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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-county\">Santa Clara County\u003c/a> officials announced Wednesday a sweeping civil enforcement action against a Milpitas-based home care business, alleging its owners perpetrated a complex scheme to exploit immigrant caregivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said the owners paid “extreme sub-minimum wages,” forced “egregious work conditions” and committed identity theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County Counsel Tony LoPresti filed the lawsuit against Safejourney Transport LLC, which conducts business under the title Happy Trip Home Care. The \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t8RT7C1soYl52WmmJd1u3okq84BA9Xx5/view?usp=sharing\">complaint\u003c/a> said its owners, who used multiple aliases to operate, recruited primarily Filipino immigrants through word-of-mouth networks. The owners then allegedly compensated them in cash or by electronic transfer for grueling 24-hour shifts, sometimes paying as little as $4.17 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a Nov. 12 press conference in San José, LoPresti said the lawsuit sends a “clear and simple” message to employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will hold accountable employers who seek to profit by violating the law and exploiting vulnerable immigrant workers,” LoPresti said. “We will be sure that they face their day in court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county alleged Armando Ogerio De Castro Jr., Michelle Sison Delos Reyes and Edmund Vasquez Olaso charged clients $300 to $500 a day for 24-hour care, but only paid the caregivers $100 to $250. The defendants “routinely pocketed more than half of the money” that clients paid for the caregivers’ work, the complaint states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By paying in cash and not issuing itemized wage statements, the complaint said, the business ensured caregivers did not have the documents that would “reflect their true hours, employer, and hourly rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caregivers were expected to be on call for their entire 24-hour shift, often woken “every few hours at night” to assist clients. The county alleged workers were denied all meal and rest breaks, and in some cases, were directed to perform uncompensated domestic labor like cooking and cleaning for the owners themselves, or clients’ spouses.[aside postID=news_12062811 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/CostcoTruckGetty.jpg']“The job these immigrant workers perform is grueling,” said LoPresti, who added that the lawsuit is a result of a yearlong investigation. “And yet, in spite of shouldering that very heavy responsibility, defendants pay them next to nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The allegations extend beyond wage theft, detailing at least one instance where defendants took possession of a caregiver’s passport and bank account information. They then allegedly “performed numerous unauthorized transactions” using the caregiver’s account to transfer money to themselves, pay their own landlord and attorney and make personal purchases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The business is not licensed under the Home Care Consumer Protection Act, according to the county. The complaint also states that two of the owners, Delos Reyes and Olaso, have previously been subject to two separate elder abuse restraining orders, filed by the County’s Public Guardian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials emphasized that this business model hinges on exploiting a vulnerable population. Speaking at the conference, former in-home care worker Tess Brillante said caregivers, many of whom are immigrants, are often desperate for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers not only need the job for their livelihood, but also to send money back home to support their families,” Brillante said. “And most caregivers will endure anything to just keep their job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2030, older adults will outnumber children in Santa Clara County, increasing the demand for these services, according to the California Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This lawsuit is the latest move in Santa Clara County’s multi-pronged effort to combat wage theft, an issue that costs workers nationwide an estimated $15 billion annually. In October, the county successfully pushed for SB 261, a new state law that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060714/new-california-law-imposes-massive-fines-on-employers-who-refuse-to-pay-stolen-wages\">imposes triple penalties on employers\u003c/a> who ignore wage theft judgments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new lawsuit, LoPresti said, is a direct message of protection for immigrants at a time when these communities are being increasingly targeted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the federal administration is doing everything they can, trying to create a culture of fear in these communities, we want to make sure that those immigrant workers know that they still have rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The business and its owners could not immediately be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-county\">Santa Clara County\u003c/a> officials announced Wednesday a sweeping civil enforcement action against a Milpitas-based home care business, alleging its owners perpetrated a complex scheme to exploit immigrant caregivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said the owners paid “extreme sub-minimum wages,” forced “egregious work conditions” and committed identity theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County Counsel Tony LoPresti filed the lawsuit against Safejourney Transport LLC, which conducts business under the title Happy Trip Home Care. The \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t8RT7C1soYl52WmmJd1u3okq84BA9Xx5/view?usp=sharing\">complaint\u003c/a> said its owners, who used multiple aliases to operate, recruited primarily Filipino immigrants through word-of-mouth networks. The owners then allegedly compensated them in cash or by electronic transfer for grueling 24-hour shifts, sometimes paying as little as $4.17 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a Nov. 12 press conference in San José, LoPresti said the lawsuit sends a “clear and simple” message to employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will hold accountable employers who seek to profit by violating the law and exploiting vulnerable immigrant workers,” LoPresti said. “We will be sure that they face their day in court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county alleged Armando Ogerio De Castro Jr., Michelle Sison Delos Reyes and Edmund Vasquez Olaso charged clients $300 to $500 a day for 24-hour care, but only paid the caregivers $100 to $250. The defendants “routinely pocketed more than half of the money” that clients paid for the caregivers’ work, the complaint states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By paying in cash and not issuing itemized wage statements, the complaint said, the business ensured caregivers did not have the documents that would “reflect their true hours, employer, and hourly rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caregivers were expected to be on call for their entire 24-hour shift, often woken “every few hours at night” to assist clients. The county alleged workers were denied all meal and rest breaks, and in some cases, were directed to perform uncompensated domestic labor like cooking and cleaning for the owners themselves, or clients’ spouses.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The job these immigrant workers perform is grueling,” said LoPresti, who added that the lawsuit is a result of a yearlong investigation. “And yet, in spite of shouldering that very heavy responsibility, defendants pay them next to nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The allegations extend beyond wage theft, detailing at least one instance where defendants took possession of a caregiver’s passport and bank account information. They then allegedly “performed numerous unauthorized transactions” using the caregiver’s account to transfer money to themselves, pay their own landlord and attorney and make personal purchases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The business is not licensed under the Home Care Consumer Protection Act, according to the county. The complaint also states that two of the owners, Delos Reyes and Olaso, have previously been subject to two separate elder abuse restraining orders, filed by the County’s Public Guardian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials emphasized that this business model hinges on exploiting a vulnerable population. Speaking at the conference, former in-home care worker Tess Brillante said caregivers, many of whom are immigrants, are often desperate for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers not only need the job for their livelihood, but also to send money back home to support their families,” Brillante said. “And most caregivers will endure anything to just keep their job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2030, older adults will outnumber children in Santa Clara County, increasing the demand for these services, according to the California Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This lawsuit is the latest move in Santa Clara County’s multi-pronged effort to combat wage theft, an issue that costs workers nationwide an estimated $15 billion annually. In October, the county successfully pushed for SB 261, a new state law that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060714/new-california-law-imposes-massive-fines-on-employers-who-refuse-to-pay-stolen-wages\">imposes triple penalties on employers\u003c/a> who ignore wage theft judgments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new lawsuit, LoPresti said, is a direct message of protection for immigrants at a time when these communities are being increasingly targeted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the federal administration is doing everything they can, trying to create a culture of fear in these communities, we want to make sure that those immigrant workers know that they still have rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The business and its owners could not immediately be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Flight cuts began to hit the Bay Area on Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines this week to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063196/sfo-delays-could-worsen-under-trump-plans-to-cut-air-traffic-in-us-by-10\">reduce travel through major U.S. airports\u003c/a> as they deal with growing workforce strains amid the federal government shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 40 flights out of San Francisco International Airport have been canceled, along with nine through Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, according to the airports’ spokespeople. That number could grow as airlines increase cuts from 4% Friday to 10% by the end of next week, in line with the FAA’s demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While travelers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063192/faa-reducing-cutting-flights-cancellations-sfo-oak-delays-government-shutdown-refund-check-flight-status\">looking ahead to end-of-year trips\u003c/a> will almost certainly still reach their destinations, the economic impact of holiday flight cuts could put pressure on lawmakers to reopen the federal government, said Philip Mann, an adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the various economic factors that are tied to aviation travel, such as the tourism money and the money going to different cities — I think that’s where the biggest impact from this will show up: the reduction in holiday travel money getting into the economy,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the 2018–19 federal shutdown also led to major disruptions to air travel, which pressured the Trump administration to make a deal with congressional leaders to reopen the government after a little over a month, Mann said the holiday travel season was largely spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That funding lapse began the week of Christmas, so airport employees required to work without pay weren’t yet as fatigued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12063306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12063306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1297\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED-1536x996.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planes line up on the runway to depart from San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[When] controllers went into Christmas, they were still on a relatively normal schedule, relatively normal stress load,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, they’ve gone two paycheck cycles — more than a month — without any pay. “They’ve been at the edge of it for a while … so we’re going to see the effects of the compounded stress into the holidays,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that as the shutdown drags into a sixth week, the specialized workers are increasingly calling out sick and missing shifts. Flight reductions, he told reporters, are necessary to prioritize safety with a limited workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the shutdown lasts until the full 10% air traffic cut takes effect next week, Mann said that could affect anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 flights on a normal day, and up to 3,500 during the holiday season.[aside postID=news_12063192 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/SFODelaysGetty3.jpg']“Whether that is sufficient to get the airlines and the airports and the cities to call their senators, call their congressmen, and get them to start moving? I don’t know,” he said. But it’s what he thinks would be necessary for air travel interruptions to be the harbinger of ending the lapse in appropriations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the current political climate, I think it’ll be more the airlines and the people that make their business in air travel that are going to be able to push it over the hill and get things actually moving,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, most fliers should still be able to reach their destinations, though they might have to deal with delays of a few hours or longer at security checkpoint lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since flights are being pre-emptively canceled, airlines should be able to rebook travelers onto others and mitigate the rippling effects of canceling flights last minute, like during major weather events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What people will see is kind of like [what] I’ve seen because I’m traveling over the holidays. … I actually got rebooked on a different flight, but to me, it just means I just have an hour difference in my flight, it’s not like I’m not flying,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those with tight schedules might want to think about cutting their travel short or waiting until uncertainty dies down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If somebody’s on a super, super, super tight schedule, they might want to push that holiday trip off until maybe after the shutdown’s over,” Mann said. “Or they may want to … drive if they can, or get there some other way, versus trying to get into the system with an absolutely desperate schedule. That’s just not going to be a good time for anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Flight cuts began to hit the Bay Area on Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines this week to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063196/sfo-delays-could-worsen-under-trump-plans-to-cut-air-traffic-in-us-by-10\">reduce travel through major U.S. airports\u003c/a> as they deal with growing workforce strains amid the federal government shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 40 flights out of San Francisco International Airport have been canceled, along with nine through Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, according to the airports’ spokespeople. That number could grow as airlines increase cuts from 4% Friday to 10% by the end of next week, in line with the FAA’s demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While travelers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063192/faa-reducing-cutting-flights-cancellations-sfo-oak-delays-government-shutdown-refund-check-flight-status\">looking ahead to end-of-year trips\u003c/a> will almost certainly still reach their destinations, the economic impact of holiday flight cuts could put pressure on lawmakers to reopen the federal government, said Philip Mann, an adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the various economic factors that are tied to aviation travel, such as the tourism money and the money going to different cities — I think that’s where the biggest impact from this will show up: the reduction in holiday travel money getting into the economy,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the 2018–19 federal shutdown also led to major disruptions to air travel, which pressured the Trump administration to make a deal with congressional leaders to reopen the government after a little over a month, Mann said the holiday travel season was largely spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That funding lapse began the week of Christmas, so airport employees required to work without pay weren’t yet as fatigued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12063306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12063306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1297\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/GETTYIMAGES-2239993360-KQED-1536x996.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planes line up on the runway to depart from San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[When] controllers went into Christmas, they were still on a relatively normal schedule, relatively normal stress load,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, they’ve gone two paycheck cycles — more than a month — without any pay. “They’ve been at the edge of it for a while … so we’re going to see the effects of the compounded stress into the holidays,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that as the shutdown drags into a sixth week, the specialized workers are increasingly calling out sick and missing shifts. Flight reductions, he told reporters, are necessary to prioritize safety with a limited workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the shutdown lasts until the full 10% air traffic cut takes effect next week, Mann said that could affect anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 flights on a normal day, and up to 3,500 during the holiday season.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Whether that is sufficient to get the airlines and the airports and the cities to call their senators, call their congressmen, and get them to start moving? I don’t know,” he said. But it’s what he thinks would be necessary for air travel interruptions to be the harbinger of ending the lapse in appropriations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the current political climate, I think it’ll be more the airlines and the people that make their business in air travel that are going to be able to push it over the hill and get things actually moving,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, most fliers should still be able to reach their destinations, though they might have to deal with delays of a few hours or longer at security checkpoint lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since flights are being pre-emptively canceled, airlines should be able to rebook travelers onto others and mitigate the rippling effects of canceling flights last minute, like during major weather events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What people will see is kind of like [what] I’ve seen because I’m traveling over the holidays. … I actually got rebooked on a different flight, but to me, it just means I just have an hour difference in my flight, it’s not like I’m not flying,” Mann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those with tight schedules might want to think about cutting their travel short or waiting until uncertainty dies down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If somebody’s on a super, super, super tight schedule, they might want to push that holiday trip off until maybe after the shutdown’s over,” Mann said. “Or they may want to … drive if they can, or get there some other way, versus trying to get into the system with an absolutely desperate schedule. That’s just not going to be a good time for anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>State labor regulators have found Costco, the membership-only wholesale retailer, liable for the underpayment of dozens of delivery drivers in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-diego\">San Diego\u003c/a> region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner jointly cited Costco Wholesale Corporation, a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, for nearly $870,000, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2025/2025-111.html\">announcement\u003c/a> Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators found Mega Nice Trucking LLC misclassified 58 drivers as independent contractors, denying them employee rights such as minimum wage, overtime pay and other benefits for a two-year period between August 2022 and September 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also held Costco and contractor Ryder Last Mile Inc. equally responsible as employers for the alleged wage theft, because they closely monitored the drivers’ performance, scheduled deliveries and mandated uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Companies that exert control over workers cannot evade responsibility by hiding behind layers of subcontracting,” Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Misclassification strips workers of their rights and protections, and employers who direct and control their workforce are responsible for paying all wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Costco, Ryder Last Mile and Mega Nice Trucking did not respond to requests for comment. All three companies have appealed the citation. That process will determine the amount each employer may ultimately pay, according to an agency spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10770963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10770963 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg\" alt=\"A Costco store\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1180x789.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-960x642.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Costco, along with a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, was jointly cited for nearly $870,000 by the California Labor Commissioner, officials announced Thursday. \u003ccite>(Mike Mozart via Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.everee.com/blog/ab5-abc-test/\">state law\u003c/a>, most drivers for trucking and logistics companies should be considered employees, as their labor is engaged in the core activity of the firm’s operations. (App-based companies such as Uber and DoorDash carved out an exemption through a 2020 voter-approved ballot measure.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, tens of thousands of truck and delivery drivers in California could be misclassified as independent contractors because it’s cheaper for the hiring entity, said Steve Viscelli, a sociologist and industry expert at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers do not have to pay for an independent contractor’s sick days, workers’ compensation insurance or share of social security taxes. In trucking, the costs of fuel, insurance costs and vehicle repairs are also passed on to these workers, Viscelli said, which further decreases their earnings.[aside postID=news_12060714 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230718-CAR-WASH-WAGE-THEFT-Getty-GM-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“A lot of times, you can see drivers who are working for really subpar wages. And that can add up to big savings for the trucking carrier and for the companies that are shipping products with them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One in five U.S. Costco warehouses is located in California. The international corporation, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, posted a \u003ca href=\"https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2025/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2025-Operating-Results/default.aspx\">net income\u003c/a> of $8 billion this year, up from $7.4 billion in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement began its investigation in July 2024 after two former Mega Nice Trucking employees complained of misclassification and wage theft. The agency said the company, which had been penalized for similar violations in the past, paid drivers a flat daily rate and falsified payroll records to conceal ongoing violations. Martin Medina, Mega Nice Trucking’s CEO, was also named as an individual in the $868,000 citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of the proposed penalties would be payable to the impacted workers, according to the agency. But restitution is often elusive, as the Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">plagued with delays\u003c/a> and understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small companies in trucking, construction and other industries that are cited for wage theft often close down and resurface with a different name to avoid paying penalties, according to experts. Holding large employers accountable for violations is critical to make workers’ whole and promote compliance, said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the laws in California, you can’t plead ignorance because you just keep outsourcing the work. So Costco knew and should have known that those workers were misclassified,” she said. “We need to hold every [guilty] company accountable because they know what they are supposed to be doing and they just try to get by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner also cited Medina and Mega Nice Trucking $520,000 in a separate case for alleged violations from July 2021 through Sept. 2024, impacting 38 workers in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misclassification costs workers and the social security net thousands of dollars per year. Light truck drivers, who drive small trucks or vans wrongfully considered independent contractors in California, lose as much as $26,000 in annual compensation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/misclassifying-workers-2025-update/\">estimates\u003c/a> by the Employment Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State labor regulators have found Costco, the membership-only wholesale retailer, liable for the underpayment of dozens of delivery drivers in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-diego\">San Diego\u003c/a> region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Labor Commissioner jointly cited Costco Wholesale Corporation, a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, for nearly $870,000, according to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2025/2025-111.html\">announcement\u003c/a> Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Investigators found Mega Nice Trucking LLC misclassified 58 drivers as independent contractors, denying them employee rights such as minimum wage, overtime pay and other benefits for a two-year period between August 2022 and September 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also held Costco and contractor Ryder Last Mile Inc. equally responsible as employers for the alleged wage theft, because they closely monitored the drivers’ performance, scheduled deliveries and mandated uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Companies that exert control over workers cannot evade responsibility by hiding behind layers of subcontracting,” Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. “Misclassification strips workers of their rights and protections, and employers who direct and control their workforce are responsible for paying all wages owed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Costco, Ryder Last Mile and Mega Nice Trucking did not respond to requests for comment. All three companies have appealed the citation. That process will determine the amount each employer may ultimately pay, according to an agency spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10770963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10770963 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg\" alt=\"A Costco store\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1440x962.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-1180x789.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/11/Costco-960x642.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Costco, along with a delivery contractor and a trucking subcontractor, was jointly cited for nearly $870,000 by the California Labor Commissioner, officials announced Thursday. \u003ccite>(Mike Mozart via Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.everee.com/blog/ab5-abc-test/\">state law\u003c/a>, most drivers for trucking and logistics companies should be considered employees, as their labor is engaged in the core activity of the firm’s operations. (App-based companies such as Uber and DoorDash carved out an exemption through a 2020 voter-approved ballot measure.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, tens of thousands of truck and delivery drivers in California could be misclassified as independent contractors because it’s cheaper for the hiring entity, said Steve Viscelli, a sociologist and industry expert at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employers do not have to pay for an independent contractor’s sick days, workers’ compensation insurance or share of social security taxes. In trucking, the costs of fuel, insurance costs and vehicle repairs are also passed on to these workers, Viscelli said, which further decreases their earnings.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“A lot of times, you can see drivers who are working for really subpar wages. And that can add up to big savings for the trucking carrier and for the companies that are shipping products with them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One in five U.S. Costco warehouses is located in California. The international corporation, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, posted a \u003ca href=\"https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2025/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2025-Operating-Results/default.aspx\">net income\u003c/a> of $8 billion this year, up from $7.4 billion in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement began its investigation in July 2024 after two former Mega Nice Trucking employees complained of misclassification and wage theft. The agency said the company, which had been penalized for similar violations in the past, paid drivers a flat daily rate and falsified payroll records to conceal ongoing violations. Martin Medina, Mega Nice Trucking’s CEO, was also named as an individual in the $868,000 citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 75% of the proposed penalties would be payable to the impacted workers, according to the agency. But restitution is often elusive, as the Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979626/workers-lost-millions-to-californias-worst-known-wage-thief-and-hes-still-in-business\">plagued with delays\u003c/a> and understaffing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small companies in trucking, construction and other industries that are cited for wage theft often close down and resurface with a different name to avoid paying penalties, according to experts. Holding large employers accountable for violations is critical to make workers’ whole and promote compliance, said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the laws in California, you can’t plead ignorance because you just keep outsourcing the work. So Costco knew and should have known that those workers were misclassified,” she said. “We need to hold every [guilty] company accountable because they know what they are supposed to be doing and they just try to get by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Labor Commissioner also cited Medina and Mega Nice Trucking $520,000 in a separate case for alleged violations from July 2021 through Sept. 2024, impacting 38 workers in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misclassification costs workers and the social security net thousands of dollars per year. Light truck drivers, who drive small trucks or vans wrongfully considered independent contractors in California, lose as much as $26,000 in annual compensation, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/misclassifying-workers-2025-update/\">estimates\u003c/a> by the Employment Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "At Yosemite, You’d Barely Know a Shutdown Was Happening. Why Advocates Say That Matters",
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"content": "\u003cp>Before they visited Yosemite National Park this week, Susan Bennett and Katie Cook had heard all sorts of stories about a kind of chaos permeating the park during the government shutdown. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060120/what-is-the-shutdown-doing-to-yosemite\">People squatting in others’ campgrounds\u003c/a>. Hikers \u003ca href=\"https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/government-shutdown-brings-waves-of-illegal-activity-to-yosemite-national-park/\">ascending Half Dome without a permit\u003c/a>. Even \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/YosemiteNPS/status/1984285545648812479\">illegal BASE jumping\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing outside the Yosemite Valley Lodge — one of the park’s two hotels, still fully operational during the shutdown — sisters-in-law Bennett and Cook, visiting from Monterey and North Lake Tahoe respectively, told me they’d even considered canceling their much-anticipated trip. “We didn’t want to be part of the problem,” Cook said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But having heard from a friend that at least Yosemite’s bathrooms were open, the pair made the trek. And when they arrived in the park, they were far from disappointed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the “gorgeous” fall foliage at its peak and flowing waterfalls surging due to recent storms, Bennett said they saw little sign of the chaotic scenes they had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">there wouldn’t be anybody at the main gate\u003c/a>, but we had a ranger at the campground, so it’s all good,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the month-long government shutdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">Yosemite has remained open\u003c/a>, but with a drastically reduced federal workforce. Only staff deemed “essential” are working in the park, and for the most part, they’re focused on law enforcement, search-and-rescue and maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062213\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors photograph El Capitan, a granite wall popular with rock climbers, at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Bennett and Cook saw, no rangers are posted at entrances to collect fees, give out maps or help tourists plan their itineraries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Park Service staffers dedicated to research or conservation are currently furloughed, joining the 64% of national NPS staff who are not working during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the absence of so many federal workers, the majority of the “park staff” Yosemite tourists will encounter during the shutdown actually work for private businesses or organizations that were already present in the park before the shutdown — and have now assumed almost all visitor-facing duties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty fee booths at the entrance to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But underneath the general air of normalcy, a crisis is looming, say a coalition of advocacy groups and former parks leaders who have repeatedly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">called to close the national parks at this time.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seemingly small transgressions like the ones Yosemite staff and visitors report are going to have a cumulative effect, they warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our parks don’t run themselves,” wrote the coalition in a \u003ca href=\"https://protectnps.org/2025/10/23/protect-our-parks-former-nps-employees-warn-of-escalating-dangers-during-shutdown/\">letter last week\u003c/a> to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Business as usual?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058592/alcatraz-island-is-open-again-after-several-false-starts\">Alcatraz Island\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061286/muir-woods-reopens-amid-government-shutdown-temporarily\">Muir Woods National Monument\u003c/a>, private companies and nonprofits that operate in the parks have outright donated money to keep their doors open during the shutdown, as permitted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">the NPS shutdown contingency plan. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is happening at Yosemite, too. In an email to KQED, the National Park Service confirmed that the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, which has been keeping the park’s Welcome Center and The Depot at Mariposa Grove open, is “working with the [NPS] to establish short-term agreements with donations to help maintain operations during the lapse in appropriations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My own experience visiting Yosemite this week reflected what I was hearing from the tourists I met there —- that operations within the park during the shutdown seemed very much like business as usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors look at a welcome at the entrance to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To a casual observer, the only clue that anything might be different was those unstaffed entry gates, normally humming with activity, which drivers are now blowing right through, as they can no longer pick up park maps and expert ranger advice for their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center, which was initially closed at the start of the shutdown, has been reopened to the public. When I visited, the center was abuzz with tourists buying merchandise and lining up to get park information, just like any other day outside of a full federal shutdown — albeit with no rangers at their normal stations, leading to slightly longer lines than usual, according to one Conservancy staffer.[aside postID=news_12061908 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/YosemiteGetty-1.jpg']Yosemite’s crowds seemed a little larger than what I’d previously observed for this time of year, and parking at the base of El Capitan — where visitors can watch climbers scaling the iconic rock face —- was more scarce than usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But elsewhere, I saw several park rangers roaming on foot and in cars, all working without pay during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maintenance staff could be seen at work, and there was even someone collecting campground fees and distributing maps at the Big Oak Flat entrance to the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those bathrooms in Yosemite Valley — \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/31/national-parks-shutdown-impact-joshua-tree-yosemite-yellowstone\">a notorious casualty of previous NPS shutdowns\u003c/a> — were generally clean, with no sign of piled-up trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This shutdown, compared to others, is much more smooth,” said William Fontana Sr., an Aramark employee who has been giving tours in the park for 40 years — and who attributed what he was seeing to the fact that law enforcement rangers and essential facilities staff \u003cem>are \u003c/em>still working in Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062223\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide William Fontana points visitors to climbers on El Capitan during a tour of the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a non-federal worker, Fontana Sr. usually works alongside NPS rangers in the park, supplementing their numbers and knowledge to show visitors around. But during the shutdown, it’s just him and his Aramark colleagues to guide tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expected to have overcrowded conditions and an absolute zoo here, but it has not happened,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public seem to be very respectful in Yosemite, and understand that if they abuse the park, they could lose the opportunity to come during the shutdown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Protect the park’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fontana Sr. said he had nonetheless seen “a little more” aggressive driving and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/travel/yosemite-shutdown-base-jumping.html\">witnessed BASE jumpers\u003c/a> leap off El Capitan this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I immediately called park dispatch, and I believe they were apprehended,” he said. “We all work together to protect the park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George Hargis, a volunteer for the advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://www.baseaccess.org/\">BASE Access\u003c/a>, disputes the now-widespread claim that the extreme sport has been taking place more often in Yosemite during the shutdown, telling KQED by email, “I can very confidently state that the BASE jumping in the National Parks has not increased during the shut down,” and that “one or two jumps were posted online and that really began the narrative that BASE jumpers are taking advantage of the shutdown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062218\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite Conservancy staff answer questions at the Welcome Center at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>U.S Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has also pushed back against \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/burgum-pans-reports-of-illegal-cliff-jumping-in-yosemite/\">what he called “false claims” from “grifters”\u003c/a> about conditions in Yosemite during the shutdown. \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SecretaryBurgum/status/1978266696893735094\">Burgum claimed on social media \u003c/a>that “Contrary to recent reports, the park remains fully staffed to ensure visitor safety and protect natural resources” and that “unauthorized camping, squatting and illegal activities like BASE jumping are being addressed with firm, appropriate law enforcement action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Yosemite sprawls across 1,200 square miles, much of it wilderness territory. So even though enforcement rangers are on duty, it’s not possible to keep track of every visitor’s activity — even outside of a shutdown, but especially while research- and education-focused rangers, often found on trails, are missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John DeGrazio, owner of YExplore, which runs private tours in the park, agreed that he hasn’t seen as much unruly behavior or “abuse” this shutdown as during past ones. But he said he has seen more people than usual sleeping in their cars in the park and bringing their dogs on unpaved trails, both of which are not allowed in Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062215\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John DeGrazio, owner of YExplore, a hiking tour company, sits outside the Yosemite Valley Lodge at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He even met a couple last week on their honeymoon who told him they wanted to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to camp in Yosemite for free, said DeGrazio\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who know how to take advantage of the system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As big wall climber Cadence Brown sat in El Capitan Meadow watching his friends scale “The Nose,” he said he, too, had noticed the park seemed busier than usual for fall.[aside postID=news_12060120 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/YosemiteGetty3.jpg']At night, he said, El Cap’s 3,000 feet of sheer granite has looked far more illuminated with climbers’ headlamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond experiencing the same difficulties finding parking I did, Brown said the only sign things might be different at Yosemite right now was the visitors he witnessed traipsing off-trail in the park’s meadows, seemingly emboldened by the lack of rangers to stop them. But for him, search-and-rescue crews still being fully active was key. “So as long as they’re here, we’re stoked,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While DeGrazio, too, is grateful the park is still open to keep his tours and his business running, he said he doesn’t know what the future holds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s always a question of allowing access versus having that access being abused,” he said. “There’s going to be that concern of: How much abuse is actually happening long-term?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘No long-term planning’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said his visit to the park earlier this month only confirmed his worries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really small things like visitors trampling through meadows — that builds up more and more over time,” he said. “Even if 99% of folks visiting the park right now are being responsible and doing what they’re supposed to, all it takes is that 1% of visitors who see this as being this free-for-all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the coalition of former park leaders and advocates, Rose also sounded an alarm about the lack of conservation and biological data being collected within the park while federal scientists working here are furloughed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All kinds of behind-the-scenes work that goes unseen by visitors is completely on pause — work that was already being impacted by an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\">24% reduction\u003c/a> in NPS staff since Trump’s inauguration in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062216\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062216\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A park ranger empties the garbage bins near the Welcome Center at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right now, Yosemite is operating without a Chief of Resources, Rose said, a crucial role that heads up all of the park’s science and restoration work around its natural resources. And with Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060911/new-trump-layoffs-could-put-hundreds-more-national-park-service-employees-on-the-chopping-block\">threatening to fire furloughed workers\u003c/a> after the shutdown ends, the staffing crisis will only deepen, he warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve let go so many of their scientists and [natural] resource and cultural resource staff,” he said. “There’s no long-term planning being done; all the science that was happening has mostly just been put on pause and/or completely cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot that’s piling up now that the government’s shut down that they’re going to have to take care of,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose also expressed concern that the pot of money currently being used to pay for basic operations and materials like fuel and cleaning supplies — which is keeping the visitor experience feeling so comparatively smooth during the shutdown— may even be being used illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person fishes in the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the last shutdown, the \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.org/interior-fee-use-during-shutdown-was-against-the-law-gao-says/\">Government Accountability Office determined\u003c/a> that these fee dollars are supposed to go toward park projects, while Congress should fund the park’s general operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at some point, with no fees being collected at entrance gates, it’s going to run out. “We’re draining those accounts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I told Rose that I had seen much of what he did at Yosemite — meaning, not much on the surface — he warned that it’s really too soon to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know to what degree the backcountry, other areas of the park, might be impacted — because that’s just not being monitored and reported out on by the park service,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Eyes on the horizon’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The ripple effect from the shutdown will be felt for generations to come, warns Jesse Chakrin, executive director of the Fund for People in Parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moment Chakrin learned I’d just returned from visiting Yosemite, he didn’t hold back about his thoughts on the current situation during the shutdown, employing phrases like “facade management” and “veneer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These impacts, it’s a lagging indicator,” he said. “It’s not the canary in the coal mine. When we notice the impact, it’s probably too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary-Michal Rawling, a public affairs manager for YARTS, stands near a bus stop at the Yosemite Valley Lodge at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chakrin said he isn’t just worried that \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/national-parks/trump-national-parks-yosemite/\">the Trump administration’s razor-sharp focus on continuing to allow parks to generate revenue\u003c/a> harms park resources today and tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also deeply concerned by the fact that critical operations like law enforcement, cleanliness and some visitor-facing services being maintained — in large part thanks to nonprofit dollars from the Yosemite Conservancy — could also be \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/10/03/burgum-touts-chance-to-slash-government-amid-shutdown-00593040\">used as an argument to even further cut the staffing and budgets of national parks\u003c/a>, and turn them over to further privatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a precedent that I think has some danger in it,” he said. “I think it opens the door for this idea that maybe a passable experience is possible through privately run, privately funded, ‘national’ parks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This government seems very willing to privatize the things that are in the commons,” warned Chakrin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Neubacher, retired Yosemite superintendent, said while he, too, gives credit to nonprofits for their work to fill gaps in funding, “parks take sustained money over time,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062221\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors stand at Tunnel View overlook in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There is very little evidence that nonprofits and these private groups can fund these parks in the long term,” he said, noting \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/us/yosemite-job-cuts-trump.html\">the $30 million\u003c/a> yearly allocated to Yosemite from Congress. “That’s a tall order to have any nonprofit raise that kind of money and continue to manage Yosemite the way it should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What visitors enjoying the park in its limited state today need to understand, Chakrin said, is that it’s the oftentimes invisible work of currently furloughed federal workers that makes parks like Yosemite so treasured — and fulfills their mission to leave these natural areas “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/management/organic-act-of-1916.htm\">unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations\u003c/a>.” The kind of things that go beyond a well-run Yosemite Valley tour, or a functioning bookstore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re making decadal policy with a blindfold on,” said Chakrin. “We need people with their eyes on the horizon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need the American public to understand what’s happening to their treasures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A casual visit to this national park right now feels frictionless. But what could Yosemite lose in the future?",
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"title": "At Yosemite, You’d Barely Know a Shutdown Was Happening. Why Advocates Say That Matters | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Before they visited Yosemite National Park this week, Susan Bennett and Katie Cook had heard all sorts of stories about a kind of chaos permeating the park during the government shutdown. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060120/what-is-the-shutdown-doing-to-yosemite\">People squatting in others’ campgrounds\u003c/a>. Hikers \u003ca href=\"https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/government-shutdown-brings-waves-of-illegal-activity-to-yosemite-national-park/\">ascending Half Dome without a permit\u003c/a>. Even \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/YosemiteNPS/status/1984285545648812479\">illegal BASE jumping\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing outside the Yosemite Valley Lodge — one of the park’s two hotels, still fully operational during the shutdown — sisters-in-law Bennett and Cook, visiting from Monterey and North Lake Tahoe respectively, told me they’d even considered canceling their much-anticipated trip. “We didn’t want to be part of the problem,” Cook said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But having heard from a friend that at least Yosemite’s bathrooms were open, the pair made the trek. And when they arrived in the park, they were far from disappointed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to the “gorgeous” fall foliage at its peak and flowing waterfalls surging due to recent storms, Bennett said they saw little sign of the chaotic scenes they had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">there wouldn’t be anybody at the main gate\u003c/a>, but we had a ranger at the campground, so it’s all good,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the month-long government shutdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058508/yes-yosemite-is-open-during-the-shutdown-but-with-lots-of-changes-for-visitors\">Yosemite has remained open\u003c/a>, but with a drastically reduced federal workforce. Only staff deemed “essential” are working in the park, and for the most part, they’re focused on law enforcement, search-and-rescue and maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062213\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-31-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors photograph El Capitan, a granite wall popular with rock climbers, at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Bennett and Cook saw, no rangers are posted at entrances to collect fees, give out maps or help tourists plan their itineraries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National Park Service staffers dedicated to research or conservation are currently furloughed, joining the 64% of national NPS staff who are not working during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the absence of so many federal workers, the majority of the “park staff” Yosemite tourists will encounter during the shutdown actually work for private businesses or organizations that were already present in the park before the shutdown — and have now assumed almost all visitor-facing duties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-06-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty fee booths at the entrance to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But underneath the general air of normalcy, a crisis is looming, say a coalition of advocacy groups and former parks leaders who have repeatedly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">called to close the national parks at this time.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seemingly small transgressions like the ones Yosemite staff and visitors report are going to have a cumulative effect, they warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our parks don’t run themselves,” wrote the coalition in a \u003ca href=\"https://protectnps.org/2025/10/23/protect-our-parks-former-nps-employees-warn-of-escalating-dangers-during-shutdown/\">letter last week\u003c/a> to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Business as usual?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058592/alcatraz-island-is-open-again-after-several-false-starts\">Alcatraz Island\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061286/muir-woods-reopens-amid-government-shutdown-temporarily\">Muir Woods National Monument\u003c/a>, private companies and nonprofits that operate in the parks have outright donated money to keep their doors open during the shutdown, as permitted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">the NPS shutdown contingency plan. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is happening at Yosemite, too. In an email to KQED, the National Park Service confirmed that the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, which has been keeping the park’s Welcome Center and The Depot at Mariposa Grove open, is “working with the [NPS] to establish short-term agreements with donations to help maintain operations during the lapse in appropriations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My own experience visiting Yosemite this week reflected what I was hearing from the tourists I met there —- that operations within the park during the shutdown seemed very much like business as usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-18-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors look at a welcome at the entrance to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To a casual observer, the only clue that anything might be different was those unstaffed entry gates, normally humming with activity, which drivers are now blowing right through, as they can no longer pick up park maps and expert ranger advice for their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Yosemite Valley Welcome Center, which was initially closed at the start of the shutdown, has been reopened to the public. When I visited, the center was abuzz with tourists buying merchandise and lining up to get park information, just like any other day outside of a full federal shutdown — albeit with no rangers at their normal stations, leading to slightly longer lines than usual, according to one Conservancy staffer.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Yosemite’s crowds seemed a little larger than what I’d previously observed for this time of year, and parking at the base of El Capitan — where visitors can watch climbers scaling the iconic rock face —- was more scarce than usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But elsewhere, I saw several park rangers roaming on foot and in cars, all working without pay during the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maintenance staff could be seen at work, and there was even someone collecting campground fees and distributing maps at the Big Oak Flat entrance to the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those bathrooms in Yosemite Valley — \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/31/national-parks-shutdown-impact-joshua-tree-yosemite-yellowstone\">a notorious casualty of previous NPS shutdowns\u003c/a> — were generally clean, with no sign of piled-up trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This shutdown, compared to others, is much more smooth,” said William Fontana Sr., an Aramark employee who has been giving tours in the park for 40 years — and who attributed what he was seeing to the fact that law enforcement rangers and essential facilities staff \u003cem>are \u003c/em>still working in Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062223\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-93-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tour guide William Fontana points visitors to climbers on El Capitan during a tour of the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As a non-federal worker, Fontana Sr. usually works alongside NPS rangers in the park, supplementing their numbers and knowledge to show visitors around. But during the shutdown, it’s just him and his Aramark colleagues to guide tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expected to have overcrowded conditions and an absolute zoo here, but it has not happened,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public seem to be very respectful in Yosemite, and understand that if they abuse the park, they could lose the opportunity to come during the shutdown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Protect the park’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fontana Sr. said he had nonetheless seen “a little more” aggressive driving and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/travel/yosemite-shutdown-base-jumping.html\">witnessed BASE jumpers\u003c/a> leap off El Capitan this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I immediately called park dispatch, and I believe they were apprehended,” he said. “We all work together to protect the park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George Hargis, a volunteer for the advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://www.baseaccess.org/\">BASE Access\u003c/a>, disputes the now-widespread claim that the extreme sport has been taking place more often in Yosemite during the shutdown, telling KQED by email, “I can very confidently state that the BASE jumping in the National Parks has not increased during the shut down,” and that “one or two jumps were posted online and that really began the narrative that BASE jumpers are taking advantage of the shutdown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062218\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-47-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite Conservancy staff answer questions at the Welcome Center at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. It draws millions of visitors each year to its granite cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>U.S Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has also pushed back against \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/burgum-pans-reports-of-illegal-cliff-jumping-in-yosemite/\">what he called “false claims” from “grifters”\u003c/a> about conditions in Yosemite during the shutdown. \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SecretaryBurgum/status/1978266696893735094\">Burgum claimed on social media \u003c/a>that “Contrary to recent reports, the park remains fully staffed to ensure visitor safety and protect natural resources” and that “unauthorized camping, squatting and illegal activities like BASE jumping are being addressed with firm, appropriate law enforcement action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Yosemite sprawls across 1,200 square miles, much of it wilderness territory. So even though enforcement rangers are on duty, it’s not possible to keep track of every visitor’s activity — even outside of a shutdown, but especially while research- and education-focused rangers, often found on trails, are missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John DeGrazio, owner of YExplore, which runs private tours in the park, agreed that he hasn’t seen as much unruly behavior or “abuse” this shutdown as during past ones. But he said he has seen more people than usual sleeping in their cars in the park and bringing their dogs on unpaved trails, both of which are not allowed in Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062215\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-37-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John DeGrazio, owner of YExplore, a hiking tour company, sits outside the Yosemite Valley Lodge at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He even met a couple last week on their honeymoon who told him they wanted to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to camp in Yosemite for free, said DeGrazio\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who know how to take advantage of the system,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As big wall climber Cadence Brown sat in El Capitan Meadow watching his friends scale “The Nose,” he said he, too, had noticed the park seemed busier than usual for fall.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At night, he said, El Cap’s 3,000 feet of sheer granite has looked far more illuminated with climbers’ headlamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond experiencing the same difficulties finding parking I did, Brown said the only sign things might be different at Yosemite right now was the visitors he witnessed traipsing off-trail in the park’s meadows, seemingly emboldened by the lack of rangers to stop them. But for him, search-and-rescue crews still being fully active was key. “So as long as they’re here, we’re stoked,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While DeGrazio, too, is grateful the park is still open to keep his tours and his business running, he said he doesn’t know what the future holds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s always a question of allowing access versus having that access being abused,” he said. “There’s going to be that concern of: How much abuse is actually happening long-term?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘No long-term planning’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mark Rose, Sierra Nevada program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said his visit to the park earlier this month only confirmed his worries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really small things like visitors trampling through meadows — that builds up more and more over time,” he said. “Even if 99% of folks visiting the park right now are being responsible and doing what they’re supposed to, all it takes is that 1% of visitors who see this as being this free-for-all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the coalition of former park leaders and advocates, Rose also sounded an alarm about the lack of conservation and biological data being collected within the park while federal scientists working here are furloughed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All kinds of behind-the-scenes work that goes unseen by visitors is completely on pause — work that was already being impacted by an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\">24% reduction\u003c/a> in NPS staff since Trump’s inauguration in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062216\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062216\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-42-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A park ranger empties the garbage bins near the Welcome Center at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right now, Yosemite is operating without a Chief of Resources, Rose said, a crucial role that heads up all of the park’s science and restoration work around its natural resources. And with Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060911/new-trump-layoffs-could-put-hundreds-more-national-park-service-employees-on-the-chopping-block\">threatening to fire furloughed workers\u003c/a> after the shutdown ends, the staffing crisis will only deepen, he warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve let go so many of their scientists and [natural] resource and cultural resource staff,” he said. “There’s no long-term planning being done; all the science that was happening has mostly just been put on pause and/or completely cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot that’s piling up now that the government’s shut down that they’re going to have to take care of,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose also expressed concern that the pot of money currently being used to pay for basic operations and materials like fuel and cleaning supplies — which is keeping the visitor experience feeling so comparatively smooth during the shutdown— may even be being used illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-112-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A person fishes in the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After the last shutdown, the \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.org/interior-fee-use-during-shutdown-was-against-the-law-gao-says/\">Government Accountability Office determined\u003c/a> that these fee dollars are supposed to go toward park projects, while Congress should fund the park’s general operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at some point, with no fees being collected at entrance gates, it’s going to run out. “We’re draining those accounts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I told Rose that I had seen much of what he did at Yosemite — meaning, not much on the surface — he warned that it’s really too soon to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know to what degree the backcountry, other areas of the park, might be impacted — because that’s just not being monitored and reported out on by the park service,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Eyes on the horizon’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The ripple effect from the shutdown will be felt for generations to come, warns Jesse Chakrin, executive director of the Fund for People in Parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moment Chakrin learned I’d just returned from visiting Yosemite, he didn’t hold back about his thoughts on the current situation during the shutdown, employing phrases like “facade management” and “veneer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These impacts, it’s a lagging indicator,” he said. “It’s not the canary in the coal mine. When we notice the impact, it’s probably too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-36-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary-Michal Rawling, a public affairs manager for YARTS, stands near a bus stop at the Yosemite Valley Lodge at Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 27, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chakrin said he isn’t just worried that \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/national-parks/trump-national-parks-yosemite/\">the Trump administration’s razor-sharp focus on continuing to allow parks to generate revenue\u003c/a> harms park resources today and tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also deeply concerned by the fact that critical operations like law enforcement, cleanliness and some visitor-facing services being maintained — in large part thanks to nonprofit dollars from the Yosemite Conservancy — could also be \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/10/03/burgum-touts-chance-to-slash-government-amid-shutdown-00593040\">used as an argument to even further cut the staffing and budgets of national parks\u003c/a>, and turn them over to further privatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a precedent that I think has some danger in it,” he said. “I think it opens the door for this idea that maybe a passable experience is possible through privately run, privately funded, ‘national’ parks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This government seems very willing to privatize the things that are in the commons,” warned Chakrin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Neubacher, retired Yosemite superintendent, said while he, too, gives credit to nonprofits for their work to fill gaps in funding, “parks take sustained money over time,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062221\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251028-YOSEMITESHUTDOWN-61-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors stand at Tunnel View overlook in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Oct. 28, 2025. The park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but is operating with reduced staffing after more than half of its workforce was furloughed. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There is very little evidence that nonprofits and these private groups can fund these parks in the long term,” he said, noting \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/us/yosemite-job-cuts-trump.html\">the $30 million\u003c/a> yearly allocated to Yosemite from Congress. “That’s a tall order to have any nonprofit raise that kind of money and continue to manage Yosemite the way it should be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What visitors enjoying the park in its limited state today need to understand, Chakrin said, is that it’s the oftentimes invisible work of currently furloughed federal workers that makes parks like Yosemite so treasured — and fulfills their mission to leave these natural areas “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/management/organic-act-of-1916.htm\">unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations\u003c/a>.” The kind of things that go beyond a well-run Yosemite Valley tour, or a functioning bookstore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re making decadal policy with a blindfold on,” said Chakrin. “We need people with their eyes on the horizon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need the American public to understand what’s happening to their treasures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "UC Workers Call on University to Ban ICE Agents From Campuses",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/university-of-california\">University of California\u003c/a> union members are urging the system to take more concrete steps to protect international workers by barring federal agents from campuses and providing financial and legal assistance for workers facing immigration status changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 13,000 members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 student researchers, employees and postdoctoral researchers, sent a petition to the UC Office of the President last week demanding that it “protect vulnerable international workers from the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their petition comes as the Trump administration has moved to terminate some student visas and ramped up immigration enforcement around the state. So far this year, at least 100 scholars and recent graduates across the UC system have had their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037114/student-visa-cancellations-uc-berkeley-beyond-could-hurt-us-innovation\">visas or exchange visitor status revoked\u003c/a> “with no valid justification,” according to the union. Some students and graduate workers have had their visas revoked and reinstated, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/08/international-students-california-universities/\">according to \u003cem>CalMatters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF postdoctoral researcher Atreya Dey, who is from India, said the union began circulating the petition after first hearing that peoples’ exchange visitor status or student visas had been revoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think since there’s so many attacks on immigrants happening right now, the UC needs to take some steps to protect basically its core working research group,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the UC system, \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/uc-workforce-diversity\">61.5% of postdoctoral scholars\u003c/a> are international workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037908\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037908\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-800x494.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1020x630.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1536x949.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UAW 4811 is calling on the UC to establish a legal defense fund for those affected by changes to their immigration status; provide financial assistance for people who lose a job, fellowship or living accommodations based on a status change; and deny immigration officials access to university property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The University of California has long been at the forefront of the fight for immigrant rights in higher education,” the petition reads. “UC must live up to this history by joining other universities in their opposition to the Trump Administration’s blatantly illegal attacks on higher education and immigrants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UAW 4811 graduate students are currently in contract negotiations with the UC, bargaining over fair pay and job security on behalf of graduate students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UC \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/frequently-asked-questions-university-employees-about-possible-federal-immigration-enforcement#questiontwo\">said on its website\u003c/a> that while it cannot broadly prohibit immigration officers from coming onto campus, it does limit public access to certain areas, including those restricted by key card or locked doors, such as dormitories.[aside postID=news_12056908 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/230817-UC-BERKELEY-CAMPUS-MD-03-1020x680.jpg']Access to other areas that are generally unlocked can also be restricted, such as lecture halls where class is in session, hospital exam and inpatient rooms, laboratories and kitchens and food preparation areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said the university system provides “know your rights” information cards that detail the information students are legally obligated to provide if stopped by federal immigration enforcement agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“International students can reach out to their International Student Services Office for legal and resource referrals,” Zaentz wrote via email. “ [UC Immigrant Legal Services Center California] is also available for legal consultations and referrals for UC’s international students with immigration related questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dey said so far, the UC hasn’t responded to the petition or taken any “concrete steps” in ongoing negotiations on immigration-related demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The petition is just to get the university to do something to protect its workers, which they haven’t really done much,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dey’s current F-1 visa, a non-immigrant visa for full-time students, expires next year. He had planned to apply for an H1-B visa to continue biomedical research at the UC’s San Francisco campus, but after the Trump administration introduced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/h-1b-specialty-occupations\">new $100,000 fee\u003c/a> for people applying from outside the country in September, he said he’s more worried about how changing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058586/silicon-valley-dreams-at-risk-current-h-1bs-sidestep-trumps-100k-fee-for-now\">restrictions to H1-B\u003c/a> and other work visas could prevent him from continuing his research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UCSF sees, at least it seems like they see, that my research is important, but they have so far still not taken any concrete steps to protect immigrants like me,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The petition from unionized University of California researchers and others also demands concrete steps to protect international workers, including financial and legal aid.",
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"title": "UC Workers Call on University to Ban ICE Agents From Campuses | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/university-of-california\">University of California\u003c/a> union members are urging the system to take more concrete steps to protect international workers by barring federal agents from campuses and providing financial and legal assistance for workers facing immigration status changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 13,000 members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 student researchers, employees and postdoctoral researchers, sent a petition to the UC Office of the President last week demanding that it “protect vulnerable international workers from the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their petition comes as the Trump administration has moved to terminate some student visas and ramped up immigration enforcement around the state. So far this year, at least 100 scholars and recent graduates across the UC system have had their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037114/student-visa-cancellations-uc-berkeley-beyond-could-hurt-us-innovation\">visas or exchange visitor status revoked\u003c/a> “with no valid justification,” according to the union. Some students and graduate workers have had their visas revoked and reinstated, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/08/international-students-california-universities/\">according to \u003cem>CalMatters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCSF postdoctoral researcher Atreya Dey, who is from India, said the union began circulating the petition after first hearing that peoples’ exchange visitor status or student visas had been revoked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think since there’s so many attacks on immigrants happening right now, the UC needs to take some steps to protect basically its core working research group,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the UC system, \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/uc-workforce-diversity\">61.5% of postdoctoral scholars\u003c/a> are international workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037908\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037908\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-800x494.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1020x630.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1536x949.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250424_UCSFFILE_GC-12-KQED-1920x1187.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay in San Francisco on April 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UAW 4811 is calling on the UC to establish a legal defense fund for those affected by changes to their immigration status; provide financial assistance for people who lose a job, fellowship or living accommodations based on a status change; and deny immigration officials access to university property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The University of California has long been at the forefront of the fight for immigrant rights in higher education,” the petition reads. “UC must live up to this history by joining other universities in their opposition to the Trump Administration’s blatantly illegal attacks on higher education and immigrants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UAW 4811 graduate students are currently in contract negotiations with the UC, bargaining over fair pay and job security on behalf of graduate students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UC \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/frequently-asked-questions-university-employees-about-possible-federal-immigration-enforcement#questiontwo\">said on its website\u003c/a> that while it cannot broadly prohibit immigration officers from coming onto campus, it does limit public access to certain areas, including those restricted by key card or locked doors, such as dormitories.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Access to other areas that are generally unlocked can also be restricted, such as lecture halls where class is in session, hospital exam and inpatient rooms, laboratories and kitchens and food preparation areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said the university system provides “know your rights” information cards that detail the information students are legally obligated to provide if stopped by federal immigration enforcement agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“International students can reach out to their International Student Services Office for legal and resource referrals,” Zaentz wrote via email. “ [UC Immigrant Legal Services Center California] is also available for legal consultations and referrals for UC’s international students with immigration related questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dey said so far, the UC hasn’t responded to the petition or taken any “concrete steps” in ongoing negotiations on immigration-related demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The petition is just to get the university to do something to protect its workers, which they haven’t really done much,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dey’s current F-1 visa, a non-immigrant visa for full-time students, expires next year. He had planned to apply for an H1-B visa to continue biomedical research at the UC’s San Francisco campus, but after the Trump administration introduced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/h-1b-specialty-occupations\">new $100,000 fee\u003c/a> for people applying from outside the country in September, he said he’s more worried about how changing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058586/silicon-valley-dreams-at-risk-current-h-1bs-sidestep-trumps-100k-fee-for-now\">restrictions to H1-B\u003c/a> and other work visas could prevent him from continuing his research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UCSF sees, at least it seems like they see, that my research is important, but they have so far still not taken any concrete steps to protect immigrants like me,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "oakland-sisters-lead-fight-to-free-la-relatives-from-ice-detention",
"title": "Oakland Sisters Lead Fight to Free LA Relatives From ICE Detention",
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"headTitle": "Oakland Sisters Lead Fight to Free LA Relatives From ICE Detention | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Jennifer Alejo was taking a midmorning stroll through the serene San Francisco Botanical Garden when she got a panicked call from her mother in Los Angeles. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043346/sf-rallies-for-david-huerta-california-union-leader-arrested-in-la-immigration-raid\">Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided\u003c/a> the garment warehouse where more than a dozen of Alejo’s cousins and uncles worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The men were handcuffed, loaded into white vans and driven away as federal agents in military gear clashed with protesters outside the warehouse’s gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Alejo didn’t know how many relatives were arrested or where they were taken. Over the next frantic 24 hours of phone calls and online searches, a clearer picture emerged: ICE had detained 14 of her family members in a single swoop at Ambiance Apparel on June 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am freaking out because I’ve been in the Bay organizing for 10 years, but I have never gone up to the immigration machine in this way,” said Alejo, who leads the Oakland-based nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United. “So I was nervous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alejos’ story captures the new reality of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump: mass workplace raids returning on a scale not seen in years, sweeping up longtime residents with no criminal records and leaving families to navigate a system stacked against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California and the U.S., ICE arrests and detentions have climbed sharply in recent years, as the administration renews its focus on high-profile raids and deportations — forcing communities to organize legal and financial lifelines on the fly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Alejo works in her office in Oakland on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061545/bay-area-spared-from-federal-immigration-enforcement-surge-officials-say\">braced for aggressive immigration arrests\u003c/a> like those seen in Los Angeles and Chicago in recent months. Last week, dozens of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrived at a Coast Guard base in Alameda, prompting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061436/2-injured-after-officers-shoot-at-truck-outside-alameda-base-following-day-of-protests\">confrontation with protesters\u003c/a>. Tensions eased after President Donald Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061209/lurie-trump-is-calling-off-plans-to-send-federal-troops-to-san-francisco\">called off a planned surge\u003c/a> of federal agents targeting San Francisco on Oct. 23, and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said the next day that scheduled ICE and Border Patrol operations were canceled. Still, immigrant advocates, school leaders and elected officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055279/oakland-latino-merchants-learn-rights-as-ice-targets-worksites\">urged residents to stay prepared\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alejo and his younger sister, Citlali, also a staffer at the organization, knew their relatives would have a better chance at release if the family worked together. They tapped their Bay Area networks for legal aid and fundraising, and rallied relatives and close friends in L.A. to launch Lucha Zapoteca, a public campaign named for their Indigenous Zapoteca roots from Southern Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly five months later, public awareness about the family’s plight helped raise more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-aid-for-families-of-14-detained-members\">$370,000\u003c/a> from thousands of donors — enough to pay immigration bonds, which can range from $1,500 to more than $25,000 each, and cover rent and groceries for relatives left without breadwinners.[aside postID=news_12057190 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-02-KQED.jpg']Immigration attorneys in the Bay Area and Southern California worked to free 11 of the men from the Adelanto ICE detention center and secured long-term representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted people to know that they could fight back. We didn’t know what it was going to look like, but we also knew that our community does have rights,” said Alejo, 33. “But it is hard to organize your own family into action, especially when there’s just so much at stake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family joined protests, including outside of the Adelanto facility, and packed court hearings to show support — a factor immigration judges often consider when deciding whether to release a detainee on bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Alejo’s relatives is still locked up at the Adelanto facility, about 90 miles from L.A. Two were deported, including a 22-year-old who, the sisters said, didn’t realize the papers he signed sealed his removal to Tijuana. The other relative, unable to endure detention conditions, voluntarily agreed to deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE did not respond to requests for comment on why Ambiance Apparel, which employs about 150 employees at its warehouse and showroom, was targeted in June or about the operation’s outcome. It’s unclear whether the 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/los-angeles-fashion-district-company-owner-sentenced-one-year-prison-committing-customs\">sentencing\u003c/a> of the company’s owner to one year in federal prison for failing to pay more than $35 million in taxes and customs duties was connected to the raid. Ambiance has denied any wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ambiance is committed to following the law and to supporting its workers, many of whom have worked for the company for decades,” said Benjamin Gluck, an attorney representing the company, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2221046205-scaled-e1761161380689.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1345\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A protester carries a sign reading “Immigrants Built America!” as anti-ICE demonstrators protest outside a federal building on June 19, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>White House “border czar” Tom Homan said federal agents executed a search warrant at the business, which has locations in L.A.’s Fashion District and Vernon, as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tom-homan-trump-border-czar-los-angeles-rcna211701\">criminal investigation\u003c/a> that also swept up undocumented workers. But U.S. Attorney Bill Assaily said the judicial \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/us-attorney-confirms-fbi-federal-agencies-search-warrant-downtown-los-angeles/3717411/\">warrant\u003c/a> that gained agents’ entry to the gated worksite was only for immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law prohibits employers from allowing ICE into their facilities unless agents present a valid judicial warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roughly 10,300 ICE arrests in California from January through July represent nearly double the total for all of 2024 and more than five times the arrests in 2023, according to a KQED analysis of \u003ca href=\"https://deportationdata.org/data/ice.html\">data\u003c/a> from the UC Berkeley Deportation Data Project. About 62% of this year’s arrests occurred in ICE’s Los Angeles area of responsibility, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration said its immigration crackdown prioritizes expelling dangerous criminals, but undocumented immigrants with no criminal records are being detained as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve said a thousand times that aperture will open,” Homan told NBC News in June. “And I said, if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deciding to push back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After Alejo and Citlali drove to L.A. on the evening of June 6, they met with dozens of worried relatives and friends who gathered at a Quinceañera party hall someone had secured. They tallied which family members hadn’t returned home from their shifts and spoke with two Bay Area immigration attorneys Alejo had already contacted. Her first question: Could the family help by speaking up and organizing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hall had a projector. Alejo brought in Lisa Knox of the California Center for Immigrant Justice and Luis Angel Reyes Savalza of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office via Zoom. Both attorneys, active in local immigration rapid response networks, confirmed that public pressure could boost a legal process to get the fathers and husbands out of detention. Alejo reminded her family that it would take work and courage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061733\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061733\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Alejo works in her office in Oakland on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was transparent, that, hey, this is going to be a big fight. I do think we can fight back, but we need to be vocal,” Alejo, an Oakland resident who organizes low-wage cooks, builders and other workers to combat labor violations such as wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her sister Citlali, 27, who works in communications, organized Lucha Zapoteca’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DKsClVtpDq-/\">press conference\u003c/a> that weekend. Many relatives felt anxious, Citlali said, but Yurien Contreras was the first to volunteer to talk to reporters about her father’s arrest and what it meant for her and three younger brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 9, supporters held cardboard signs with photos of their 14 detained relatives outside of Ambiance’s warehouse. When it was her turn to speak, Contreras stepped onto a wooden box near a podium and faced a wall of reporters for the first time. The 20-year-old American citizen had rushed to the warehouse in time to see federal agents lead her father and roughly 40 others away the previous Friday. She demanded that immigration authorities respect the workers’ due process rights and release them.[aside postID=news_12055279 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-ICETRAINING_01023_TV-KQED.jpg']“I witnessed how they put my father in handcuffs, chained him from the waist and from his ankles,” said Yurien, speaking into a bouquet of microphones. “We suffered and still suffer from this traumatizing experience emotionally, mentally, and physically…We need our father back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras said her father’s absence was particularly hard on her 4-year-old brother, who has special needs and stopped eating and talking for about a week. For the three months her father was detained, Contreras found it difficult to sleep. She ultimately deferred her college enrollment to stay home and support her family full-time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their stories struck a nerve in a city reeling from aggressive immigration sweeps and the arrival of National Guard soldiers, sometimes fully armed, sent by Trump to help federal agents. TV stations and newspapers carried the Alejo family’s story — even into the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Contreras’ uncles, uncertain about what would happen to his four U.S.-born children, said another detainee peeked into his cell to tell him his family was on TV. Disbelieving, he hurried to the recreation room but missed the newscast. He waited for the next one at 6 p.m. When he finally saw his eldest daughter on screen, he wondered how his shy 23-year-old had found the strength to speak fearlessly. KQED agreed to grant the man anonymity because of his pending immigration case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helped me a lot because I saw the support both from my family members and everyone who was there,” the man, who was released from detention in late August, said in Spanish. “It gives you more courage to cope with the case because it can be very exhausting. The psychological anguish eats at you, wears you out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked for 15 years in L.A.’s construction and janitorial industries before handling shipping at Ambiance for the last five years. He said it’s been hard to adjust to life after detention, as he’s unable to work while fighting his immigration case. Not knowing whether he will be deported still weighs heavily on him, but he’s grateful to Lucha Zapoteca for legal representation and financial help that keep his children and wife fed and housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Community and strangers step in to help\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One vocal supporter has been the Rev. Jaime Edwards-Acton, rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood, where the family attends services. He got involved early to raise funds and coordinate donations. His parishioners, led by two sisters in their 20s, have delivered weekly boxes of groceries, diapers and household supplies to Alejo’s relatives. The church is expanding efforts to help more Angelenos affected by ICE arrests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been an amazing kind of outpouring of generosity and a desire to really want to do something, to make a positive contribution to this mess that we find ourselves in right now,” said Edwards-Acton, who also wrote letters supporting the detained Ambiance workers to the immigration court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055746\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055746\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/IMG_9847-scaled-e1761671224320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of carwash employees and their family members rallied alongside immigrant rights activists in Los Angeles on Thursday to denounce federal immigration raids at their worksites. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Los Angeles Worker Center Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said the Alejo family’s campaign and the broader community response have inspired him. Edwards-Acton recalled an interfaith vigil at downtown L.A.’s Grand Park, attended by about 1,000 people, where speakers included Mayor Karen Bass and Contreras. He said Contreras’ powerful testimony countered fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what kind of really moves people to action. Her courage was really contagious,” he said. “It wasn’t just a testimony of despair. It was a testimony about this tragic moment, but also how we’re fighting for justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras, who had a baby in March, spent her time attending court hearings for her father and the other detained relatives while caring for her brothers, mother and her child. Her 17-year-old brother remained withdrawn but kept his grades up. One day, he said he had a new goal — to graduate with honors to make his parents proud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their efforts paid off: Contreras’ father returned home in early September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a lot of hard work, a lot of times where it felt impossible for my dad to be liberated,” Contreras, who hopes to one day become an ultrasound technician, said. “We are super excited that he’s back home. We are thankful for this second opportunity with my dad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the Alejo family, who believe their clients were unlawfully targeted, said they face a difficult path to remain in the U.S. The Trump administration recently changed its policies to make detainees who crossed the border illegally \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/bia-ruling-immigration-judges-bond-mandatory-detention-undocumented-immigrants/\">ineligible\u003c/a> for bond. Dozens of immigration judges, employed by the Department of Justice, have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/09/23/nx-s1-5550915/trump-immigration-judges\">fired \u003c/a>and temporarily replaced with military lawyers who are not trained to oversee deportation hearings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Bay Area and other regions remain on high alert for more ICE enforcement, Alejo said her family’s story — and the support it inspired from strangers — offers hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel really proud of our family for doing this,” Alejo said. “It’s also been an amazing time to prove to our community that we can organize when we come together and push back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jennifer Alejo was taking a midmorning stroll through the serene San Francisco Botanical Garden when she got a panicked call from her mother in Los Angeles. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043346/sf-rallies-for-david-huerta-california-union-leader-arrested-in-la-immigration-raid\">Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided\u003c/a> the garment warehouse where more than a dozen of Alejo’s cousins and uncles worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The men were handcuffed, loaded into white vans and driven away as federal agents in military gear clashed with protesters outside the warehouse’s gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Alejo didn’t know how many relatives were arrested or where they were taken. Over the next frantic 24 hours of phone calls and online searches, a clearer picture emerged: ICE had detained 14 of her family members in a single swoop at Ambiance Apparel on June 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am freaking out because I’ve been in the Bay organizing for 10 years, but I have never gone up to the immigration machine in this way,” said Alejo, who leads the Oakland-based nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United. “So I was nervous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Alejos’ story captures the new reality of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump: mass workplace raids returning on a scale not seen in years, sweeping up longtime residents with no criminal records and leaving families to navigate a system stacked against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California and the U.S., ICE arrests and detentions have climbed sharply in recent years, as the administration renews its focus on high-profile raids and deportations — forcing communities to organize legal and financial lifelines on the fly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061732\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061732\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Alejo works in her office in Oakland on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061545/bay-area-spared-from-federal-immigration-enforcement-surge-officials-say\">braced for aggressive immigration arrests\u003c/a> like those seen in Los Angeles and Chicago in recent months. Last week, dozens of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrived at a Coast Guard base in Alameda, prompting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061436/2-injured-after-officers-shoot-at-truck-outside-alameda-base-following-day-of-protests\">confrontation with protesters\u003c/a>. Tensions eased after President Donald Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061209/lurie-trump-is-calling-off-plans-to-send-federal-troops-to-san-francisco\">called off a planned surge\u003c/a> of federal agents targeting San Francisco on Oct. 23, and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said the next day that scheduled ICE and Border Patrol operations were canceled. Still, immigrant advocates, school leaders and elected officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055279/oakland-latino-merchants-learn-rights-as-ice-targets-worksites\">urged residents to stay prepared\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alejo and his younger sister, Citlali, also a staffer at the organization, knew their relatives would have a better chance at release if the family worked together. They tapped their Bay Area networks for legal aid and fundraising, and rallied relatives and close friends in L.A. to launch Lucha Zapoteca, a public campaign named for their Indigenous Zapoteca roots from Southern Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly five months later, public awareness about the family’s plight helped raise more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-aid-for-families-of-14-detained-members\">$370,000\u003c/a> from thousands of donors — enough to pay immigration bonds, which can range from $1,500 to more than $25,000 each, and cover rent and groceries for relatives left without breadwinners.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Immigration attorneys in the Bay Area and Southern California worked to free 11 of the men from the Adelanto ICE detention center and secured long-term representation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted people to know that they could fight back. We didn’t know what it was going to look like, but we also knew that our community does have rights,” said Alejo, 33. “But it is hard to organize your own family into action, especially when there’s just so much at stake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family joined protests, including outside of the Adelanto facility, and packed court hearings to show support — a factor immigration judges often consider when deciding whether to release a detainee on bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Alejo’s relatives is still locked up at the Adelanto facility, about 90 miles from L.A. Two were deported, including a 22-year-old who, the sisters said, didn’t realize the papers he signed sealed his removal to Tijuana. The other relative, unable to endure detention conditions, voluntarily agreed to deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE did not respond to requests for comment on why Ambiance Apparel, which employs about 150 employees at its warehouse and showroom, was targeted in June or about the operation’s outcome. It’s unclear whether the 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/los-angeles-fashion-district-company-owner-sentenced-one-year-prison-committing-customs\">sentencing\u003c/a> of the company’s owner to one year in federal prison for failing to pay more than $35 million in taxes and customs duties was connected to the raid. Ambiance has denied any wrongdoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ambiance is committed to following the law and to supporting its workers, many of whom have worked for the company for decades,” said Benjamin Gluck, an attorney representing the company, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2221046205-scaled-e1761161380689.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1345\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A protester carries a sign reading “Immigrants Built America!” as anti-ICE demonstrators protest outside a federal building on June 19, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>White House “border czar” Tom Homan said federal agents executed a search warrant at the business, which has locations in L.A.’s Fashion District and Vernon, as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tom-homan-trump-border-czar-los-angeles-rcna211701\">criminal investigation\u003c/a> that also swept up undocumented workers. But U.S. Attorney Bill Assaily said the judicial \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/us-attorney-confirms-fbi-federal-agencies-search-warrant-downtown-los-angeles/3717411/\">warrant\u003c/a> that gained agents’ entry to the gated worksite was only for immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law prohibits employers from allowing ICE into their facilities unless agents present a valid judicial warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roughly 10,300 ICE arrests in California from January through July represent nearly double the total for all of 2024 and more than five times the arrests in 2023, according to a KQED analysis of \u003ca href=\"https://deportationdata.org/data/ice.html\">data\u003c/a> from the UC Berkeley Deportation Data Project. About 62% of this year’s arrests occurred in ICE’s Los Angeles area of responsibility, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration said its immigration crackdown prioritizes expelling dangerous criminals, but undocumented immigrants with no criminal records are being detained as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve said a thousand times that aperture will open,” Homan told NBC News in June. “And I said, if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deciding to push back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After Alejo and Citlali drove to L.A. on the evening of June 6, they met with dozens of worried relatives and friends who gathered at a Quinceañera party hall someone had secured. They tallied which family members hadn’t returned home from their shifts and spoke with two Bay Area immigration attorneys Alejo had already contacted. Her first question: Could the family help by speaking up and organizing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hall had a projector. Alejo brought in Lisa Knox of the California Center for Immigrant Justice and Luis Angel Reyes Savalza of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office via Zoom. Both attorneys, active in local immigration rapid response networks, confirmed that public pressure could boost a legal process to get the fathers and husbands out of detention. Alejo reminded her family that it would take work and courage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061733\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061733\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251026_FAMILYMEMBERSARRESTED_HERNANDEZ-7-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Alejo works in her office in Oakland on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was transparent, that, hey, this is going to be a big fight. I do think we can fight back, but we need to be vocal,” Alejo, an Oakland resident who organizes low-wage cooks, builders and other workers to combat labor violations such as wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her sister Citlali, 27, who works in communications, organized Lucha Zapoteca’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DKsClVtpDq-/\">press conference\u003c/a> that weekend. Many relatives felt anxious, Citlali said, but Yurien Contreras was the first to volunteer to talk to reporters about her father’s arrest and what it meant for her and three younger brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 9, supporters held cardboard signs with photos of their 14 detained relatives outside of Ambiance’s warehouse. When it was her turn to speak, Contreras stepped onto a wooden box near a podium and faced a wall of reporters for the first time. The 20-year-old American citizen had rushed to the warehouse in time to see federal agents lead her father and roughly 40 others away the previous Friday. She demanded that immigration authorities respect the workers’ due process rights and release them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I witnessed how they put my father in handcuffs, chained him from the waist and from his ankles,” said Yurien, speaking into a bouquet of microphones. “We suffered and still suffer from this traumatizing experience emotionally, mentally, and physically…We need our father back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras said her father’s absence was particularly hard on her 4-year-old brother, who has special needs and stopped eating and talking for about a week. For the three months her father was detained, Contreras found it difficult to sleep. She ultimately deferred her college enrollment to stay home and support her family full-time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their stories struck a nerve in a city reeling from aggressive immigration sweeps and the arrival of National Guard soldiers, sometimes fully armed, sent by Trump to help federal agents. TV stations and newspapers carried the Alejo family’s story — even into the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Contreras’ uncles, uncertain about what would happen to his four U.S.-born children, said another detainee peeked into his cell to tell him his family was on TV. Disbelieving, he hurried to the recreation room but missed the newscast. He waited for the next one at 6 p.m. When he finally saw his eldest daughter on screen, he wondered how his shy 23-year-old had found the strength to speak fearlessly. KQED agreed to grant the man anonymity because of his pending immigration case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helped me a lot because I saw the support both from my family members and everyone who was there,” the man, who was released from detention in late August, said in Spanish. “It gives you more courage to cope with the case because it can be very exhausting. The psychological anguish eats at you, wears you out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked for 15 years in L.A.’s construction and janitorial industries before handling shipping at Ambiance for the last five years. He said it’s been hard to adjust to life after detention, as he’s unable to work while fighting his immigration case. Not knowing whether he will be deported still weighs heavily on him, but he’s grateful to Lucha Zapoteca for legal representation and financial help that keep his children and wife fed and housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Community and strangers step in to help\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One vocal supporter has been the Rev. Jaime Edwards-Acton, rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood, where the family attends services. He got involved early to raise funds and coordinate donations. His parishioners, led by two sisters in their 20s, have delivered weekly boxes of groceries, diapers and household supplies to Alejo’s relatives. The church is expanding efforts to help more Angelenos affected by ICE arrests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been an amazing kind of outpouring of generosity and a desire to really want to do something, to make a positive contribution to this mess that we find ourselves in right now,” said Edwards-Acton, who also wrote letters supporting the detained Ambiance workers to the immigration court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055746\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055746\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/IMG_9847-scaled-e1761671224320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of carwash employees and their family members rallied alongside immigrant rights activists in Los Angeles on Thursday to denounce federal immigration raids at their worksites. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Los Angeles Worker Center Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said the Alejo family’s campaign and the broader community response have inspired him. Edwards-Acton recalled an interfaith vigil at downtown L.A.’s Grand Park, attended by about 1,000 people, where speakers included Mayor Karen Bass and Contreras. He said Contreras’ powerful testimony countered fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what kind of really moves people to action. Her courage was really contagious,” he said. “It wasn’t just a testimony of despair. It was a testimony about this tragic moment, but also how we’re fighting for justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras, who had a baby in March, spent her time attending court hearings for her father and the other detained relatives while caring for her brothers, mother and her child. Her 17-year-old brother remained withdrawn but kept his grades up. One day, he said he had a new goal — to graduate with honors to make his parents proud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their efforts paid off: Contreras’ father returned home in early September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a lot of hard work, a lot of times where it felt impossible for my dad to be liberated,” Contreras, who hopes to one day become an ultrasound technician, said. “We are super excited that he’s back home. We are thankful for this second opportunity with my dad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the Alejo family, who believe their clients were unlawfully targeted, said they face a difficult path to remain in the U.S. The Trump administration recently changed its policies to make detainees who crossed the border illegally \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/bia-ruling-immigration-judges-bond-mandatory-detention-undocumented-immigrants/\">ineligible\u003c/a> for bond. Dozens of immigration judges, employed by the Department of Justice, have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/09/23/nx-s1-5550915/trump-immigration-judges\">fired \u003c/a>and temporarily replaced with military lawyers who are not trained to oversee deportation hearings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Bay Area and other regions remain on high alert for more ICE enforcement, Alejo said her family’s story — and the support it inspired from strangers — offers hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel really proud of our family for doing this,” Alejo said. “It’s also been an amazing time to prove to our community that we can organize when we come together and push back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Enriqueta Soriano has sold bejeweled, colorful ball gowns for quinceañeras, weddings and other formal events for 30 years in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052452/you-cant-trust-anyone-in-oakland-fear-of-ice-raids-grips-day-laborers\">Oakland’s Fruitvale district\u003c/a>, a majority Latino area where one in three residents is foreign-born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mexican immigrant raised six children and saved for retirement with income from her once-prosperous store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since reports spread in June of masked federal immigration agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043346/sf-rallies-for-david-huerta-california-union-leader-arrested-in-la-immigration-raid\">raiding Los Angeles workplaces\u003c/a> and Home Depot parking lots, few customers have entered Soriano’s shop. The nosedive in sales came as local merchants were already struggling with public safety concerns that hurt the area’s reputation and drove customers away in recent years, said the 66-year-old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, to give us the final blow, came the ICE raids that were on TV so much. They really scared people,” Soriano, owner of El Palacio de Novias y Quinceañeras, said in Spanish. “Business is going down, down, down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, businesses owned and frequented by immigrants like Soriano’s are suffering from an economic chill driven not just by enforcement, but by fear. Families are staying home, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055084/california-volunteers-stand-guard-at-day-laborer-corners-amid-ice-sweeps\">workers are keeping low profiles\u003c/a>, and small shops that once thrived are watching their customers disappear. The impact ripples through neighborhoods, local economies and city budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061128\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12061128 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enriqueta Soriano and her son Enrique work inside her store, El Palacio de las Novias y Quinceañeras, in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061224/oakland-braces-for-possible-federal-action-after-san-francisco-dodges-trumps-attention\">Bay Area braced\u003c/a> for President Donald Trump’s promised immigration crackdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055279/oakland-latino-merchants-learn-rights-as-ice-targets-worksites\">small-business owners in the Fruitvale\u003c/a> reeled from a steep decline in sales and foot traffic as immigrant communities limit spending and outings to essentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Restaurants, grocery stores, travel agencies, retail and auto repair shops along International Boulevard point to a months-long economic slump that could deepen. Businesses across California that serve Latino immigrant customers or employ undocumented workers would be hardest hit, according to experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the raids start occurring in the [Bay Area] region, you’re going to see huge decreases in revenue and that affects the city budget and the city’s ability to operate — that goes for Oakland and San José as well,” said Abby Raisz, vice president of research at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.[aside postID=news_12061224 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-05-KQED.jpg']After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raid, rattled undocumented workers may not show up to their jobs in construction, agriculture, hospitality, retail and other industries. The disruptions can raise costs for businesses, which then pass them to consumers. Eventually, Raisz said, most of these immigrants try to go back to work out of financial need, but cut back on spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they won’t do is go back to establishments. They won’t go eat out at restaurants that maybe they would have previously. They won’t shop locally,” Raisz said, calling it “the cost of fear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That affects the business owners, who often are immigrants themselves, especially when we look at areas that are very concentrated with high shares of immigrants,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mass deportations could reduce California’s gross domestic product by $275 billion through labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and reduced household spending, according to a June \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareaeconomy.org/files/pdf/Economic%20Impact%20of%20Mass%20Deportation_June%202025.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Raisz and other researchers at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and UC Merced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has roughly 2.3 million undocumented immigrants — roughly 8% of its workforce — the most of any state. The Bay Area is home to more than 300,000 undocumented workers, with nearly half concentrated in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061131\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061131\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transmatic Transmission in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles and Chicago, National Guard troops — sometimes armed with rifles — accompanied ICE agents or provided logistical support. Trump said the troops were needed to protect agents from violent protesters and address “out-of-control crime,” a claim local authorities disputed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilbert Alfonso, who has operated a car transmission repair shop in the Fruitvale for 48 years, said he’s been surprised by how quiet streets have remained amid the looming threat of increased immigration enforcement. Deploying the National Guard, he said, to the neighborhood would only make things worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The businesses around me — the stores, the restaurants — they have no customers. They are just not coming out,” Alfonso, who owns Transmatic Transmission, said. “I’ve been here for that many years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He used to handle up to 15 repair jobs a week. Now he’s lucky to get one. Because he owns his building, it blunts the financial hit somewhat, but he feels for other business owners who must come up with the rent money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061130\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061130\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural on the facade of Transmatic Transmission in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody is driving up or down the streets no more. The foot traffic is hardly anything anymore. My phone doesn’t ring anymore,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales slump and labor disruptions compound the economic uncertainties small businesses face, said Oscar Garcia, senior vice president of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Inflation, cost of doing business, cost of your product or your service, gasoline, rent — all that makes it a bigger challenge,” he said, adding that many businesses also lack access to capital or grants once available during the pandemic. “There are many factors that contribute to slow business.”[aside postID=news_12061191 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GETTYIMAGES-2242445000-KQED.jpg']In Fruitvale, most merchants told KQED that robberies, theft and vandalism had already hurt profits before the ICE raids in L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area including Fruitvale had the most robberies from 2020 through 2024 in Oakland, according to a KQED analysis of police data, though other crimes, such as burglaries and auto theft, were more common elsewhere in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Business owners create economic activity and jobs. These communities must be safe, and I have worked — and will continue to work — with our public safety officials, the Oakland Police Department, and local merchants to determine more effective measures to enhance public safety, which is key to a successful business environment,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city budget adopted this year — which lists public safety as a top priority — funds 678 police officers, still short of the 700 required under a 2024 voter-approved ballot measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Violent crime has since fallen nationwide, including in Oakland. In the first half of this year, citywide crime dropped\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/News-Releases/Police/OPD-Shares-Crime-Statistics-for-First-Half-of-2025\"> significantly\u003c/a> compared to last year, including a 41% drop in robberies, according to police. But most Fruitvale business owners, including Soriano, say they haven’t seen much improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soriano is now considering closing her store for good, which she said fills her with dread. She’s kept the doors open by spending her retirement and savings on rent and bills, but worries she and her husband won’t have enough money to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still had the will to fight, to try to move forward. But I’m finding myself in the painful necessity of having to close my business,” she said, as tears streamed down her face. “I’m just so depressed and frustrated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, to give us the final blow, came the ICE raids that were on TV so much. They really scared people,” Soriano, owner of El Palacio de Novias y Quinceañeras, said in Spanish. “Business is going down, down, down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, businesses owned and frequented by immigrants like Soriano’s are suffering from an economic chill driven not just by enforcement, but by fear. Families are staying home, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055084/california-volunteers-stand-guard-at-day-laborer-corners-amid-ice-sweeps\">workers are keeping low profiles\u003c/a>, and small shops that once thrived are watching their customers disappear. The impact ripples through neighborhoods, local economies and city budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061128\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12061128 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enriqueta Soriano and her son Enrique work inside her store, El Palacio de las Novias y Quinceañeras, in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061224/oakland-braces-for-possible-federal-action-after-san-francisco-dodges-trumps-attention\">Bay Area braced\u003c/a> for President Donald Trump’s promised immigration crackdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055279/oakland-latino-merchants-learn-rights-as-ice-targets-worksites\">small-business owners in the Fruitvale\u003c/a> reeled from a steep decline in sales and foot traffic as immigrant communities limit spending and outings to essentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Restaurants, grocery stores, travel agencies, retail and auto repair shops along International Boulevard point to a months-long economic slump that could deepen. Businesses across California that serve Latino immigrant customers or employ undocumented workers would be hardest hit, according to experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the raids start occurring in the [Bay Area] region, you’re going to see huge decreases in revenue and that affects the city budget and the city’s ability to operate — that goes for Oakland and San José as well,” said Abby Raisz, vice president of research at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raid, rattled undocumented workers may not show up to their jobs in construction, agriculture, hospitality, retail and other industries. The disruptions can raise costs for businesses, which then pass them to consumers. Eventually, Raisz said, most of these immigrants try to go back to work out of financial need, but cut back on spending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they won’t do is go back to establishments. They won’t go eat out at restaurants that maybe they would have previously. They won’t shop locally,” Raisz said, calling it “the cost of fear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That affects the business owners, who often are immigrants themselves, especially when we look at areas that are very concentrated with high shares of immigrants,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mass deportations could reduce California’s gross domestic product by $275 billion through labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and reduced household spending, according to a June \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareaeconomy.org/files/pdf/Economic%20Impact%20of%20Mass%20Deportation_June%202025.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Raisz and other researchers at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and UC Merced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has roughly 2.3 million undocumented immigrants — roughly 8% of its workforce — the most of any state. The Bay Area is home to more than 300,000 undocumented workers, with nearly half concentrated in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061131\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061131\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transmatic Transmission in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles and Chicago, National Guard troops — sometimes armed with rifles — accompanied ICE agents or provided logistical support. Trump said the troops were needed to protect agents from violent protesters and address “out-of-control crime,” a claim local authorities disputed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gilbert Alfonso, who has operated a car transmission repair shop in the Fruitvale for 48 years, said he’s been surprised by how quiet streets have remained amid the looming threat of increased immigration enforcement. Deploying the National Guard, he said, to the neighborhood would only make things worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The businesses around me — the stores, the restaurants — they have no customers. They are just not coming out,” Alfonso, who owns Transmatic Transmission, said. “I’ve been here for that many years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He used to handle up to 15 repair jobs a week. Now he’s lucky to get one. Because he owns his building, it blunts the financial hit somewhat, but he feels for other business owners who must come up with the rent money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061130\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061130\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251022-FRUITVALE-MERCHANTS-MD-05-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural on the facade of Transmatic Transmission in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland on Oct. 22, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody is driving up or down the streets no more. The foot traffic is hardly anything anymore. My phone doesn’t ring anymore,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales slump and labor disruptions compound the economic uncertainties small businesses face, said Oscar Garcia, senior vice president of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Inflation, cost of doing business, cost of your product or your service, gasoline, rent — all that makes it a bigger challenge,” he said, adding that many businesses also lack access to capital or grants once available during the pandemic. “There are many factors that contribute to slow business.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In Fruitvale, most merchants told KQED that robberies, theft and vandalism had already hurt profits before the ICE raids in L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The area including Fruitvale had the most robberies from 2020 through 2024 in Oakland, according to a KQED analysis of police data, though other crimes, such as burglaries and auto theft, were more common elsewhere in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Business owners create economic activity and jobs. These communities must be safe, and I have worked — and will continue to work — with our public safety officials, the Oakland Police Department, and local merchants to determine more effective measures to enhance public safety, which is key to a successful business environment,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city budget adopted this year — which lists public safety as a top priority — funds 678 police officers, still short of the 700 required under a 2024 voter-approved ballot measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Violent crime has since fallen nationwide, including in Oakland. In the first half of this year, citywide crime dropped\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/News-Releases/Police/OPD-Shares-Crime-Statistics-for-First-Half-of-2025\"> significantly\u003c/a> compared to last year, including a 41% drop in robberies, according to police. But most Fruitvale business owners, including Soriano, say they haven’t seen much improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soriano is now considering closing her store for good, which she said fills her with dread. She’s kept the doors open by spending her retirement and savings on rent and bills, but worries she and her husband won’t have enough money to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still had the will to fight, to try to move forward. But I’m finding myself in the painful necessity of having to close my business,” she said, as tears streamed down her face. “I’m just so depressed and frustrated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Department of the Interior plans to lay off at least 272 additional \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/national-parks-service\">National Park Service\u003c/a> employees, according to a court filing published Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.71.2.pdf\">The filing, \u003c/a>from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, outlines the DOI’s plans, which include the proposed elimination of 2,050 positions within the agency across 89 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes more than 450 potentially affected employees from the Bureau of Land Management and nearly 150 staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the planned firings outlined in the order may just be the start, said Kati Schmidt, communications director for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/11135-court-filings-reveal-secretary-burgum-s-plans-to-terminate-key-national\">National Parks Conservation Association\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The numbers come out of a court document filed in relation to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060025/sf-judge-blocks-trumps-politically-motivated-layoffs-of-federal-workers-during-shutdown\">U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s decision\u003c/a> to grant unions representing federal workers a temporary restraining order as part of their lawsuit aimed at halting the Trump administration’s move to lay off 4,000 federal employees during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/government-shutdown\">ongoing government shutdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer for the National Park Service welcomes visitors at the Exploration Center in Yosemite Valley, at Yosemite National Park on March 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon/AFP via Getty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Schmidt cautioned that the information provided in the court filing may not even represent all of the staff who are at risk — including those not represented by the unions involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The overall number of planned staff reductions is likely much larger,” she warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schmidt said that right now, since it’s unclear how many parks staff aren’t represented by the unions in this particular case — or how many unions representing park staff are as yet uninvolved — the exact number of additional workers who could be affected by these layoffs remains unknown.[aside postID=news_12060120 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/YosemiteGetty3.jpg']Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January, the National Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff, according to\u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\"> estimates\u003c/a> from the National Parks Conservation Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court filing confirms our worst fears,” NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno wrote in a statement on the group’s website. “No matter the size, any additional cuts to the Park Service will be devastating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, a DOI spokesperson confirmed these plans for layoffs within the agency “predate” the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPCA’s Schmidt said the stalling of the shutdown-related layoffs due to the court order currently also prevents the DOI layoffs from being enacted until the shutdown ends — or a higher court steps in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late August, federal park workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054083/yosemite-sequoia-and-kings-canyon-workers-unionize-amid-fears-of-further-firings\">unionized under the National Federation of Federal Employees \u003c/a>— one of the unions whose members the order protects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Department of the Interior plans to lay off at least 272 additional \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/national-parks-service\">National Park Service\u003c/a> employees, according to a court filing published Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.71.2.pdf\">The filing, \u003c/a>from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, outlines the DOI’s plans, which include the proposed elimination of 2,050 positions within the agency across 89 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That includes more than 450 potentially affected employees from the Bureau of Land Management and nearly 150 staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the planned firings outlined in the order may just be the start, said Kati Schmidt, communications director for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/11135-court-filings-reveal-secretary-burgum-s-plans-to-terminate-key-national\">National Parks Conservation Association\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The numbers come out of a court document filed in relation to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060025/sf-judge-blocks-trumps-politically-motivated-layoffs-of-federal-workers-during-shutdown\">U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s decision\u003c/a> to grant unions representing federal workers a temporary restraining order as part of their lawsuit aimed at halting the Trump administration’s move to lay off 4,000 federal employees during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/government-shutdown\">ongoing government shutdown.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CaliforniaPublicLandsGetty1-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer for the National Park Service welcomes visitors at the Exploration Center in Yosemite Valley, at Yosemite National Park on March 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon/AFP via Getty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Schmidt cautioned that the information provided in the court filing may not even represent all of the staff who are at risk — including those not represented by the unions involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The overall number of planned staff reductions is likely much larger,” she warned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schmidt said that right now, since it’s unclear how many parks staff aren’t represented by the unions in this particular case — or how many unions representing park staff are as yet uninvolved — the exact number of additional workers who could be affected by these layoffs remains unknown.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January, the National Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff, according to\u003ca href=\"https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24\"> estimates\u003c/a> from the National Parks Conservation Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court filing confirms our worst fears,” NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno wrote in a statement on the group’s website. “No matter the size, any additional cuts to the Park Service will be devastating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, a DOI spokesperson confirmed these plans for layoffs within the agency “predate” the shutdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPCA’s Schmidt said the stalling of the shutdown-related layoffs due to the court order currently also prevents the DOI layoffs from being enacted until the shutdown ends — or a higher court steps in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late August, federal park workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054083/yosemite-sequoia-and-kings-canyon-workers-unionize-amid-fears-of-further-firings\">unionized under the National Federation of Federal Employees \u003c/a>— one of the unions whose members the order protects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "New California Law Imposes Massive Fines on Employers Who Refuse to Pay Stolen Wages",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> has raised the stakes for businesses that steal wages and tripled the price of wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB261/id/3097188\">SB 261\u003c/a>, a bill championed by Santa Clara County officials and labor leaders. The new law imposes \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB261/id/3273327\">severe financial penalties\u003c/a> on unpaid wage judgments, with the aim of addressing the systemic failure of collection that has cost the state billions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Employers need to pay their employees what they are owed,” bill author and state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, said at a press conference on Monday. “These employees work hard. They deserve every single dollar they work for. And the fact that employers are circumventing pay is a crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and local officials said that employers have historically been able to ignore court-ordered wage judgments with impunity, leaving tens of thousands of workers uncompensated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has not been any repercussion for employers that refuse to pay on wage theft judgment. This law changes that,” said Tony LoPresti, county counsel for Santa Clara County. He noted that the monetary loss from wage theft nationwide is “five times what the monetary loss is for burglary and larceny and robbery combined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12014943\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12014943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/GettyImages-567385215-scaled-e1761002972718.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1396\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Labor groups and workers, including John Beard, with the L.A. Black Worker Center (holding sign), participates in a news conference on the steps of City Hall, to urge the City Council to raise the Los Angeles minimum wage to $15 per hour and include paid sick days and wage theft protections. \u003ccite>(Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Starting Jan. 1, 2026, employers who refuse to pay a wage theft judgment for 180 days will face a civil penalty of up to three times the outstanding judgment amount, plus interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of the resulting penalty will go directly to the affected workers, while the other half supports increased enforcement efforts by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill also requires courts award workers and county prosecutors reasonable attorney fees and costs, making efforts towards enforcement of the law more sustainable, LoPresti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furthermore, the law will help prevent companies from simply closing and reorganizing to erase their debt, according to Ruth Silver Taube, supervising attorney of the Worker’s Rights Clinic at Santa Clara University School of Law.[aside postID=news_12060288 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-06-KQED.jpg']“This collaboration is a model for everybody in our communities to recognize that the economy, that workers, that government, and leaders can come together and say we demand better for working families,” said Jean Cohen, executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. “This legislation is a perfect example of the outcome of that commitment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wage theft is a particularly serious problem in Santa Clara County. Supervisor Betty Duong noted that since 2010, the Labor Commissioner’s Office has issued over $35 million in unpaid wage theft judgments in the county alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wage theft isn’t a victimless crime. It’s the theft of rent money, grocery money and child care money,” Duong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The failure to collect disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups. According to Wahab, workers in industries like construction — many of whom are immigrants and English language learners — are highly susceptible to wage theft and rarely see payments after winning their claims. Collection statistics underscore this crisis: a 2023 California State Auditor \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-104/\">report\u003c/a> found that the Labor Commission only fully collected on 12% of judgments between 2018 and 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some days at the Law Center’s clinic and on the advice line, I will get five or six clients coming in, or callers calling, that have not got wage theft judgment paid for years and years,” Taube said. “And it’s a huge problem, and it’s heartbreaking to hear their stories because they’ve actually done the work, went through a hearing, and a judgment was recorded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s own programs served as a model for SB 261. The county’s Food Permit Enforcement Program \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">leverages health permits\u003c/a> to compel food retailers with unpaid wage judgments to comply, or risk losing their authorization to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duong confirmed that the county’s permits are contingent on following all applicable workplace laws, meaning that employers with unpaid judgments should now expect issues with permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2019, this program has helped collect more than $110,000 for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, LoPresti said the state can ensure that justice for workers no longer “ends with a piece of paper. It ends with a paycheck”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> has raised the stakes for businesses that steal wages and tripled the price of wage theft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB261/id/3097188\">SB 261\u003c/a>, a bill championed by Santa Clara County officials and labor leaders. The new law imposes \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB261/id/3273327\">severe financial penalties\u003c/a> on unpaid wage judgments, with the aim of addressing the systemic failure of collection that has cost the state billions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Employers need to pay their employees what they are owed,” bill author and state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, said at a press conference on Monday. “These employees work hard. They deserve every single dollar they work for. And the fact that employers are circumventing pay is a crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and local officials said that employers have historically been able to ignore court-ordered wage judgments with impunity, leaving tens of thousands of workers uncompensated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has not been any repercussion for employers that refuse to pay on wage theft judgment. This law changes that,” said Tony LoPresti, county counsel for Santa Clara County. He noted that the monetary loss from wage theft nationwide is “five times what the monetary loss is for burglary and larceny and robbery combined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12014943\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12014943\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/GettyImages-567385215-scaled-e1761002972718.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1396\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Labor groups and workers, including John Beard, with the L.A. Black Worker Center (holding sign), participates in a news conference on the steps of City Hall, to urge the City Council to raise the Los Angeles minimum wage to $15 per hour and include paid sick days and wage theft protections. \u003ccite>(Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Starting Jan. 1, 2026, employers who refuse to pay a wage theft judgment for 180 days will face a civil penalty of up to three times the outstanding judgment amount, plus interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of the resulting penalty will go directly to the affected workers, while the other half supports increased enforcement efforts by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill also requires courts award workers and county prosecutors reasonable attorney fees and costs, making efforts towards enforcement of the law more sustainable, LoPresti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furthermore, the law will help prevent companies from simply closing and reorganizing to erase their debt, according to Ruth Silver Taube, supervising attorney of the Worker’s Rights Clinic at Santa Clara University School of Law.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This collaboration is a model for everybody in our communities to recognize that the economy, that workers, that government, and leaders can come together and say we demand better for working families,” said Jean Cohen, executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. “This legislation is a perfect example of the outcome of that commitment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wage theft is a particularly serious problem in Santa Clara County. Supervisor Betty Duong noted that since 2010, the Labor Commissioner’s Office has issued over $35 million in unpaid wage theft judgments in the county alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wage theft isn’t a victimless crime. It’s the theft of rent money, grocery money and child care money,” Duong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The failure to collect disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups. According to Wahab, workers in industries like construction — many of whom are immigrants and English language learners — are highly susceptible to wage theft and rarely see payments after winning their claims. Collection statistics underscore this crisis: a 2023 California State Auditor \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-104/\">report\u003c/a> found that the Labor Commission only fully collected on 12% of judgments between 2018 and 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some days at the Law Center’s clinic and on the advice line, I will get five or six clients coming in, or callers calling, that have not got wage theft judgment paid for years and years,” Taube said. “And it’s a huge problem, and it’s heartbreaking to hear their stories because they’ve actually done the work, went through a hearing, and a judgment was recorded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s own programs served as a model for SB 261. The county’s Food Permit Enforcement Program \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958124/santa-clara-county-pushes-food-businesses-to-pay-worker-wages-or-lose-permits\">leverages health permits\u003c/a> to compel food retailers with unpaid wage judgments to comply, or risk losing their authorization to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duong confirmed that the county’s permits are contingent on following all applicable workplace laws, meaning that employers with unpaid judgments should now expect issues with permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2019, this program has helped collect more than $110,000 for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, LoPresti said the state can ensure that justice for workers no longer “ends with a piece of paper. It ends with a paycheck”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "kaiser-strike-ends-sunday-as-union-and-management-plan-to-resume-wage-talks",
"title": "Kaiser Strike Ends Sunday as Union and Management Plan to Resume Wage Talks",
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"content": "\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059890/kaiser-strike-hits-several-bay-area-locations-as-thousands-walk-off-the-job\">tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care employees\u003c/a> approach the end of a five-day, multi-state walkout on Sunday, both sides said they’ll return to the bargaining table over the central dispute: how much of the union’s pay-hike demands the nonprofit’s executives will agree to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes are high for Kaiser, the \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-impact/news-perspectives-on-public-policy-california#:~:text=Kaiser%20Permanente%20was%20founded%20in,with%20many%20top%2Drated%20hospitals.\">largest private employer\u003c/a> in the state. The national contract, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059551/california-kaiser-health-care-workers-reaching-breaking-point-set-to-strike-next-week\">months in negotiation\u003c/a> with the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, covers nearly 61,000 nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and other frontline workers — about a third of Kaiser’s workforce — though roughly a quarter of those represented declined to go on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the organization must tread carefully in talks amid rising costs and economic headwinds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We remain committed to reaching an agreement, if possible, that provides strong wage increases that are sustainable while balancing our obligation to deliver high-quality care that remains affordable,” Kaiser said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sides appear close on paper. The Alliance seeks a 25% wage boost over four years for employees, it said are underpaid. Kaiser, which maintains that workers already earn above-market wages, has drawn the line at 21.5%. The difference, which adds up to roughly $300 million a year in salary costs, is what Kaiser said could force it to raise rates among its 12.6 million members, most of them in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the traditional labor-management battle,” said Dr. Robert Pearl, a former top executive at Kaiser who now teaches at Stanford University’s medicine and business schools. “My own view is that’s not the best thing for patients, this strike … It’s a sign of failure to not be able to work together for the good of all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since Tuesday, Kaiser has hired thousands of temporary nurses, clinicians and other staff to minimize disruptions in California, Hawaii and Oregon. In Northern California, only 3% of all appointments, surgeries and procedures were rescheduled, according to Kaiser. Medical centers, offices and pharmacies remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walkout caused more disruptions in Southern California, temporarily closing pharmacies in Riverside and Ventura Canyon, as well as laboratories and target clinics in San Bernardino and Riverside. The union said dozens of pharmacies were shuttered in Los Angeles, Orange, Kern and other counties. Ambulances were diverted from Kaiser to nearby hospitals in Irvine and San Diego, according to picketers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Temporary nurses and other professionals brought in from across the country posted on social media about being stranded in buses and hotels for many hours. Their staffing company, AMN Healthcare, later apologized over “logistical and communication breakdowns over the last few days [that] created regrettable delays, stress, and confusion for the AMN teams supporting the Kaiser Permanente strike in SoCal,” according to a letter shared with KQED.[aside postID=news_12059890 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-03-KQED-1.jpg']The company did not respond to requests for comment but offered a $1,200 bonus for those who covered out-of-pocket travel or lodging expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union representatives maintain that Kaiser, which has expanded to other states in recent years, can meet their demands given its profits and an estimated $66 billion in reserves. Workers say colleagues are leaving for better pay and lighter workloads, straining those who remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re sitting on a lot of money. And that money seems to be not meant for their staff that are currently out here today,” said Jeff Cathcart, a nurse anesthetist at Kaiser San Francisco who is in the union’s bargaining team and joined the picket line outside the Oakland Medical Center. “This pay increase is pretty vital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say many workers accepted smaller raises during the pandemic and need to catch up with inflation and the high cost of living. Their latest proposal would boost wages by 9% in the first year, 5% in the second, 7% in the third and 4% in the fourth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kaiser Permanente can absolutely not only afford it based off of the money they have in the bank and the revenues they have coming in — I would say that Kaiser Permanente cannot afford not to do it,” said Jane Carter, research director for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, the largest of 23 unions in the Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If they want to continue to be the standard bearer and the gold standard of care delivery in this country, then they have to make sure that they pay to get the healthcare professionals that can properly do the care,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s top Medicare rating fell from five stars in 2023 to 4.5 last year, which the union blames on staffing shortages. The drop matters because five-star plans receive higher government payments and can enroll members for longer each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente was founded in California in 1945. As a nonprofit, Kaiser said it reinvests most of its insurance income into its hospital and clinic operations, instead of generating returns for shareholders as for-profit companies aim to do. Its 3% operating income margin — about $2 billion in the first half of this year — is lower than that of other major health systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That makes its warning that higher wages could lead to higher consumer costs plausible, said Joanne Spetz, a health economist and labor expert at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have as much wiggle room as one might think when you look at how large their operating revenue and expenses are,” said Spetz, noting Kaiser’s 2024 operating revenue of $115.8 billion and expenses of $115.2 billion, a \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/press-release-archive/kaiser-foundation-health-plan-hospitals-risant-health-report-2024-financial-results\">0.5%\u003c/a> income margin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060095\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kaiser claims that its $66 billion in reserves are earmarked for employee pensions, building maintenance and other obligations and financial stability. Organizations of its size — with 180,000 employees across eight states and Washington, D.C., should have a financial cushion to weather unexpected challenges, according to Pearl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s say the markets will go into a recession for the next five years. You can’t build the hospitals you need. You can’t buy the machines that you need. So you want to make sure you have reserves,” Pearl said. “If I were the CEO of the whole organization, I would basically say my job is to make sure I never have to compromise care and never tell a worker I can’t pay you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said any wage hikes for Alliance members must come from the operating income, not investments. The union disputes that, accusing Kaiser of hoarding cash while expanding. Kaiser acquired hospital systems in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in recent years and announced an expansion to Nevada next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963409\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt='A large modern building with the words \"Kaiser Permanente\" across the top.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Traditionally seen as a West Coast institution, Kaiser is now seeking national influence against competitors such as Amazon, CVS and Walmart, which are spending billions to buy health care companies, according to Pearl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have a national presence, it’s hard to convince legislators to pass laws that are gonna be better for the members of Kaiser Permanente,” he said. “I don’t mean the providers, I mean the patients of Kaiser Permanente.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The negotiations come as the Trump administration moves to restrict Medicare eligibility and Congress debates whether to renew subsidies central to the current government funding fight. Without them, health insurance prices are expected to rise for lower- and middle-income families. Kaiser could face reduced earnings as consumers drop coverage, Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They might also be concerned that they’re going to have some increased costs that could come from emergency care,” she said. “I suspect that losing revenue because of people dropping health insurance is the much bigger risk for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059890/kaiser-strike-hits-several-bay-area-locations-as-thousands-walk-off-the-job\">tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care employees\u003c/a> approach the end of a five-day, multi-state walkout on Sunday, both sides said they’ll return to the bargaining table over the central dispute: how much of the union’s pay-hike demands the nonprofit’s executives will agree to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stakes are high for Kaiser, the \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/expertise-and-impact/public-policy/our-impact/news-perspectives-on-public-policy-california#:~:text=Kaiser%20Permanente%20was%20founded%20in,with%20many%20top%2Drated%20hospitals.\">largest private employer\u003c/a> in the state. The national contract, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059551/california-kaiser-health-care-workers-reaching-breaking-point-set-to-strike-next-week\">months in negotiation\u003c/a> with the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, covers nearly 61,000 nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and other frontline workers — about a third of Kaiser’s workforce — though roughly a quarter of those represented declined to go on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say the organization must tread carefully in talks amid rising costs and economic headwinds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We remain committed to reaching an agreement, if possible, that provides strong wage increases that are sustainable while balancing our obligation to deliver high-quality care that remains affordable,” Kaiser said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sides appear close on paper. The Alliance seeks a 25% wage boost over four years for employees, it said are underpaid. Kaiser, which maintains that workers already earn above-market wages, has drawn the line at 21.5%. The difference, which adds up to roughly $300 million a year in salary costs, is what Kaiser said could force it to raise rates among its 12.6 million members, most of them in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the traditional labor-management battle,” said Dr. Robert Pearl, a former top executive at Kaiser who now teaches at Stanford University’s medicine and business schools. “My own view is that’s not the best thing for patients, this strike … It’s a sign of failure to not be able to work together for the good of all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since Tuesday, Kaiser has hired thousands of temporary nurses, clinicians and other staff to minimize disruptions in California, Hawaii and Oregon. In Northern California, only 3% of all appointments, surgeries and procedures were rescheduled, according to Kaiser. Medical centers, offices and pharmacies remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walkout caused more disruptions in Southern California, temporarily closing pharmacies in Riverside and Ventura Canyon, as well as laboratories and target clinics in San Bernardino and Riverside. The union said dozens of pharmacies were shuttered in Los Angeles, Orange, Kern and other counties. Ambulances were diverted from Kaiser to nearby hospitals in Irvine and San Diego, according to picketers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Temporary nurses and other professionals brought in from across the country posted on social media about being stranded in buses and hotels for many hours. Their staffing company, AMN Healthcare, later apologized over “logistical and communication breakdowns over the last few days [that] created regrettable delays, stress, and confusion for the AMN teams supporting the Kaiser Permanente strike in SoCal,” according to a letter shared with KQED.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The company did not respond to requests for comment but offered a $1,200 bonus for those who covered out-of-pocket travel or lodging expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union representatives maintain that Kaiser, which has expanded to other states in recent years, can meet their demands given its profits and an estimated $66 billion in reserves. Workers say colleagues are leaving for better pay and lighter workloads, straining those who remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re sitting on a lot of money. And that money seems to be not meant for their staff that are currently out here today,” said Jeff Cathcart, a nurse anesthetist at Kaiser San Francisco who is in the union’s bargaining team and joined the picket line outside the Oakland Medical Center. “This pay increase is pretty vital.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say many workers accepted smaller raises during the pandemic and need to catch up with inflation and the high cost of living. Their latest proposal would boost wages by 9% in the first year, 5% in the second, 7% in the third and 4% in the fourth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kaiser Permanente can absolutely not only afford it based off of the money they have in the bank and the revenues they have coming in — I would say that Kaiser Permanente cannot afford not to do it,” said Jane Carter, research director for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, the largest of 23 unions in the Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If they want to continue to be the standard bearer and the gold standard of care delivery in this country, then they have to make sure that they pay to get the healthcare professionals that can properly do the care,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser’s top Medicare rating fell from five stars in 2023 to 4.5 last year, which the union blames on staffing shortages. The drop matters because five-star plans receive higher government payments and can enroll members for longer each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser Permanente was founded in California in 1945. As a nonprofit, Kaiser said it reinvests most of its insurance income into its hospital and clinic operations, instead of generating returns for shareholders as for-profit companies aim to do. Its 3% operating income margin — about $2 billion in the first half of this year — is lower than that of other major health systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That makes its warning that higher wages could lead to higher consumer costs plausible, said Joanne Spetz, a health economist and labor expert at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have as much wiggle room as one might think when you look at how large their operating revenue and expenses are,” said Spetz, noting Kaiser’s 2024 operating revenue of $115.8 billion and expenses of $115.2 billion, a \u003ca href=\"https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/press-release-archive/kaiser-foundation-health-plan-hospitals-risant-health-report-2024-financial-results\">0.5%\u003c/a> income margin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12060095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060095\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251014-KAISER-STRIKE-START-MD-05-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 14, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kaiser claims that its $66 billion in reserves are earmarked for employee pensions, building maintenance and other obligations and financial stability. Organizations of its size — with 180,000 employees across eight states and Washington, D.C., should have a financial cushion to weather unexpected challenges, according to Pearl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s say the markets will go into a recession for the next five years. You can’t build the hospitals you need. You can’t buy the machines that you need. So you want to make sure you have reserves,” Pearl said. “If I were the CEO of the whole organization, I would basically say my job is to make sure I never have to compromise care and never tell a worker I can’t pay you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser said any wage hikes for Alliance members must come from the operating income, not investments. The union disputes that, accusing Kaiser of hoarding cash while expanding. Kaiser acquired hospital systems in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in recent years and announced an expansion to Nevada next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11963409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11963409\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt='A large modern building with the words \"Kaiser Permanente\" across the top.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231004-KAISER-STRIKE-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Traditionally seen as a West Coast institution, Kaiser is now seeking national influence against competitors such as Amazon, CVS and Walmart, which are spending billions to buy health care companies, according to Pearl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have a national presence, it’s hard to convince legislators to pass laws that are gonna be better for the members of Kaiser Permanente,” he said. “I don’t mean the providers, I mean the patients of Kaiser Permanente.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The negotiations come as the Trump administration moves to restrict Medicare eligibility and Congress debates whether to renew subsidies central to the current government funding fight. Without them, health insurance prices are expected to rise for lower- and middle-income families. Kaiser could face reduced earnings as consumers drop coverage, Spetz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They might also be concerned that they’re going to have some increased costs that could come from emergency care,” she said. “I suspect that losing revenue because of people dropping health insurance is the much bigger risk for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The 31-year-old South Bay software engineer was driving home from the office a couple of weeks ago, when a friend called him with the news. President Donald Trump had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057742/h1b-visa-executive-order-trump-green-card-citizenship-september-19\">suddenly announced\u003c/a> his administration would be slapping a $100,000 fee on companies petitioning for H-1B visas, \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\">effective within a few days\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing behind Trump in the Oval Office, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seemed to say the fee\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1969155493701571049\"> would apply annually\u003c/a> to all H-1B holders. Employers scrambled to alert staff abroad to return immediately, before Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/PressSec/status/1969495900478488745\"> walked the chaos back on the social media platform X\u003c/a>: “This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the mercurial nature of this president and the chaotic nature of this announcement, there’s no telling if or when the policy will change. Silicon Valley has been well and truly rattled, especially the hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals who\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707255/what-silicon-valley-could-lose-if-trump-revokes-h-1b-spousal-work-visas\"> rely on the program\u003c/a> to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You cannot buy a house. You cannot raise a family if there is an uncertainty,” said the software engineer, who requested anonymity because of fears his immigration status could be jeopardized. “I don’t want to be here till the age of 40 or 45, and then this happens, and I have to leave. I won’t be in a situation to restart my career.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has been thinking a lot about risk and how it affects his life plan ever since he arrived in San Jose five and a half years ago on an H-1B visa sponsored by his employer. “Like they say, if you want to become an actor, move to L.A. So if you want to be a great software engineer, probably S.F. and the Valley is where you should be. And yeah, here I am, exploring it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11848802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11848802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg\" alt=\"Biometric passport with visa stamp for United States\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An H1=B visa issued Nov. 25, 2020. Hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals rely on the program to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Truth be told, his excitement to experience Silicon Valley culture cooled soon after he arrived in the Bay Area. First came the COVID-19 pandemic, which put a crimp in the social vibe he was hoping to experience, as meetups and conferences were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933511/mass-bay-area-tech-layoffs-thrust-thousands-of-h-1b-visa-holders-into-frantic-job-hunt\"> mass layoffs\u003c/a> in tech, starting in late 2022. He’d moved between companies since he first arrived here, but decided to return to the relatively stable retail giant that sponsored him to begin with, mindful that H-1B visa holders have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933923/a-frantic-job-hunt-for-h-1b-visa-holders-in-tech\"> up to 60 days\u003c/a> to find new employers to sponsor them if they’re laid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mumbai native applied for a green card, but knew he was unlikely to receive it\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707158/indian-entrepreneurs-with-no-green-cards-pursue-silicon-valley-dreams-elsewhere\"> during his lifetime\u003c/a>. That said, the federal government has updated immigration policy to acknowledge the backlog. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/committee-report/106th-congress/senate-report/260/1\">American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act\u003c/a> allows for H-1B holders who’ve applied for a green card to \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-e-chapter-5\">maintain their legal status\u003c/a> while they wait. Even before Donald Trump became president again in 2025, the queue for Indian nationals waiting on an employment-based green card had grown impossibly long, due to antiquated caps and increased demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when he first met his wife a couple of years ago, he made sure to ask her on the first date whether she saw herself moving back to India to take care of parents and start a family, as he did. She, too, is on an H-1B visa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They recently had friends over, and when the talk turned to the visa situation, it struck him that their social circle is filled with people who’ve already given up on the United States, before the latest upset. “They just want some certainty. They cannot predict their future and life based on a visa, which is unpredictable, and it can get revoked anytime,” he said.[aside postID=news_12057742 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2236329361-2000x1333.jpg']Since the H-1B program was introduced as part of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/358\"> Immigration Act of 1990\u003c/a>, the visa has been the primary pathway for Silicon Valley companies to take advantage of foreign talent. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Arista Networks’ Jayshree Ullal and former eBay President Jeffrey Skoll all began their careers on H-1B visas. Meta, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Cisco and Nvidia are the \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/institute-publications/329-our-shared-economy/2771-acute-local-impacts-silicon-valley-s-concentrated-exposure-to-h-1b-policy\">biggest users in the Bay Area\u003c/a> today. If the region’s employers filed the same \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub\">number of new petitions as last fiscal year\u003c/a> — about 7,660 applications — the bill would come to roughly $766 million in fees alone, according to \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/institute-publications/329-our-shared-economy/2771-acute-local-impacts-silicon-valley-s-concentrated-exposure-to-h-1b-policy\">Joint Venture Silicon Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a wide-ranging\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/blqIZGXWUpU?si=1qvLcRBkN8QzSaEq&t=2622\"> conversation last year\u003c/a> with the four chatty investor-bros who host the “All In” podcast — three of whom were born overseas — then-presidential candidate Trump promised to import more of the best and brightest. “It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal also,” Trump said. In his next administration, he said, any foreign student who completes even a two-year degree in the U.S. would get a green card. “You need brilliant people,” he insisted. The co-hosts or “besties,” as they call themselves, agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compare that with the opening line of the White House\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\"> proclamation\u003c/a> two weeks ago that levied a broadside at U.S. immigration policy for the last 35 years. “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of my clients are senior technology executives who have lived here for 20 years,” said Sophie Alcorn, who runs\u003ca href=\"https://www.alcorn.law/\"> Alcorn Immigration Law\u003c/a> in Mountain View and writes about immigration for\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/dear-sophie-how-can-i-stay-in-the-us-if-ive-been-laid-off/\"> TechCrunch\u003c/a>. She’s talking about clients still on H-1B visas, still waiting on a green card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcorn called Trump’s proclamation a “huge affront” to people like her clients, who have diligently played by the complicated and confusing rules the federal government has laid out. “They have advanced degrees from U.S. colleges and universities that they forked out full tuition for. They have spouses. They have U.S. citizen children who were born here. They own homes. They volunteer in the PTA. They donate. They pay taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the Trump administration has been challenged in court over the latest changes to the H-1B program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Friday, was brought by a coalition led by recruitment firm Global Nurse Force. The coalition argues President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally impose a hefty immigration fee without the approval of Congress, and that the sudden regulatory changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcorn is not surprised. “Immigration lawyers are scratching our heads. We’re trying to figure out exactly what we can do, what we cannot do,” she said. “We don’t even know how we would have our clients pay the $100,000. When will there be a temporary restraining order? Because that could just simply pause all of this for the foreseeable future,” Alcorn said.[aside postID=news_12058090 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2236330121-2000x1333.jpg']Concern about the growth of H-1B visa abuse is bipartisan, however. Employers as varied as\u003ca href=\"https://insider.govtech.com/california/news/jury-finds-discrimination-in-h-1b-visa-tech-worker-case?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Cognizant\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-defends-lawsuit-immigrants-replacing-894469/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Disney\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/02-25-16%20Hira%20Testimony.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Southern California Edison\u003c/a> have been accused of taking advantage of foreign workers, using them as a cheaper and more compliant labor force. Cognizant was found liable in 2024 in a jury verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High-tech firms have long pushed for a relaxation of the H-1B visa cap, \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet\">85,000 annually since 2006\u003c/a>. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2022, more than 380,000 H-1B petitions were approved in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, according to the\u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet/#:~:text=Since%20the%20category%20was%20created,H%2D1B%20Registration%20Process\"> American Immigration Council.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a crisis that has been 35 years in the making that a competent Congress would have addressed long ago,” John Miano, a former tech worker who became an attorney to sue over the H-1B program, wrote KQED. “The United States Congress is the only national legislature in the world that has voted to make it explicitly legal to replace citizens with foreign workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even those who hold the H-1B visas acknowledge there’s plenty of room for improvement to guard against the established abuses of the program. The South Bay software engineer said he agrees with Trump’s intentions, but not his methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way he tries executing it is so wrong that cannot be justified, because this process was there in place,” he said. “So you cannot just flip it overnight,” without upending the lives of millions of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, he noted that the changes are not expected to force companies, which typically pay much of the cost of an H-1B visa, to hire more Americans. Immigration experts and visa holders alike say multinational corporations are likely to replace H-1B visa holders with more workers overseas, at one of their foreign offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for H-1B visa holders, there’s a menu of options. Their current employer might invite them to transfer to one of those far-flung offices. They might move to a country like Canada, China\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/AmbAckermann/status/1970450472642482473\"> or Germany\u003c/a>, which are inviting distressed visa holders with open arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The software engineer, already planning his return to India, might get a job with an American company there, maybe with his current employer, which has a significant presence in the country, albeit in cities other than his hometown. But even if he has to take a less desirable job, even if he has to take a job that pays less, he accepts that might be the cost of doing what he always planned to do eventually: return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/abandlamudi\">\u003cem>Adhiti Bandlamudi\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 31-year-old South Bay software engineer was driving home from the office a couple of weeks ago, when a friend called him with the news. President Donald Trump had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12057742/h1b-visa-executive-order-trump-green-card-citizenship-september-19\">suddenly announced\u003c/a> his administration would be slapping a $100,000 fee on companies petitioning for H-1B visas, \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\">effective within a few days\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing behind Trump in the Oval Office, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seemed to say the fee\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1969155493701571049\"> would apply annually\u003c/a> to all H-1B holders. Employers scrambled to alert staff abroad to return immediately, before Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/PressSec/status/1969495900478488745\"> walked the chaos back on the social media platform X\u003c/a>: “This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the mercurial nature of this president and the chaotic nature of this announcement, there’s no telling if or when the policy will change. Silicon Valley has been well and truly rattled, especially the hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals who\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707255/what-silicon-valley-could-lose-if-trump-revokes-h-1b-spousal-work-visas\"> rely on the program\u003c/a> to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You cannot buy a house. You cannot raise a family if there is an uncertainty,” said the software engineer, who requested anonymity because of fears his immigration status could be jeopardized. “I don’t want to be here till the age of 40 or 45, and then this happens, and I have to leave. I won’t be in a situation to restart my career.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has been thinking a lot about risk and how it affects his life plan ever since he arrived in San Jose five and a half years ago on an H-1B visa sponsored by his employer. “Like they say, if you want to become an actor, move to L.A. So if you want to be a great software engineer, probably S.F. and the Valley is where you should be. And yeah, here I am, exploring it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11848802\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11848802\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg\" alt=\"Biometric passport with visa stamp for United States\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/iStock-1130785257_1_1920x-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An H1=B visa issued Nov. 25, 2020. Hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals rely on the program to live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. \u003ccite>(iStock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Truth be told, his excitement to experience Silicon Valley culture cooled soon after he arrived in the Bay Area. First came the COVID-19 pandemic, which put a crimp in the social vibe he was hoping to experience, as meetups and conferences were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933511/mass-bay-area-tech-layoffs-thrust-thousands-of-h-1b-visa-holders-into-frantic-job-hunt\"> mass layoffs\u003c/a> in tech, starting in late 2022. He’d moved between companies since he first arrived here, but decided to return to the relatively stable retail giant that sponsored him to begin with, mindful that H-1B visa holders have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11933923/a-frantic-job-hunt-for-h-1b-visa-holders-in-tech\"> up to 60 days\u003c/a> to find new employers to sponsor them if they’re laid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mumbai native applied for a green card, but knew he was unlikely to receive it\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11707158/indian-entrepreneurs-with-no-green-cards-pursue-silicon-valley-dreams-elsewhere\"> during his lifetime\u003c/a>. That said, the federal government has updated immigration policy to acknowledge the backlog. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/committee-report/106th-congress/senate-report/260/1\">American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act\u003c/a> allows for H-1B holders who’ve applied for a green card to \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-e-chapter-5\">maintain their legal status\u003c/a> while they wait. Even before Donald Trump became president again in 2025, the queue for Indian nationals waiting on an employment-based green card had grown impossibly long, due to antiquated caps and increased demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when he first met his wife a couple of years ago, he made sure to ask her on the first date whether she saw herself moving back to India to take care of parents and start a family, as he did. She, too, is on an H-1B visa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They recently had friends over, and when the talk turned to the visa situation, it struck him that their social circle is filled with people who’ve already given up on the United States, before the latest upset. “They just want some certainty. They cannot predict their future and life based on a visa, which is unpredictable, and it can get revoked anytime,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since the H-1B program was introduced as part of the\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/358\"> Immigration Act of 1990\u003c/a>, the visa has been the primary pathway for Silicon Valley companies to take advantage of foreign talent. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Arista Networks’ Jayshree Ullal and former eBay President Jeffrey Skoll all began their careers on H-1B visas. Meta, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Cisco and Nvidia are the \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/institute-publications/329-our-shared-economy/2771-acute-local-impacts-silicon-valley-s-concentrated-exposure-to-h-1b-policy\">biggest users in the Bay Area\u003c/a> today. If the region’s employers filed the same \u003ca href=\"https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub\">number of new petitions as last fiscal year\u003c/a> — about 7,660 applications — the bill would come to roughly $766 million in fees alone, according to \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/institute-publications/329-our-shared-economy/2771-acute-local-impacts-silicon-valley-s-concentrated-exposure-to-h-1b-policy\">Joint Venture Silicon Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a wide-ranging\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/blqIZGXWUpU?si=1qvLcRBkN8QzSaEq&t=2622\"> conversation last year\u003c/a> with the four chatty investor-bros who host the “All In” podcast — three of whom were born overseas — then-presidential candidate Trump promised to import more of the best and brightest. “It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal also,” Trump said. In his next administration, he said, any foreign student who completes even a two-year degree in the U.S. would get a green card. “You need brilliant people,” he insisted. The co-hosts or “besties,” as they call themselves, agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compare that with the opening line of the White House\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/restriction-on-entry-of-certain-nonimmigrant-workers/\"> proclamation\u003c/a> two weeks ago that levied a broadside at U.S. immigration policy for the last 35 years. “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of my clients are senior technology executives who have lived here for 20 years,” said Sophie Alcorn, who runs\u003ca href=\"https://www.alcorn.law/\"> Alcorn Immigration Law\u003c/a> in Mountain View and writes about immigration for\u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/dear-sophie-how-can-i-stay-in-the-us-if-ive-been-laid-off/\"> TechCrunch\u003c/a>. She’s talking about clients still on H-1B visas, still waiting on a green card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcorn called Trump’s proclamation a “huge affront” to people like her clients, who have diligently played by the complicated and confusing rules the federal government has laid out. “They have advanced degrees from U.S. colleges and universities that they forked out full tuition for. They have spouses. They have U.S. citizen children who were born here. They own homes. They volunteer in the PTA. They donate. They pay taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the Trump administration has been challenged in court over the latest changes to the H-1B program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Friday, was brought by a coalition led by recruitment firm Global Nurse Force. The coalition argues President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally impose a hefty immigration fee without the approval of Congress, and that the sudden regulatory changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alcorn is not surprised. “Immigration lawyers are scratching our heads. We’re trying to figure out exactly what we can do, what we cannot do,” she said. “We don’t even know how we would have our clients pay the $100,000. When will there be a temporary restraining order? Because that could just simply pause all of this for the foreseeable future,” Alcorn said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Concern about the growth of H-1B visa abuse is bipartisan, however. Employers as varied as\u003ca href=\"https://insider.govtech.com/california/news/jury-finds-discrimination-in-h-1b-visa-tech-worker-case?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Cognizant\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-defends-lawsuit-immigrants-replacing-894469/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Disney\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/02-25-16%20Hira%20Testimony.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"> Southern California Edison\u003c/a> have been accused of taking advantage of foreign workers, using them as a cheaper and more compliant labor force. Cognizant was found liable in 2024 in a jury verdict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High-tech firms have long pushed for a relaxation of the H-1B visa cap, \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet\">85,000 annually since 2006\u003c/a>. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2022, more than 380,000 H-1B petitions were approved in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, according to the\u003ca href=\"https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/h1b-visa-program-fact-sheet/#:~:text=Since%20the%20category%20was%20created,H%2D1B%20Registration%20Process\"> American Immigration Council.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a crisis that has been 35 years in the making that a competent Congress would have addressed long ago,” John Miano, a former tech worker who became an attorney to sue over the H-1B program, wrote KQED. “The United States Congress is the only national legislature in the world that has voted to make it explicitly legal to replace citizens with foreign workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even those who hold the H-1B visas acknowledge there’s plenty of room for improvement to guard against the established abuses of the program. The South Bay software engineer said he agrees with Trump’s intentions, but not his methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way he tries executing it is so wrong that cannot be justified, because this process was there in place,” he said. “So you cannot just flip it overnight,” without upending the lives of millions of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, he noted that the changes are not expected to force companies, which typically pay much of the cost of an H-1B visa, to hire more Americans. Immigration experts and visa holders alike say multinational corporations are likely to replace H-1B visa holders with more workers overseas, at one of their foreign offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for H-1B visa holders, there’s a menu of options. Their current employer might invite them to transfer to one of those far-flung offices. They might move to a country like Canada, China\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/AmbAckermann/status/1970450472642482473\"> or Germany\u003c/a>, which are inviting distressed visa holders with open arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The software engineer, already planning his return to India, might get a job with an American company there, maybe with his current employer, which has a significant presence in the country, albeit in cities other than his hometown. But even if he has to take a less desirable job, even if he has to take a job that pays less, he accepts that might be the cost of doing what he always planned to do eventually: return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/abandlamudi\">\u003cem>Adhiti Bandlamudi\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A judge in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily pause the mass firing of federal employees amid the ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/government-shutdown\">government shutdown\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Susan Illston made clear at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing that she was inclined to rule in favor of the federal worker unions suing to stop the firings because she said the layoffs seemed to be politically motivated and rushed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a situation where things are being done before they’re being thought through. It’s very much ‘ready, fire, aim,’ on most of these programs,” Illston said. “And it has a human cost, which is really why we’re here today. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge cited several public comments by President Donald Trump expressing his intention to target “Democrat programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will be Democrat-oriented because we figure, you know, they started this thing … it will be a lot of people,” the president said about the layoffs on Oct. 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling stops any layoffs that have already been announced and prevents the government from issuing reduction-in-force notices at any government agency where employees are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Collectively, the unions represent more than 800,000 workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A former USAID employee pushes personal items on a skateboard as he leaves the former USAID offices at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Pete Kiehart/The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials with AFGE Local 3172, which represents workers within the Social Security Administration across parts of California and Nevada, applauded the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were glad that she was able to articulate that these decisions were made pretty flippantly and not based on the merits of the work that we’re doing here in Social Security,” said union representative Jacqueline Hopkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins agreed that the firing decisions appear to be politically motivated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like a pawn in a game that, as employees, we shouldn’t have to feel like,” Hopkins said.[aside postID=news_12059259 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/FortPointSFGetty.jpg']More than 4,100 workers have received RIF notices, \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.40.0.pdf\">according to a legal declaration\u003c/a> by Stephen Billy, a senior advisor at the Office of Management and Budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Affected departments include the Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Treasury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds more notices were also sent out by mistake last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Health and Human Services sent out more than 1,700 RIF notices on Oct. 10, but actually meant to send out less than 1,000, according to Thomas Nagy, a human resources official within the Department of Health and Human Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Employees have been working since Oct. 10, 2025, to rescind the notices that had been issued in error,” Nagy said in a \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.49.1.pdf\">declaration\u003c/a> to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Justice lawyers argued that the judge did not have jurisdiction in this case and that workers were not entitled to relief through the courts because the layoffs had a 60-day notice period — so the government’s actions would not technically harm workers until after that period had lapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12057746\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12057746 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2236329361-scaled-e1760568167148.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster of the “Trump Gold Card” is seen as President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington, DC. \u003ccite>(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Danielle Leonard, an attorney for the unions, pushed back on the assertion that employees aren’t suffering any harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re making people come in, work without pay, to fire their fellow employees, and then those employees are being fired in this context. It is traumatic, it is distressing,” said Leonard, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/14/nx-s1-5574469/cdc-shutdown-federal-layoffs\">alluding to reports\u003c/a> that human resources workers at the Centers for Disease Control were called back into work to process layoffs, including members of their own team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defense declined to address the lawsuit’s core claim that the layoffs are illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to be clear, you’re not making any statement concerning the government’s position on the merits of this, on whether these RIFs are legal or not?” Illston asked during the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not today, your honor,” Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Hedges said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge cited several public comments by President Donald Trump expressing his intention to target “Democrat programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will be Democrat-oriented because we figure, you know, they started this thing … it will be a lot of people,” the president said about the layoffs on Oct. 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling stops any layoffs that have already been announced and prevents the government from issuing reduction-in-force notices at any government agency where employees are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Collectively, the unions represent more than 800,000 workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A former USAID employee pushes personal items on a skateboard as he leaves the former USAID offices at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C. \u003ccite>(Pete Kiehart/The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials with AFGE Local 3172, which represents workers within the Social Security Administration across parts of California and Nevada, applauded the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were glad that she was able to articulate that these decisions were made pretty flippantly and not based on the merits of the work that we’re doing here in Social Security,” said union representative Jacqueline Hopkins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hopkins agreed that the firing decisions appear to be politically motivated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You feel like a pawn in a game that, as employees, we shouldn’t have to feel like,” Hopkins said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More than 4,100 workers have received RIF notices, \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.40.0.pdf\">according to a legal declaration\u003c/a> by Stephen Billy, a senior advisor at the Office of Management and Budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Affected departments include the Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Treasury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds more notices were also sent out by mistake last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Health and Human Services sent out more than 1,700 RIF notices on Oct. 10, but actually meant to send out less than 1,000, according to Thomas Nagy, a human resources official within the Department of Health and Human Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Employees have been working since Oct. 10, 2025, to rescind the notices that had been issued in error,” Nagy said in a \u003ca href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.457131/gov.uscourts.cand.457131.49.1.pdf\">declaration\u003c/a> to the court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Justice lawyers argued that the judge did not have jurisdiction in this case and that workers were not entitled to relief through the courts because the layoffs had a 60-day notice period — so the government’s actions would not technically harm workers until after that period had lapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12057746\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12057746 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-2236329361-scaled-e1760568167148.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster of the “Trump Gold Card” is seen as President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington, DC. \u003ccite>(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Danielle Leonard, an attorney for the unions, pushed back on the assertion that employees aren’t suffering any harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re making people come in, work without pay, to fire their fellow employees, and then those employees are being fired in this context. It is traumatic, it is distressing,” said Leonard, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/14/nx-s1-5574469/cdc-shutdown-federal-layoffs\">alluding to reports\u003c/a> that human resources workers at the Centers for Disease Control were called back into work to process layoffs, including members of their own team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defense declined to address the lawsuit’s core claim that the layoffs are illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just want to be clear, you’re not making any statement concerning the government’s position on the merits of this, on whether these RIFs are legal or not?” Illston asked during the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not today, your honor,” Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Hedges said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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