahead, DiCamillo noted they also found double-digit percentages of likely voters still undecided — and those who have moved since IGS’s September survey have largely turned against the billionaire-backed measures.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While IGS’s survey showed Propositions 41 and 42 slightly ahead, DiCamillo noted they also found double-digit percentages of likely voters still undecided — and those who have moved since IGS’s September survey have largely turned against the billionaire-backed measures.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The no side has gained 11 [points] while the yes side is static,” DiCamillo said of Proposition 42.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The no side has gained 11 [points] while the yes side is static,” DiCamillo said of Proposition 42.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Proposition 39, the voter ID measure placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers, has also lost ground since IGS’s poll last month, with the no side gaining 7 percentage points. The survey found Republicans are the only group backing the measure. Likely voters who list no party preference are against it by a 15-point margin in the IGS poll, and majorities of voters in nearly all subgroups — age, race and gender — are opposed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Proposition 39, the voter ID measure placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers, has also lost ground since IGS’s poll last month, with the no side gaining 7 percentage points. The survey found Republicans are the only group backing the measure. Likely voters who list no party preference are against it by a 15-point margin in the IGS poll, and majorities of voters in nearly all subgroups — age, race and gender — are opposed.\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/10/2026/10/Prop39-voterID-scaled-e1791403746790.jpg\" alt=\"People in suits present at a podium surrounded by signs that read "Require Voter ID."\" class=\"wp-image-12101931\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Tony Strickland speaks at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on Monday, March 2, 2026, for a press conference highlighting voter signatures in favor of placing a voter ID measure on the November ballot.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Anjali Sharif-Paul/MediaNews Group/The Sun via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\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/10/2026/10/Prop39-voterID-scaled-e1791403746790.jpg\" alt=\"People in suits present at a podium surrounded by signs that read "Require Voter ID."\" class=\"wp-image-12101931\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Tony Strickland speaks at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on Monday, March 2, 2026, for a press conference highlighting voter signatures in favor of placing a voter ID measure on the November ballot.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Anjali Sharif-Paul/MediaNews Group/The Sun via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>PPIC found similar opposition: That survey has Proposition 39 down by 17 points, with 58% of likely voters saying they will vote no.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>DiCamillo said voters appear to be linking the voter ID measure to President Donald Trump’s push for changes to election laws, which are unpopular with Democrats and independents.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>DiCamillo said voters appear to be linking the voter ID measure to President Donald Trump’s push for changes to election laws, which are unpopular with Democrats and independents.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think Trump is a factor,” he said. “That really is the winning argument: You go after Trump.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I think Trump is a factor,” he said. “That really is the winning argument: You go after Trump.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>PPIC also polled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-45\">Proposition 45\u003c/a>, the ballot measure written by the California Chamber of Commerce to speed up environmental reviews of construction projects. The survey found likely voters split on the changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, with 46% saying they are voting yes and 50% voting no. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>PPIC also polled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-45\">Proposition 45\u003c/a>, the ballot measure written by the California Chamber of Commerce to speed up environmental reviews of construction projects. The survey found likely voters split on the changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, with 46% saying they are voting yes and 50% voting no. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The IGS poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 19-25, and included 2,787 registered voters. The PPIC poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 16-22 and included 1,728 California adult residents.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The IGS poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 19-25, and included 2,787 registered voters. The PPIC poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 16-22 and included 1,728 California adult residents.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Both polls have a sampling error of plus or minus 3%.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Two public nonpartisan surveys show Proposition 40 trailing in the final days of voting. Meanwhile, an initiative to require voter ID in California is losing by double digits.",
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"title": "Is California’s Proposed Billionaire Tax in Trouble? New Polls Find Bad News | KQED",
"description": "Two public nonpartisan surveys show Proposition 40 trailing in the final days of voting. Meanwhile, an initiative to require voter ID in California is losing by double digits.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A proposal to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106033/the-political-calculus-behind-newsoms-opposition-to-californias-billionaire-tax\">tax California’s billionaires\u003c/a> to fund healthcare is trailing in two public, nonpartisan polls released this week, surveys that also found strong opposition to a separate ballot measure that would require voters to show identification at the polls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-40\">Proposition 40\u003c/a>, which would impose a one-time, 5% tax on the overall wealth of the state’s billionaires, was tracking below the majority needed to pass in polls from both UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the Public Policy Institute of California. With days left to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election, IGS found just 8% of likely voters still undecided on the measure, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104645/sf-billionaire-chris-larsen-on-ai-this-is-an-incredibly-dangerous-moment\">billionaires\u003c/a> have spent more than $300 million to defeat. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-39\">Proposition 39\u003c/a>, the voter ID initiative, was also trailing by 20 points in the IGS poll, with just 37% of likely voters saying they were voting yes and 5% undecided. PPIC’s poll found slightly stronger support for the measure, but still had it losing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Support for Proposition 40 appears to be slipping heading into Election Day. Last month’s PPIC poll had a slim majority in favor before the slide this month.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in the IGS poll released this week, half of likely voters said they will vote no on Proposition 40, while 42% said they are voting yes. That’s a shift from last month, when the IGS poll found 42% of voters against the measure and 45% backing it.\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/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/CaliforniaBillionairesTaxGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A T-shirt with a campaign message is seen before the start of a rally led by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, during the campaign kickoff for the California Billionaire Tax Act at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, on Feb. 18, 2026. Sanders is seeking the support of California voters for a November ballot initiative of an emergency tax on billionaires to help the state’s healthcare system. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS Poll, said the No on Proposition 40 side is clearly benefiting from the huge amounts of money being poured into defeating the wealth tax. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“A well-funded no side campaign usually has the advantage over yes campaigns, just because all they have to do is raise doubts,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The poll found Proposition 40 backed by strong majorities of Democrats and voters under 40, and opposed by Republicans and voters over 50. Independents are split.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DiCamillo said the disparity between how younger and older voters view the proposed tax is indicative of a growing split that did not used to exist among the California electorate.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The generational divide is growing over time, just because the younger set is having a hard time. They can’t afford a house, they can’t reach the American dream,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Those are the segments that are now migrating to the Democratic socialists…. They really don’t like the disparity in wealth.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fate of the proposed wealth tax will not swing solely on Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both polls also showed close contests in Propositions 41 and 42, measures put on the ballot by billionaires with language that would nullify the tax if they pass with more votes than Proposition 40. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-41\">Proposition 41\u003c/a> would require ongoing audits of state programs that are funded by “special” taxes — those earmarked for a specific purpose. It also would make any new special taxes subject to the state’s existing spending limit. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-42\">Proposition 42\u003c/a> would prohibit new taxes on financial assets — such as stocks — and other personal property, and also prohibit most retroactive taxes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While IGS’s survey showed Propositions 41 and 42 slightly ahead, DiCamillo noted they also found double-digit percentages of likely voters still undecided — and those who have moved since IGS’s September survey have largely turned against the billionaire-backed measures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The no side has gained 11 [points] while the yes side is static,” DiCamillo said of Proposition 42.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Proposition 39, the voter ID measure placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers, has also lost ground since IGS’s poll last month, with the no side gaining 7 percentage points. The survey found Republicans are the only group backing the measure. Likely voters who list no party preference are against it by a 15-point margin in the IGS poll, and majorities of voters in nearly all subgroups — age, race and gender — are opposed.\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/10/2026/10/Prop39-voterID-scaled-e1791403746790.jpg\" alt=\"People in suits present at a podium surrounded by signs that read "Require Voter ID."\" class=\"wp-image-12101931\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sen. Tony Strickland speaks at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on Monday, March 2, 2026, for a press conference highlighting voter signatures in favor of placing a voter ID measure on the November ballot. (Anjali Sharif-Paul/MediaNews Group/The Sun via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPIC found similar opposition: That survey has Proposition 39 down by 17 points, with 58% of likely voters saying they will vote no.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DiCamillo said voters appear to be linking the voter ID measure to President Donald Trump’s push for changes to election laws, which are unpopular with Democrats and independents.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I think Trump is a factor,” he said. “That really is the winning argument: You go after Trump.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PPIC also polled on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/voterguide/california/proposition-45\">Proposition 45\u003c/a>, the ballot measure written by the California Chamber of Commerce to speed up environmental reviews of construction projects. The survey found likely voters split on the changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, with 46% saying they are voting yes and 50% voting no. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The IGS poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 19-25, and included 2,787 registered voters. The PPIC poll was conducted online in English and Spanish from Oct. 16-22 and included 1,728 California adult residents.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both polls have a sampling error of plus or minus 3%.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-fight-over-farmworker-housing-is-on-the-ballot-in-this-bay-area-town",
"title": "A Fight Over Farmworker Housing Is on the Ballot in This Bay Area Town",
"publishDate": 1793271600,
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"headTitle": "A Fight Over Farmworker Housing Is on the Ballot in This Bay Area Town | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After more than a half-century of marriage, Cándido Rosales and his wife are living apart in the same town.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She recently joined him from Mexico after waiting years for her immigration paperwork to be approved. But they haven’t found a place they can afford where they could live together in Half Moon Bay. She is staying with her sister; he shares a rented room with another person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“A family has to be together, not separated,” 67-year-old Rosales said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rosales, who spent nearly 40 years working in agriculture, hopes a proposed affordable housing development at 555 Kelly Ave. in downtown Half Moon Bay will give him and his wife a place to call home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The project, now four years in the making, was proposed a year before a 2023 mass shooting in the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941716/we-have-a-moment-here-an-urgent-push-for-farmworker-housing-in-wake-of-half-moon-bay-tragedy\">exposed substandard living conditions on local farms\u003c/a> and intensified calls for improved affordable housing for farmworkers. But it’s since become a lightning rod in city politics.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Opponents have called the five-story, 40-unit building out of character for Half Moon Bay’s quaint downtown and decried impacts to traffic and parking new residents might bring. Supporters, however, say it would help aging farmworkers remain in the community they helped nourish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite concerns from some residents, the city council approved the development in May, but opponents quickly rallied to put a referendum on the ballot. Now, voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether it moves forward.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105275\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The proposed affordable housing site for senior farmworkers at 555 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across California, low wages and a shortage of affordable housing leave many farmworkers living in crowded homes or subpar conditions. Between 2015 and 2019, about 38% of the state’s crop workers lived in crowded housing — defined as more than one person sharing a room, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For retired farmworkers, the options can be even more limited, said Rob Wiener of the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Decades of low-paid, physically demanding work often leave little money for retirement. Moving in with relatives can mean sharing an already-crowded home, while finding an affordable home elsewhere can mean leaving family and community behind, Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s even more difficult for farmworkers in counties like San Mateo, he said, where the median one-bedroom apartment rents for \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-mateo-ca/?bedrooms=1\">more than $3,000 per month\u003c/a> and families must earn a minimum salary of \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">nearly $580,000\u003c/a> to afford buying a median-priced single-family home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Every community, in my view, should have the full life cycle of housing that’s needed,” Wiener said, “from family housing to housing for single adults and for retirees.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Housing built for larger farmworker families may not fit the needs of older adults living alone or as couples, he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, or ALAS, said the proposal for the apartment building on Kelly Avenue grew out of the organization’s work during the pandemic, when staff at the nonprofit found agricultural workers in their 70s and 80s were still working because they could not afford to retire.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The ALAS office in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. ALAS is a nonprofit supporting farmworkers and their families. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some lived in housing tied to their jobs, meaning retirement could also cost them their homes. Others rented in the community but struggled to keep up with rising housing costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Our aging farm workers are telling us they can’t stop working,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “Because if they stop working, they don’t have income.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If voters approve the proposed apartment building in Half Moon Bay, senior farmworkers who live or work in the city would get first priority, followed by those elsewhere along the coast and in San Mateo County, according to Mercy Housing, which is partnering with ALAS on the project. The nonprofit developer said those preferences are established in its agreements with the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with apartments, the development would include a community center offering services such as health care and wellness programs. Its downtown location would put residents within walking distance of groceries, medical care, churches and organizations that already serve them, Hernandez-Arriaga said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Rosales, remaining close to services is important because he has never driven a car. He gets around by walking or taking the bus. He has lived in Half Moon Bay for about two decades and said he wants a home near the places he already relies on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“What we like is having everything close at hand,” he said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But opponents question the building’s size — at five stories, it would be the tallest in downtown — as well as its effects on parking and traffic and the city’s obligations under the proposed 99-year lease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick Hernandez, vice chair of the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission, said he supports more affordable housing but has concerns about this specific development.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“It would be the tallest in downtown,” Hernandez said, “and it’s out of character with our community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said a smaller development would be a better fit for a neighborhood where people already come for the library, church and community center. He also questioned what costs the city could face over the 99-year lease and whether the proposed lease agreement is adequate to ensure local residents get priority for the apartments.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hernandez-Arriaga sees the opposition as going beyond the building’s size. She questioned whether the older farmworkers who have been asking for housing for years are welcome downtown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Why aren’t they good enough to be living downtown?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Hernandez pushed back on that assertion. He pointed to other affordable housing developments in Half Moon Bay as examples of the city’s support for farmworkers, including a manufactured housing project the city approved soon after the 2023 mass shooting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This is about striking the right balance,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ALAS and Mercy Housing jointly proposed the project after the city sought proposals for affordable apartments on the Kelly Avenue property in 2022. It was the only proposal submitted. But it faced opposition from the start.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the planning commission approved the project’s land-use permits in May 2024, residents appealed. The city council upheld that approval but didn’t sign off on a final lease agreement on the city-owned land until May 2026. Opponents then gathered enough signatures to put that decision before voters, suspending the ordinance until the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vote comes as the city faces pressure from the state over its broader housing obligations. In July, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-newsom-administration-take-legal-action-against-local\">sued Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> for failing to complete zoning changes required to bring its housing plan into compliance with state law, asking a court to require compliance and impose financial penalties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “Yes on Q” sign is posted at a local business in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeff Regan, campaign organizer for Yes on 555 Kelly Ave., said rejecting the Kelly Avenue project would make it harder for the city to meet state housing goals. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the city’s description of the lease, Mercy Housing would be responsible for constructing and maintaining the buildings, carrying required insurance and operating resident programs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, Mercy said about $28 million in public funding has been secured, including more than $6 million recently approved by San Mateo County. The plan anticipates covering the remaining $14 million through tax-credit financing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rosales has attended several meetings about the development, hoping it will move forward. For now, he visits his wife at her sister’s home, spends time talking with her, then leaves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wants to stay in Half Moon Bay but said they are considering returning to Mexico if they cannot find a place to live together. Still, he’s reluctant to leave the city he’s called home for two decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I’d like to stay here a little longer,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She recently joined him from Mexico after waiting years for her immigration paperwork to be approved. But they haven’t found a place they can afford where they could live together in Half Moon Bay. She is staying with her sister; he shares a rented room with another person.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She recently joined him from Mexico after waiting years for her immigration paperwork to be approved. But they haven’t found a place they can afford where they could live together in Half Moon Bay. She is staying with her sister; he shares a rented room with another person.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“A family has to be together, not separated,” 67-year-old Rosales said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rosales, who spent nearly 40 years working in agriculture, hopes a proposed affordable housing development at 555 Kelly Ave. in downtown Half Moon Bay will give him and his wife a place to call home. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Rosales, who spent nearly 40 years working in agriculture, hopes a proposed affordable housing development at 555 Kelly Ave. in downtown Half Moon Bay will give him and his wife a place to call home. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The project, now four years in the making, was proposed a year before a 2023 mass shooting in the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941716/we-have-a-moment-here-an-urgent-push-for-farmworker-housing-in-wake-of-half-moon-bay-tragedy\">exposed substandard living conditions on local farms\u003c/a> and intensified calls for improved affordable housing for farmworkers. But it’s since become a lightning rod in city politics.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The project, now four years in the making, was proposed a year before a 2023 mass shooting in the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941716/we-have-a-moment-here-an-urgent-push-for-farmworker-housing-in-wake-of-half-moon-bay-tragedy\">exposed substandard living conditions on local farms\u003c/a> and intensified calls for improved affordable housing for farmworkers. But it’s since become a lightning rod in city politics.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Opponents have called the five-story, 40-unit building out of character for Half Moon Bay’s quaint downtown and decried impacts to traffic and parking new residents might bring. Supporters, however, say it would help aging farmworkers remain in the community they helped nourish.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Opponents have called the five-story, 40-unit building out of character for Half Moon Bay’s quaint downtown and decried impacts to traffic and parking new residents might bring. Supporters, however, say it would help aging farmworkers remain in the community they helped nourish.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite concerns from some residents, the city council approved the development in May, but opponents quickly rallied to put a referendum on the ballot. Now, voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether it moves forward.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Despite concerns from some residents, the city council approved the development in May, but opponents quickly rallied to put a referendum on the ballot. Now, voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether it moves forward.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105275\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The proposed affordable housing site for senior farmworkers at 555 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Across California, low wages and a shortage of affordable housing leave many farmworkers living in crowded homes or subpar conditions. Between 2015 and 2019, about 38% of the state’s crop workers lived in crowded housing — defined as more than one person sharing a room, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Across California, low wages and a shortage of affordable housing leave many farmworkers living in crowded homes or subpar conditions. Between 2015 and 2019, about 38% of the state’s crop workers lived in crowded housing — defined as more than one person sharing a room, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For retired farmworkers, the options can be even more limited, said Rob Wiener of the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Decades of low-paid, physically demanding work often leave little money for retirement. Moving in with relatives can mean sharing an already-crowded home, while finding an affordable home elsewhere can mean leaving family and community behind, Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For retired farmworkers, the options can be even more limited, said Rob Wiener of the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Decades of low-paid, physically demanding work often leave little money for retirement. Moving in with relatives can mean sharing an already-crowded home, while finding an affordable home elsewhere can mean leaving family and community behind, Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s even more difficult for farmworkers in counties like San Mateo, he said, where the median one-bedroom apartment rents for \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-mateo-ca/?bedrooms=1\">more than $3,000 per month\u003c/a> and families must earn a minimum salary of \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">nearly $580,000\u003c/a> to afford buying a median-priced single-family home. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s even more difficult for farmworkers in counties like San Mateo, he said, where the median one-bedroom apartment rents for \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-mateo-ca/?bedrooms=1\">more than $3,000 per month\u003c/a> and families must earn a minimum salary of \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">nearly $580,000\u003c/a> to afford buying a median-priced single-family home. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Every community, in my view, should have the full life cycle of housing that’s needed,” Wiener said, “from family housing to housing for single adults and for retirees.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Housing built for larger farmworker families may not fit the needs of older adults living alone or as couples, he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Housing built for larger farmworker families may not fit the needs of older adults living alone or as couples, he said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, or ALAS, said the proposal for the apartment building on Kelly Avenue grew out of the organization’s work during the pandemic, when staff at the nonprofit found agricultural workers in their 70s and 80s were still working because they could not afford to retire.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, or ALAS, said the proposal for the apartment building on Kelly Avenue grew out of the organization’s work during the pandemic, when staff at the nonprofit found agricultural workers in their 70s and 80s were still working because they could not afford to retire.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The ALAS office in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. ALAS is a nonprofit supporting farmworkers and their families.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105276\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The ALAS office in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. ALAS is a nonprofit supporting farmworkers and their families.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some lived in housing tied to their jobs, meaning retirement could also cost them their homes. Others rented in the community but struggled to keep up with rising housing costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Some lived in housing tied to their jobs, meaning retirement could also cost them their homes. Others rented in the community but struggled to keep up with rising housing costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Our aging farm workers are telling us they can’t stop working,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “Because if they stop working, they don’t have income.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If voters approve the proposed apartment building in Half Moon Bay, senior farmworkers who live or work in the city would get first priority, followed by those elsewhere along the coast and in San Mateo County, according to Mercy Housing, which is partnering with ALAS on the project. The nonprofit developer said those preferences are established in its agreements with the city.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If voters approve the proposed apartment building in Half Moon Bay, senior farmworkers who live or work in the city would get first priority, followed by those elsewhere along the coast and in San Mateo County, according to Mercy Housing, which is partnering with ALAS on the project. The nonprofit developer said those preferences are established in its agreements with the city.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Along with apartments, the development would include a community center offering services such as health care and wellness programs. Its downtown location would put residents within walking distance of groceries, medical care, churches and organizations that already serve them, Hernandez-Arriaga said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Along with apartments, the development would include a community center offering services such as health care and wellness programs. Its downtown location would put residents within walking distance of groceries, medical care, churches and organizations that already serve them, Hernandez-Arriaga said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Rosales, remaining close to services is important because he has never driven a car. He gets around by walking or taking the bus. He has lived in Half Moon Bay for about two decades and said he wants a home near the places he already relies on.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For Rosales, remaining close to services is important because he has never driven a car. He gets around by walking or taking the bus. He has lived in Half Moon Bay for about two decades and said he wants a home near the places he already relies on.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What we like is having everything close at hand,” he said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But opponents question the building’s size — at five stories, it would be the tallest in downtown — as well as its effects on parking and traffic and the city’s obligations under the proposed 99-year lease.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But opponents question the building’s size — at five stories, it would be the tallest in downtown — as well as its effects on parking and traffic and the city’s obligations under the proposed 99-year lease.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rick Hernandez, vice chair of the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission, said he supports more affordable housing but has concerns about this specific development.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It would be the tallest in downtown,” Hernandez said, “and it’s out of character with our community.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It would be the tallest in downtown,” Hernandez said, “and it’s out of character with our community.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He said a smaller development would be a better fit for a neighborhood where people already come for the library, church and community center. He also questioned what costs the city could face over the 99-year lease and whether the proposed lease agreement is adequate to ensure local residents get priority for the apartments.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He said a smaller development would be a better fit for a neighborhood where people already come for the library, church and community center. He also questioned what costs the city could face over the 99-year lease and whether the proposed lease agreement is adequate to ensure local residents get priority for the apartments.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hernandez-Arriaga sees the opposition as going beyond the building’s size. She questioned whether the older farmworkers who have been asking for housing for years are welcome downtown.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Hernandez-Arriaga sees the opposition as going beyond the building’s size. She questioned whether the older farmworkers who have been asking for housing for years are welcome downtown.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Why aren’t they good enough to be living downtown?” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Why aren’t they good enough to be living downtown?” she said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Hernandez pushed back on that assertion. He pointed to other affordable housing developments in Half Moon Bay as examples of the city’s support for farmworkers, including a manufactured housing project the city approved soon after the 2023 mass shooting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But Hernandez pushed back on that assertion. He pointed to other affordable housing developments in Half Moon Bay as examples of the city’s support for farmworkers, including a manufactured housing project the city approved soon after the 2023 mass shooting.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>ALAS and Mercy Housing jointly proposed the project after the city sought proposals for affordable apartments on the Kelly Avenue property in 2022. It was the only proposal submitted. But it faced opposition from the start.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>ALAS and Mercy Housing jointly proposed the project after the city sought proposals for affordable apartments on the Kelly Avenue property in 2022. It was the only proposal submitted. But it faced opposition from the start.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When the planning commission approved the project’s land-use permits in May 2024, residents appealed. The city council upheld that approval but didn’t sign off on a final lease agreement on the city-owned land until May 2026. Opponents then gathered enough signatures to put that decision before voters, suspending the ordinance until the election.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When the planning commission approved the project’s land-use permits in May 2024, residents appealed. The city council upheld that approval but didn’t sign off on a final lease agreement on the city-owned land until May 2026. Opponents then gathered enough signatures to put that decision before voters, suspending the ordinance until the election.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The vote comes as the city faces pressure from the state over its broader housing obligations. In July, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-newsom-administration-take-legal-action-against-local\">sued Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> for failing to complete zoning changes required to bring its housing plan into compliance with state law, asking a court to require compliance and impose financial penalties.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The vote comes as the city faces pressure from the state over its broader housing obligations. In July, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-newsom-administration-take-legal-action-against-local\">sued Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> for failing to complete zoning changes required to bring its housing plan into compliance with state law, asking a court to require compliance and impose financial penalties.\u003c/p>\n"
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105277\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “Yes on Q” sign is posted at a local business in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jeff Regan, campaign organizer for Yes on 555 Kelly Ave., said rejecting the Kelly Avenue project would make it harder for the city to meet state housing goals. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Jeff Regan, campaign organizer for Yes on 555 Kelly Ave., said rejecting the Kelly Avenue project would make it harder for the city to meet state housing goals. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Under the city’s description of the lease, Mercy Housing would be responsible for constructing and maintaining the buildings, carrying required insurance and operating resident programs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a statement, Mercy said about $28 million in public funding has been secured, including more than $6 million recently approved by San Mateo County. The plan anticipates covering the remaining $14 million through tax-credit financing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a statement, Mercy said about $28 million in public funding has been secured, including more than $6 million recently approved by San Mateo County. The plan anticipates covering the remaining $14 million through tax-credit financing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rosales has attended several meetings about the development, hoping it will move forward. For now, he visits his wife at her sister’s home, spends time talking with her, then leaves.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He wants to stay in Half Moon Bay but said they are considering returning to Mexico if they cannot find a place to live together. Still, he’s reluctant to leave the city he’s called home for two decades. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He wants to stay in Half Moon Bay but said they are considering returning to Mexico if they cannot find a place to live together. Still, he’s reluctant to leave the city he’s called home for two decades. \u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "As older farmworkers struggle to afford housing, Half Moon Bay voters are weighing a proposal supporters say would help them stay in the communities they helped nourish.",
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"title": "A Fight Over Farmworker Housing Is on the Ballot in This Bay Area Town | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After more than a half-century of marriage, Cándido Rosales and his wife are living apart in the same town.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She recently joined him from Mexico after waiting years for her immigration paperwork to be approved. But they haven’t found a place they can afford where they could live together in Half Moon Bay. She is staying with her sister; he shares a rented room with another person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“A family has to be together, not separated,” 67-year-old Rosales said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rosales, who spent nearly 40 years working in agriculture, hopes a proposed affordable housing development at 555 Kelly Ave. in downtown Half Moon Bay will give him and his wife a place to call home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The project, now four years in the making, was proposed a year before a 2023 mass shooting in the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11941716/we-have-a-moment-here-an-urgent-push-for-farmworker-housing-in-wake-of-half-moon-bay-tragedy\">exposed substandard living conditions on local farms\u003c/a> and intensified calls for improved affordable housing for farmworkers. But it’s since become a lightning rod in city politics.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Opponents have called the five-story, 40-unit building out of character for Half Moon Bay’s quaint downtown and decried impacts to traffic and parking new residents might bring. Supporters, however, say it would help aging farmworkers remain in the community they helped nourish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite concerns from some residents, the city council approved the development in May, but opponents quickly rallied to put a referendum on the ballot. Now, voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether it moves forward.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105275\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-13-KQED-815830cf-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The proposed affordable housing site for senior farmworkers at 555 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across California, low wages and a shortage of affordable housing leave many farmworkers living in crowded homes or subpar conditions. Between 2015 and 2019, about 38% of the state’s crop workers lived in crowded housing — defined as more than one person sharing a room, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For retired farmworkers, the options can be even more limited, said Rob Wiener of the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Decades of low-paid, physically demanding work often leave little money for retirement. Moving in with relatives can mean sharing an already-crowded home, while finding an affordable home elsewhere can mean leaving family and community behind, Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s even more difficult for farmworkers in counties like San Mateo, he said, where the median one-bedroom apartment rents for \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/san-mateo-ca/?bedrooms=1\">more than $3,000 per month\u003c/a> and families must earn a minimum salary of \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">nearly $580,000\u003c/a> to afford buying a median-priced single-family home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Every community, in my view, should have the full life cycle of housing that’s needed,” Wiener said, “from family housing to housing for single adults and for retirees.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Housing built for larger farmworker families may not fit the needs of older adults living alone or as couples, he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, or ALAS, said the proposal for the apartment building on Kelly Avenue grew out of the organization’s work during the pandemic, when staff at the nonprofit found agricultural workers in their 70s and 80s were still working because they could not afford to retire.\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/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-16-KQED-066915f1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The ALAS office in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. ALAS is a nonprofit supporting farmworkers and their families. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some lived in housing tied to their jobs, meaning retirement could also cost them their homes. Others rented in the community but struggled to keep up with rising housing costs, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Our aging farm workers are telling us they can’t stop working,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “Because if they stop working, they don’t have income.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If voters approve the proposed apartment building in Half Moon Bay, senior farmworkers who live or work in the city would get first priority, followed by those elsewhere along the coast and in San Mateo County, according to Mercy Housing, which is partnering with ALAS on the project. The nonprofit developer said those preferences are established in its agreements with the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with apartments, the development would include a community center offering services such as health care and wellness programs. Its downtown location would put residents within walking distance of groceries, medical care, churches and organizations that already serve them, Hernandez-Arriaga said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Rosales, remaining close to services is important because he has never driven a car. He gets around by walking or taking the bus. He has lived in Half Moon Bay for about two decades and said he wants a home near the places he already relies on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“What we like is having everything close at hand,” he said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But opponents question the building’s size — at five stories, it would be the tallest in downtown — as well as its effects on parking and traffic and the city’s obligations under the proposed 99-year lease.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rick Hernandez, vice chair of the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission, said he supports more affordable housing but has concerns about this specific development.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“It would be the tallest in downtown,” Hernandez said, “and it’s out of character with our community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said a smaller development would be a better fit for a neighborhood where people already come for the library, church and community center. He also questioned what costs the city could face over the 99-year lease and whether the proposed lease agreement is adequate to ensure local residents get priority for the apartments.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hernandez-Arriaga sees the opposition as going beyond the building’s size. She questioned whether the older farmworkers who have been asking for housing for years are welcome downtown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Why aren’t they good enough to be living downtown?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Hernandez pushed back on that assertion. He pointed to other affordable housing developments in Half Moon Bay as examples of the city’s support for farmworkers, including a manufactured housing project the city approved soon after the 2023 mass shooting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This is about striking the right balance,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ALAS and Mercy Housing jointly proposed the project after the city sought proposals for affordable apartments on the Kelly Avenue property in 2022. It was the only proposal submitted. But it faced opposition from the start.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the planning commission approved the project’s land-use permits in May 2024, residents appealed. The city council upheld that approval but didn’t sign off on a final lease agreement on the city-owned land until May 2026. Opponents then gathered enough signatures to put that decision before voters, suspending the ordinance until the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vote comes as the city faces pressure from the state over its broader housing obligations. In July, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-newsom-administration-take-legal-action-against-local\">sued Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> for failing to complete zoning changes required to bring its housing plan into compliance with state law, asking a court to require compliance and impose financial penalties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12105277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/20261016_HALFMOONBAYMEASUREQ_GC-17-KQED-1deb1f18-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “Yes on Q” sign is posted at a local business in Half Moon Bay on Oct. 16, 2026. (Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeff Regan, campaign organizer for Yes on 555 Kelly Ave., said rejecting the Kelly Avenue project would make it harder for the city to meet state housing goals. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the city’s description of the lease, Mercy Housing would be responsible for constructing and maintaining the buildings, carrying required insurance and operating resident programs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, Mercy said about $28 million in public funding has been secured, including more than $6 million recently approved by San Mateo County. The plan anticipates covering the remaining $14 million through tax-credit financing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rosales has attended several meetings about the development, hoping it will move forward. For now, he visits his wife at her sister’s home, spends time talking with her, then leaves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wants to stay in Half Moon Bay but said they are considering returning to Mexico if they cannot find a place to live together. Still, he’s reluctant to leave the city he’s called home for two decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I’d like to stay here a little longer,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saying the Trump administration had embarked on “a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference,” a federal judge on Wednesday refused to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106835/judge-says-trump-could-disenfranchise-voters-in-purge-of-noncitizens-from-election-rolls\">order California election officials to set aside 20,000 ballots\u003c/a> over claims those voters might not be citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” wrote U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28856709-carter-order/\">the judge wrote\u003c/a>, saying if he granted the Trump administration’s last-minute request “either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process. Over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ruling is the latest legal defeat for the Trump administration as it has sought to find evidence that would validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims that Democrats win because of rigged elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter said he declined to be a party to a process that could disenfranchise voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” he wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the executive (branch) can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter also slammed the federal government for not providing a clear accounting of its methodology in creating the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">list of 20,000 possible noncitizens\u003c/a>, saying prosecutors provided vague explanations “and raised multiple questions regarding reliability.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal officials insist their list is mostly accurate and came from investigators correlating public voter files, government data and commercial databases, but prosecutors have acknowledged that some of the people on the list are likely citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State and county officials and civil rights groups have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-voting-claims-counties/\">said that the list\u003c/a> appears to be riddled with inaccuracies and it often omits key data such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers that would allow county officials to confirm who the people are.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a briefing with reporters Wednesday before Carter’s ruling, California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal government’s case was little more than an “amateur hour” political stunt to validate Trump’s conspiracy theory that elections are rigged for Democrats.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s a joke. It’s embarrassing, but it is dangerous,” Bonta said. “They are trying to attack the fundamental right to vote with trash data.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Fox News interview on Wednesday before the ruling, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the administration would appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We’re moving at a lightning pace because the way California does elections, everyone already has a ballot,” Essayli said. “Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been returned, and the counties already started processing those ballots. … That’s why we need an order now to separate and segregate these ballots — not to cancel any vote — just to sequester them so we can figure this out.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Higher court declined to intervene\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 9th Circuit panel already rejected one attempt by Essayli’s office to get an emergency order. A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 Monday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">reject an urgent appeal\u003c/a> to bypass Carter’s courtroom. The federal government claimed the district judge didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile on Wednesday, a group of civil rights organizations, including California’s chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Trump administration and urged a federal court to block the administration’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The groups claim the initiative has been targeting and intimidating naturalized U.S. citizens, former green card holders who have gone through the citizenship process. The initiative directed immigration officials to generate target lists of possible noncitizen voters and to coordinate with ICE field offices to interrogate individuals it identified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The civil rights groups contend the federal government is using illegal tactics and faulty data to harass innocent legal voters. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“These allegations are putting eligible voters — including naturalized U.S. citizens — at risk of disenfranchisement,” Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “The administration can’t keep creating political stunts to sow distrust in our elections and lay the groundwork to question results they don’t like.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter noted in Wednesday’s ruling that those most at risk of being disenfranchised are naturalized citizens.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Individuals that the federal government recently identified as noncitizens on voter rolls in different states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized citizens,” Carter wrote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>The ACLU’s and other groups’ suit came a week after a federal judge in California issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from doing in-person interrogations of people investigators suspect may be noncitizens. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judge in that case, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/nx-s1-6012682/judge-dhs-noncitizen-voting-operations\">ruled\u003c/a> that the federal government was relying on “faulty data sources that sweep in U.S. citizens” and was likely violating the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Martínez-Olguín’s order is in effect through Election Day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-ballot-claims-california-ruling/\">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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Saying the Trump administration had embarked on “a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference,” a federal judge on Wednesday refused to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106835/judge-says-trump-could-disenfranchise-voters-in-purge-of-noncitizens-from-election-rolls\">order California election officials to set aside 20,000 ballots\u003c/a> over claims those voters might not be citizens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” wrote U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28856709-carter-order/\">the judge wrote\u003c/a>, saying if he granted the Trump administration’s last-minute request “either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process. Over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28856709-carter-order/\">the judge wrote\u003c/a>, saying if he granted the Trump administration’s last-minute request “either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process. Over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The ruling is the latest legal defeat for the Trump administration as it has sought to find evidence that would validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims that Democrats win because of rigged elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter said he declined to be a party to a process that could disenfranchise voters.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” he wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the executive (branch) can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” he wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the executive (branch) can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carter also slammed the federal government for not providing a clear accounting of its methodology in creating the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">list of 20,000 possible noncitizens\u003c/a>, saying prosecutors provided vague explanations “and raised multiple questions regarding reliability.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carter also slammed the federal government for not providing a clear accounting of its methodology in creating the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">list of 20,000 possible noncitizens\u003c/a>, saying prosecutors provided vague explanations “and raised multiple questions regarding reliability.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Federal officials insist their list is mostly accurate and came from investigators correlating public voter files, government data and commercial databases, but prosecutors have acknowledged that some of the people on the list are likely citizens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>State and county officials and civil rights groups have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-voting-claims-counties/\">said that the list\u003c/a> appears to be riddled with inaccuracies and it often omits key data such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers that would allow county officials to confirm who the people are.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a briefing with reporters Wednesday before Carter’s ruling, California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal government’s case was little more than an “amateur hour” political stunt to validate Trump’s conspiracy theory that elections are rigged for Democrats.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s a joke. It’s embarrassing, but it is dangerous,” Bonta said. “They are trying to attack the fundamental right to vote with trash data.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a briefing with reporters Wednesday before Carter’s ruling, California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal government’s case was little more than an “amateur hour” political stunt to validate Trump’s conspiracy theory that elections are rigged for Democrats.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s a joke. It’s embarrassing, but it is dangerous,” Bonta said. “They are trying to attack the fundamental right to vote with trash data.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a Fox News interview on Wednesday before the ruling, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the administration would appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We’re moving at a lightning pace because the way California does elections, everyone already has a ballot,” Essayli said. “Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been returned, and the counties already started processing those ballots. … That’s why we need an order now to separate and segregate these ballots — not to cancel any vote — just to sequester them so we can figure this out.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a Fox News interview on Wednesday before the ruling, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the administration would appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We’re moving at a lightning pace because the way California does elections, everyone already has a ballot,” Essayli said. “Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been returned, and the counties already started processing those ballots. … That’s why we need an order now to separate and segregate these ballots — not to cancel any vote — just to sequester them so we can figure this out.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A 9th Circuit panel already rejected one attempt by Essayli’s office to get an emergency order. A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 Monday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">reject an urgent appeal\u003c/a> to bypass Carter’s courtroom. The federal government claimed the district judge didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A 9th Circuit panel already rejected one attempt by Essayli’s office to get an emergency order. A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 Monday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">reject an urgent appeal\u003c/a> to bypass Carter’s courtroom. The federal government claimed the district judge didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile on Wednesday, a group of civil rights organizations, including California’s chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Trump administration and urged a federal court to block the administration’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Meanwhile on Wednesday, a group of civil rights organizations, including California’s chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Trump administration and urged a federal court to block the administration’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The groups claim the initiative has been targeting and intimidating naturalized U.S. citizens, former green card holders who have gone through the citizenship process. The initiative directed immigration officials to generate target lists of possible noncitizen voters and to coordinate with ICE field offices to interrogate individuals it identified.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The groups claim the initiative has been targeting and intimidating naturalized U.S. citizens, former green card holders who have gone through the citizenship process. The initiative directed immigration officials to generate target lists of possible noncitizen voters and to coordinate with ICE field offices to interrogate individuals it identified.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The civil rights groups contend the federal government is using illegal tactics and faulty data to harass innocent legal voters. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“These allegations are putting eligible voters — including naturalized U.S. citizens — at risk of disenfranchisement,” Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “The administration can’t keep creating political stunts to sow distrust in our elections and lay the groundwork to question results they don’t like.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter noted in Wednesday’s ruling that those most at risk of being disenfranchised are naturalized citizens.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Individuals that the federal government recently identified as noncitizens on voter rolls in different states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized citizens,” Carter wrote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>The ACLU’s and other groups’ suit came a week after a federal judge in California issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from doing in-person interrogations of people investigators suspect may be noncitizens. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“These allegations are putting eligible voters — including naturalized U.S. citizens — at risk of disenfranchisement,” Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “The administration can’t keep creating political stunts to sow distrust in our elections and lay the groundwork to question results they don’t like.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter noted in Wednesday’s ruling that those most at risk of being disenfranchised are naturalized citizens.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Individuals that the federal government recently identified as noncitizens on voter rolls in different states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized citizens,” Carter wrote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>The ACLU’s and other groups’ suit came a week after a federal judge in California issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from doing in-person interrogations of people investigators suspect may be noncitizens. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The judge in that case, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/nx-s1-6012682/judge-dhs-noncitizen-voting-operations\">ruled\u003c/a> that the federal government was relying on “faulty data sources that sweep in U.S. citizens” and was likely violating the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The judge in that case, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/nx-s1-6012682/judge-dhs-noncitizen-voting-operations\">ruled\u003c/a> that the federal government was relying on “faulty data sources that sweep in U.S. citizens” and was likely violating the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Martínez-Olguín’s order is in effect through Election Day. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-ballot-claims-california-ruling/\">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",
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"excerpt": "A federal judge refused to order California to set aside 20,000 ballots, citing a ‘pattern of attempted election interference’ by the Trump administration.",
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"title": "Judge Rejects Trump Administration Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saying the Trump administration had embarked on “a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference,” a federal judge on Wednesday refused to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106835/judge-says-trump-could-disenfranchise-voters-in-purge-of-noncitizens-from-election-rolls\">order California election officials to set aside 20,000 ballots\u003c/a> over claims those voters might not be citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” wrote U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This request violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28856709-carter-order/\">the judge wrote\u003c/a>, saying if he granted the Trump administration’s last-minute request “either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process. Over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ruling is the latest legal defeat for the Trump administration as it has sought to find evidence that would validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims that Democrats win because of rigged elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter said he declined to be a party to a process that could disenfranchise voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” he wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the executive (branch) can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter also slammed the federal government for not providing a clear accounting of its methodology in creating the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">list of 20,000 possible noncitizens\u003c/a>, saying prosecutors provided vague explanations “and raised multiple questions regarding reliability.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Federal officials insist their list is mostly accurate and came from investigators correlating public voter files, government data and commercial databases, but prosecutors have acknowledged that some of the people on the list are likely citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State and county officials and civil rights groups have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-voting-claims-counties/\">said that the list\u003c/a> appears to be riddled with inaccuracies and it often omits key data such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers that would allow county officials to confirm who the people are.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a briefing with reporters Wednesday before Carter’s ruling, California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal government’s case was little more than an “amateur hour” political stunt to validate Trump’s conspiracy theory that elections are rigged for Democrats.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“It’s a joke. It’s embarrassing, but it is dangerous,” Bonta said. “They are trying to attack the fundamental right to vote with trash data.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Fox News interview on Wednesday before the ruling, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the administration would appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We’re moving at a lightning pace because the way California does elections, everyone already has a ballot,” Essayli said. “Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been returned, and the counties already started processing those ballots. … That’s why we need an order now to separate and segregate these ballots — not to cancel any vote — just to sequester them so we can figure this out.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Higher court declined to intervene\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 9th Circuit panel already rejected one attempt by Essayli’s office to get an emergency order. A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 Monday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">reject an urgent appeal\u003c/a> to bypass Carter’s courtroom. The federal government claimed the district judge didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile on Wednesday, a group of civil rights organizations, including California’s chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Trump administration and urged a federal court to block the administration’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The groups claim the initiative has been targeting and intimidating naturalized U.S. citizens, former green card holders who have gone through the citizenship process. The initiative directed immigration officials to generate target lists of possible noncitizen voters and to coordinate with ICE field offices to interrogate individuals it identified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The civil rights groups contend the federal government is using illegal tactics and faulty data to harass innocent legal voters. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“These allegations are putting eligible voters — including naturalized U.S. citizens — at risk of disenfranchisement,” Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement. “The administration can’t keep creating political stunts to sow distrust in our elections and lay the groundwork to question results they don’t like.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Carter noted in Wednesday’s ruling that those most at risk of being disenfranchised are naturalized citizens.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Individuals that the federal government recently identified as noncitizens on voter rolls in different states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized citizens,” Carter wrote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>The ACLU’s and other groups’ suit came a week after a federal judge in California issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from doing in-person interrogations of people investigators suspect may be noncitizens. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judge in that case, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/10/22/nx-s1-6012682/judge-dhs-noncitizen-voting-operations\">ruled\u003c/a> that the federal government was relying on “faulty data sources that sweep in U.S. citizens” and was likely violating the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Martínez-Olguín’s order is in effect through Election Day. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-ballot-claims-california-ruling/\">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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-leaders-mourn-celebrate-dolores-huerta-and-her-legacy",
"title": "California Leaders Mourn, Celebrate Dolores Huerta and Her Legacy",
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"headTitle": "California Leaders Mourn, Celebrate Dolores Huerta and Her Legacy | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California leaders mourned Dolores Huerta, the indefatigable civil rights champion and farmworker advocate, praising her as a hero, giant and legend after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106881/dolores-huerta-influential-labor-leader-feminist-and-civil-rights-icon-dies-at-96\">her death on Wednesday\u003c/a> at age 96. Her family said in a statement that she died from cancer at home in Bakersfield. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who co-founded one of the world’s most renowned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/120851/dolores-huerta-the-civil-rights-icon-who-showed-farmworkers-si-se-puede\">agricultural worker labor movements\u003c/a>, spent most of her life pushing for economic justice and a voice for the dispossessed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even at her advanced age, she continued to participate in marches and protests, and encouraged Latino citizens to vote, including just days ago, said Angelica Salas, who directs the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and called Huerta “a mentor to thousands.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“She felt in her core that injustice had to be fought 24/7,” said Salas, adding that Huerta was a friend who supported her personally and professionally for decades. “The United States of America has lost a hero today.”\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/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11998083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Angelica Salas and other immigrant rights activists rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2024. (Tyche Hendricks/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fierce labor negotiator in a field dominated by men, Huerta helped lead large strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and 1970s with the union that became the United Farm Workers. Her labor organizing changed state laws and produced some of the nation’s first contracts to secure drinking water, sanitary toilets and other basic rights for thousands of farmworkers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta lobbied for California to become the first state to give agricultural workers the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alrb.ca.gov/forms-publications/faqs-and-guidance/fact-sheet-english/\">legal right to organize\u003c/a> and join unions in 1975, decades after the passage of a federal law that protected collective bargaining for other private-sector employees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“During that period of time, we had so much hope, and our message was out there saying to the world that we’re here and we exist and you can’t ignore us,” Huerta told KQED in 2012. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I really do believe that the only way that we can keep our democracy, the only way that we can get justice is by having people have a sense of their power,” she said. “This is the only way we can really achieve the goals that we need to make sure that we have a society that is equal.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who had more than a dozen children, coined the social-justice rallying cry “\u003ca href=\"https://ufw.org/research/history/history-si-se-puede/\">Sí se puede\u003c/a>,” translated as “Yes we can.” Former President Barack Obama, who coalesced millions of voters under the phrase during a historic 2008 presidential campaign, awarded Huerta the \u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/29/remarks-president-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony\">Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012\u003c/a>, praising her determination and courage. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Julián Castro, who leads the San Francisco-based Latino Community Foundation, said Huerta was an American icon who changed the course of history for good through her contributions to the labor movement, inspiring young women and men to work for social change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dolores, for me and I know for a lot of people, has been a role model of how you can dedicate your life to serving others, to making other people’s lives better,” Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and San Antonio mayor who ran for president in 2020, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“As heavy as our hearts are today with her passing, I believe that Dolores would want us to embrace her legacy by doing what she did, by organizing, by mobilizing, by helping to make sure that as many people, especially from the Latino community, get out and exercise their right to vote,” he said, adding that he believes Latino voters will participate in record numbers in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 3. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077340\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Retrato de la activista sindical Dolores Huerta, cofundadora del sindicato United Farm Workers, con una bandera sindical en la que se lee «Viva La Causa», hacia la década de 1970. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta spoke out against the rampant sexual abuse of farmworker women in the fields in a 2013 \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/rape-in-the-fields/\">film and radio series\u003c/a> that KQED collaborated on with Frontline, CIR, IRP and Univision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I believe that the employers are in total denial, and they will often take the word of the foreman or the manager against the woman if she does come forward,” Huerta said in the documentary. “And women know this. They know that they’re not going to be heard. They know that nobody’s going to be there to support them or protect them.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She stunned many by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077073/cesar-chavez-was-a-hero-to-farmworkers-now-they-confront-the-pain-of-alleged-abuse\">revealing\u003c/a> at age 95 that she herself was manipulated into sex and raped in the 1960s by the late union leader Cesar Chávez. Huerta came forward in a \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> investigation that uncovered disturbing accusations that Chávez sexually abused young girls and women for years. Huerta told the newspaper that she chose not to report the abuse partly because she feared that no one within the union would believe her. \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/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12062675\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference after a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Today, we sadly mourn the loss of Dolores Huerta, a leader in the American labor movement and a champion for civil rights who led with courage and determination,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who hosted Huerta for her 90th birthday in the U.S. Capitol, said in a statement. “Dolores was a dear friend, and we all responded to her rallying cry, ‘Sí se puede,’ which inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, to Juan Fernández and Alicia Chavez Fernández, in a small mining town in northern New Mexico, Huerta moved with her mother and brothers to Stockton during the Great Depression after her parents divorced. Her mother worked two jobs, bought a boarding house and taught her daughter that she had an obligation to help others — lessons Huerta later said shaped her feminism and commitment to service. Her father was a miner, farmworker and union activist who became a state lawmaker. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who acquired her last name through a marriage, said her mother’s independence inspired her to become a feminist. Huerta defied teachers who \u003ca href=\"https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/growing-tensions/dolores-huerta/\">questioned her achievements\u003c/a> in school because of her skin color, and men who said she should stay home and take care of children because of her gender.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally, California, 1975 or 1976. She wears a poncho with the UFW logo. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1962, Huerta and Chávez co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which would later be known as the United Farm Workers. Huerta, who served as UFW vice president until 1999, became a central strategist for the union, which thrust deplorable farm labor conditions — low pay, lack of toilets and drinking water, exposure to pesticides — into the national spotlight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At about 5 feet tall, Huerta did not shy away from conflict. She was arrested dozens of times by police during protests. At a 1988 rally seeking to curb growers’ use of toxic pesticides, club-wielding San Francisco officers sent the then-58-year-old grandmother to the hospital with \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-16-mn-2389-story.html\">broken ribs and a ruptured spleen\u003c/a>. After public outcry, including from San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, who visited Huerta at the hospital, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dolores-huerta-beaten-by-police-protest-san-francisco\">settled for $825,000\u003c/a> over the incident and changed its crowd control policies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Think of yourselves as the gardeners who are going to go out and sow the seeds of justice,” Huerta \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Notable-Alumni/Dolores-Huerta#:~:text=She%20was%20active%20in%20numerous,earning%20a%20provisional%20teaching%20credential.\">told\u003c/a> hundreds of people at San Joaquin Delta College in 2018, where she earned a provisional teaching credential as a young high school graduate, when the college was known as University of the Pacific’s Stockton College. “And those seeds are going to flower, and the spring is going to come back. But we know we have to go out there and do all the work.”\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/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106175\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a rally alongside California Democratic Party members, labor leaders and advocates in San Francisco on Oct. 23, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of Huerta. The governor and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.gov.ca.gov/archive/gov39/2013/01/23/news17905/index.html\">California Hall of Fame member\u003c/a> “fought for gender equity, workers’ rights and civil rights, paving the way for generations to come, and teaching people what was possible with determination and heart.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dolores represented the best of us,” they said in a statement. “California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erik Olvera, a spokesperson for Huerta’s family, said they plan to announce a public memorial in the coming days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/sasha-khokha\">\u003cem>Sasha Khokha\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta, who co-founded one of the world’s most renowned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/120851/dolores-huerta-the-civil-rights-icon-who-showed-farmworkers-si-se-puede\">agricultural worker labor movements\u003c/a>, spent most of her life pushing for economic justice and a voice for the dispossessed. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Even at her advanced age, she continued to participate in marches and protests, and encouraged Latino citizens to vote, including just days ago, said Angelica Salas, who directs the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and called Huerta “a mentor to thousands.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“She felt in her core that injustice had to be fought 24/7,” said Salas, adding that Huerta was a friend who supported her personally and professionally for decades. “The United States of America has lost a hero today.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A fierce labor negotiator in a field dominated by men, Huerta helped lead large strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and 1970s with the union that became the United Farm Workers. Her labor organizing changed state laws and produced some of the nation’s first contracts to secure drinking water, sanitary toilets and other basic rights for thousands of farmworkers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta lobbied for California to become the first state to give agricultural workers the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alrb.ca.gov/forms-publications/faqs-and-guidance/fact-sheet-english/\">legal right to organize\u003c/a> and join unions in 1975, decades after the passage of a federal law that protected collective bargaining for other private-sector employees.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“During that period of time, we had so much hope, and our message was out there saying to the world that we’re here and we exist and you can’t ignore us,” Huerta told KQED in 2012. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I really do believe that the only way that we can keep our democracy, the only way that we can get justice is by having people have a sense of their power,” she said. “This is the only way we can really achieve the goals that we need to make sure that we have a society that is equal.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta, who had more than a dozen children, coined the social-justice rallying cry “\u003ca href=\"https://ufw.org/research/history/history-si-se-puede/\">Sí se puede\u003c/a>,” translated as “Yes we can.” Former President Barack Obama, who coalesced millions of voters under the phrase during a historic 2008 presidential campaign, awarded Huerta the \u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/29/remarks-president-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony\">Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012\u003c/a>, praising her determination and courage. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Huerta, who had more than a dozen children, coined the social-justice rallying cry “\u003ca href=\"https://ufw.org/research/history/history-si-se-puede/\">Sí se puede\u003c/a>,” translated as “Yes we can.” Former President Barack Obama, who coalesced millions of voters under the phrase during a historic 2008 presidential campaign, awarded Huerta the \u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/29/remarks-president-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony\">Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012\u003c/a>, praising her determination and courage. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Julián Castro, who leads the San Francisco-based Latino Community Foundation, said Huerta was an American icon who changed the course of history for good through her contributions to the labor movement, inspiring young women and men to work for social change.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Julián Castro, who leads the San Francisco-based Latino Community Foundation, said Huerta was an American icon who changed the course of history for good through her contributions to the labor movement, inspiring young women and men to work for social change.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Dolores, for me and I know for a lot of people, has been a role model of how you can dedicate your life to serving others, to making other people’s lives better,” Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and San Antonio mayor who ran for president in 2020, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“As heavy as our hearts are today with her passing, I believe that Dolores would want us to embrace her legacy by doing what she did, by organizing, by mobilizing, by helping to make sure that as many people, especially from the Latino community, get out and exercise their right to vote,” he said, adding that he believes Latino voters will participate in record numbers in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 3. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“As heavy as our hearts are today with her passing, I believe that Dolores would want us to embrace her legacy by doing what she did, by organizing, by mobilizing, by helping to make sure that as many people, especially from the Latino community, get out and exercise their right to vote,” he said, adding that he believes Latino voters will participate in record numbers in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 3. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta spoke out against the rampant sexual abuse of farmworker women in the fields in a 2013 \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/rape-in-the-fields/\">film and radio series\u003c/a> that KQED collaborated on with Frontline, CIR, IRP and Univision. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I believe that the employers are in total denial, and they will often take the word of the foreman or the manager against the woman if she does come forward,” Huerta said in the documentary. “And women know this. They know that they’re not going to be heard. They know that nobody’s going to be there to support them or protect them.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She stunned many by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077073/cesar-chavez-was-a-hero-to-farmworkers-now-they-confront-the-pain-of-alleged-abuse\">revealing\u003c/a> at age 95 that she herself was manipulated into sex and raped in the 1960s by the late union leader Cesar Chávez. Huerta came forward in a \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> investigation that uncovered disturbing accusations that Chávez sexually abused young girls and women for years. Huerta told the newspaper that she chose not to report the abuse partly because she feared that no one within the union would believe her. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She stunned many by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077073/cesar-chavez-was-a-hero-to-farmworkers-now-they-confront-the-pain-of-alleged-abuse\">revealing\u003c/a> at age 95 that she herself was manipulated into sex and raped in the 1960s by the late union leader Cesar Chávez. Huerta came forward in a \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> investigation that uncovered disturbing accusations that Chávez sexually abused young girls and women for years. Huerta told the newspaper that she chose not to report the abuse partly because she feared that no one within the union would believe her. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Today, we sadly mourn the loss of Dolores Huerta, a leader in the American labor movement and a champion for civil rights who led with courage and determination,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who hosted Huerta for her 90th birthday in the U.S. Capitol, said in a statement. “Dolores was a dear friend, and we all responded to her rallying cry, ‘Sí se puede,’ which inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, to Juan Fernández and Alicia Chavez Fernández, in a small mining town in northern New Mexico, Huerta moved with her mother and brothers to Stockton during the Great Depression after her parents divorced. Her mother worked two jobs, bought a boarding house and taught her daughter that she had an obligation to help others — lessons Huerta later said shaped her feminism and commitment to service. Her father was a miner, farmworker and union activist who became a state lawmaker. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, to Juan Fernández and Alicia Chavez Fernández, in a small mining town in northern New Mexico, Huerta moved with her mother and brothers to Stockton during the Great Depression after her parents divorced. Her mother worked two jobs, bought a boarding house and taught her daughter that she had an obligation to help others — lessons Huerta later said shaped her feminism and commitment to service. Her father was a miner, farmworker and union activist who became a state lawmaker. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta, who acquired her last name through a marriage, said her mother’s independence inspired her to become a feminist. Huerta defied teachers who \u003ca href=\"https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/growing-tensions/dolores-huerta/\">questioned her achievements\u003c/a> in school because of her skin color, and men who said she should stay home and take care of children because of her gender.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Huerta, who acquired her last name through a marriage, said her mother’s independence inspired her to become a feminist. Huerta defied teachers who \u003ca href=\"https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/growing-tensions/dolores-huerta/\">questioned her achievements\u003c/a> in school because of her skin color, and men who said she should stay home and take care of children because of her gender.\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/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally, California, 1975 or 1976. She wears a poncho with the UFW logo.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\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/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally, California, 1975 or 1976. She wears a poncho with the UFW logo.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1962, Huerta and Chávez co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which would later be known as the United Farm Workers. Huerta, who served as UFW vice president until 1999, became a central strategist for the union, which thrust deplorable farm labor conditions — low pay, lack of toilets and drinking water, exposure to pesticides — into the national spotlight. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1962, Huerta and Chávez co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which would later be known as the United Farm Workers. Huerta, who served as UFW vice president until 1999, became a central strategist for the union, which thrust deplorable farm labor conditions — low pay, lack of toilets and drinking water, exposure to pesticides — into the national spotlight. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At about 5 feet tall, Huerta did not shy away from conflict. She was arrested dozens of times by police during protests. At a 1988 rally seeking to curb growers’ use of toxic pesticides, club-wielding San Francisco officers sent the then-58-year-old grandmother to the hospital with \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-16-mn-2389-story.html\">broken ribs and a ruptured spleen\u003c/a>. After public outcry, including from San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, who visited Huerta at the hospital, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dolores-huerta-beaten-by-police-protest-san-francisco\">settled for $825,000\u003c/a> over the incident and changed its crowd control policies. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>At about 5 feet tall, Huerta did not shy away from conflict. She was arrested dozens of times by police during protests. At a 1988 rally seeking to curb growers’ use of toxic pesticides, club-wielding San Francisco officers sent the then-58-year-old grandmother to the hospital with \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-16-mn-2389-story.html\">broken ribs and a ruptured spleen\u003c/a>. After public outcry, including from San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, who visited Huerta at the hospital, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dolores-huerta-beaten-by-police-protest-san-francisco\">settled for $825,000\u003c/a> over the incident and changed its crowd control policies. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Think of yourselves as the gardeners who are going to go out and sow the seeds of justice,” Huerta \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Notable-Alumni/Dolores-Huerta#:~:text=She%20was%20active%20in%20numerous,earning%20a%20provisional%20teaching%20credential.\">told\u003c/a> hundreds of people at San Joaquin Delta College in 2018, where she earned a provisional teaching credential as a young high school graduate, when the college was known as University of the Pacific’s Stockton College. “And those seeds are going to flower, and the spring is going to come back. But we know we have to go out there and do all the work.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Think of yourselves as the gardeners who are going to go out and sow the seeds of justice,” Huerta \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Notable-Alumni/Dolores-Huerta#:~:text=She%20was%20active%20in%20numerous,earning%20a%20provisional%20teaching%20credential.\">told\u003c/a> hundreds of people at San Joaquin Delta College in 2018, where she earned a provisional teaching credential as a young high school graduate, when the college was known as University of the Pacific’s Stockton College. “And those seeds are going to flower, and the spring is going to come back. But we know we have to go out there and do all the work.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106175\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a rally alongside California Democratic Party members, labor leaders and advocates in San Francisco on Oct. 23, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of Huerta. The governor and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.gov.ca.gov/archive/gov39/2013/01/23/news17905/index.html\">California Hall of Fame member\u003c/a> “fought for gender equity, workers’ rights and civil rights, paving the way for generations to come, and teaching people what was possible with determination and heart.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of Huerta. The governor and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.gov.ca.gov/archive/gov39/2013/01/23/news17905/index.html\">California Hall of Fame member\u003c/a> “fought for gender equity, workers’ rights and civil rights, paving the way for generations to come, and teaching people what was possible with determination and heart.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Dolores represented the best of us,” they said in a statement. “California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Dolores represented the best of us,” they said in a statement. “California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Erik Olvera, a spokesperson for Huerta’s family, said they plan to announce a public memorial in the coming days. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Erik Olvera, a spokesperson for Huerta’s family, said they plan to announce a public memorial in the coming days. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/sasha-khokha\">\u003cem>Sasha Khokha\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Elected officials and civil rights leaders hailed the farmworker activist, who died at age 96, as a hero, giant and legend.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California leaders mourned Dolores Huerta, the indefatigable civil rights champion and farmworker advocate, praising her as a hero, giant and legend after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106881/dolores-huerta-influential-labor-leader-feminist-and-civil-rights-icon-dies-at-96\">her death on Wednesday\u003c/a> at age 96. Her family said in a statement that she died from cancer at home in Bakersfield. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who co-founded one of the world’s most renowned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/120851/dolores-huerta-the-civil-rights-icon-who-showed-farmworkers-si-se-puede\">agricultural worker labor movements\u003c/a>, spent most of her life pushing for economic justice and a voice for the dispossessed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even at her advanced age, she continued to participate in marches and protests, and encouraged Latino citizens to vote, including just days ago, said Angelica Salas, who directs the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, and called Huerta “a mentor to thousands.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“She felt in her core that injustice had to be fought 24/7,” said Salas, adding that Huerta was a friend who supported her personally and professionally for decades. “The United States of America has lost a hero today.”\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/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11998083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240730-CITIZENSHIP-FOR-ALL-TH-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Angelica Salas and other immigrant rights activists rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2024. (Tyche Hendricks/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fierce labor negotiator in a field dominated by men, Huerta helped lead large strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and 1970s with the union that became the United Farm Workers. Her labor organizing changed state laws and produced some of the nation’s first contracts to secure drinking water, sanitary toilets and other basic rights for thousands of farmworkers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta lobbied for California to become the first state to give agricultural workers the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alrb.ca.gov/forms-publications/faqs-and-guidance/fact-sheet-english/\">legal right to organize\u003c/a> and join unions in 1975, decades after the passage of a federal law that protected collective bargaining for other private-sector employees.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“During that period of time, we had so much hope, and our message was out there saying to the world that we’re here and we exist and you can’t ignore us,” Huerta told KQED in 2012. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I really do believe that the only way that we can keep our democracy, the only way that we can get justice is by having people have a sense of their power,” she said. “This is the only way we can really achieve the goals that we need to make sure that we have a society that is equal.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who had more than a dozen children, coined the social-justice rallying cry “\u003ca href=\"https://ufw.org/research/history/history-si-se-puede/\">Sí se puede\u003c/a>,” translated as “Yes we can.” Former President Barack Obama, who coalesced millions of voters under the phrase during a historic 2008 presidential campaign, awarded Huerta the \u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/29/remarks-president-presidential-medal-freedom-ceremony\">Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012\u003c/a>, praising her determination and courage. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Julián Castro, who leads the San Francisco-based Latino Community Foundation, said Huerta was an American icon who changed the course of history for good through her contributions to the labor movement, inspiring young women and men to work for social change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dolores, for me and I know for a lot of people, has been a role model of how you can dedicate your life to serving others, to making other people’s lives better,” Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and San Antonio mayor who ran for president in 2020, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“As heavy as our hearts are today with her passing, I believe that Dolores would want us to embrace her legacy by doing what she did, by organizing, by mobilizing, by helping to make sure that as many people, especially from the Latino community, get out and exercise their right to vote,” he said, adding that he believes Latino voters will participate in record numbers in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 3. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1070\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12077340\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/Dolores-Huerta-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Retrato de la activista sindical Dolores Huerta, cofundadora del sindicato United Farm Workers, con una bandera sindical en la que se lee «Viva La Causa», hacia la década de 1970. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta spoke out against the rampant sexual abuse of farmworker women in the fields in a 2013 \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/rape-in-the-fields/\">film and radio series\u003c/a> that KQED collaborated on with Frontline, CIR, IRP and Univision. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I believe that the employers are in total denial, and they will often take the word of the foreman or the manager against the woman if she does come forward,” Huerta said in the documentary. “And women know this. They know that they’re not going to be heard. They know that nobody’s going to be there to support them or protect them.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She stunned many by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077073/cesar-chavez-was-a-hero-to-farmworkers-now-they-confront-the-pain-of-alleged-abuse\">revealing\u003c/a> at age 95 that she herself was manipulated into sex and raped in the 1960s by the late union leader Cesar Chávez. Huerta came forward in a \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em> investigation that uncovered disturbing accusations that Chávez sexually abused young girls and women for years. Huerta told the newspaper that she chose not to report the abuse partly because she feared that no one within the union would believe her. \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/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12062675\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-65-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference after a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Today, we sadly mourn the loss of Dolores Huerta, a leader in the American labor movement and a champion for civil rights who led with courage and determination,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who hosted Huerta for her 90th birthday in the U.S. Capitol, said in a statement. “Dolores was a dear friend, and we all responded to her rallying cry, ‘Sí se puede,’ which inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, to Juan Fernández and Alicia Chavez Fernández, in a small mining town in northern New Mexico, Huerta moved with her mother and brothers to Stockton during the Great Depression after her parents divorced. Her mother worked two jobs, bought a boarding house and taught her daughter that she had an obligation to help others — lessons Huerta later said shaped her feminism and commitment to service. Her father was a miner, farmworker and union activist who became a state lawmaker. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta, who acquired her last name through a marriage, said her mother’s independence inspired her to become a feminist. Huerta defied teachers who \u003ca href=\"https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/growing-tensions/dolores-huerta/\">questioned her achievements\u003c/a> in school because of her skin color, and men who said she should stay home and take care of children because of her gender.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally, California, 1975 or 1976. She wears a poncho with the UFW logo. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1962, Huerta and Chávez co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which would later be known as the United Farm Workers. Huerta, who served as UFW vice president until 1999, became a central strategist for the union, which thrust deplorable farm labor conditions — low pay, lack of toilets and drinking water, exposure to pesticides — into the national spotlight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At about 5 feet tall, Huerta did not shy away from conflict. She was arrested dozens of times by police during protests. At a 1988 rally seeking to curb growers’ use of toxic pesticides, club-wielding San Francisco officers sent the then-58-year-old grandmother to the hospital with \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-16-mn-2389-story.html\">broken ribs and a ruptured spleen\u003c/a>. After public outcry, including from San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, who visited Huerta at the hospital, the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dolores-huerta-beaten-by-police-protest-san-francisco\">settled for $825,000\u003c/a> over the incident and changed its crowd control policies. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Think of yourselves as the gardeners who are going to go out and sow the seeds of justice,” Huerta \u003ca href=\"https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Notable-Alumni/Dolores-Huerta#:~:text=She%20was%20active%20in%20numerous,earning%20a%20provisional%20teaching%20credential.\">told\u003c/a> hundreds of people at San Joaquin Delta College in 2018, where she earned a provisional teaching credential as a young high school graduate, when the college was known as University of the Pacific’s Stockton College. “And those seeds are going to flower, and the spring is going to come back. But we know we have to go out there and do all the work.”\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/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106175\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-PROP50VICTORYLAP-33-BL-KQED-7273678d-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a rally alongside California Democratic Party members, labor leaders and advocates in San Francisco on Oct. 23, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of Huerta. The governor and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.gov.ca.gov/archive/gov39/2013/01/23/news17905/index.html\">California Hall of Fame member\u003c/a> “fought for gender equity, workers’ rights and civil rights, paving the way for generations to come, and teaching people what was possible with determination and heart.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Dolores represented the best of us,” they said in a statement. “California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erik Olvera, a spokesperson for Huerta’s family, said they plan to announce a public memorial in the coming days. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/sasha-khokha\">\u003cem>Sasha Khokha\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-democrats-push-back-on-reports-of-trump-administration-plans-to-deport-immigrants-by-ship",
"title": "California Democrats Push Back on Reports of Trump Administration Plans to Deport Immigrants by Ship",
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"headTitle": "California Democrats Push Back on Reports of Trump Administration Plans to Deport Immigrants by Ship | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A pair of California congressmembers are mounting resistance to the Trump administration after reports of a proposal to use ships — including a maritime training vessel at Mare Island — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">for deportation\u003c/a> voyages.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Democratic Reps. John Garamendi, who represents Solano County, and Salud Carbajal, of Santa Barbara, said the plan “is outrageous and should be immediately discarded.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garamendi is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and his district includes the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, where the 500-foot Golden Bear has served as a training ship for mariners over three decades. He told KQED that deportation journeys by ship could take many days, as opposed to hours on an airplane, and would be costly and inhumane.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076926\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, at the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on June 16, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“An airplane is expensive enough. A ship is several times more expensive,” he said. “Immigrants are often \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103799/bay-area-officials-immigration-advocates-brace-for-ice-surge-after-central-valley-arrests\">detained\u003c/a> in very unsafe facilities. Immigrants have died in these facilities. And to add to this complex, dangerous program of detention, to put immigrants on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no healthcare anywhere nearby … makes absolutely no sense.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/trump-deportations-boats-ships.html\">reporting\u003c/a> by the New York Times earlier this month that the departments of Homeland Security and Defense are considering a plan to use ships, possibly including ferries and commercial vessels as well as the Golden Bear, to transport hundreds of people to Central and South America. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Golden Bear served as a training vessel at Cal Poly Maritime Academy for 30 years. It is \u003ca href=\"https://maritime.calpoly.edu/news/golden-bear-golden-state-new-era-cal-poly-maritime-academy\">set to be transferred\u003c/a> back to the U.S. Maritime Administration as the academy transitions in the coming months to a new training ship, according to the academy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Golden Bear has been an invaluable floating classroom that just returned from a three-month trip training cadets on navigation, engine mechanics and other skills essential to the maritime industry and military fields, Garamendi said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Any efforts to use the Golden Bear as a floating prison to hold, detain and deport migrants would be a dangerous misuse of government and taxpayer property,” the letter to Mullin said. “Mass relocations by sea would require moving hundreds of detained individuals through international waters and raises enormous operational, safety and legal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, the congressmembers said, “the plan recalls catastrophic historical examples of deportations by sea that violated human rights and resulted in deadly consequences.” They reference 19th-century expulsions of Irish refugees and Chinese immigrants, and mass deportations of Mexicans in the 20th century, all of which employed ships.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garamendi said he’s not opposed to immigration enforcement, but he faulted Republicans for scuttling Democratic legislation to address immigration issues “humanely and sanely,” and instead turning to strategies he called cruel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The entire Trump immigration program to deport the worst of the worst has descended into deporting anybody they can get their hands on, and often doing it in a very, very dangerous way,” he said, adding the plan for deportation ships “makes no sense at all. Do not do it. Don’t even consider it.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment by press time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A pair of California congressmembers are mounting resistance to the Trump administration after reports of a proposal to use ships — including a maritime training vessel at Mare Island — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">for deportation\u003c/a> voyages.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Democratic Reps. John Garamendi, who represents Solano County, and Salud Carbajal, of Santa Barbara, said the plan “is outrageous and should be immediately discarded.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Garamendi is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and his district includes the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, where the 500-foot Golden Bear has served as a training ship for mariners over three decades. He told KQED that deportation journeys by ship could take many days, as opposed to hours on an airplane, and would be costly and inhumane.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Garamendi is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and his district includes the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, where the 500-foot Golden Bear has served as a training ship for mariners over three decades. He told KQED that deportation journeys by ship could take many days, as opposed to hours on an airplane, and would be costly and inhumane.\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/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076926\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, at the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on June 16, 2022. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“An airplane is expensive enough. A ship is several times more expensive,” he said. “Immigrants are often \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103799/bay-area-officials-immigration-advocates-brace-for-ice-surge-after-central-valley-arrests\">detained\u003c/a> in very unsafe facilities. Immigrants have died in these facilities. And to add to this complex, dangerous program of detention, to put immigrants on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no healthcare anywhere nearby … makes absolutely no sense.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The letter follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/trump-deportations-boats-ships.html\">reporting\u003c/a> by the New York Times earlier this month that the departments of Homeland Security and Defense are considering a plan to use ships, possibly including ferries and commercial vessels as well as the Golden Bear, to transport hundreds of people to Central and South America. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The letter follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/trump-deportations-boats-ships.html\">reporting\u003c/a> by the New York Times earlier this month that the departments of Homeland Security and Defense are considering a plan to use ships, possibly including ferries and commercial vessels as well as the Golden Bear, to transport hundreds of people to Central and South America. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Golden Bear served as a training vessel at Cal Poly Maritime Academy for 30 years. It is \u003ca href=\"https://maritime.calpoly.edu/news/golden-bear-golden-state-new-era-cal-poly-maritime-academy\">set to be transferred\u003c/a> back to the U.S. Maritime Administration as the academy transitions in the coming months to a new training ship, according to the academy. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Golden Bear has been an invaluable floating classroom that just returned from a three-month trip training cadets on navigation, engine mechanics and other skills essential to the maritime industry and military fields, Garamendi said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Any efforts to use the Golden Bear as a floating prison to hold, detain and deport migrants would be a dangerous misuse of government and taxpayer property,” the letter to Mullin said. “Mass relocations by sea would require moving hundreds of detained individuals through international waters and raises enormous operational, safety and legal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In addition, the congressmembers said, “the plan recalls catastrophic historical examples of deportations by sea that violated human rights and resulted in deadly consequences.” They reference 19th-century expulsions of Irish refugees and Chinese immigrants, and mass deportations of Mexicans in the 20th century, all of which employed ships.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In addition, the congressmembers said, “the plan recalls catastrophic historical examples of deportations by sea that violated human rights and resulted in deadly consequences.” They reference 19th-century expulsions of Irish refugees and Chinese immigrants, and mass deportations of Mexicans in the 20th century, all of which employed ships.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Garamendi said he’s not opposed to immigration enforcement, but he faulted Republicans for scuttling Democratic legislation to address immigration issues “humanely and sanely,” and instead turning to strategies he called cruel.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Garamendi said he’s not opposed to immigration enforcement, but he faulted Republicans for scuttling Democratic legislation to address immigration issues “humanely and sanely,” and instead turning to strategies he called cruel.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The entire Trump immigration program to deport the worst of the worst has descended into deporting anybody they can get their hands on, and often doing it in a very, very dangerous way,” he said, adding the plan for deportation ships “makes no sense at all. Do not do it. Don’t even consider it.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Rep. John Garamendi opposes plans to use a maritime training vessel at Mare Island. ",
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"title": "California Democrats Push Back on Reports of Trump Administration Plans to Deport Immigrants by Ship | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A pair of California congressmembers are mounting resistance to the Trump administration after reports of a proposal to use ships — including a maritime training vessel at Mare Island — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">for deportation\u003c/a> voyages.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Democratic Reps. John Garamendi, who represents Solano County, and Salud Carbajal, of Santa Barbara, said the plan “is outrageous and should be immediately discarded.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garamendi is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and his district includes the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in Vallejo, where the 500-foot Golden Bear has served as a training ship for mariners over three decades. He told KQED that deportation journeys by ship could take many days, as opposed to hours on an airplane, and would be costly and inhumane.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1332\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076926\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/John-Garamendi-Getty-1536x1023.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, at the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on June 16, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“An airplane is expensive enough. A ship is several times more expensive,” he said. “Immigrants are often \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12103799/bay-area-officials-immigration-advocates-brace-for-ice-surge-after-central-valley-arrests\">detained\u003c/a> in very unsafe facilities. Immigrants have died in these facilities. And to add to this complex, dangerous program of detention, to put immigrants on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no healthcare anywhere nearby … makes absolutely no sense.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/trump-deportations-boats-ships.html\">reporting\u003c/a> by the New York Times earlier this month that the departments of Homeland Security and Defense are considering a plan to use ships, possibly including ferries and commercial vessels as well as the Golden Bear, to transport hundreds of people to Central and South America. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Golden Bear served as a training vessel at Cal Poly Maritime Academy for 30 years. It is \u003ca href=\"https://maritime.calpoly.edu/news/golden-bear-golden-state-new-era-cal-poly-maritime-academy\">set to be transferred\u003c/a> back to the U.S. Maritime Administration as the academy transitions in the coming months to a new training ship, according to the academy. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Golden Bear has been an invaluable floating classroom that just returned from a three-month trip training cadets on navigation, engine mechanics and other skills essential to the maritime industry and military fields, Garamendi said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Any efforts to use the Golden Bear as a floating prison to hold, detain and deport migrants would be a dangerous misuse of government and taxpayer property,” the letter to Mullin said. “Mass relocations by sea would require moving hundreds of detained individuals through international waters and raises enormous operational, safety and legal challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, the congressmembers said, “the plan recalls catastrophic historical examples of deportations by sea that violated human rights and resulted in deadly consequences.” They reference 19th-century expulsions of Irish refugees and Chinese immigrants, and mass deportations of Mexicans in the 20th century, all of which employed ships.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garamendi said he’s not opposed to immigration enforcement, but he faulted Republicans for scuttling Democratic legislation to address immigration issues “humanely and sanely,” and instead turning to strategies he called cruel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The entire Trump immigration program to deport the worst of the worst has descended into deporting anybody they can get their hands on, and often doing it in a very, very dangerous way,” he said, adding the plan for deportation ships “makes no sense at all. Do not do it. Don’t even consider it.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to KQED’s request for comment by press time.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "dolores-huerta-influential-labor-leader-feminist-and-civil-rights-icon-dies-at-96",
"title": "Dolores Huerta, Influential Labor Leader, Feminist and Civil Rights Icon, Dies at 96",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054312/dolores-huerta-on-the-state-of-workers-rights-in-california\">Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking in cities across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights on behalf of her Bakersfield, California-based foundation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could effect change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta told KQED’s \u003cem>The California Report\u003c/em> in 2025, when the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in California — hitting agricultural communities like Bakersfield first, she noted — that farm workers still had “an awful lot of pride” for the work they do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1393\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12044395\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-1536x1070.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Portrait of labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers group, with a union flag that reads “Viva La Causa,” ca.1970s. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This whole perception that the employers themselves have put out there that somehow a farm worker is below someone’s level of competence or someone’s level of pride that they have kind of created that mentality,” Huerta said then. “Unfortunately that still sits there.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta said she had kept silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked during a 2026 interview with the news organization Latino USA about keeping the secret, Huerta said: “It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear. I’ll say it that way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Homegrown activism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Immersed in a melting pot of Mexican, Filipino, African American, Japanese and Chinese working families, Huerta learned from her mother — who owned a restaurant and hotel — about independence, compassion and activism.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was a young, energetic elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to answer another calling after growing frustrated by her students’ poor living conditions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary on her life. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s early work with a civil rights group in Stockton resulted in her meeting Chavez. The two wanted to focus more on the plight of farmworkers, so in 1962 they started the National Farm Workers Association, which became United Farm Workers of America a few years later. She was a key leader and negotiator for the union for years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She was among those who joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line in what became the five-year “Delano Grape Strike.” With Chavez, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements and contracts with big growers, winning the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chavez, who died in 1993, once described her as fearless, committed to the cause and tough when it came to negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">On the campaign trail\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She met U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts during his visit to Delano in 1968 and became a volunteer on his presidential campaign, registering Mexican Americans in California to vote. Huerta was on stage with Kennedy after he won the California primary, and he publicly thanked her moments before he was shot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The assassination devastated Huerta, but she kept organizing for farmworkers’ rights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, she was seriously injured while protesting Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott during his visit to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally in California, circa 1975 or 1976. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caught in a crowd, she was struck by a police officer’s baton, suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and required more than a dozen blood transfusions. She reached a settlement with the city to resolve her claims.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a long recovery, Huerta shifted focus and hit the road to campaign for women’s rights and encourage Latinas to run for office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She also campaigned for Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Obama and Joe Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom considered her a close friend.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fueled by courage\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emilio Huerta, one of Dolores’ 13 children, once pointed to his mom’s courage during an interview, saying it was one of the most significant drivers of her life’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“To dedicate your life to building a dream of a union for farmworkers, to take on agriculture, which to this day is still a powerhouse … That took a lot of guts,” he had said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta learned the art of lobbying politicians. She secured financial aid for the unemployed and disability insurance for California farmworkers. She spoke out against toxic pesticides, pushed for amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and fought federal guest worker programs.\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/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106906\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A close-up shows the hands of Dolores Huerta, 95, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) labor union, with bracelets reading “huelga” (“strike”) and “si se puede” (“yes we can”) as she poses in her office in Bakersfield, California, on July 21, 2025. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her work earned her many accolades. She was the first Latina to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and she’s received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schools are named in her honor in a handful of states, including California. San Francisco Unified School District renamed an elementary school in her honor back in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her image graces many murals, and streets bear her name, but she didn’t always win favor with more liberal activists.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2016, when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dawson and Huerta eventually reconciled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guitarist Carlos Santana later oversaw a documentary based on Huerta’s life after the pair had a late-night conversation about music while in Hawaii. Santana, a Miles Davis fan, discovered Huerta was a huge fan of bebop legend Charlie Parker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with \u003cem>The Associated Press\u003c/em> when she was 87.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was her work as a leader within the labor movement that reverberated through the U.S. and beyond, making her name synonymous with civil rights. In the 2025 documentary \u003cem>Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta\u003c/em>, she recounted her decades-long journey in activism and talked about the inspiration she drew from the women’s movement during the 1970s, saying it provided validation that she too could stand on the stage with other labor leaders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” she said in the film. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money because they’ll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice — and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/skennedy\">\u003cem>Samantha Kennedy\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>and Associated Press journalist Brian Melley contributed to this report. Former AP journalist Russell Contreras also contributed reporting previously for this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta told KQED’s \u003cem>The California Report\u003c/em> in 2025, when the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in California — hitting agricultural communities like Bakersfield first, she noted — that farm workers still had “an awful lot of pride” for the work they do. \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/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12044395\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-1536x1070.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Portrait of labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers group, with a union flag that reads “Viva La Causa,” ca.1970s. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This whole perception that the employers themselves have put out there that somehow a farm worker is below someone’s level of competence or someone’s level of pride that they have kind of created that mentality,” Huerta said then. “Unfortunately that still sits there.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta said she had kept silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When asked during a 2026 interview with the news organization Latino USA about keeping the secret, Huerta said: “It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear. I’ll say it that way.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta was a young, energetic elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to answer another calling after growing frustrated by her students’ poor living conditions.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary on her life. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta’s early work with a civil rights group in Stockton resulted in her meeting Chavez. The two wanted to focus more on the plight of farmworkers, so in 1962 they started the National Farm Workers Association, which became United Farm Workers of America a few years later. She was a key leader and negotiator for the union for years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She was among those who joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line in what became the five-year “Delano Grape Strike.” With Chavez, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements and contracts with big growers, winning the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chavez, who died in 1993, once described her as fearless, committed to the cause and tough when it came to negotiations.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She met U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts during his visit to Delano in 1968 and became a volunteer on his presidential campaign, registering Mexican Americans in California to vote. Huerta was on stage with Kennedy after he won the California primary, and he publicly thanked her moments before he was shot.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The assassination devastated Huerta, but she kept organizing for farmworkers’ rights.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, she was seriously injured while protesting Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott during his visit to San Francisco.\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/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally in California, circa 1975 or 1976. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Caught in a crowd, she was struck by a police officer’s baton, suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and required more than a dozen blood transfusions. She reached a settlement with the city to resolve her claims.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After a long recovery, Huerta shifted focus and hit the road to campaign for women’s rights and encourage Latinas to run for office.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She also campaigned for Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Obama and Joe Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom considered her a close friend.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Emilio Huerta, one of Dolores’ 13 children, once pointed to his mom’s courage during an interview, saying it was one of the most significant drivers of her life’s work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“To dedicate your life to building a dream of a union for farmworkers, to take on agriculture, which to this day is still a powerhouse … That took a lot of guts,” he had said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Huerta learned the art of lobbying politicians. She secured financial aid for the unemployed and disability insurance for California farmworkers. She spoke out against toxic pesticides, pushed for amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and fought federal guest worker programs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Her work earned her many accolades. She was the first Latina to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and she’s received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Schools are named in her honor in a handful of states, including California. San Francisco Unified School District renamed an elementary school in her honor back in 2019.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2016, when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2016, when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Dawson and Huerta eventually reconciled.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Guitarist Carlos Santana later oversaw a documentary based on Huerta’s life after the pair had a late-night conversation about music while in Hawaii. Santana, a Miles Davis fan, discovered Huerta was a huge fan of bebop legend Charlie Parker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with \u003cem>The Associated Press\u003c/em> when she was 87.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with \u003cem>The Associated Press\u003c/em> when she was 87.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was her work as a leader within the labor movement that reverberated through the U.S. and beyond, making her name synonymous with civil rights. In the 2025 documentary \u003cem>Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta\u003c/em>, she recounted her decades-long journey in activism and talked about the inspiration she drew from the women’s movement during the 1970s, saying it provided validation that she too could stand on the stage with other labor leaders.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” she said in the film. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money because they’ll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice — and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/skennedy\">\u003cem>Samantha Kennedy\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>and Associated Press journalist Brian Melley contributed to this report. Former AP journalist Russell Contreras also contributed reporting previously for this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Huerta founded the farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez, which led strikes and boycotts in the ’60s and ’70s, changing laws and the lives of thousands of migrant laborers.",
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"title": "Dolores Huerta, Influential Labor Leader, Feminist and Civil Rights Icon, Dies at 96 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054312/dolores-huerta-on-the-state-of-workers-rights-in-california\">Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking in cities across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights on behalf of her Bakersfield, California-based foundation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could effect change.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta told KQED’s \u003cem>The California Report\u003c/em> in 2025, when the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in California — hitting agricultural communities like Bakersfield first, she noted — that farm workers still had “an awful lot of pride” for the work they do. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1393\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12044395\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/DoloresHuertaHistoricPortraitGetty-1536x1070.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Portrait of labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers group, with a union flag that reads “Viva La Causa,” ca.1970s. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“This whole perception that the employers themselves have put out there that somehow a farm worker is below someone’s level of competence or someone’s level of pride that they have kind of created that mentality,” Huerta said then. “Unfortunately that still sits there.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta said she had kept silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked during a 2026 interview with the news organization Latino USA about keeping the secret, Huerta said: “It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear. I’ll say it that way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Homegrown activism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Immersed in a melting pot of Mexican, Filipino, African American, Japanese and Chinese working families, Huerta learned from her mother — who owned a restaurant and hotel — about independence, compassion and activism.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was a young, energetic elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to answer another calling after growing frustrated by her students’ poor living conditions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary on her life. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta’s early work with a civil rights group in Stockton resulted in her meeting Chavez. The two wanted to focus more on the plight of farmworkers, so in 1962 they started the National Farm Workers Association, which became United Farm Workers of America a few years later. She was a key leader and negotiator for the union for years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She was among those who joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line in what became the five-year “Delano Grape Strike.” With Chavez, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements and contracts with big growers, winning the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chavez, who died in 1993, once described her as fearless, committed to the cause and tough when it came to negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">On the campaign trail\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She met U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts during his visit to Delano in 1968 and became a volunteer on his presidential campaign, registering Mexican Americans in California to vote. Huerta was on stage with Kennedy after he won the California primary, and he publicly thanked her moments before he was shot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The assassination devastated Huerta, but she kept organizing for farmworkers’ rights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, she was seriously injured while protesting Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott during his visit to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-160x125.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty-f533bcc7-1536x1201.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) Dolores Huerta speaks on stage during a UFW rally in California, circa 1975 or 1976. (Cathy Murphy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caught in a crowd, she was struck by a police officer’s baton, suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and required more than a dozen blood transfusions. She reached a settlement with the city to resolve her claims.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a long recovery, Huerta shifted focus and hit the road to campaign for women’s rights and encourage Latinas to run for office.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She also campaigned for Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Obama and Joe Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom considered her a close friend.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fueled by courage\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emilio Huerta, one of Dolores’ 13 children, once pointed to his mom’s courage during an interview, saying it was one of the most significant drivers of her life’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“To dedicate your life to building a dream of a union for farmworkers, to take on agriculture, which to this day is still a powerhouse … That took a lot of guts,” he had said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huerta learned the art of lobbying politicians. She secured financial aid for the unemployed and disability insurance for California farmworkers. She spoke out against toxic pesticides, pushed for amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and fought federal guest worker programs.\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/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106906\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/DoloresHuertaGetty2-a3693d7e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A close-up shows the hands of Dolores Huerta, 95, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) labor union, with bracelets reading “huelga” (“strike”) and “si se puede” (“yes we can”) as she poses in her office in Bakersfield, California, on July 21, 2025. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her work earned her many accolades. She was the first Latina to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and she’s received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schools are named in her honor in a handful of states, including California. San Francisco Unified School District renamed an elementary school in her honor back in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her image graces many murals, and streets bear her name, but she didn’t always win favor with more liberal activists.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2016, when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dawson and Huerta eventually reconciled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guitarist Carlos Santana later oversaw a documentary based on Huerta’s life after the pair had a late-night conversation about music while in Hawaii. Santana, a Miles Davis fan, discovered Huerta was a huge fan of bebop legend Charlie Parker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with \u003cem>The Associated Press\u003c/em> when she was 87.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was her work as a leader within the labor movement that reverberated through the U.S. and beyond, making her name synonymous with civil rights. In the 2025 documentary \u003cem>Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta\u003c/em>, she recounted her decades-long journey in activism and talked about the inspiration she drew from the women’s movement during the 1970s, saying it provided validation that she too could stand on the stage with other labor leaders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” she said in the film. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money because they’ll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice — and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>KQED’s\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/skennedy\">\u003cem>Samantha Kennedy\u003c/em>\u003c/a> \u003cem>and Associated Press journalist Brian Melley contributed to this report. Former AP journalist Russell Contreras also contributed reporting previously for this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "californias-new-ai-bossware-laws-are-about-to-take-effect-are-employers-ready",
"title": "California’s New AI ‘Bossware’ Laws Are About to Take Effect. Are Employers Ready?",
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"headTitle": "California’s New AI ‘Bossware’ Laws Are About to Take Effect. Are Employers Ready? | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pa Vue is a telephone triage nurse with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente\">Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>. She works the night shift, from midnight to 8:30 a.m., from her home in the Central Valley. Vue’s job is to calmly assess each caller as they describe their concerns and symptoms, looking for red flags that indicate immediate treatment is warranted, like signs of a heart attack or stroke.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s a critical job, and one of a growing number impacted by AI-powered surveillance software, aka “bossware.” California has gone further than any other state to begin regulating it. At the end of September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102337/newsom-signs-slate-of-ai-workplace-laws-barring-robo-bosses-and-surveillance\">five labor-backed bills regulating AI in the workplace\u003c/a>. Among them is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, which bars health facilities from letting AI alone do work reserved for licensed professionals, and requires them to protect clinicians’ independent judgment when AI informs care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1883\">AB 1883\u003c/a> restricts employers from using AI-powered workplace surveillance tools to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2024, Vue said she learned Kaiser was piloting a feature that included scoring the sentiment of recorded calls — as in, evaluating employees’ attitudes in the recordings. Nurses were later told the pilot was paused. But while Vue was on maternity leave a year later, Kaiser appeared to have instituted the feature, because Vue said she came back to work to find a “sentiment score” in the metadata attached to each of her recorded calls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue said she isn’t opposed to AI in medicine, but she objects to the sentiment scoring because triage nurses are trained to stay calm and press patients to detail their symptoms, even if that means the patients become agitated or fearful in the process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue said she wasn’t even sure how to interpret the numbers she was seeing in the metadata. She wasn’t sure what scale she was being graded on or how high the numbers went. The nurses asked management about the metrics, Vue said, but got no answers. Whoever made the system that was evaluating the calls, Vue said, didn’t “really understand what we’re going through.”\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/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106026\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pa Vue, a Telephone Triage Nurse, at her home office in Fresno on Oct. 22, 2026. (Jennifer Emerling for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Kaiser wrote KQED, “We currently do not use AI tools to recognize, predict or infer emotional states of our nurses.” The spokesperson also wrote that the healthcare giant is reviewing the implications of AB 1883 for its operations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Scoring whether someone said the right words is one thing, and that’s okay, but scoring what they were feeling now is off limits,” management-side employment attorney Anthony Zaller told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AB 1883 should, in theory, require removing sentiment scoring-style software from jobs like Vue’s. Zaller said he’s not familiar with Kaiser’s use of AI specifically, but he said that employers commonly don’t realize the extent to which AI is embedded in their software — or that existing laws already make employers responsible in a way they can’t sidestep “just because you ran it through some software.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue is a member of the California Nurses Association, which has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097878/in-oakland-kaiser-nurses-take-staffing-ai-concerns-to-the-picket-lines\">battling Kaiser\u003c/a> over its use of AI bossware. Her account appeared under a pseudonym as one first-person example among a couple dozen from workers around the state in a recent labor coalition \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wjHhCwpkPvsknn3yFVfGpsJn6NG?domain=report.norobobosses.org/\">report\u003c/a> warning that artificial intelligence and surveillance tools are increasingly used to monitor, manage and discipline workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of surveillance and monitoring in their workplaces,” said Stasia Hansen, deputy director of research and strategy at one of the coalition members, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a labor and housing organization focused on Alameda and Contra Costa counties. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue first learned of the 2024 pilot because she sits on a joint union-management committee on nursing practice; the committee brought its concerns to management’s attention “to really hold them accountable to their own principles,” she said, referring to \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-key-issues/artificial-intelligence\">Kaiser’s publicly stated AI policy\u003c/a>. She was less than impressed with management’s response.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They tell us they can’t turn it off. Of course, nothing can be turned off because it’s built into the system. So they will have to lose a lot of money and go with a different software, or they’re just going to have to use the platform,” Vue said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KQED asked Kaiser whether its call platform generates sentiment scores, whose sentiment they measure and whether the feature can be turned off. Kaiser did not answer. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How widespread bossware is remains hard to measure. Employers rarely disclose the tools they use, and the algorithms are proprietary, so outside researchers seldom get to examine them except through leaks or lawsuits. But the signs keep piling up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The use of work-surveillance technology took off during the pandemic. As many people started working remotely, more employers began surveilling their teams in new ways: tracking keyboard strokes, taking screenshots and monitoring pauses. According to The New York Times, by 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html\">eight of the 10 biggest private employers\u003c/a> in the United States were tracking the productivity metrics of individual workers.\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/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076763\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Kaiser Permanente building at 1800 Harrison (center-top) in Oakland on March 16, 2026. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Workers in a wide variety of industries, Hansen said, “are facing consequences due to productivity expectations or due to systems that don’t reasonably take into consideration key factors of their workplaces and work situations, which we as humans are able to assess.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As it moved through the legislature last session, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">AB 1883\u003c/a> faced opposition among business-friendly interests. The California Chamber of Commerce, for example, said in a letter to lawmakers that the bill would open employers up to litigation over what the phrase “emotional state” means. The Chamber also said that the ban could sweep in AI security systems that detect agitation or aggression, tools some employers adopted to comply with a 2023 state law requiring workplace violence prevention plans.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California lawmakers aren’t the only ones to consider legislating limits on bossware. The European Union, for instance, has banned emotion recognition at work since 2025. But similar bills specifically seeking to regulate the use of AI to detect worker emotion died this year in Minnesota, New York and Washington. A broader Massachusetts bill limiting workplace monitoring stalled in committee. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California’s bills “took some hits in the committee process,” said Hansen, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy deputy research director, referring to the compromises made to get the proposals through the legislature and signed by the governor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What can pass in Sacramento, she said, is different from what can pass locally. “So while we’re thrilled to see this foundation at the state level, we also know that there’s a lot more to be done for actual robust protections for workers, and so we’re looking to move those on the local level, across the state.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hansen did not name a Bay Area city or county that has agreed to take up such a measure. None appears to have done so, although Santa Clara County supervisors voted in March to study AI use across county departments, and San José’s largest city employee union has sought limits on AI in contract talks with the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The People’s Technology Coalition, which includes the San José nonprofit Working Partnerships USA, held its launch at San José City Hall in September. Hansen said the coalition plans to start with public employers, because cities can act both as employers — setting rules for their own workforce and the technology they buy — and as regulators of private employers within their limits. “It’s both the city as an employer and also the city as a regulatory body,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, tech companies are pouring some of the largest private investments in history into AI built to automate work. Zaller, the employment attorney, is doubtful regulation will stop the use of bossware altogether.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The Pandora’s box is open. It’s here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Pa Vue is a telephone triage nurse with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente\">Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>. She works the night shift, from midnight to 8:30 a.m., from her home in the Central Valley. Vue’s job is to calmly assess each caller as they describe their concerns and symptoms, looking for red flags that indicate immediate treatment is warranted, like signs of a heart attack or stroke.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Pa Vue is a telephone triage nurse with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente\">Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>. She works the night shift, from midnight to 8:30 a.m., from her home in the Central Valley. Vue’s job is to calmly assess each caller as they describe their concerns and symptoms, looking for red flags that indicate immediate treatment is warranted, like signs of a heart attack or stroke.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s a critical job, and one of a growing number impacted by AI-powered surveillance software, aka “bossware.” California has gone further than any other state to begin regulating it. At the end of September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102337/newsom-signs-slate-of-ai-workplace-laws-barring-robo-bosses-and-surveillance\">five labor-backed bills regulating AI in the workplace\u003c/a>. Among them is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, which bars health facilities from letting AI alone do work reserved for licensed professionals, and requires them to protect clinicians’ independent judgment when AI informs care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1883\">AB 1883\u003c/a> restricts employers from using AI-powered workplace surveillance tools to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s a critical job, and one of a growing number impacted by AI-powered surveillance software, aka “bossware.” California has gone further than any other state to begin regulating it. At the end of September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102337/newsom-signs-slate-of-ai-workplace-laws-barring-robo-bosses-and-surveillance\">five labor-backed bills regulating AI in the workplace\u003c/a>. Among them is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, which bars health facilities from letting AI alone do work reserved for licensed professionals, and requires them to protect clinicians’ independent judgment when AI informs care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1883\">AB 1883\u003c/a> restricts employers from using AI-powered workplace surveillance tools to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2024, Vue said she learned Kaiser was piloting a feature that included scoring the sentiment of recorded calls — as in, evaluating employees’ attitudes in the recordings. Nurses were later told the pilot was paused. But while Vue was on maternity leave a year later, Kaiser appeared to have instituted the feature, because Vue said she came back to work to find a “sentiment score” in the metadata attached to each of her recorded calls. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2024, Vue said she learned Kaiser was piloting a feature that included scoring the sentiment of recorded calls — as in, evaluating employees’ attitudes in the recordings. Nurses were later told the pilot was paused. But while Vue was on maternity leave a year later, Kaiser appeared to have instituted the feature, because Vue said she came back to work to find a “sentiment score” in the metadata attached to each of her recorded calls. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Vue said she isn’t opposed to AI in medicine, but she objects to the sentiment scoring because triage nurses are trained to stay calm and press patients to detail their symptoms, even if that means the patients become agitated or fearful in the process. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Vue said she isn’t opposed to AI in medicine, but she objects to the sentiment scoring because triage nurses are trained to stay calm and press patients to detail their symptoms, even if that means the patients become agitated or fearful in the process. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Vue said she wasn’t even sure how to interpret the numbers she was seeing in the metadata. She wasn’t sure what scale she was being graded on or how high the numbers went. The nurses asked management about the metrics, Vue said, but got no answers. Whoever made the system that was evaluating the calls, Vue said, didn’t “really understand what we’re going through.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Vue said she wasn’t even sure how to interpret the numbers she was seeing in the metadata. She wasn’t sure what scale she was being graded on or how high the numbers went. The nurses asked management about the metrics, Vue said, but got no answers. Whoever made the system that was evaluating the calls, Vue said, didn’t “really understand what we’re going through.”\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/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106026\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pa Vue, a Telephone Triage Nurse, at her home office in Fresno on Oct. 22, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Jennifer Emerling for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Kaiser wrote KQED, “We currently do not use AI tools to recognize, predict or infer emotional states of our nurses.” The spokesperson also wrote that the healthcare giant is reviewing the implications of AB 1883 for its operations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Kaiser wrote KQED, “We currently do not use AI tools to recognize, predict or infer emotional states of our nurses.” The spokesperson also wrote that the healthcare giant is reviewing the implications of AB 1883 for its operations. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Scoring whether someone said the right words is one thing, and that’s okay, but scoring what they were feeling now is off limits,” management-side employment attorney Anthony Zaller told KQED. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>AB 1883 should, in theory, require removing sentiment scoring-style software from jobs like Vue’s. Zaller said he’s not familiar with Kaiser’s use of AI specifically, but he said that employers commonly don’t realize the extent to which AI is embedded in their software — or that existing laws already make employers responsible in a way they can’t sidestep “just because you ran it through some software.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>AB 1883 should, in theory, require removing sentiment scoring-style software from jobs like Vue’s. Zaller said he’s not familiar with Kaiser’s use of AI specifically, but he said that employers commonly don’t realize the extent to which AI is embedded in their software — or that existing laws already make employers responsible in a way they can’t sidestep “just because you ran it through some software.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Vue is a member of the California Nurses Association, which has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097878/in-oakland-kaiser-nurses-take-staffing-ai-concerns-to-the-picket-lines\">battling Kaiser\u003c/a> over its use of AI bossware. Her account appeared under a pseudonym as one first-person example among a couple dozen from workers around the state in a recent labor coalition \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wjHhCwpkPvsknn3yFVfGpsJn6NG?domain=report.norobobosses.org/\">report\u003c/a> warning that artificial intelligence and surveillance tools are increasingly used to monitor, manage and discipline workers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Vue is a member of the California Nurses Association, which has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097878/in-oakland-kaiser-nurses-take-staffing-ai-concerns-to-the-picket-lines\">battling Kaiser\u003c/a> over its use of AI bossware. Her account appeared under a pseudonym as one first-person example among a couple dozen from workers around the state in a recent labor coalition \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wjHhCwpkPvsknn3yFVfGpsJn6NG?domain=report.norobobosses.org/\">report\u003c/a> warning that artificial intelligence and surveillance tools are increasingly used to monitor, manage and discipline workers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of surveillance and monitoring in their workplaces,” said Stasia Hansen, deputy director of research and strategy at one of the coalition members, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a labor and housing organization focused on Alameda and Contra Costa counties. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of surveillance and monitoring in their workplaces,” said Stasia Hansen, deputy director of research and strategy at one of the coalition members, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a labor and housing organization focused on Alameda and Contra Costa counties. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Vue first learned of the 2024 pilot because she sits on a joint union-management committee on nursing practice; the committee brought its concerns to management’s attention “to really hold them accountable to their own principles,” she said, referring to \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-key-issues/artificial-intelligence\">Kaiser’s publicly stated AI policy\u003c/a>. She was less than impressed with management’s response.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Vue first learned of the 2024 pilot because she sits on a joint union-management committee on nursing practice; the committee brought its concerns to management’s attention “to really hold them accountable to their own principles,” she said, referring to \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-key-issues/artificial-intelligence\">Kaiser’s publicly stated AI policy\u003c/a>. She was less than impressed with management’s response.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They tell us they can’t turn it off. Of course, nothing can be turned off because it’s built into the system. So they will have to lose a lot of money and go with a different software, or they’re just going to have to use the platform,” Vue said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They tell us they can’t turn it off. Of course, nothing can be turned off because it’s built into the system. So they will have to lose a lot of money and go with a different software, or they’re just going to have to use the platform,” Vue said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED asked Kaiser whether its call platform generates sentiment scores, whose sentiment they measure and whether the feature can be turned off. Kaiser did not answer. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED asked Kaiser whether its call platform generates sentiment scores, whose sentiment they measure and whether the feature can be turned off. Kaiser did not answer. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>How widespread bossware is remains hard to measure. Employers rarely disclose the tools they use, and the algorithms are proprietary, so outside researchers seldom get to examine them except through leaks or lawsuits. But the signs keep piling up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The use of work-surveillance technology took off during the pandemic. As many people started working remotely, more employers began surveilling their teams in new ways: tracking keyboard strokes, taking screenshots and monitoring pauses. According to The New York Times, by 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html\">eight of the 10 biggest private employers\u003c/a> in the United States were tracking the productivity metrics of individual workers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Workers in a wide variety of industries, Hansen said, “are facing consequences due to productivity expectations or due to systems that don’t reasonably take into consideration key factors of their workplaces and work situations, which we as humans are able to assess.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As it moved through the legislature last session, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">AB 1883\u003c/a> faced opposition among business-friendly interests. The California Chamber of Commerce, for example, said in a letter to lawmakers that the bill would open employers up to litigation over what the phrase “emotional state” means. The Chamber also said that the ban could sweep in AI security systems that detect agitation or aggression, tools some employers adopted to comply with a 2023 state law requiring workplace violence prevention plans.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California lawmakers aren’t the only ones to consider legislating limits on bossware. The European Union, for instance, has banned emotion recognition at work since 2025. But similar bills specifically seeking to regulate the use of AI to detect worker emotion died this year in Minnesota, New York and Washington. A broader Massachusetts bill limiting workplace monitoring stalled in committee. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California’s bills “took some hits in the committee process,” said Hansen, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy deputy research director, referring to the compromises made to get the proposals through the legislature and signed by the governor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What can pass in Sacramento, she said, is different from what can pass locally. “So while we’re thrilled to see this foundation at the state level, we also know that there’s a lot more to be done for actual robust protections for workers, and so we’re looking to move those on the local level, across the state.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Hansen did not name a Bay Area city or county that has agreed to take up such a measure. None appears to have done so, although Santa Clara County supervisors voted in March to study AI use across county departments, and San José’s largest city employee union has sought limits on AI in contract talks with the city.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The People’s Technology Coalition, which includes the San José nonprofit Working Partnerships USA, held its launch at San José City Hall in September. Hansen said the coalition plans to start with public employers, because cities can act both as employers — setting rules for their own workforce and the technology they buy — and as regulators of private employers within their limits. “It’s both the city as an employer and also the city as a regulatory body,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the meantime, tech companies are pouring some of the largest private investments in history into AI built to automate work. Zaller, the employment attorney, is doubtful regulation will stop the use of bossware altogether.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the meantime, tech companies are pouring some of the largest private investments in history into AI built to automate work. Zaller, the employment attorney, is doubtful regulation will stop the use of bossware altogether.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The Pandora’s box is open. It’s here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "New labor-backed laws about AI in the workplace are about to take effect in California. It’s not clear how many employers realize the software they already use may run afoul of the new rules.",
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"title": "California’s New AI ‘Bossware’ Laws Are About to Take Effect. Are Employers Ready? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pa Vue is a telephone triage nurse with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/kaiser-permanente\">Kaiser Permanente\u003c/a>. She works the night shift, from midnight to 8:30 a.m., from her home in the Central Valley. Vue’s job is to calmly assess each caller as they describe their concerns and symptoms, looking for red flags that indicate immediate treatment is warranted, like signs of a heart attack or stroke.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s a critical job, and one of a growing number impacted by AI-powered surveillance software, aka “bossware.” California has gone further than any other state to begin regulating it. At the end of September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12102337/newsom-signs-slate-of-ai-workplace-laws-barring-robo-bosses-and-surveillance\">five labor-backed bills regulating AI in the workplace\u003c/a>. Among them is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1979\">AB 1979\u003c/a>, which bars health facilities from letting AI alone do work reserved for licensed professionals, and requires them to protect clinicians’ independent judgment when AI informs care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVersionsCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1883\">AB 1883\u003c/a> restricts employers from using AI-powered workplace surveillance tools to read workers’ emotions or collect their neural data. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2024, Vue said she learned Kaiser was piloting a feature that included scoring the sentiment of recorded calls — as in, evaluating employees’ attitudes in the recordings. Nurses were later told the pilot was paused. But while Vue was on maternity leave a year later, Kaiser appeared to have instituted the feature, because Vue said she came back to work to find a “sentiment score” in the metadata attached to each of her recorded calls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue said she isn’t opposed to AI in medicine, but she objects to the sentiment scoring because triage nurses are trained to stay calm and press patients to detail their symptoms, even if that means the patients become agitated or fearful in the process. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue said she wasn’t even sure how to interpret the numbers she was seeing in the metadata. She wasn’t sure what scale she was being graded on or how high the numbers went. The nurses asked management about the metrics, Vue said, but got no answers. Whoever made the system that was evaluating the calls, Vue said, didn’t “really understand what we’re going through.”\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/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12106026\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261023-KAISER-AI-NURSES-01-KQED-bab50399-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pa Vue, a Telephone Triage Nurse, at her home office in Fresno on Oct. 22, 2026. (Jennifer Emerling for KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Kaiser wrote KQED, “We currently do not use AI tools to recognize, predict or infer emotional states of our nurses.” The spokesperson also wrote that the healthcare giant is reviewing the implications of AB 1883 for its operations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Scoring whether someone said the right words is one thing, and that’s okay, but scoring what they were feeling now is off limits,” management-side employment attorney Anthony Zaller told KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AB 1883 should, in theory, require removing sentiment scoring-style software from jobs like Vue’s. Zaller said he’s not familiar with Kaiser’s use of AI specifically, but he said that employers commonly don’t realize the extent to which AI is embedded in their software — or that existing laws already make employers responsible in a way they can’t sidestep “just because you ran it through some software.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue is a member of the California Nurses Association, which has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097878/in-oakland-kaiser-nurses-take-staffing-ai-concerns-to-the-picket-lines\">battling Kaiser\u003c/a> over its use of AI bossware. Her account appeared under a pseudonym as one first-person example among a couple dozen from workers around the state in a recent labor coalition \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wjHhCwpkPvsknn3yFVfGpsJn6NG?domain=report.norobobosses.org/\">report\u003c/a> warning that artificial intelligence and surveillance tools are increasingly used to monitor, manage and discipline workers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of surveillance and monitoring in their workplaces,” said Stasia Hansen, deputy director of research and strategy at one of the coalition members, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a labor and housing organization focused on Alameda and Contra Costa counties. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vue first learned of the 2024 pilot because she sits on a joint union-management committee on nursing practice; the committee brought its concerns to management’s attention “to really hold them accountable to their own principles,” she said, referring to \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-key-issues/artificial-intelligence\">Kaiser’s publicly stated AI policy\u003c/a>. She was less than impressed with management’s response.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They tell us they can’t turn it off. Of course, nothing can be turned off because it’s built into the system. So they will have to lose a lot of money and go with a different software, or they’re just going to have to use the platform,” Vue said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KQED asked Kaiser whether its call platform generates sentiment scores, whose sentiment they measure and whether the feature can be turned off. Kaiser did not answer. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How widespread bossware is remains hard to measure. Employers rarely disclose the tools they use, and the algorithms are proprietary, so outside researchers seldom get to examine them except through leaks or lawsuits. But the signs keep piling up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The use of work-surveillance technology took off during the pandemic. As many people started working remotely, more employers began surveilling their teams in new ways: tracking keyboard strokes, taking screenshots and monitoring pauses. According to The New York Times, by 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/14/business/worker-productivity-tracking.html\">eight of the 10 biggest private employers\u003c/a> in the United States were tracking the productivity metrics of individual workers.\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/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12076763\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260317-KAISER-RETREATS-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Kaiser Permanente building at 1800 Harrison (center-top) in Oakland on March 16, 2026. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Workers in a wide variety of industries, Hansen said, “are facing consequences due to productivity expectations or due to systems that don’t reasonably take into consideration key factors of their workplaces and work situations, which we as humans are able to assess.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As it moved through the legislature last session, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">AB 1883\u003c/a> faced opposition among business-friendly interests. The California Chamber of Commerce, for example, said in a letter to lawmakers that the bill would open employers up to litigation over what the phrase “emotional state” means. The Chamber also said that the ban could sweep in AI security systems that detect agitation or aggression, tools some employers adopted to comply with a 2023 state law requiring workplace violence prevention plans.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California lawmakers aren’t the only ones to consider legislating limits on bossware. The European Union, for instance, has banned emotion recognition at work since 2025. But similar bills specifically seeking to regulate the use of AI to detect worker emotion died this year in Minnesota, New York and Washington. A broader Massachusetts bill limiting workplace monitoring stalled in committee. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California’s bills “took some hits in the committee process,” said Hansen, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy deputy research director, referring to the compromises made to get the proposals through the legislature and signed by the governor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What can pass in Sacramento, she said, is different from what can pass locally. “So while we’re thrilled to see this foundation at the state level, we also know that there’s a lot more to be done for actual robust protections for workers, and so we’re looking to move those on the local level, across the state.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hansen did not name a Bay Area city or county that has agreed to take up such a measure. None appears to have done so, although Santa Clara County supervisors voted in March to study AI use across county departments, and San José’s largest city employee union has sought limits on AI in contract talks with the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The People’s Technology Coalition, which includes the San José nonprofit Working Partnerships USA, held its launch at San José City Hall in September. Hansen said the coalition plans to start with public employers, because cities can act both as employers — setting rules for their own workforce and the technology they buy — and as regulators of private employers within their limits. “It’s both the city as an employer and also the city as a regulatory body,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, tech companies are pouring some of the largest private investments in history into AI built to automate work. Zaller, the employment attorney, is doubtful regulation will stop the use of bossware altogether.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“The Pandora’s box is open. It’s here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-to-pay-10-million-to-settle-class-action-over-women-gassed-at-chowchilla-prison",
"title": "California Agrees to Pay $10 Million in Class Action Over Women Gassed at Chowchilla Prison",
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"headTitle": "California Agrees to Pay $10 Million in Class Action Over Women Gassed at Chowchilla Prison | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California has reached a tentative $10 million agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of incarcerated women at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/central-california-womens-facility\">Central California Women’s Facility\u003c/a> who were held in a crowded dining hall and sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There’s no amount of money that can fix what we went through that day,” said Angelina Hernandez, who is no longer in prison. “I have really bad PTSD. It really messed me up in a lot of different ways.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the morning of Aug. 2, 2024, correctional officers at the Chowchilla facility moved more than 150 women to the dining hall to conduct a massive search of their unit, according to the suit, and seize any personal belongings that did not fit in a 6-cubic-foot box. \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=-a8Fb2UwB1c&t=6s\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After hours of being confined to the cafeteria without food, water or access to medication, tensions became heightened. Women shouted at the officers and banged on the tables, according to internal documents obtained by KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officers deployed chemical grenades and pepper spray on the women — first inside the chow hall, and then again after the women were zip-tied and seated in the yard outside. At least one woman named Christina Wind was also beaten by officers with batons. Women suffered injuries ranging from seizures, stroke and loss of eyesight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the incident, officers were captured on body camera saying things like “Put them down with gas,” and “Fun, fun, fun, baby,” according to internal documents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mass use-of-force event led to the largest corrective action related to a single incident in state history, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Three correctional officers were fired and 31 more received discipline, ranging from reprimands to pay cuts. Several officers are still appealing those actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the agreement, $7.45 million would be split among the class members, while $2.5 million would go to their attorneys. Another lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 women who were injured during the incident was settled for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077737/california-agrees-to-1-9m-settlement-in-prison-use-of-force-case\">$1.9 million in March\u003c/a>, bringing the combined value of the settlements to nearly $12 million.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“It was a gross violation of constitutional rights,” said attorney Mark Merin, who represents the women in the class action. “The state obviously recognizes that on some level and is coming forward with substantial compensation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prison agency has not admitted fault in either suit. CDCR Press Secretary Terri Hardy said in an email that the agency cannot comment on active litigation, but that the department “continues its commitment to safe and constitutional operations at all institutions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104812/put-them-down-with-gas-kqed-investigation-finds-abuse-and-retaliation-at-chowchilla-prison\">KQED investigation found\u003c/a> the mass use-of-force incident was carried out amid a striking rise in sexual assault complaints —known as Prison Rape Elimination Act complaints — at the prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Five women told KQED they believed the incident was intended to stop the flood of PREA complaints. But those allegations of retaliation were not looked into by the agency, according to documents obtained by KQED.\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/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12090738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Officers lead an incarcerated woman through a Receiving and Release (R&R) yard at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, on June 30, 2026. The prison is the largest women’s correctional facility in California, and the R&R yard is used to process incarcerated people entering and leaving the facility. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hardy wrote that CDCR “has implemented significant reforms to strengthen investigative processes, enhance facility oversight, expand fixed and Body Worn camera coverage, and improve PREA reporting pathways.” And she said the agency “is fully committed” to supporting sexual assault victims. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, the CCWF warden \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12100922/warden-of-californias-largest-womens-prison-reassigned-amid-scrutiny-over-sexual-abuse\">was transferred and demoted\u003c/a>, amid a new investigation into sexual abuse by officers at the prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A judge is set to review the settlement agreement on Dec. 4. If it is approved, claim forms and notices will be mailed to the 142 women represented in the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I feel like [CDCR] should do a lot more,” Hernandez said. “I feel like all those officers [involved in Aug. 2] should be walked off.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There’s no amount of money that can fix what we went through that day,” said Angelina Hernandez, who is no longer in prison. “I have really bad PTSD. It really messed me up in a lot of different ways.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On the morning of Aug. 2, 2024, correctional officers at the Chowchilla facility moved more than 150 women to the dining hall to conduct a massive search of their unit, according to the suit, and seize any personal belongings that did not fit in a 6-cubic-foot box. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Officers deployed chemical grenades and pepper spray on the women — first inside the chow hall, and then again after the women were zip-tied and seated in the yard outside. At least one woman named Christina Wind was also beaten by officers with batons. Women suffered injuries ranging from seizures, stroke and loss of eyesight. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The mass use-of-force event led to the largest corrective action related to a single incident in state history, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Three correctional officers were fired and 31 more received discipline, ranging from reprimands to pay cuts. Several officers are still appealing those actions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Under the agreement, $7.45 million would be split among the class members, while $2.5 million would go to their attorneys. Another lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 women who were injured during the incident was settled for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077737/california-agrees-to-1-9m-settlement-in-prison-use-of-force-case\">$1.9 million in March\u003c/a>, bringing the combined value of the settlements to nearly $12 million.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Under the agreement, $7.45 million would be split among the class members, while $2.5 million would go to their attorneys. Another lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 women who were injured during the incident was settled for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077737/california-agrees-to-1-9m-settlement-in-prison-use-of-force-case\">$1.9 million in March\u003c/a>, bringing the combined value of the settlements to nearly $12 million.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It was a gross violation of constitutional rights,” said attorney Mark Merin, who represents the women in the class action. “The state obviously recognizes that on some level and is coming forward with substantial compensation.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The prison agency has not admitted fault in either suit. CDCR Press Secretary Terri Hardy said in an email that the agency cannot comment on active litigation, but that the department “continues its commitment to safe and constitutional operations at all institutions.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104812/put-them-down-with-gas-kqed-investigation-finds-abuse-and-retaliation-at-chowchilla-prison\">KQED investigation found\u003c/a> the mass use-of-force incident was carried out amid a striking rise in sexual assault complaints —known as Prison Rape Elimination Act complaints — at the prison. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A judge is set to review the settlement agreement on Dec. 4. If it is approved, claim forms and notices will be mailed to the 142 women represented in the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I feel like [CDCR] should do a lot more,” Hernandez said. “I feel like all those officers [involved in Aug. 2] should be walked off.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The operation at the Central California Women’s Facility resulted in the largest corrective action related to a single incident in state history.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California has reached a tentative $10 million agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of incarcerated women at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/central-california-womens-facility\">Central California Women’s Facility\u003c/a> who were held in a crowded dining hall and sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“There’s no amount of money that can fix what we went through that day,” said Angelina Hernandez, who is no longer in prison. “I have really bad PTSD. It really messed me up in a lot of different ways.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the morning of Aug. 2, 2024, correctional officers at the Chowchilla facility moved more than 150 women to the dining hall to conduct a massive search of their unit, according to the suit, and seize any personal belongings that did not fit in a 6-cubic-foot box. \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/-a8Fb2UwB1c'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-a8Fb2UwB1c'\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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After hours of being confined to the cafeteria without food, water or access to medication, tensions became heightened. Women shouted at the officers and banged on the tables, according to internal documents obtained by KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officers deployed chemical grenades and pepper spray on the women — first inside the chow hall, and then again after the women were zip-tied and seated in the yard outside. At least one woman named Christina Wind was also beaten by officers with batons. Women suffered injuries ranging from seizures, stroke and loss of eyesight. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the incident, officers were captured on body camera saying things like “Put them down with gas,” and “Fun, fun, fun, baby,” according to internal documents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mass use-of-force event led to the largest corrective action related to a single incident in state history, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Three correctional officers were fired and 31 more received discipline, ranging from reprimands to pay cuts. Several officers are still appealing those actions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the agreement, $7.45 million would be split among the class members, while $2.5 million would go to their attorneys. Another lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 women who were injured during the incident was settled for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12077737/california-agrees-to-1-9m-settlement-in-prison-use-of-force-case\">$1.9 million in March\u003c/a>, bringing the combined value of the settlements to nearly $12 million.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“It was a gross violation of constitutional rights,” said attorney Mark Merin, who represents the women in the class action. “The state obviously recognizes that on some level and is coming forward with substantial compensation.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prison agency has not admitted fault in either suit. CDCR Press Secretary Terri Hardy said in an email that the agency cannot comment on active litigation, but that the department “continues its commitment to safe and constitutional operations at all institutions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104812/put-them-down-with-gas-kqed-investigation-finds-abuse-and-retaliation-at-chowchilla-prison\">KQED investigation found\u003c/a> the mass use-of-force incident was carried out amid a striking rise in sexual assault complaints —known as Prison Rape Elimination Act complaints — at the prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Five women told KQED they believed the incident was intended to stop the flood of PREA complaints. But those allegations of retaliation were not looked into by the agency, according to documents obtained by KQED.\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/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12090738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260630-CCWFTOUR-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Officers lead an incarcerated woman through a Receiving and Release (R&R) yard at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, on June 30, 2026. The prison is the largest women’s correctional facility in California, and the R&R yard is used to process incarcerated people entering and leaving the facility. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hardy wrote that CDCR “has implemented significant reforms to strengthen investigative processes, enhance facility oversight, expand fixed and Body Worn camera coverage, and improve PREA reporting pathways.” And she said the agency “is fully committed” to supporting sexual assault victims. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, the CCWF warden \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12100922/warden-of-californias-largest-womens-prison-reassigned-amid-scrutiny-over-sexual-abuse\">was transferred and demoted\u003c/a>, amid a new investigation into sexual abuse by officers at the prison. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A judge is set to review the settlement agreement on Dec. 4. If it is approved, claim forms and notices will be mailed to the 142 women represented in the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I feel like [CDCR] should do a lot more,” Hernandez said. “I feel like all those officers [involved in Aug. 2] should be walked off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "judge-says-trump-could-disenfranchise-voters-in-purge-of-noncitizens-from-election-rolls",
"title": "Judge Says Trump Could Disenfranchise Voters in Purge of Noncitizens From Election Rolls",
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"headTitle": "Judge Says Trump Could Disenfranchise Voters in Purge of Noncitizens From Election Rolls | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saying he had concerns it could disenfranchise voters during the midterm election, a federal judge on Tuesday seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s demands that California election officials set aside 20,000 ballots that it claimed could have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">mailed to noncitizens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Some of these may be very valid voters, and that’s my concern about disenfranchisement,” said U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter said he would issue a formal ruling by Wednesday, but he told the courtroom he was likely going to appoint a special master to weigh the evidence both sides present at a hearing in two weeks. That means his final ruling might not come until after the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said he didn’t want to “just wing it with a ruling” based on last-minute evidence the federal government submitted to the court the night before Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter also suggested that his ruling would order federal authorities to stop telling election officials that they could face criminal charges if they didn’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands. The Trump administration on Friday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106247/doj-orders-contra-costa-other-california-counties-to-verify-ballots\">sent letters to California election officials\u003c/a> telling them to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens, and threatened them with criminal charges if they allowed those people to vote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state or county (election) employees cease immediately,” Carter told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter’s remarks point to yet another likely legal blow to the Trump administration as it seeks to validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims of widespread election fraud favoring Democrats. Experts and election officials say those claims are meritless. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, acknowledged that the government’s list of 20,000 people may contain citizens, but he said the possibility that noncitizens were voting illegally was too great a threat.\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/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12085438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Election workers sort ballots at Contra Costa County’s election operations facility on May 27, 2026, in Martinez, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I would ask the state how many illegal votes is OK for them?” Essayli said. “It cannot be that the state has a right to facilitate the counting and tabulation of noncitizen votes. There’s no right to that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104425/california-officials-denounce-trump-dojs-demands-to-prove-voters-citizenship\">sued California earlier this month\u003c/a> saying election officials refused to comply with a 48-hour federal deadline to set aside the ballots of up to 20,000 people the administration had flagged as possible noncitizens until the voters’ citizenship could be verified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The administration sought a temporary restraining order forcing the state to comply.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California officials argued there was no way they could since they were busy overseeing the election. They also called the demand an illegal effort to meddle in state-run elections that could disenfranchise legal voters.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I just want to make sure the stakes are clear: that what we’re talking about is stripping voting rights from thousands of people until proven otherwise,” said Anne Bellows, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judge points to immigrant arrests\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State and county officials also have questioned the methodology the federal government used to flag possible noncitizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a court filing, Los Angeles County officials said that a sampling of 200 names from the federal list, which included people from all over California, found that many of them were likely citizens and that most had not voted before and were not sent ballots. Federal investigators re-reviewed those 200 names and found that only four were citizens, Essayli told the judge.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter noted that, last week, federal prosecutors charged \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-federal-arrests-voter-fraud/\">28 California green card holders\u003c/a> for allegedly voting or registering to vote in violation of laws prohibiting noncitizens from participating in elections. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said that if noncitizens really are voting in as large of numbers as the Trump administration claims, there’s nothing stopping federal prosecutors from finding them and charging them without the risk of blocking legal voters from having their ballots counted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“If it’s this big, you’ve got a remedy for goodness sakes,” Carter told Essayli. “Go out and indict.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the hearing, Essayli said from the courthouse steps that the state could “resolve this today.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They just seem disinterested in getting to the bottom of this,” Essayli said, noting that the number of ballots in question could tip smaller elections. “A lot of elections are decided by tens of votes or hundreds of votes.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9th Circuit ruled against Trump\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hearing came a day after two judges on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">rejected an emergency effort\u003c/a> from the Trump administration to bypass Carter’s courtroom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration sought an emergency order from the appellate court, claiming that Carter didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough. The two judges said prosecutors’ arguments about urgency didn’t hold up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their ruling noted that the prosecutors have been making claims about illegal voters on California’s voter rolls since July and could have taken action any time since, so their “claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, noted in a concurring opinion that he had “serious doubts” about the federal government’s claims that prosecutors could “superintend or intervene in a state’s election administration.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wrote that Congress granted states — not the executive branch — authority over elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, argued that “federal law precludes California from commingling ballots likely cast by aliens with legitimate ballots, because it encourages and induces illegal voting.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Stopping that practice for those identified as likely noncitizens is the bare minimum,” Bumatay wrote.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-noncitizen-voting-court/\">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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n",
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"\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"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Saying he had concerns it could disenfranchise voters during the midterm election, a federal judge on Tuesday seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s demands that California election officials set aside 20,000 ballots that it claimed could have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">mailed to noncitizens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Saying he had concerns it could disenfranchise voters during the midterm election, a federal judge on Tuesday seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s demands that California election officials set aside 20,000 ballots that it claimed could have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">mailed to noncitizens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Some of these may be very valid voters, and that’s my concern about disenfranchisement,” said U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Some of these may be very valid voters, and that’s my concern about disenfranchisement,” said U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carter said he would issue a formal ruling by Wednesday, but he told the courtroom he was likely going to appoint a special master to weigh the evidence both sides present at a hearing in two weeks. That means his final ruling might not come until after the election.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carter said he would issue a formal ruling by Wednesday, but he told the courtroom he was likely going to appoint a special master to weigh the evidence both sides present at a hearing in two weeks. That means his final ruling might not come until after the election.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He said he didn’t want to “just wing it with a ruling” based on last-minute evidence the federal government submitted to the court the night before Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He said he didn’t want to “just wing it with a ruling” based on last-minute evidence the federal government submitted to the court the night before Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carter also suggested that his ruling would order federal authorities to stop telling election officials that they could face criminal charges if they didn’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands. The Trump administration on Friday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106247/doj-orders-contra-costa-other-california-counties-to-verify-ballots\">sent letters to California election officials\u003c/a> telling them to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens, and threatened them with criminal charges if they allowed those people to vote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state or county (election) employees cease immediately,” Carter told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carter also suggested that his ruling would order federal authorities to stop telling election officials that they could face criminal charges if they didn’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands. The Trump administration on Friday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106247/doj-orders-contra-costa-other-california-counties-to-verify-ballots\">sent letters to California election officials\u003c/a> telling them to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens, and threatened them with criminal charges if they allowed those people to vote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state or county (election) employees cease immediately,” Carter told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carter’s remarks point to yet another likely legal blow to the Trump administration as it seeks to validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims of widespread election fraud favoring Democrats. Experts and election officials say those claims are meritless. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carter’s remarks point to yet another likely legal blow to the Trump administration as it seeks to validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims of widespread election fraud favoring Democrats. Experts and election officials say those claims are meritless. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, acknowledged that the government’s list of 20,000 people may contain citizens, but he said the possibility that noncitizens were voting illegally was too great a threat.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, acknowledged that the government’s list of 20,000 people may contain citizens, but he said the possibility that noncitizens were voting illegally was too great a threat.\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/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12085438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Election workers sort ballots at Contra Costa County’s election operations facility on May 27, 2026, in Martinez, California. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I would ask the state how many illegal votes is OK for them?” Essayli said. “It cannot be that the state has a right to facilitate the counting and tabulation of noncitizen votes. There’s no right to that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104425/california-officials-denounce-trump-dojs-demands-to-prove-voters-citizenship\">sued California earlier this month\u003c/a> saying election officials refused to comply with a 48-hour federal deadline to set aside the ballots of up to 20,000 people the administration had flagged as possible noncitizens until the voters’ citizenship could be verified.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The administration sought a temporary restraining order forcing the state to comply.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California officials argued there was no way they could since they were busy overseeing the election. They also called the demand an illegal effort to meddle in state-run elections that could disenfranchise legal voters.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I just want to make sure the stakes are clear: that what we’re talking about is stripping voting rights from thousands of people until proven otherwise,” said Anne Bellows, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>State and county officials also have questioned the methodology the federal government used to flag possible noncitizens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a court filing, Los Angeles County officials said that a sampling of 200 names from the federal list, which included people from all over California, found that many of them were likely citizens and that most had not voted before and were not sent ballots. Federal investigators re-reviewed those 200 names and found that only four were citizens, Essayli told the judge.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Carter noted that, last week, federal prosecutors charged \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-federal-arrests-voter-fraud/\">28 California green card holders\u003c/a> for allegedly voting or registering to vote in violation of laws prohibiting noncitizens from participating in elections. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Carter noted that, last week, federal prosecutors charged \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-federal-arrests-voter-fraud/\">28 California green card holders\u003c/a> for allegedly voting or registering to vote in violation of laws prohibiting noncitizens from participating in elections. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He said that if noncitizens really are voting in as large of numbers as the Trump administration claims, there’s nothing stopping federal prosecutors from finding them and charging them without the risk of blocking legal voters from having their ballots counted.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He said that if noncitizens really are voting in as large of numbers as the Trump administration claims, there’s nothing stopping federal prosecutors from finding them and charging them without the risk of blocking legal voters from having their ballots counted.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If it’s this big, you’ve got a remedy for goodness sakes,” Carter told Essayli. “Go out and indict.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After the hearing, Essayli said from the courthouse steps that the state could “resolve this today.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They just seem disinterested in getting to the bottom of this,” Essayli said, noting that the number of ballots in question could tip smaller elections. “A lot of elections are decided by tens of votes or hundreds of votes.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They just seem disinterested in getting to the bottom of this,” Essayli said, noting that the number of ballots in question could tip smaller elections. “A lot of elections are decided by tens of votes or hundreds of votes.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The hearing came a day after two judges on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">rejected an emergency effort\u003c/a> from the Trump administration to bypass Carter’s courtroom. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The hearing came a day after two judges on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">rejected an emergency effort\u003c/a> from the Trump administration to bypass Carter’s courtroom. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration sought an emergency order from the appellate court, claiming that Carter didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough. The two judges said prosecutors’ arguments about urgency didn’t hold up.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their ruling noted that the prosecutors have been making claims about illegal voters on California’s voter rolls since July and could have taken action any time since, so their “claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, noted in a concurring opinion that he had “serious doubts” about the federal government’s claims that prosecutors could “superintend or intervene in a state’s election administration.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their ruling noted that the prosecutors have been making claims about illegal voters on California’s voter rolls since July and could have taken action any time since, so their “claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, noted in a concurring opinion that he had “serious doubts” about the federal government’s claims that prosecutors could “superintend or intervene in a state’s election administration.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He wrote that Congress granted states — not the executive branch — authority over elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, argued that “federal law precludes California from commingling ballots likely cast by aliens with legitimate ballots, because it encourages and induces illegal voting.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He wrote that Congress granted states — not the executive branch — authority over elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, argued that “federal law precludes California from commingling ballots likely cast by aliens with legitimate ballots, because it encourages and induces illegal voting.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Stopping that practice for those identified as likely noncitizens is the bare minimum,” Bumatay wrote.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-noncitizen-voting-court/\">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",
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"excerpt": "A federal judge is unlikely to issue a final ruling on the Trump administration’s claim that 20,000 possible noncitizens are registered to vote in California until after Election Day.",
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"title": "Judge Says Trump Could Disenfranchise Voters in Purge of Noncitizens From Election Rolls | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saying he had concerns it could disenfranchise voters during the midterm election, a federal judge on Tuesday seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s demands that California election officials set aside 20,000 ballots that it claimed could have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">mailed to noncitizens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Some of these may be very valid voters, and that’s my concern about disenfranchisement,” said U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter said he would issue a formal ruling by Wednesday, but he told the courtroom he was likely going to appoint a special master to weigh the evidence both sides present at a hearing in two weeks. That means his final ruling might not come until after the election.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said he didn’t want to “just wing it with a ruling” based on last-minute evidence the federal government submitted to the court the night before Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter also suggested that his ruling would order federal authorities to stop telling election officials that they could face criminal charges if they didn’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands. The Trump administration on Friday \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106247/doj-orders-contra-costa-other-california-counties-to-verify-ballots\">sent letters to California election officials\u003c/a> telling them to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens, and threatened them with criminal charges if they allowed those people to vote.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state or county (election) employees cease immediately,” Carter told the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter’s remarks point to yet another likely legal blow to the Trump administration as it seeks to validate President Donald Trump’s longstanding claims of widespread election fraud favoring Democrats. Experts and election officials say those claims are meritless. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, acknowledged that the government’s list of 20,000 people may contain citizens, but he said the possibility that noncitizens were voting illegally was too great a threat.\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/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12085438\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2277856381-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Election workers sort ballots at Contra Costa County’s election operations facility on May 27, 2026, in Martinez, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“I would ask the state how many illegal votes is OK for them?” Essayli said. “It cannot be that the state has a right to facilitate the counting and tabulation of noncitizen votes. There’s no right to that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12104425/california-officials-denounce-trump-dojs-demands-to-prove-voters-citizenship\">sued California earlier this month\u003c/a> saying election officials refused to comply with a 48-hour federal deadline to set aside the ballots of up to 20,000 people the administration had flagged as possible noncitizens until the voters’ citizenship could be verified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The administration sought a temporary restraining order forcing the state to comply.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California officials argued there was no way they could since they were busy overseeing the election. They also called the demand an illegal effort to meddle in state-run elections that could disenfranchise legal voters.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“I just want to make sure the stakes are clear: that what we’re talking about is stripping voting rights from thousands of people until proven otherwise,” said Anne Bellows, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judge points to immigrant arrests\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State and county officials also have questioned the methodology the federal government used to flag possible noncitizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a court filing, Los Angeles County officials said that a sampling of 200 names from the federal list, which included people from all over California, found that many of them were likely citizens and that most had not voted before and were not sent ballots. Federal investigators re-reviewed those 200 names and found that only four were citizens, Essayli told the judge.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter noted that, last week, federal prosecutors charged \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-federal-arrests-voter-fraud/\">28 California green card holders\u003c/a> for allegedly voting or registering to vote in violation of laws prohibiting noncitizens from participating in elections. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said that if noncitizens really are voting in as large of numbers as the Trump administration claims, there’s nothing stopping federal prosecutors from finding them and charging them without the risk of blocking legal voters from having their ballots counted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“If it’s this big, you’ve got a remedy for goodness sakes,” Carter told Essayli. “Go out and indict.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the hearing, Essayli said from the courthouse steps that the state could “resolve this today.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“They just seem disinterested in getting to the bottom of this,” Essayli said, noting that the number of ballots in question could tip smaller elections. “A lot of elections are decided by tens of votes or hundreds of votes.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9th Circuit ruled against Trump\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hearing came a day after two judges on a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12106418/santa-clara-county-rejects-trump-administration-voter-probe\">rejected an emergency effort\u003c/a> from the Trump administration to bypass Carter’s courtroom. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration sought an emergency order from the appellate court, claiming that Carter didn’t schedule a hearing fast enough. The two judges said prosecutors’ arguments about urgency didn’t hold up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their ruling noted that the prosecutors have been making claims about illegal voters on California’s voter rolls since July and could have taken action any time since, so their “claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, noted in a concurring opinion that he had “serious doubts” about the federal government’s claims that prosecutors could “superintend or intervene in a state’s election administration.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wrote that Congress granted states — not the executive branch — authority over elections.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>In a dissenting opinion, Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, argued that “federal law precludes California from commingling ballots likely cast by aliens with legitimate ballots, because it encourages and induces illegal voting.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">“Stopping that practice for those identified as likely noncitizens is the bare minimum,” Bumatay wrote.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-noncitizen-voting-court/\">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\n\n\n\u003cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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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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