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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a typical afternoon, shoppers pour in and out of \u003ca href=\"https://www.maiwandmarket.com/\">Maiwand Market \u003c/a>in Fremont’s Centerville District, making a beeline for the bakery, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/2584/afghan-bread-in-fremonts-little-kabul\">traditional Afghan naan is made fresh each day\u003c/a>. Customers bag their loaves up themselves at a nearby table — some stocking up on a dozen at a time. A short walk in either direction leads to additional grocery stores and restaurants serving Afghan delicacies like beef kabobs, bolani kachaloo and qabilil pallow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is home to one of the largest concentrations of Afghans in the United States. Over the past 40-some years, this community — often celebrated for its thriving tech industry and diverse population — has even become known as Little Kabul.[baycuriouspodcastinfo] It’s a fact that has made its way into pop culture, including the 2023 indie film \u003cem>Fremont\u003c/em> and Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel, \u003cem>The Kite Runner\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name Little Kabul, along with the frequent cultural references, got one Bay Curious listener wondering: How did Fremont become a cultural hub for so many Afghan Americans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer goes back more than 45 years and can be broken down into four distinct waves of immigration, each based on a moment of conflict and political change in Afghanistan. But, it’s also a story of people fleeing their home country, a place they love, and looking for community and something familiar in their new home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A customer buys Afghan bread made at Maiwand Market in Fremont on Aug. 27, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Soviets invade Afghanistan, spark first major exodus\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first wave of Afghan immigrants left home during the \u003ca href=\"https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/soviet-invasion-afghanistan\">Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan\u003c/a>. The USSR seized military control of Kabul and transformed the country into a war zone. Millions of Afghans were killed and millions more were forced to flee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This wave of refugees included ordinary civilians and religious minorities, as well as those who had held government jobs under previous administrations. Many Afghans fled to neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistan. Others immigrated to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t come by our choice; we were forced to leave the country,” said Hanifa Sai Tokhi, a volunteer who helps run the \u003ca href=\"https://www.afghanelderlyassociation.org/our-programs.html\">Afghan Elderly Association’s Healthy Aging Program\u003c/a> in Fremont. “I was crying for two and a half years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tokhi vividly remembers leaving Afghanistan 47 years ago. Her husband was a government employee under \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-27/afghan-president-is-overthrown-and-murdered\">Afghan President Mohammad Daoud Khan\u003c/a>. After the Soviet invasion, their family received a notice that he would be arrested for his work under the country’s previous leadership.[aside postID=news_12040425 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250514_AFGHANREFUGEESTPS_GC-1-KQED-1020x680.jpg']With just $1,000 to their names, Tokhi, her husband and their two small children made their way to the Bay Area. By the time they joined their extended family in San Jose, Tokhi said they had just $22 left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tokhi, who had been an assistant professor of chemistry and biology back in Kabul, said that establishing herself in California was hard. She and her husband struggled to pay the mortgage and sometimes went without electricity. But eventually, they got political asylum and work permits. They were able to land jobs in the early days of Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many immigrant communities, Afghans like Tokhi came to Northern California because they knew someone in the area. When it was no longer safe to stay in Afghanistan, entire families relocated to where family members had come for work or school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fremont was like a magnet for Afghans to come and join this beautiful city,” said Dr. Masoud Juya, the associate director of the \u003ca href=\"https://afghancoalition.org/\">Afghan Coalition\u003c/a>. “One reason that [is] a big attractive factor for Afghans is definitely this landscape, the beauty, the geography, and the weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay hills reminded many Afghans of the mountainous terrain of their homeland. Entrepreneurial immigrants opened mosques, rug stores, and halal butcher shops. Specialty grocery stores like Maiwand Market soon opened their doors, offering fresh bread and other imported goods to local Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Fremont supported these endeavors by offering grants to Afghan business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont was more affordable than bigger cities like San Francisco or Oakland, and California also had generous welfare benefits that helped people get resettled here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Slowly it started to get built until this city was called ‘Little Kabul,’ which is a very attractive name,” said Juya.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A civil war prompts more people to leave Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The second wave of immigration took place in the 1990s during the Afghan Civil War, following the collapse of the Soviet-backed Afghan government. The war took place between different ethnic groups and eventually resulted in the Taliban’s rise to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Juya was in elementary school at the time, he still remembers how tumultuous and disruptive the civil war was. Tens of thousands of Afghans — mostly civilians — were killed throughout the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050014\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants wave colorful scarves during an exercise segment at the Afghan Elderly Association’s weekly wellness gathering in Fremont on July 23, 2025. The event is part of the nonprofit’s Healthy Aging Program, supporting Afghan elders through social connection, movement, meals, and health education. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of homes were destroyed due to the civil war, and our home was no exception,” Juya recalled, adding that he had been buried under the rubble. His family was displaced to a new city, though many Afghans left Afghanistan altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, many migrated to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they ended up here, then the first question they asked was like, ‘OK, which state has more Afghans? Let’s go and join our communities there,’” Juya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the second wave of immigrants arrived in Northern California, the first wave was ready to help them get settled. The Afghan Coalition, was established in Fremont during this time. Since 1996, the mission of this international organization has been to offer social services to Afghan refugees, including assistance with housing, professional resources and mental health support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Afghan Elderly Association was founded a year earlier to provide Afghans with culturally appropriate health programs. The organization’s founders went door-to-door, individually recruiting each elder.[aside postID=news_11883382 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Josie-Manalo-leaving-for-America-1920x1080-1.jpg']“We were going with these ladies to advocate to the doctors and translate,” said Tokhi, who worked with the group as a health promoter. “We were going to their homes. We were doing medication management. Sometimes they cannot read English, and we would ask, ‘What is this medicine for?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the organization knew that healthy living wasn’t just about medication and doctor’s visits. There needed to be a social element, \u003ca href=\"https://www.afghanelderlyassociation.org/our-programs.html\">which they eventually offered through its Healthy Aging Program\u003c/a>. Each week, the program offers a hot meal, exercise classes and medical check-ups from Afghan nurses who speak Farsi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought these ladies out of isolation,” Tokhi said. She now helps run the program as a volunteer. “There is some gossip, too,” Tokhi said with a laugh. “I have to have gossip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs like this created more opportunities for immigrants to feel comfortable and connected when they got to Fremont. And the city supported them. For years, Fremont’s Human Services Department collaborated with the Afghan Elderly Association by providing staffing support, along with office and meeting spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>9/11 upends the social order in Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The third wave of immigration to Fremont occurred after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The United States sent troops into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban leaders, sparking an overseas conflict that continued for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The toppling of the Taliban regime ushered in a new Afghan government and constitution. With the end of the Taliban’s religious extremism also came opportunities for women to work and girls to get an education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteer Hanifa Tokhi speaks to the group at the Afghan Elderly Association’s weekly wellness gathering in Fremont on July 23, 2025. The event is part of the nonprofit’s Healthy Aging Program, supporting Afghan elders through social connection, movement, meals, and health education. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This was the beginning of a big change for Afghanistan,” said Juya. “It was the first time after all those dark periods that Afghanistan was connected to the rest of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than needing to flee as refugees as in the earlier immigration waves, Afghans could finally come to the U.S. on cultural exchange programs or to study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They freely moved out of Afghanistan because of the opportunities that were available,” Juya said.[aside postID=news_12048251 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250716-CherrylandUnincorporated-11-BL_qed.jpg']Juya himself first came to the United States during the third wave, in 2009. He’d just graduated medical school and was pursuing a Fulbright scholarship. He later traveled back and forth to Afghanistan, where he opened a successful university and a health science institute inspired by his time in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put into practice pretty much every bit of information we learned here,” said Dr. Juya. “We were really revolutionists in terms of helping Afghanistan develop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s grateful for all he learned studying in the U.S., the experience wasn’t all positive. He, like other Afghan immigrants, faced discrimination as a Muslim.*\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is an added layer of difficulty because of stigma, discrimination,” he said. “This in itself is also another factor that might motivate community members to come together so that they prevent themselves from additional threats or risks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Fremont experienced that stigma. In 2001, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/a-worrisome-wake-fear-of-backlash-lurks-in-a-2878560.php\">local news outlets\u003c/a> reported on hate crimes directed at Afghans, including death threats and a smashed store window around Little Kabul. A few days later, the owner of the vandalized store put an American flag in those same windows to show his loyalty to the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Afghan Americans asked the City Council to formally recognize the area known as Little Kabul. However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/09/27/fremont-wont-have-a-little-kabul/\">the initiative stalled after local businesses banded together to oppose the idea\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>US troops withdraw from Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fourth and largest wave of immigration started in 2021 with President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Almost immediately, the Taliban returned to power and anyone who had participated in opening Afghanistan up, making it more liberal and democratic, was in danger. People like Juya.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was fighting hard as a member of my community against extremism,” Juya said. “I was really at high risk, and I had to leave as soon as I could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050012\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050012\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Director Masoud Juya sits in a conference room at the offices of the Afghan Coalition in Fremont on July 21, 2025. The organization provides health, education, and social services to support Afghan and other immigrant communities in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juya eventually left Afghanistan through an American Ph.D. program, after which he settled in Concord in search of a stable life.**\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremont.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12395/638119693632730000\">roughly 10,000 Afghans\u003c/a> who ended up in California after the 2021 withdrawal. The refugees during this fourth wave came from all parts of Afghan society, including academics, musicians, journalists, human rights advocates, and those who had worked with the U.S. military and allied forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many people wanted to get out of Afghanistan during the hectic withdrawal that \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiRJRjsLx-M&ab_channel=GuardianNews\">some people sprinted after U.S. military planes trying to get onboard\u003c/a> and others held onto the wings as the planes took off.[aside postID=news_11887630 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS51406_021_Fremont_MaiwandMarket_08272021-qut-1020x680.jpg']As these horrific scenes unfolded, the City of Fremont again stepped up to support its local Afghan community. The Human Services Department raised $485,000 for an \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremont.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12395/638119693632730000\">Afghan Refugee Help Fund\u003c/a>, which paid for necessities like filing immigration documents, temporary housing, new cell phones, mental health resources, and driving lessons for recent arrivals. The effort was coordinated in collaboration with Afghan organizations and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ever, the Afghans who had already established themselves in the Bay Area mobilized to help newcomers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Juya arrived in Fremont, his fellow Afghans hired him to help run the Afghan Coalition. But, he said, the volume of new Afghan arrivals has made a competitive job market even tougher. And many people don’t have the skills to fit into Silicon Valley’s high-tech, AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were professionals back home,” he said. “They come here but they cannot find a professional job, so I see a lot of frustration for some of the young, talented Afghans.” Many are hustling as DoorDash or Uber drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Promoting ‘positive energy’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The music composer and producer Hasib Sepand was lucky enough to arrive in Fremont before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. He opened a music school, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sepandstudios.com/service/sepand-music-academy/\">The Sepand Music Academy\u003c/a>. Just six months later, the Taliban came back to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody was interested in music, even myself,” he said. “We were like mentally very depressed. I didn’t have that courage to play music because my family’s over there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050026\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050026\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hasib Sepand plays the harmonium at Sepand Studios in Fremont on July 21, 2025, where his music academy offers instruction in sitar, tabla, harmonium, and other instruments, and he composes and produces music. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sepand came from a family of well-known musicians in Afghanistan, who were forced to relocate to Pakistan after the Taliban’s first rise to power. During the U.S. war with Afghanistan, Sepand’s family had also worked with the American Army. They were able to qualify for Special Immigrant Visas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last American plane that flew from Afghanistan included my family,” Sepand said. “It’s like a film.”[aside postID=news_12045917 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ATK6-KQED.jpg']After he helped resettle his family in the Bay Area, Sepand reached out to the City of Fremont. They collaborated to offer three months of free music classes to new arrivals as a part of the Afghan Refugee Help Fund. Sepand taught students to sing traditional Afghan music and play instruments like the tabla and sitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My class is not only a music class,” he said. “I tried to give a positive energy, especially for the newcomers, because they face a lot of problems. They face stress, depression, different culture, different language, sometimes no job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sepand said that students would often tell him his music class was the highlight of their week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he came to Fremont and learned the firsthand challenges of starting over in America, Sepand thought it would be a more glamorous place. But Fremont was not the America Hasib had pictured. Over time, as he has watched the community come together to support one another, he has come to love this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, to me, it looks a hundred times better than every place in America because I live here and I have friends and I enjoy everything in Fremont,” Sepand said. “I love Fremont.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this story stated that Juya experienced discrimination for being Muslim and Arab. But Afghans are not Arab. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>**A previous version of this story stated that Juya settled in Fremont. In fact, he lives in Concord.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Fremont is the fourth-largest town in the Bay Area, but it doesn’t always get the love it deserves. It’s a quiet place, but has a thriving tech industry, an incredibly diverse population and played an important role in the early silent film industry. It’s also home to one of the largest Afghan populations in the country…a fact that often shows up in pop culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clip from \u003cem>Fremont\u003c/em>: \u003c/strong>Do you live in Fremont? Are you also from Afghanistan? Yes, I am. On the Special Immigration Visa? Yes. I was a translator in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>That’s a clip from the 2023 indie film “Fremont” about a military translator starting over in Fremont after being forced to leave Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a premise rooted in reality. Over the past 40-some years, Fremont’s Afghans have slowly built a cultural hub here. There’s even a business district known as Little Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That name, Little Kabul, sparked the interest of one Bay Curious listener who wanted to know more about how Fremont became home to so many Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today on Bay Curious, we’re tracing four distinct waves of Afghan immigration to the U.S. and illuminating how 40 years of U.S. foreign policy have led us to this point. We’ll meet Afghan refugees who’ve settled here, learn what makes this community unique and dig into some of the challenges they face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Katrina Schwartz, filling in for Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Northern California is home to the largest concentration of Afghans in the United States. And many have settled in the Bay Area city of Fremont. Reporter Asal Ehsanipour went to find out why so many folks have decided to make this East Bay town home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Recently, I went to an Eid dinner to celebrate the end of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>We have, of course, the delicious kabuli pulao, which is a very common Afghan dish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Tables piled with plates of homemade rice and pastries made by local Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> This is called simion. It’s a very popular dried fruit, usually during Eid, it is used in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Guiding me on this food tour is Dr. Masoud Juya, the associate director of a local nonprofit called the Afghan Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>We have come here today to celebrate Eid and also to enjoy the Afghan culture, food, music. And to kind of enhance our collegiality, you know, over the joy and feast of Eid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Roughly 66,000 people of Afghan descent live in California, according to the 2019 Census. And historically, the highest concentration has been right here in Fremont. Making it one of the largest Afghan communities in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>Fremont was like a magnet for Afghans to come and join this beautiful city. And one reason that it’s a big attractive factor for Afghans is definitely this landscape, the beauty, the geography, and the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>It doesn’t hurt that the East Bay has these majestic hills, which remind Afghans of home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When you see these hills, it’s really reminiscent of those beautiful memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Fremont’s Afghan community has been growing for decades. Masoud says you can break it down into four – distinct waves, each based on a moment of conflict and political change in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first wave of immigration began in the late 1970s when the USSR invaded Afghanistan and took control of Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News Clip: \u003c/strong>In 1979, the Soviet Union determined that Afghanistan would be a communist nation … forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The Soviet invasion and the U.S. decision to arm rebel groups within Afghanistan as part of a proxy Cold War kicked off decades of instability for Afghanistan. Millions were killed. And millions more fled as refugees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News Clip: \u003c/strong>In that decade of war, over 1,000 villages and towns have been destroyed by tanks and bombs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> The immigrants from that era were those who were persecuted by the communist regime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They included religious minorities and people who’d held government jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> As well as civilians, ordinary civilians who did not feel safe to stay in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Many Afghans fled to neighboring countries, like Iran and Pakistan. Others came to America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Some of them ended up in Virginia first, and then they knew somebody who had recently come to this part of the country, and they were satisfied. So then they talked together and they decided to join each other here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Like so many immigrant communities, Afghans came to California because that’s where they knew people. If entire families were to uproot their lives and move across the world, they needed to stick together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a weekly health event put on by the Afghan Elderly Association, women I met said they’d followed family members who’d come to Fremont for work or school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 1: \u003c/strong>My daughter, she went to San José State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 2: \u003c/strong>Aunts and uncle.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 3: \u003c/strong>My friend, my relative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 2: \u003c/strong>Everybody was here in Fremont, so I came to join them, join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi came to the Bay Area 47 years ago. But she still feels the pain of leaving Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> I was crying for two and a half years. We didn’t come by our choice. We were forced to leave the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa’s husband had worked for the Afghan government before the Soviet invasion. One day, they heard a knock at the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> They sent the notices that they’re going to arrest him and put him in jail. And even they told him to be ready when the soldiers come, go with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>With just $1,000 to their names, Hanifa, her husband, and their two small children made their way to the Bay Area. Hanifa had a brother-in-law in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> By the time we came, we had $22 because most of the money was spent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa says life was hard. They struggled to pay the mortgage, sometimes went without electricity. Eventually, she and her husband got political asylum and work permits, applied for jobs in the early days of Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> But then, there is not a lot of people coming to San Jose, but mostly was coming to Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Almost immediately, Fremont became the center of Afghan life. Grocery stores like Maiwand Market sold tastes of home. And immigrants opened mosques, rug stores, and Halal butcher shops. And the City of Fremont supported them. It offered grants to help Afghan business owners get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Slowly, it started to get built. Until this city was called Little Kabul, which is a very attractive name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud Juya says Fremont was more affordable than bigger cities like San Francisco or Oakland. Plus, California had generous welfare benefits that helped people get resettled here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Afghans trickled into Fremont throughout the 1980s until the next big wave of immigration a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The second wave actually was in the 1990s, when Afghanistan was experiencing a civil war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip:\u003c/strong> The Shiite Southwest District of Kabul begin the latest battlefield in the fight to control Afghanistan’s capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The civil war was between different ethnic groups in Afghanistan and resulted in the Taliban’s rise to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Masoud remembers how tumultuous and disruptive that time was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>I was actually in the primary school, and the war was terrible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>Rebels reportedly fired hundreds of rockets in the residential area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>A lot of homes were destroyed due to the civil war, and our home was no exception. So every Afghan was doing their best to get out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Again, many Afghans came to the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When they ended up here, then the first question they asked was like, OK, which state has more Afghans? Let’s go and join our communities there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>When the \u003cem>second\u003c/em> wave of immigrants got to Fremont, the \u003cem>first\u003c/em> wave was ready to help them get settled. That’s how Masoud’s organization, the Afghan Coalition, was founded in 1996. Since then, they’ve offered social services to Afghan refugees, helping them find housing, jobs, and mental health support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was around the time the Afghan Elderly Association started its work. The founders went door to door individually recruiting each member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>I was working with this association for 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Here’s Hanifa Sai Tokhi again. After leaving Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion, she eventually became a \u003cem>health promoter\u003c/em> for the Afghan Elderly Association. Her job was to bring culturally appropriate health services to older community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>We were going with these ladies to advocate to the doctors and translate. Like sometimes they cannot read English, and we would ask what is this medicine for?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But the organization knew that healthy living wasn’t just about medication and doctor’s visits. There needed to be a social element. So, they created the Healthy Aging Program. And, it still exists!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>They brought these ladies out of isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Here, each week, they offer a hot meal, exercise classes and medical check-ups from Afghan nurses who speak Farsi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>And also, there is some gossip, too. I have to have gossip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Programs like this created more opportunities for immigrants to feel comfortable and connected when they got to Fremont. And for years, the city of Fremont’s Human Services Department collaborated with the Afghan Elderly Association. They provided staffing support, along with office and meeting spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so with that second wave, the Afghan community was growing. Thriving in a Fremont bubble, until the 9/11 attacks put the international spotlight back on Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>We have a very tragic alert for you right now. An incredible plane crash into the World Trade Center here at the lower tip of Manhattan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>George W. Bush: \u003c/strong>On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime and Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The Taliban government was toppled post-9/11, and a new administration was built in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>With the new government came a new constitution. It meant an end to the Taliban’s religious extremism, opportunities for women to work, and girls to get an education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>So this was the beginning of a big change for Afghanistan. It was the first time after all those dark periods that Afghanistan was connected to the rest of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Rather than needing to flee as refugees, people could finally come to the U.S. on cultural exchange programs or to study. But when they got here, they were faced with a very Islamophobic America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When there is maybe an added layer of difficulty because of stigma, discrimination, or whatsoever, this in itself is also another factor that might motivate community members to come together so that they prevent themselves from additional threats or risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud first came to the U.S. during this third wave after the fall of the Taliban. He wanted to learn as much as he could and bring that knowledge back to Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> We put into practice pretty much every bit of information we learned here. And we were really, in our own sense, we were really revolutionists in terms of helping Afghanistan develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Inspired by his time in the States, he opened a successful university and a health science institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>And that’s why people like me were always staying there until we really had to leave post-2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>2021, when the United States \u003cem>withdrew\u003c/em> from Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Biden:\u003c/strong> I concluded it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The Taliban took back control of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>The Taliban advance appears unstoppable. Ruthless as ever, to those who stand in their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This U.S. policy decision caused the fourth and most recent wave of immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>Now the Taliban is back, anyone who worked for the Afghan government has fled or is in hiding. Women and girls live in fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud was also afraid. He had been at the forefront of trying to rebuild a more liberal, democratic Afghanistan. But now, all of that was smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> I was fighting hard as a member of my community against extremism. So I was really at high risk, and I had to leave as soon as I could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud explored every avenue and eventually got out through an American Ph.D. program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> But after I completed my Ph.D., then I was thinking of staying somewhere for a stable life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The obvious choice: Fremont. Masoud is one of roughly 10,000 Afghans who ended up in California after the 2021 withdrawal. And this time, the refugees came from all parts of Afghan society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The fourth wave is actually a very, very different group of people: vocalists, musicians, academics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Journalists and human rights advocates, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> More importantly, people who really worked with the Afghan government and the U.S. Government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Including members of the U.S. military and allied forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> But then there were also some civilians who just went to the airport because they are also afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>You might remember news footage of desperate Afghans sprinting after U.S. military planes trying to get onboard. Some even held onto the wings as the planes took off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> People who were really scared of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>As these horrific scenes unfolded, the city of Fremont again stepped up to support the Afghan community. It raised $485,000 for an Afghan Refugee Help Fund … to help pay for things like filing immigration documents, temporary housing, mental health resources, and driving lessons for recent arrivals. This was done in collaboration with Afghan organizations and businesses. As ever, those who had already established themselves mobilized to help newcomers. And new immigrants leveraged what earlier waves had built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Yeah, all these resources that Afghans created, institutions that they built, connections that they had, the knowledge that they have from navigating the U.S. System, I think they were all transferred into the new waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>When Masoud got to Fremont, his expertise building institutions in Afghanistan made him the perfect guy for a job at the Afghan Coalition, helping other refugees get settled. But he was one of the lucky few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Afghans come here, and I see they were professionals back home. They come here, but they cannot find a professional job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This fourth wave is bigger than the prior ones. And people don’t have the skills to fit into the Bay Area’s high-tech, AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> So I see a lot of frustration for some of the young, talented Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>One of those young, talented Afghans is Hasib Sepand. He arrived in Fremont before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan and started a music school, called The Sepand Academy … Just six months later, the Taliban came back to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Nobody was interested in music, even myself. So, we were like mentally very depressed. I didn’t have that courage to play music. Because my family’s over there.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Like Hasib, his family were musicians. And Hasib’s siblings had also worked with the American Army. Because of that, they were able to qualify for Special Immigrant Visas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> And the last American plane that flew from Afghanistan included my family. It’s like a film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hasib was so grateful his family made it to safety, he wanted to help other newcomers. With the city’s help, Hasib offered three months of free music classes to new arrivals. They sang and played instruments like the tabla and sitar. You’re hearing them play now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of music class playing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> I tried to give a positive energy, especially for the newcomers, because they face a lot of problems. They face stress, depression, different culture, different language, sometimes no job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hasib says before he came to Fremont — before he knew anything about how hard it would be to live in the U.S. — he thought it would be a more glamorous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand: \u003c/strong>My Afghan friends, they used to tell me, “OK, so you are going to Fremont. Oh my god. That’s a dream city.” And they gave me kind of like wrong imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This was not the “America” Hasib had pictured. But as he’s watched the community come together to support one another, he’s come to love this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Now, to me, it looks a hundred times better than every place in America because I live here and I have friends and I enjoy everything in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>He says he loves the people, the fellowship created at local Afghan bakeries and banquet halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Right now, I feel that I’m in Afghanistan. I’m in my hometown. Most of the time, I don’t speak English because everywhere I go is like Afghans. And when my friends come from Canada or from Europe, they are jealous. I love Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Or as Hasib calls it: Little Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont’s Afghan community is under threat once again. President Trump recently announced plans to end temporary protected status for a host of countries, including Afghanistan. The administration also put a halt to most refugee resettlements programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other big difficulty facing this community is cost of living in the Bay Area. More Afghans are choosing to settle in Sacramento than Fremont now because it’s more affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As you may have heard, this is a perilous time for public media and KQED. So, if you have a moment, head on over to kqed dot org slash donate. Every little bit helps to support the shows you love, and we appreciate you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The East Bay town of Fremont is known for its diversity and growing tech sector, but also as a hub of Afghan life and culture. We explore the forces that created Little Kabul.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a typical afternoon, shoppers pour in and out of \u003ca href=\"https://www.maiwandmarket.com/\">Maiwand Market \u003c/a>in Fremont’s Centerville District, making a beeline for the bakery, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/2584/afghan-bread-in-fremonts-little-kabul\">traditional Afghan naan is made fresh each day\u003c/a>. Customers bag their loaves up themselves at a nearby table — some stocking up on a dozen at a time. A short walk in either direction leads to additional grocery stores and restaurants serving Afghan delicacies like beef kabobs, bolani kachaloo and qabilil pallow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is home to one of the largest concentrations of Afghans in the United States. Over the past 40-some years, this community — often celebrated for its thriving tech industry and diverse population — has even become known as Little Kabul.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp> It’s a fact that has made its way into pop culture, including the 2023 indie film \u003cem>Fremont\u003c/em> and Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel, \u003cem>The Kite Runner\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name Little Kabul, along with the frequent cultural references, got one Bay Curious listener wondering: How did Fremont become a cultural hub for so many Afghan Americans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer goes back more than 45 years and can be broken down into four distinct waves of immigration, each based on a moment of conflict and political change in Afghanistan. But, it’s also a story of people fleeing their home country, a place they love, and looking for community and something familiar in their new home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/006_FREMONT_MAIWANDMARKET_08272021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A customer buys Afghan bread made at Maiwand Market in Fremont on Aug. 27, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Soviets invade Afghanistan, spark first major exodus\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first wave of Afghan immigrants left home during the \u003ca href=\"https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/soviet-invasion-afghanistan\">Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan\u003c/a>. The USSR seized military control of Kabul and transformed the country into a war zone. Millions of Afghans were killed and millions more were forced to flee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This wave of refugees included ordinary civilians and religious minorities, as well as those who had held government jobs under previous administrations. Many Afghans fled to neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistan. Others immigrated to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t come by our choice; we were forced to leave the country,” said Hanifa Sai Tokhi, a volunteer who helps run the \u003ca href=\"https://www.afghanelderlyassociation.org/our-programs.html\">Afghan Elderly Association’s Healthy Aging Program\u003c/a> in Fremont. “I was crying for two and a half years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tokhi vividly remembers leaving Afghanistan 47 years ago. Her husband was a government employee under \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-27/afghan-president-is-overthrown-and-murdered\">Afghan President Mohammad Daoud Khan\u003c/a>. After the Soviet invasion, their family received a notice that he would be arrested for his work under the country’s previous leadership.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>With just $1,000 to their names, Tokhi, her husband and their two small children made their way to the Bay Area. By the time they joined their extended family in San Jose, Tokhi said they had just $22 left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tokhi, who had been an assistant professor of chemistry and biology back in Kabul, said that establishing herself in California was hard. She and her husband struggled to pay the mortgage and sometimes went without electricity. But eventually, they got political asylum and work permits. They were able to land jobs in the early days of Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many immigrant communities, Afghans like Tokhi came to Northern California because they knew someone in the area. When it was no longer safe to stay in Afghanistan, entire families relocated to where family members had come for work or school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fremont was like a magnet for Afghans to come and join this beautiful city,” said Dr. Masoud Juya, the associate director of the \u003ca href=\"https://afghancoalition.org/\">Afghan Coalition\u003c/a>. “One reason that [is] a big attractive factor for Afghans is definitely this landscape, the beauty, the geography, and the weather.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay hills reminded many Afghans of the mountainous terrain of their homeland. Entrepreneurial immigrants opened mosques, rug stores, and halal butcher shops. Specialty grocery stores like Maiwand Market soon opened their doors, offering fresh bread and other imported goods to local Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Fremont supported these endeavors by offering grants to Afghan business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont was more affordable than bigger cities like San Francisco or Oakland, and California also had generous welfare benefits that helped people get resettled here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Slowly it started to get built until this city was called ‘Little Kabul,’ which is a very attractive name,” said Juya.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A civil war prompts more people to leave Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The second wave of immigration took place in the 1990s during the Afghan Civil War, following the collapse of the Soviet-backed Afghan government. The war took place between different ethnic groups and eventually resulted in the Taliban’s rise to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Juya was in elementary school at the time, he still remembers how tumultuous and disruptive the civil war was. Tens of thousands of Afghans — mostly civilians — were killed throughout the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050014\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Participants wave colorful scarves during an exercise segment at the Afghan Elderly Association’s weekly wellness gathering in Fremont on July 23, 2025. The event is part of the nonprofit’s Healthy Aging Program, supporting Afghan elders through social connection, movement, meals, and health education. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of homes were destroyed due to the civil war, and our home was no exception,” Juya recalled, adding that he had been buried under the rubble. His family was displaced to a new city, though many Afghans left Afghanistan altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, many migrated to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they ended up here, then the first question they asked was like, ‘OK, which state has more Afghans? Let’s go and join our communities there,’” Juya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the second wave of immigrants arrived in Northern California, the first wave was ready to help them get settled. The Afghan Coalition, was established in Fremont during this time. Since 1996, the mission of this international organization has been to offer social services to Afghan refugees, including assistance with housing, professional resources and mental health support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Afghan Elderly Association was founded a year earlier to provide Afghans with culturally appropriate health programs. The organization’s founders went door-to-door, individually recruiting each elder.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We were going with these ladies to advocate to the doctors and translate,” said Tokhi, who worked with the group as a health promoter. “We were going to their homes. We were doing medication management. Sometimes they cannot read English, and we would ask, ‘What is this medicine for?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the organization knew that healthy living wasn’t just about medication and doctor’s visits. There needed to be a social element, \u003ca href=\"https://www.afghanelderlyassociation.org/our-programs.html\">which they eventually offered through its Healthy Aging Program\u003c/a>. Each week, the program offers a hot meal, exercise classes and medical check-ups from Afghan nurses who speak Farsi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought these ladies out of isolation,” Tokhi said. She now helps run the program as a volunteer. “There is some gossip, too,” Tokhi said with a laugh. “I have to have gossip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Programs like this created more opportunities for immigrants to feel comfortable and connected when they got to Fremont. And the city supported them. For years, Fremont’s Human Services Department collaborated with the Afghan Elderly Association by providing staffing support, along with office and meeting spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>9/11 upends the social order in Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The third wave of immigration to Fremont occurred after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The United States sent troops into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban leaders, sparking an overseas conflict that continued for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The toppling of the Taliban regime ushered in a new Afghan government and constitution. With the end of the Taliban’s religious extremism also came opportunities for women to work and girls to get an education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-AFGHANSINFREMONT-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteer Hanifa Tokhi speaks to the group at the Afghan Elderly Association’s weekly wellness gathering in Fremont on July 23, 2025. The event is part of the nonprofit’s Healthy Aging Program, supporting Afghan elders through social connection, movement, meals, and health education. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This was the beginning of a big change for Afghanistan,” said Juya. “It was the first time after all those dark periods that Afghanistan was connected to the rest of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than needing to flee as refugees as in the earlier immigration waves, Afghans could finally come to the U.S. on cultural exchange programs or to study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They freely moved out of Afghanistan because of the opportunities that were available,” Juya said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Juya himself first came to the United States during the third wave, in 2009. He’d just graduated medical school and was pursuing a Fulbright scholarship. He later traveled back and forth to Afghanistan, where he opened a successful university and a health science institute inspired by his time in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put into practice pretty much every bit of information we learned here,” said Dr. Juya. “We were really revolutionists in terms of helping Afghanistan develop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s grateful for all he learned studying in the U.S., the experience wasn’t all positive. He, like other Afghan immigrants, faced discrimination as a Muslim.*\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is an added layer of difficulty because of stigma, discrimination,” he said. “This in itself is also another factor that might motivate community members to come together so that they prevent themselves from additional threats or risks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Fremont experienced that stigma. In 2001, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/a-worrisome-wake-fear-of-backlash-lurks-in-a-2878560.php\">local news outlets\u003c/a> reported on hate crimes directed at Afghans, including death threats and a smashed store window around Little Kabul. A few days later, the owner of the vandalized store put an American flag in those same windows to show his loyalty to the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Afghan Americans asked the City Council to formally recognize the area known as Little Kabul. However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/09/27/fremont-wont-have-a-little-kabul/\">the initiative stalled after local businesses banded together to oppose the idea\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>US troops withdraw from Afghanistan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fourth and largest wave of immigration started in 2021 with President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Almost immediately, the Taliban returned to power and anyone who had participated in opening Afghanistan up, making it more liberal and democratic, was in danger. People like Juya.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was fighting hard as a member of my community against extremism,” Juya said. “I was really at high risk, and I had to leave as soon as I could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050012\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050012\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AFGHANSINFREMONT-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Director Masoud Juya sits in a conference room at the offices of the Afghan Coalition in Fremont on July 21, 2025. The organization provides health, education, and social services to support Afghan and other immigrant communities in the Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juya eventually left Afghanistan through an American Ph.D. program, after which he settled in Concord in search of a stable life.**\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremont.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12395/638119693632730000\">roughly 10,000 Afghans\u003c/a> who ended up in California after the 2021 withdrawal. The refugees during this fourth wave came from all parts of Afghan society, including academics, musicians, journalists, human rights advocates, and those who had worked with the U.S. military and allied forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So many people wanted to get out of Afghanistan during the hectic withdrawal that \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiRJRjsLx-M&ab_channel=GuardianNews\">some people sprinted after U.S. military planes trying to get onboard\u003c/a> and others held onto the wings as the planes took off.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As these horrific scenes unfolded, the City of Fremont again stepped up to support its local Afghan community. The Human Services Department raised $485,000 for an \u003ca href=\"https://www.fremont.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12395/638119693632730000\">Afghan Refugee Help Fund\u003c/a>, which paid for necessities like filing immigration documents, temporary housing, new cell phones, mental health resources, and driving lessons for recent arrivals. The effort was coordinated in collaboration with Afghan organizations and businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ever, the Afghans who had already established themselves in the Bay Area mobilized to help newcomers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Juya arrived in Fremont, his fellow Afghans hired him to help run the Afghan Coalition. But, he said, the volume of new Afghan arrivals has made a competitive job market even tougher. And many people don’t have the skills to fit into Silicon Valley’s high-tech, AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were professionals back home,” he said. “They come here but they cannot find a professional job, so I see a lot of frustration for some of the young, talented Afghans.” Many are hustling as DoorDash or Uber drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Promoting ‘positive energy’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The music composer and producer Hasib Sepand was lucky enough to arrive in Fremont before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. He opened a music school, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sepandstudios.com/service/sepand-music-academy/\">The Sepand Music Academy\u003c/a>. Just six months later, the Taliban came back to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody was interested in music, even myself,” he said. “We were like mentally very depressed. I didn’t have that courage to play music because my family’s over there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050026\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050026\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250721-AfghansinFremont-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hasib Sepand plays the harmonium at Sepand Studios in Fremont on July 21, 2025, where his music academy offers instruction in sitar, tabla, harmonium, and other instruments, and he composes and produces music. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sepand came from a family of well-known musicians in Afghanistan, who were forced to relocate to Pakistan after the Taliban’s first rise to power. During the U.S. war with Afghanistan, Sepand’s family had also worked with the American Army. They were able to qualify for Special Immigrant Visas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last American plane that flew from Afghanistan included my family,” Sepand said. “It’s like a film.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After he helped resettle his family in the Bay Area, Sepand reached out to the City of Fremont. They collaborated to offer three months of free music classes to new arrivals as a part of the Afghan Refugee Help Fund. Sepand taught students to sing traditional Afghan music and play instruments like the tabla and sitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My class is not only a music class,” he said. “I tried to give a positive energy, especially for the newcomers, because they face a lot of problems. They face stress, depression, different culture, different language, sometimes no job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sepand said that students would often tell him his music class was the highlight of their week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before he came to Fremont and learned the firsthand challenges of starting over in America, Sepand thought it would be a more glamorous place. But Fremont was not the America Hasib had pictured. Over time, as he has watched the community come together to support one another, he has come to love this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now, to me, it looks a hundred times better than every place in America because I live here and I have friends and I enjoy everything in Fremont,” Sepand said. “I love Fremont.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this story stated that Juya experienced discrimination for being Muslim and Arab. But Afghans are not Arab. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>**A previous version of this story stated that Juya settled in Fremont. In fact, he lives in Concord.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Fremont is the fourth-largest town in the Bay Area, but it doesn’t always get the love it deserves. It’s a quiet place, but has a thriving tech industry, an incredibly diverse population and played an important role in the early silent film industry. It’s also home to one of the largest Afghan populations in the country…a fact that often shows up in pop culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clip from \u003cem>Fremont\u003c/em>: \u003c/strong>Do you live in Fremont? Are you also from Afghanistan? Yes, I am. On the Special Immigration Visa? Yes. I was a translator in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>That’s a clip from the 2023 indie film “Fremont” about a military translator starting over in Fremont after being forced to leave Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a premise rooted in reality. Over the past 40-some years, Fremont’s Afghans have slowly built a cultural hub here. There’s even a business district known as Little Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That name, Little Kabul, sparked the interest of one Bay Curious listener who wanted to know more about how Fremont became home to so many Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today on Bay Curious, we’re tracing four distinct waves of Afghan immigration to the U.S. and illuminating how 40 years of U.S. foreign policy have led us to this point. We’ll meet Afghan refugees who’ve settled here, learn what makes this community unique and dig into some of the challenges they face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Katrina Schwartz, filling in for Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Northern California is home to the largest concentration of Afghans in the United States. And many have settled in the Bay Area city of Fremont. Reporter Asal Ehsanipour went to find out why so many folks have decided to make this East Bay town home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Recently, I went to an Eid dinner to celebrate the end of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>We have, of course, the delicious kabuli pulao, which is a very common Afghan dish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Tables piled with plates of homemade rice and pastries made by local Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> This is called simion. It’s a very popular dried fruit, usually during Eid, it is used in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Guiding me on this food tour is Dr. Masoud Juya, the associate director of a local nonprofit called the Afghan Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>We have come here today to celebrate Eid and also to enjoy the Afghan culture, food, music. And to kind of enhance our collegiality, you know, over the joy and feast of Eid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Roughly 66,000 people of Afghan descent live in California, according to the 2019 Census. And historically, the highest concentration has been right here in Fremont. Making it one of the largest Afghan communities in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>Fremont was like a magnet for Afghans to come and join this beautiful city. And one reason that it’s a big attractive factor for Afghans is definitely this landscape, the beauty, the geography, and the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>It doesn’t hurt that the East Bay has these majestic hills, which remind Afghans of home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When you see these hills, it’s really reminiscent of those beautiful memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Fremont’s Afghan community has been growing for decades. Masoud says you can break it down into four – distinct waves, each based on a moment of conflict and political change in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first wave of immigration began in the late 1970s when the USSR invaded Afghanistan and took control of Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News Clip: \u003c/strong>In 1979, the Soviet Union determined that Afghanistan would be a communist nation … forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The Soviet invasion and the U.S. decision to arm rebel groups within Afghanistan as part of a proxy Cold War kicked off decades of instability for Afghanistan. Millions were killed. And millions more fled as refugees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News Clip: \u003c/strong>In that decade of war, over 1,000 villages and towns have been destroyed by tanks and bombs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> The immigrants from that era were those who were persecuted by the communist regime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They included religious minorities and people who’d held government jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> As well as civilians, ordinary civilians who did not feel safe to stay in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Many Afghans fled to neighboring countries, like Iran and Pakistan. Others came to America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Some of them ended up in Virginia first, and then they knew somebody who had recently come to this part of the country, and they were satisfied. So then they talked together and they decided to join each other here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Like so many immigrant communities, Afghans came to California because that’s where they knew people. If entire families were to uproot their lives and move across the world, they needed to stick together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a weekly health event put on by the Afghan Elderly Association, women I met said they’d followed family members who’d come to Fremont for work or school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 1: \u003c/strong>My daughter, she went to San José State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 2: \u003c/strong>Aunts and uncle.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 3: \u003c/strong>My friend, my relative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Woman 2: \u003c/strong>Everybody was here in Fremont, so I came to join them, join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi came to the Bay Area 47 years ago. But she still feels the pain of leaving Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> I was crying for two and a half years. We didn’t come by our choice. We were forced to leave the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa’s husband had worked for the Afghan government before the Soviet invasion. One day, they heard a knock at the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> They sent the notices that they’re going to arrest him and put him in jail. And even they told him to be ready when the soldiers come, go with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>With just $1,000 to their names, Hanifa, her husband, and their two small children made their way to the Bay Area. Hanifa had a brother-in-law in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> By the time we came, we had $22 because most of the money was spent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hanifa says life was hard. They struggled to pay the mortgage, sometimes went without electricity. Eventually, she and her husband got political asylum and work permits, applied for jobs in the early days of Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi:\u003c/strong> But then, there is not a lot of people coming to San Jose, but mostly was coming to Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Almost immediately, Fremont became the center of Afghan life. Grocery stores like Maiwand Market sold tastes of home. And immigrants opened mosques, rug stores, and Halal butcher shops. And the City of Fremont supported them. It offered grants to help Afghan business owners get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Slowly, it started to get built. Until this city was called Little Kabul, which is a very attractive name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud Juya says Fremont was more affordable than bigger cities like San Francisco or Oakland. Plus, California had generous welfare benefits that helped people get resettled here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Afghans trickled into Fremont throughout the 1980s until the next big wave of immigration a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The second wave actually was in the 1990s, when Afghanistan was experiencing a civil war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip:\u003c/strong> The Shiite Southwest District of Kabul begin the latest battlefield in the fight to control Afghanistan’s capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The civil war was between different ethnic groups in Afghanistan and resulted in the Taliban’s rise to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Masoud remembers how tumultuous and disruptive that time was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>I was actually in the primary school, and the war was terrible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>Rebels reportedly fired hundreds of rockets in the residential area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>A lot of homes were destroyed due to the civil war, and our home was no exception. So every Afghan was doing their best to get out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Again, many Afghans came to the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When they ended up here, then the first question they asked was like, OK, which state has more Afghans? Let’s go and join our communities there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>When the \u003cem>second\u003c/em> wave of immigrants got to Fremont, the \u003cem>first\u003c/em> wave was ready to help them get settled. That’s how Masoud’s organization, the Afghan Coalition, was founded in 1996. Since then, they’ve offered social services to Afghan refugees, helping them find housing, jobs, and mental health support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was around the time the Afghan Elderly Association started its work. The founders went door to door individually recruiting each member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>I was working with this association for 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Here’s Hanifa Sai Tokhi again. After leaving Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion, she eventually became a \u003cem>health promoter\u003c/em> for the Afghan Elderly Association. Her job was to bring culturally appropriate health services to older community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>We were going with these ladies to advocate to the doctors and translate. Like sometimes they cannot read English, and we would ask what is this medicine for?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But the organization knew that healthy living wasn’t just about medication and doctor’s visits. There needed to be a social element. So, they created the Healthy Aging Program. And, it still exists!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>They brought these ladies out of isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Here, each week, they offer a hot meal, exercise classes and medical check-ups from Afghan nurses who speak Farsi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hanifa Sai Tokhi: \u003c/strong>And also, there is some gossip, too. I have to have gossip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Programs like this created more opportunities for immigrants to feel comfortable and connected when they got to Fremont. And for years, the city of Fremont’s Human Services Department collaborated with the Afghan Elderly Association. They provided staffing support, along with office and meeting spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so with that second wave, the Afghan community was growing. Thriving in a Fremont bubble, until the 9/11 attacks put the international spotlight back on Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>We have a very tragic alert for you right now. An incredible plane crash into the World Trade Center here at the lower tip of Manhattan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>George W. Bush: \u003c/strong>On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime and Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The Taliban government was toppled post-9/11, and a new administration was built in Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>With the new government came a new constitution. It meant an end to the Taliban’s religious extremism, opportunities for women to work, and girls to get an education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>So this was the beginning of a big change for Afghanistan. It was the first time after all those dark periods that Afghanistan was connected to the rest of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Rather than needing to flee as refugees, people could finally come to the U.S. on cultural exchange programs or to study. But when they got here, they were faced with a very Islamophobic America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>When there is maybe an added layer of difficulty because of stigma, discrimination, or whatsoever, this in itself is also another factor that might motivate community members to come together so that they prevent themselves from additional threats or risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud first came to the U.S. during this third wave after the fall of the Taliban. He wanted to learn as much as he could and bring that knowledge back to Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> We put into practice pretty much every bit of information we learned here. And we were really, in our own sense, we were really revolutionists in terms of helping Afghanistan develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Inspired by his time in the States, he opened a successful university and a health science institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>And that’s why people like me were always staying there until we really had to leave post-2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>2021, when the United States \u003cem>withdrew\u003c/em> from Afghanistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Biden:\u003c/strong> I concluded it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The Taliban took back control of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>The Taliban advance appears unstoppable. Ruthless as ever, to those who stand in their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This U.S. policy decision caused the fourth and most recent wave of immigration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>Now the Taliban is back, anyone who worked for the Afghan government has fled or is in hiding. Women and girls live in fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud was also afraid. He had been at the forefront of trying to rebuild a more liberal, democratic Afghanistan. But now, all of that was smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> I was fighting hard as a member of my community against extremism. So I was really at high risk, and I had to leave as soon as I could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Masoud explored every avenue and eventually got out through an American Ph.D. program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> But after I completed my Ph.D., then I was thinking of staying somewhere for a stable life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The obvious choice: Fremont. Masoud is one of roughly 10,000 Afghans who ended up in California after the 2021 withdrawal. And this time, the refugees came from all parts of Afghan society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya: \u003c/strong>The fourth wave is actually a very, very different group of people: vocalists, musicians, academics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Journalists and human rights advocates, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> More importantly, people who really worked with the Afghan government and the U.S. Government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Including members of the U.S. military and allied forces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> But then there were also some civilians who just went to the airport because they are also afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>You might remember news footage of desperate Afghans sprinting after U.S. military planes trying to get onboard. Some even held onto the wings as the planes took off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> People who were really scared of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>As these horrific scenes unfolded, the city of Fremont again stepped up to support the Afghan community. It raised $485,000 for an Afghan Refugee Help Fund … to help pay for things like filing immigration documents, temporary housing, mental health resources, and driving lessons for recent arrivals. This was done in collaboration with Afghan organizations and businesses. As ever, those who had already established themselves mobilized to help newcomers. And new immigrants leveraged what earlier waves had built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Yeah, all these resources that Afghans created, institutions that they built, connections that they had, the knowledge that they have from navigating the U.S. System, I think they were all transferred into the new waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>When Masoud got to Fremont, his expertise building institutions in Afghanistan made him the perfect guy for a job at the Afghan Coalition, helping other refugees get settled. But he was one of the lucky few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> Afghans come here, and I see they were professionals back home. They come here, but they cannot find a professional job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This fourth wave is bigger than the prior ones. And people don’t have the skills to fit into the Bay Area’s high-tech, AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Masoud Juya:\u003c/strong> So I see a lot of frustration for some of the young, talented Afghans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>One of those young, talented Afghans is Hasib Sepand. He arrived in Fremont before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan and started a music school, called The Sepand Academy … Just six months later, the Taliban came back to power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Nobody was interested in music, even myself. So, we were like mentally very depressed. I didn’t have that courage to play music. Because my family’s over there.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Like Hasib, his family were musicians. And Hasib’s siblings had also worked with the American Army. Because of that, they were able to qualify for Special Immigrant Visas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> And the last American plane that flew from Afghanistan included my family. It’s like a film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hasib was so grateful his family made it to safety, he wanted to help other newcomers. With the city’s help, Hasib offered three months of free music classes to new arrivals. They sang and played instruments like the tabla and sitar. You’re hearing them play now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of music class playing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> I tried to give a positive energy, especially for the newcomers, because they face a lot of problems. They face stress, depression, different culture, different language, sometimes no job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Hasib says before he came to Fremont — before he knew anything about how hard it would be to live in the U.S. — he thought it would be a more glamorous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand: \u003c/strong>My Afghan friends, they used to tell me, “OK, so you are going to Fremont. Oh my god. That’s a dream city.” And they gave me kind of like wrong imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This was not the “America” Hasib had pictured. But as he’s watched the community come together to support one another, he’s come to love this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Now, to me, it looks a hundred times better than every place in America because I live here and I have friends and I enjoy everything in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>He says he loves the people, the fellowship created at local Afghan bakeries and banquet halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hasib Sepand:\u003c/strong> Right now, I feel that I’m in Afghanistan. I’m in my hometown. Most of the time, I don’t speak English because everywhere I go is like Afghans. And when my friends come from Canada or from Europe, they are jealous. I love Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Or as Hasib calls it: Little Kabul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont’s Afghan community is under threat once again. President Trump recently announced plans to end temporary protected status for a host of countries, including Afghanistan. The administration also put a halt to most refugee resettlements programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other big difficulty facing this community is cost of living in the Bay Area. More Afghans are choosing to settle in Sacramento than Fremont now because it’s more affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As you may have heard, this is a perilous time for public media and KQED. So, if you have a moment, head on over to kqed dot org slash donate. Every little bit helps to support the shows you love, and we appreciate you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051668/la-red-de-respuesta-rapida-en-el-condado-de-santa-clara\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What once was one of the busiest shopping plazas \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">in San José\u003c/a> is now a much quieter place. At Placita Tropicana — located on the corner of Story and King roads — quinceañera dresses still sparkle, pupusas still sizzle and pan dulce is baked fresh every morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But people are too afraid to come out now,” said Elizabeth Ramírez, who works at Joyería Cruz, a boutique and clothing store. “Once there’s a rumor out on social media that immigration agents are at Tropicana, everyone disappears and sales go down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when customers do come in, she said, they’re often scared that Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be nearby. “When I see that look on their face, I give them these cards,” she said, holding up two sets of cards: one red and the other yellow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas\">red card\u003c/a>, provided by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, lists in both English and Spanish the rights of individuals during encounters with federal immigration agents. But it’s the yellow card that has a much more direct message: “Protect our community. Report ICE activity!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yellow cards are from the \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/rrninscc\">Rapid Response Network in Santa Clara County\u003c/a>, a coalition of 11 organizations and hundreds of volunteers who work around the clock to verify possible ICE sightings. Many volunteers are immigrants or children of immigrants, all driven by the belief that immigrant families have a home in San José and the South Bay, regardless of their immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with a business owner about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings in San José on July 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The goal: spread the word about ICE activity as quickly as possible. The network’s hotline connects callers to responders who can confirm or refute rumors of immigration enforcement. If ICE \u003cem>is\u003c/em> present, the network swiftly alerts thousands of community members through social media and group chats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ICE plans to further expand its operations nationwide — with an \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-funding-big-beautiful-bill-trump-deportations/\">additional $75 billion in funding\u003c/a> from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill — the network is doubling down on its efforts. When not staffing the hotline, volunteers are training neighbors on how to correctly spot ICE, what immigration agents can and cannot do and even how to prepare for a potential family separation. While the Bay Area has not seen immigration raids \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046457/much-of-las-community-of-immigrants-is-hiding-leaving-a-hole-in-the-fabric-of-the-city\">at the same scale as Los Angeles\u003c/a> earlier this summer, volunteers do not want their community to be caught off guard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the rapid response sends alerts, they’re not asking the government for permission,” said Socorro Montaño, codirector of \u003ca href=\"https://www.lunalatinosunidos.org/\">Latinos United for a New America\u003c/a>, a San José-based group in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network\u003c/a>. “In minutes, the network is having a tangible impact on people’s lives … This is people power without having to concede power in the political sphere.”[aside postID=news_12049326 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-07-BL_qed.jpg']On a recent Friday morning, Montaño visited Ramírez at her shop to ensure she had enough cards. The network, Montaño said, is only as strong as the community that powers it. “Everybody who has our number saved, everybody who’s ever called us or shared the number with a loved one — they are part of the network.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of this works,” said Ramírez. When she hears a rumor on WhatsApp about ICE moving through San José, she said the first thing she does is check in with the rapid response network. Within minutes, she shares verified updates from volunteers with her loved ones. “You take what you need from this. And for me, it has been an incredible support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they’re not managing the phone lines, Montaño and other volunteers visit local South Bay businesses to hand out cards and educate residents. Their next stop: a jewelry and watch repair shop next door, filled with the high-pitched whirring and humming of polishing machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo soy Socorro,” Montaño introduced themselves. “Lo que más me importa hoy es hablarle sobre la red de respuesta rápida.” (“What’s most important for me today is to talk to you about the rapid response network.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis Urbina, the shop’s owner, had seen the red cards before but didn’t know about the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This whole situation almost paralyzes you,” he said, “Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do if I were stopped by immigration. But now I do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who picks up the phone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Montaño and others spread the word, coalition members stand by for calls to come in. Staffing the hotline is often difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you pick up a call, you can hear how anxious people are,” said Carmen Torres, an organizer with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sirenimmigrantrights.org/\">Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network\u003c/a>, another group in the coalition. This year alone, the hotline has received \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12045336/growing-south-bay-ice-fears-lead-to-surge-in-immigrant-hotline-calls\">thousands of calls\u003c/a>. Some are false alarms — people mistaking San José police officers for ICE agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño (left), lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Cruz (middle) and Monse Roa in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But sometimes, callers are overwhelmed by the fear that ICE will separate their family. “People tell us that they’ve been calling everywhere trying to find a lawyer, but no one is taking new cases,” Torres said. “But what more can I say to them then? I think that’s when I feel like the expression, ‘I go to the wall.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demand for immigration lawyers is so great right now in the Bay Area that the network can only mobilize attorneys in urgent situations. Acknowledging the limitation, SIREN also helps families make plans in case a parent or guardian is detained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people get scared with just hearing that word — plan — because it means thinking that the worst could happen to us,” said María Aceves, who, along with her husband, Eliseo, has volunteered with SIREN and other immigration justice efforts for more than 20 years. “But I tell them that the best thing we can do is to be prepared and research how to prepare and defend yourself instead of staying in your house in fear.”[aside postID=news_12045336 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250614-NO-KINGS-SAN-JOSE-AC-09-KQED.jpg']The fear of deportation is not just affecting San José businesses. In immigrant communities \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/us/los-angeles-ghost-towns\">across California\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2025/07/10/ice-immigration-business-north-carolina\">rest of the country\u003c/a>, fewer people are \u003ca href=\"https://www.univision.com/local/sacramento-kuvs/politica-sacramento/menos-ventas-mas-miedo-temor-a-los-operativos-migratorios-aleja-a-los-clientes-de-los-comercios-video\">shopping\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5428350/immigration-crackdowns-pose-problems-to-businesses-reliant-on-those-in-u-s-illegally\">working\u003c/a> or even \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/student-absences-increased-under-threat-deportation-efforts-study-finds\">taking their children to school\u003c/a>. Central Valley school districts facing increased immigration enforcement saw an average 22% rise in student absences earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that [Trump] will only be in power for four years, but in those four years, they could destroy us,” said Aceves. As an immigrant, she understands the fear others in her community feel but insists that it needs to be faced directly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My daughter sometimes tells me to stop coming out to volunteer,” she said. “But I tell her that I’ve done this work for longer than she’s been alive, and I like it … You know what to do in case something happens. I will let God guide me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres said it feels good to give people accurate information about immigration enforcement so they can continue with their lives. The network’s motto, after all, is “Power, not panic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know what Trump’s thinking. We don’t know what immigration enforcement is thinking. But we do know what rights we have,” she said. “When we go out to the community, give out information and then come back and pick up the phones, it’s all connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A San José original\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the summer sun rises higher over Alum Rock, a historic Mexican American district, the streets warm. Montaño — joined by two organizers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.amigoscenter.com/rapid-respon\">Amigos de Guadalupe\u003c/a> — make their way from business to business to talk about the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some vendors recognized them and showed off their supply of red and yellow cards placed near their front doors. Others received their decks for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049167 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maria Moreno (center), a San José resident for over 40 years and owner of a candy store, speaks to Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, about how to report ICE activity in San José on July 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We all need to have these cards ready,” said María Moreno, a San José resident for over 40 years and owner of a candy store in Alum Rock. “I want to share these with my customers. We need to feel confident walking down the street again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the shops in Alum Rock have been owned by Mexican and Mexican American families for generations. But you will also find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">Vietnamese, South Asian and Colombian restaurants\u003c/a> — a reflection of how much of San José’s culture and economy depends on immigrant labor. More than 40% of the city’s population \u003ca href=\"https://data.census.gov/profile/San_Jose_CCD,_Santa_Clara_County,_California?g=060XX00US0608592830\">is foreign-born\u003c/a>, a percentage higher than both San Francisco and New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Montaño, protecting the city’s immigrants from deportation is part of what it means to be from San José. Born and raised in the city, one side of their family recently migrated from Nicaragua — while the other has lived in Santa Clara County for three generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a Bay Area kid,” they said. “Almost wherever I am, our community runs so deep and thick that I know I can find trusted people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the 2016 election, a handful of volunteers formed the rapid response network in Santa Clara County. As more groups joined, the network’s reach expanded: both \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/office-of-the-city-manager/racial-equity/immigrant-affairs/rapid-response-hotline\">the city of San José\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.santaclaracounty.gov/one-county-one-future\">the county\u003c/a> now list it as a resource. Similar networks are \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn\">forming across the country\u003c/a>, inspired by the belief that immigrant communities have the capacity to respond to the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Montaño and others are focused on ensuring this work can be sustained for the next four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A few weeks ago, I was asked an icebreaker question: ‘If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?’” Montaño said. “I answered ‘San José, California.’ This is my home. And this is the home that I’m building.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "A Day in the Life of San José’s Rapid Response Network, Built to Resist ICE Fear | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051668/la-red-de-respuesta-rapida-en-el-condado-de-santa-clara\">\u003cem>Leer en español\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What once was one of the busiest shopping plazas \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">in San José\u003c/a> is now a much quieter place. At Placita Tropicana — located on the corner of Story and King roads — quinceañera dresses still sparkle, pupusas still sizzle and pan dulce is baked fresh every morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But people are too afraid to come out now,” said Elizabeth Ramírez, who works at Joyería Cruz, a boutique and clothing store. “Once there’s a rumor out on social media that immigration agents are at Tropicana, everyone disappears and sales go down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when customers do come in, she said, they’re often scared that Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be nearby. “When I see that look on their face, I give them these cards,” she said, holding up two sets of cards: one red and the other yellow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas\">red card\u003c/a>, provided by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, lists in both English and Spanish the rights of individuals during encounters with federal immigration agents. But it’s the yellow card that has a much more direct message: “Protect our community. Report ICE activity!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The yellow cards are from the \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/rrninscc\">Rapid Response Network in Santa Clara County\u003c/a>, a coalition of 11 organizations and hundreds of volunteers who work around the clock to verify possible ICE sightings. Many volunteers are immigrants or children of immigrants, all driven by the belief that immigrant families have a home in San José and the South Bay, regardless of their immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049160\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049160\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with a business owner about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings in San José on July 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The goal: spread the word about ICE activity as quickly as possible. The network’s hotline connects callers to responders who can confirm or refute rumors of immigration enforcement. If ICE \u003cem>is\u003c/em> present, the network swiftly alerts thousands of community members through social media and group chats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ICE plans to further expand its operations nationwide — with an \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-funding-big-beautiful-bill-trump-deportations/\">additional $75 billion in funding\u003c/a> from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill — the network is doubling down on its efforts. When not staffing the hotline, volunteers are training neighbors on how to correctly spot ICE, what immigration agents can and cannot do and even how to prepare for a potential family separation. While the Bay Area has not seen immigration raids \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046457/much-of-las-community-of-immigrants-is-hiding-leaving-a-hole-in-the-fabric-of-the-city\">at the same scale as Los Angeles\u003c/a> earlier this summer, volunteers do not want their community to be caught off guard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the rapid response sends alerts, they’re not asking the government for permission,” said Socorro Montaño, codirector of \u003ca href=\"https://www.lunalatinosunidos.org/\">Latinos United for a New America\u003c/a>, a San José-based group in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network\u003c/a>. “In minutes, the network is having a tangible impact on people’s lives … This is people power without having to concede power in the political sphere.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On a recent Friday morning, Montaño visited Ramírez at her shop to ensure she had enough cards. The network, Montaño said, is only as strong as the community that powers it. “Everybody who has our number saved, everybody who’s ever called us or shared the number with a loved one — they are part of the network.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of this works,” said Ramírez. When she hears a rumor on WhatsApp about ICE moving through San José, she said the first thing she does is check in with the rapid response network. Within minutes, she shares verified updates from volunteers with her loved ones. “You take what you need from this. And for me, it has been an incredible support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they’re not managing the phone lines, Montaño and other volunteers visit local South Bay businesses to hand out cards and educate residents. Their next stop: a jewelry and watch repair shop next door, filled with the high-pitched whirring and humming of polishing machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yo soy Socorro,” Montaño introduced themselves. “Lo que más me importa hoy es hablarle sobre la red de respuesta rápida.” (“What’s most important for me today is to talk to you about the rapid response network.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis Urbina, the shop’s owner, had seen the red cards before but didn’t know about the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This whole situation almost paralyzes you,” he said, “Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do if I were stopped by immigration. But now I do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who picks up the phone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Montaño and others spread the word, coalition members stand by for calls to come in. Staffing the hotline is often difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you pick up a call, you can hear how anxious people are,” said Carmen Torres, an organizer with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sirenimmigrantrights.org/\">Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network\u003c/a>, another group in the coalition. This year alone, the hotline has received \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12045336/growing-south-bay-ice-fears-lead-to-surge-in-immigrant-hotline-calls\">thousands of calls\u003c/a>. Some are false alarms — people mistaking San José police officers for ICE agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049166\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049166\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-24-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño (left), lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Cruz (middle) and Monse Roa in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But sometimes, callers are overwhelmed by the fear that ICE will separate their family. “People tell us that they’ve been calling everywhere trying to find a lawyer, but no one is taking new cases,” Torres said. “But what more can I say to them then? I think that’s when I feel like the expression, ‘I go to the wall.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demand for immigration lawyers is so great right now in the Bay Area that the network can only mobilize attorneys in urgent situations. Acknowledging the limitation, SIREN also helps families make plans in case a parent or guardian is detained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people get scared with just hearing that word — plan — because it means thinking that the worst could happen to us,” said María Aceves, who, along with her husband, Eliseo, has volunteered with SIREN and other immigration justice efforts for more than 20 years. “But I tell them that the best thing we can do is to be prepared and research how to prepare and defend yourself instead of staying in your house in fear.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The fear of deportation is not just affecting San José businesses. In immigrant communities \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/us/los-angeles-ghost-towns\">across California\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2025/07/10/ice-immigration-business-north-carolina\">rest of the country\u003c/a>, fewer people are \u003ca href=\"https://www.univision.com/local/sacramento-kuvs/politica-sacramento/menos-ventas-mas-miedo-temor-a-los-operativos-migratorios-aleja-a-los-clientes-de-los-comercios-video\">shopping\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5428350/immigration-crackdowns-pose-problems-to-businesses-reliant-on-those-in-u-s-illegally\">working\u003c/a> or even \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/student-absences-increased-under-threat-deportation-efforts-study-finds\">taking their children to school\u003c/a>. Central Valley school districts facing increased immigration enforcement saw an average 22% rise in student absences earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that [Trump] will only be in power for four years, but in those four years, they could destroy us,” said Aceves. As an immigrant, she understands the fear others in her community feel but insists that it needs to be faced directly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My daughter sometimes tells me to stop coming out to volunteer,” she said. “But I tell her that I’ve done this work for longer than she’s been alive, and I like it … You know what to do in case something happens. I will let God guide me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Torres said it feels good to give people accurate information about immigration enforcement so they can continue with their lives. The network’s motto, after all, is “Power, not panic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know what Trump’s thinking. We don’t know what immigration enforcement is thinking. But we do know what rights we have,” she said. “When we go out to the community, give out information and then come back and pick up the phones, it’s all connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A San José original\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the summer sun rises higher over Alum Rock, a historic Mexican American district, the streets warm. Montaño — joined by two organizers from \u003ca href=\"https://www.amigoscenter.com/rapid-respon\">Amigos de Guadalupe\u003c/a> — make their way from business to business to talk about the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some vendors recognized them and showed off their supply of red and yellow cards placed near their front doors. Others received their decks for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12049167 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maria Moreno (center), a San José resident for over 40 years and owner of a candy store, speaks to Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, about how to report ICE activity in San José on July 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We all need to have these cards ready,” said María Moreno, a San José resident for over 40 years and owner of a candy store in Alum Rock. “I want to share these with my customers. We need to feel confident walking down the street again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the shops in Alum Rock have been owned by Mexican and Mexican American families for generations. But you will also find \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/sanjosefood\">Vietnamese, South Asian and Colombian restaurants\u003c/a> — a reflection of how much of San José’s culture and economy depends on immigrant labor. More than 40% of the city’s population \u003ca href=\"https://data.census.gov/profile/San_Jose_CCD,_Santa_Clara_County,_California?g=060XX00US0608592830\">is foreign-born\u003c/a>, a percentage higher than both San Francisco and New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Montaño, protecting the city’s immigrants from deportation is part of what it means to be from San José. Born and raised in the city, one side of their family recently migrated from Nicaragua — while the other has lived in Santa Clara County for three generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a Bay Area kid,” they said. “Almost wherever I am, our community runs so deep and thick that I know I can find trusted people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the 2016 election, a handful of volunteers formed the rapid response network in Santa Clara County. As more groups joined, the network’s reach expanded: both \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/office-of-the-city-manager/racial-equity/immigrant-affairs/rapid-response-hotline\">the city of San José\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.santaclaracounty.gov/one-county-one-future\">the county\u003c/a> now list it as a resource. Similar networks are \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn\">forming across the country\u003c/a>, inspired by the belief that immigrant communities have the capacity to respond to the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Montaño and others are focused on ensuring this work can be sustained for the next four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A few weeks ago, I was asked an icebreaker question: ‘If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?’” Montaño said. “I answered ‘San José, California.’ This is my home. And this is the home that I’m building.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Activists Declare Hunger Strike, Demanding Sanctuary Status for Sonoma County",
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"content": "\u003cp>A group of faith leaders and activists set up camp outside of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County\u003c/a>’s office in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, vowing not to eat or leave until the jurisdiction declares itself a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a dozen people, coordinated by the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition, a group of local faith-based and immigrants’ rights organizers, plan to hunger strike outside of the county’s Board of Supervisors’ chamber until the county agrees to pass a resolution protecting immigrants from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the large immigrant community that [Sonoma County] has — immigrant workers who sustain the wine industry and the hospitality and tourism industries — it really is a slap in the face that the Board of Supervisors has not yet passed this law,” said Renee Saucedo, a community organizer with environmental group Raizes Collective and one of the strikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to camp all day, every day, and we’re not going to give up until Sonoma County minimally passes a sanctuary ordinance so that people can feel safe that local law enforcement will not report them to ICE,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saucedo said that activists have urged the county to pass a sanctuary policy for years, but that the need has become increasingly pressing in recent months as ICE enforcement has escalated throughout California and after the agency received a federal budget boost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Trujillo listens to speakers alongside leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said the Sanctuary Coalition, which formed after President Trump’s election in November, is worried that Sonoma could begin to see more widespread raids like those occurring at farms, hardware stores and gas stations in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043885/increased-ice-raids-send-shock-waves-through-farm-worker-community\">Southern California\u003c/a>, and more recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048690/no-sanctuary-anywhere-border-patrol-raids-strike-heart-of-california-capitol\">Sacramento\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County is one of four Bay Area counties that does not have a local ordinance declaring itself a sanctuary for undocumented people, but in January, supervisors did pass a resolution pledging to protect immigrants’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said the resolution — which is less forceful than an ordinance — directed county departments to safeguard immigrants’ sensitive information and ensure they can continue to access services. The resolution also calls for the county to comply with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12016037/california-is-a-sanctuary-state-how-much-protection-will-that-give-immigrants-from-trumps-deportation-plans\">trio of California sanctuary laws\u003c/a> that limit how local law enforcement agencies interact with ICE.[aside postID=news_12050403 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GettyImages-2180061713_qed-1020x680.jpg']Hopkins, who chairs the board, said she and Vice Chair Rebecca Hermosillo met with the Sanctuary Coalition earlier this summer, and have another discussion set for later this month. Hopkins said she respects their pledge to strike, and believes the activists and county largely have the same priorities for protecting immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her opinion, however, a sanctuary ordinance would do little to expand actual protections for undocumented people, while peddling false hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We, at this point, can’t actually create a sanctuary county,” Hopkins said. “Even if we called ourselves a sanctuary county, ICE is still able to come in here and, honestly, take folks anytime, anywhere. That’s a really alarming reality that we’re facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reiterated a fear expressed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/napa/immigration-napa-ice-state-california/\">Napa police\u003c/a> officials in January when discussing why they had not passed local sanctuary laws: that doing so could draw scrutiny from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It might actually put a target on the backs of our immigrant community and lead to increased ICE action and ICE presence in our community,” Hopkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050967\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050967\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies gather outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Along with Napa and Sonoma, Contra Costa and Marin counties also lack express sanctuary laws. Contra Costa County has said it follows state law and supports immigrants in the East Bay county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, a tense, hourslong debate at a Board of Supervisors meeting in 2020 \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20220527210637/https://www.marinij.com/2020/09/16/marin-supervisors-reject-call-for-sanctuary-county/\">ended without a sanctuary ordinance\u003c/a>. The supervisors at the time passed a resolution calling on the Sheriff’s Office to greatly reduce its correspondence with ICE, but stopped short of declaring a sanctuary county, citing disagreements with the sheriff over what he should report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike cities, whose councils directly oversee their police chiefs, county officials do not have authority over sheriff’s offices beyond approving their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle defended sharing information — like when some incarcerated people will be released — with ICE, according to reporting from the \u003cem>Marin Independent Journal\u003c/em> at the time. Supervisors passed a resolution urging Doyle to limit publicly posting release dates, limit reporting released to ICE to only undocumented people with serious or violent felony convictions, and notify ICE if someone facing pending charges for a serious crime is undocumented, only if a judge determines there is probable cause at a preliminary hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050966\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050966\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriela Hernandez, from Almas Libres, leads a cleansing for hunger strikers during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Saucedo said she believes Sonoma’s sheriff is complying with ICE, Hopkins believes California law already prevents the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office from sharing personal information, like immigration status, with ICE unless it is subpoenaed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t ask people their immigration status, and if ICE were to subpoena their data collection system, the records would not include that information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s actually going above and beyond [California law] in terms of noncooperation with ICE or non-notification based on ICE requests,” Hopkins told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Juan Valencia told KQED that the department doesn’t proactively contact ICE, and only responds to its information requests when it seeks public intel or is legally required to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department will only hold a person being released for immigration officials if they receive a warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050968\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies gather outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t actually do any enforcement at all of immigration, that’s not our job,” Valencia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the state law, Saucedo said several other Bay Area counties, including San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda, have passed local ordinances expanding sanctuary protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also pointed out that Humboldt County in Northern California — “which,” she said, “is not considered to be the bastion of radical politics” — has one of the state’s strongest laws against ICE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really is unforgivable,” she told KQED, that Sonoma has not followed suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and a group of 10 to 15 strikers began their action on Tuesday at 9 a.m., pitching tents and holding a ceremonial opening with dozens more activists and faith leaders. Throughout the week, Saucedo said people plan to join the core group of strikers for a day of fasting or support, but only a small group will remain camped outside the county office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re holding this hunger strike to convey the message to the Board of Supervisors and to the community at large that we won’t stop until our law passes, and immigrant communities are safer,” Saucedo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/carlysevern\">\u003cem>Carly Severn\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>A group of faith leaders and activists set up camp outside of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sonoma-county\">Sonoma County\u003c/a>’s office in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, vowing not to eat or leave until the jurisdiction declares itself a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a dozen people, coordinated by the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition, a group of local faith-based and immigrants’ rights organizers, plan to hunger strike outside of the county’s Board of Supervisors’ chamber until the county agrees to pass a resolution protecting immigrants from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the large immigrant community that [Sonoma County] has — immigrant workers who sustain the wine industry and the hospitality and tourism industries — it really is a slap in the face that the Board of Supervisors has not yet passed this law,” said Renee Saucedo, a community organizer with environmental group Raizes Collective and one of the strikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to camp all day, every day, and we’re not going to give up until Sonoma County minimally passes a sanctuary ordinance so that people can feel safe that local law enforcement will not report them to ICE,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saucedo said that activists have urged the county to pass a sanctuary policy for years, but that the need has become increasingly pressing in recent months as ICE enforcement has escalated throughout California and after the agency received a federal budget boost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Trujillo listens to speakers alongside leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said the Sanctuary Coalition, which formed after President Trump’s election in November, is worried that Sonoma could begin to see more widespread raids like those occurring at farms, hardware stores and gas stations in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043885/increased-ice-raids-send-shock-waves-through-farm-worker-community\">Southern California\u003c/a>, and more recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048690/no-sanctuary-anywhere-border-patrol-raids-strike-heart-of-california-capitol\">Sacramento\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County is one of four Bay Area counties that does not have a local ordinance declaring itself a sanctuary for undocumented people, but in January, supervisors did pass a resolution pledging to protect immigrants’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said the resolution — which is less forceful than an ordinance — directed county departments to safeguard immigrants’ sensitive information and ensure they can continue to access services. The resolution also calls for the county to comply with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12016037/california-is-a-sanctuary-state-how-much-protection-will-that-give-immigrants-from-trumps-deportation-plans\">trio of California sanctuary laws\u003c/a> that limit how local law enforcement agencies interact with ICE.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hopkins, who chairs the board, said she and Vice Chair Rebecca Hermosillo met with the Sanctuary Coalition earlier this summer, and have another discussion set for later this month. Hopkins said she respects their pledge to strike, and believes the activists and county largely have the same priorities for protecting immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her opinion, however, a sanctuary ordinance would do little to expand actual protections for undocumented people, while peddling false hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We, at this point, can’t actually create a sanctuary county,” Hopkins said. “Even if we called ourselves a sanctuary county, ICE is still able to come in here and, honestly, take folks anytime, anywhere. That’s a really alarming reality that we’re facing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reiterated a fear expressed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/napa/immigration-napa-ice-state-california/\">Napa police\u003c/a> officials in January when discussing why they had not passed local sanctuary laws: that doing so could draw scrutiny from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It might actually put a target on the backs of our immigrant community and lead to increased ICE action and ICE presence in our community,” Hopkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050967\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050967\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies gather outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Along with Napa and Sonoma, Contra Costa and Marin counties also lack express sanctuary laws. Contra Costa County has said it follows state law and supports immigrants in the East Bay county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Marin County, a tense, hourslong debate at a Board of Supervisors meeting in 2020 \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20220527210637/https://www.marinij.com/2020/09/16/marin-supervisors-reject-call-for-sanctuary-county/\">ended without a sanctuary ordinance\u003c/a>. The supervisors at the time passed a resolution calling on the Sheriff’s Office to greatly reduce its correspondence with ICE, but stopped short of declaring a sanctuary county, citing disagreements with the sheriff over what he should report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike cities, whose councils directly oversee their police chiefs, county officials do not have authority over sheriff’s offices beyond approving their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle defended sharing information — like when some incarcerated people will be released — with ICE, according to reporting from the \u003cem>Marin Independent Journal\u003c/em> at the time. Supervisors passed a resolution urging Doyle to limit publicly posting release dates, limit reporting released to ICE to only undocumented people with serious or violent felony convictions, and notify ICE if someone facing pending charges for a serious crime is undocumented, only if a judge determines there is probable cause at a preliminary hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050966\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050966\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriela Hernandez, from Almas Libres, leads a cleansing for hunger strikers during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Saucedo said she believes Sonoma’s sheriff is complying with ICE, Hopkins believes California law already prevents the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office from sharing personal information, like immigration status, with ICE unless it is subpoenaed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t ask people their immigration status, and if ICE were to subpoena their data collection system, the records would not include that information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s actually going above and beyond [California law] in terms of noncooperation with ICE or non-notification based on ICE requests,” Hopkins told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Juan Valencia told KQED that the department doesn’t proactively contact ICE, and only responds to its information requests when it seeks public intel or is legally required to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department will only hold a person being released for immigration officials if they receive a warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050968\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250805-SONOMA-HUNGER-STRIKE-BL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faith leaders, immigrant rights groups and allies gather outside of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors offices in Santa Rosa on Aug. 5, 2025, during a rally to launch an indefinite hunger strike urging the county to adopt a sanctuary law. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t actually do any enforcement at all of immigration, that’s not our job,” Valencia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the state law, Saucedo said several other Bay Area counties, including San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda, have passed local ordinances expanding sanctuary protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also pointed out that Humboldt County in Northern California — “which,” she said, “is not considered to be the bastion of radical politics” — has one of the state’s strongest laws against ICE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really is unforgivable,” she told KQED, that Sonoma has not followed suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and a group of 10 to 15 strikers began their action on Tuesday at 9 a.m., pitching tents and holding a ceremonial opening with dozens more activists and faith leaders. Throughout the week, Saucedo said people plan to join the core group of strikers for a day of fasting or support, but only a small group will remain camped outside the county office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re holding this hunger strike to convey the message to the Board of Supervisors and to the community at large that we won’t stop until our law passes, and immigrant communities are safer,” Saucedo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/carlysevern\">\u003cem>Carly Severn\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "shes-my-home-an-sf-couples-life-unraveled-after-an-ice-check-in",
"title": "‘She’s My Home’: An SF Couple’s Life Unraveled After an ICE Check-In",
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"headTitle": "‘She’s My Home’: An SF Couple’s Life Unraveled After an ICE Check-In | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>He hadn’t moved anything in the house. Their bed was still unmade — it had been like that for days, he said, since the last night they slept in it. Her shoes, tossed near the front door. On the small dining table were further scattered bits of her presence: the leaves of her morning mate, a stack of her unopened letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the kitchen, their dishes still sat untouched in the sink. He said he couldn’t bring himself to wash the ones they had used to eat breakfast before they left the house that last morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know this was the last time she was going to come back,” he told \u003cem>El Tecolote\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past weeks, Roberto has been sleeping on a friend’s couch, too distraught to spend the night alone in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This July, Roberto’s wife Sandra was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a routine check-in appointment at the agency’s San Francisco field office. Since then, she has been held in a detention center, waiting for updates on her pending asylum case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, ICE has allowed many immigrants with pending cases, like Sandra, to remain in their communities and work while they go through immigration proceedings. As an alternative to detention, those individuals must comply with several ICE supervision guidelines, including attending regular check-in appointments at ICE’s field offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050656\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050656\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra’s closet remains full in the home she shares with her husband, Roberto, after she was detained during a check-in with immigration authorities in San Francisco, California, on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But since the Trump administration raised ICE’s daily arrest quotas in late May, arrests at routine check-ins have \u003ca href=\"https://eltecolote.org/content/en/sf-ice-detentions-checkin-court-arrests/\">surged\u003c/a>, sparking protests in San Francisco and beyond. Immigration advocates warn that the trend, coupled with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/us/immigrant-detention-conditions.html\">harsh detention conditions\u003c/a>, could pressure some asylum seekers to abandon viable claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal aid groups say dozens have been detained in recent weeks, with an estimated\u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/07/qa-meet-the-attorney-at-the-center-of-s-f-s-response-to-ice/\"> five to 15 arrests\u003c/a> daily at ICE’s San Francisco office, though shifting policies make the agency’s actions hard to predict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto said that the day Sandra was detained, ICE agents told him she could wait for updates on her case from inside a detention center, just as she had while living with him. Yet her process has already been ongoing for years. Sandra is still waiting for her first court date, according to ICE and immigration court records. With the backlog mounting, there is no telling when her case might move forward.[aside postID=news_12049817 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230817-PETALUMA-VINEYARD-FARMWORKERS-AP-ER-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“For them, it’s very normal. But the result is a home destroyed,” Roberto said. “I’m really depressed. I haven’t eaten in days. I’m not hungry, I don’t want to eat anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s my family,” he added. “She’s my home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\">…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto met Sandra on Facebook in 2017, when they were still living on different continents. He was in San Francisco, working as a social worker and awaiting a decision on his own immigration case, when her profile popped up under the platform’s “People you might know” tab. Curious, he sent her a friendship request, and they began chatting, quickly discovering they had a world of commonalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She lived in the same small town that his parents had grown up in and that he had visited in his childhood. Her house was just three blocks away from his grandmother’s. She had spent 10 years living in the South American country where Roberto had been born and raised. Though they’d unknowingly walked the same streets, they had never crossed paths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They dated online for a few months, but after a while, the relationship fizzled out. Still, they stayed in touch: liking each other’s pictures and celebrating each other’s birthdays. In 2021, Roberto asked a friend traveling to Sandra’s town to buy and bring her candies. Their relationship rekindled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050659\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberto shows a photograph on his phone of a heart shape made with his and Sandra’s hands. Sandra was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A year later, Sandra embarked on a months-long journey to meet him. She took several planes, crossed Central America on foot with some relatives, and got lost for 10 days in the Darien Gap, a dangerous stretch of rainforest between Colombia and Panama known as a major route for migrants. “She almost died,” Roberto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she eventually made it out of the jungle, she reunited with the relatives she had been walking with. Together, they made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, where she turned herself in to border officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After two months in detention, she was released to her uncle’s house in another U.S. state, and Roberto flew to see her for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a magical moment,” he said. “I had been waiting for a long time to meet her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next three years, the couple started building a life together in San Francisco as they waited for updates on their immigration cases. Sandra started taking English classes at City College. They traveled across the U.S., visiting landmarks and meeting each other’s families. They slowly covered their fridge with magnets of the places they visited: New York City, Las Vegas, and Arizona. They put up souvenirs that their new friends had brought them from their trips around the world. Early this year, they celebrated their wedding.[aside postID=news_12047506 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250609-SEIUProtests-07-BL_qed.jpg']“We’re not just married,” Roberto said. “We go to the gym together, we’re together throughout the day and through the night. And we don’t get bored of each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra, he said, is someone “everyone loves.” She buys clothes to donate to homeless shelters. She cooks for her friends and Roberto’s coworkers, and always returns from her trips with gifts for them. She calls her parents regularly and is very close to his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, Roberto said, “Many things started happening at once.” After almost a decade of waiting, Roberto secured legal status. In late June, they took a trip so Sandra could reunite with her two brothers. Soon after, he received a promotion at work. The couple was elated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were already planning their next trip to Washington D.C., and once Sandra obtained legal status, to visit the rest of the world, starting with Denmark and the Dominican Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were looking to start a family,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the morning after they learned of Roberto’s promotion, their lives took a turn when ICE arrested Sandra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\">…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto can’t stop lamenting that day. That morning, as they waited for her appointment, she was “more affectionate than normal,” taking a selfie with Roberto and giving him small kisses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She asked him to give her a hug, he said, and he told her she was being dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra’s teddy bear remains untouched on the couple’s bed after she was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at ICE’s San Francisco office on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As 9 a.m. approached, Roberto told Sandra he had to leave for work. She didn’t want to be left alone and asked him to call in sick. But he was scheduled to start in 30 minutes, and decided to go in for the first part of the work day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My love,” he said he told her, “I’ll come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by the time he was clocking in, his phone rang. The call, he said, came from an unidentified number. When he picked up, he heard Sandra’s voice. She had been arrested, she told him, and would soon be moved to a detention center. Roberto rushed out of work and began calling legal aid groups. It was already too late.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like she could feel like something was going to happen,” Roberto said. “And I was so stupid … I think that if I had been with her, maybe they wouldn’t have taken her. I don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE transferred Sandra to a detention center where she remains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://locator.ice.gov/odls/\">the agency’s detainee locator\u003c/a>. And Roberto was left outside, facing new beginnings, but separated from the person he most wanted to share them with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050660\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050660\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberto stands in the kitchen of the apartment he shares with his wife, Sandra. The space remains untouched after Sandra was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“How can I stay focused?” he said. “I’ve gone to church a lot to beg God. I’ve gone to the beach because that’s where you feel the presence. And I’ve cried. I’ve cried so much. I won’t be at peace until we’re together again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Roberto and Sandra call every day. He sends her money so she can rent a tablet from the facility and pay for video calls with him and her lawyer. Roberto said agents at the facility told Sandra that her case would take time to be resolved, making her feel hopeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She doesn’t want to be there for a long time,” Roberto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite urging Sandra not to sign any documents, Roberto said lawyers and nonprofits haven’t given them much hope either.[aside postID=news_12050470 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-2_qed.jpg']Some told him Sandra might be deported to her home country. Others said that she might be able to get out of detention, but that it will take time. Some said it might be easier for her to decide to leave on her own, and for Roberto to bring her back, a path that could take years. One supposed attorney claimed he could get Sandra out in a year for $25,000 up front — an offer many nonprofits warn immigrants to be wary of. Roberto walked out. Sandra’s attorney, meanwhile, continues to fight for her pending asylum application, which allows her to remain in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE has also made it harder for many detained immigrants to be released, said Alex Mensing of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ). A new July policy made millions \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/US/millions-undocumented-immigrants-longer-eligible-bond-hearings-ice/story?id=123761973\">ineligible for bond hearings\u003c/a>, and release decisions now often rely on ICE’s discretion, making outcomes “arbitrary and very political.” The current landscape could further complicate Roberto and Sandra’s desire to reunite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I want is to have her with me,” Roberto said. “That’s all I want. I want my wife to be with me again, but it doesn’t seem like it will be possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto has considered visiting the detention center so he can see Sandra in person, but lawyers and family have warned him not to, fearing that, without citizenship, he might be at risk of detention as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside his house, he said, it’s impossible not to remember her. On a cabinet near the kitchen table are three framed photographs: the two of them bundled up in Lake Tahoe, Roberto kissing Sandra’s cheek at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and a portrait of Sandra’s parents, smiling. Her favorite snacks are still stocked in the drawers. Her makeup is still in the bathroom. Her gym bag sits by the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto said he can’t bring himself to touch anything Sandra left behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s my best friend,” he said. “And I don’t know when I’m going to be with her again. I don’t know why they’re doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://eltecolote.org/content/en/ice-check-in-sf-separated/\">\u003cem>El Tecolote originally published this article\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. The couple’s names and countries of origin have been changed or withheld at their request, due to fear of retaliation. Key details were verified via ICE and immigration court records, documentation reviewed during a home visit and confirmation from legal advocates.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "He fell in love with an asylum seeker. After building a life together in San Francisco, a routine Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in tore them apart again.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>He hadn’t moved anything in the house. Their bed was still unmade — it had been like that for days, he said, since the last night they slept in it. Her shoes, tossed near the front door. On the small dining table were further scattered bits of her presence: the leaves of her morning mate, a stack of her unopened letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the kitchen, their dishes still sat untouched in the sink. He said he couldn’t bring himself to wash the ones they had used to eat breakfast before they left the house that last morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know this was the last time she was going to come back,” he told \u003cem>El Tecolote\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past weeks, Roberto has been sleeping on a friend’s couch, too distraught to spend the night alone in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This July, Roberto’s wife Sandra was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a routine check-in appointment at the agency’s San Francisco field office. Since then, she has been held in a detention center, waiting for updates on her pending asylum case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, ICE has allowed many immigrants with pending cases, like Sandra, to remain in their communities and work while they go through immigration proceedings. As an alternative to detention, those individuals must comply with several ICE supervision guidelines, including attending regular check-in appointments at ICE’s field offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050656\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050656\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-02-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra’s closet remains full in the home she shares with her husband, Roberto, after she was detained during a check-in with immigration authorities in San Francisco, California, on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But since the Trump administration raised ICE’s daily arrest quotas in late May, arrests at routine check-ins have \u003ca href=\"https://eltecolote.org/content/en/sf-ice-detentions-checkin-court-arrests/\">surged\u003c/a>, sparking protests in San Francisco and beyond. Immigration advocates warn that the trend, coupled with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/us/immigrant-detention-conditions.html\">harsh detention conditions\u003c/a>, could pressure some asylum seekers to abandon viable claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal aid groups say dozens have been detained in recent weeks, with an estimated\u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/07/qa-meet-the-attorney-at-the-center-of-s-f-s-response-to-ice/\"> five to 15 arrests\u003c/a> daily at ICE’s San Francisco office, though shifting policies make the agency’s actions hard to predict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto said that the day Sandra was detained, ICE agents told him she could wait for updates on her case from inside a detention center, just as she had while living with him. Yet her process has already been ongoing for years. Sandra is still waiting for her first court date, according to ICE and immigration court records. With the backlog mounting, there is no telling when her case might move forward.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“For them, it’s very normal. But the result is a home destroyed,” Roberto said. “I’m really depressed. I haven’t eaten in days. I’m not hungry, I don’t want to eat anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s my family,” he added. “She’s my home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\">…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto met Sandra on Facebook in 2017, when they were still living on different continents. He was in San Francisco, working as a social worker and awaiting a decision on his own immigration case, when her profile popped up under the platform’s “People you might know” tab. Curious, he sent her a friendship request, and they began chatting, quickly discovering they had a world of commonalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She lived in the same small town that his parents had grown up in and that he had visited in his childhood. Her house was just three blocks away from his grandmother’s. She had spent 10 years living in the South American country where Roberto had been born and raised. Though they’d unknowingly walked the same streets, they had never crossed paths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They dated online for a few months, but after a while, the relationship fizzled out. Still, they stayed in touch: liking each other’s pictures and celebrating each other’s birthdays. In 2021, Roberto asked a friend traveling to Sandra’s town to buy and bring her candies. Their relationship rekindled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050659\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-08-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberto shows a photograph on his phone of a heart shape made with his and Sandra’s hands. Sandra was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A year later, Sandra embarked on a months-long journey to meet him. She took several planes, crossed Central America on foot with some relatives, and got lost for 10 days in the Darien Gap, a dangerous stretch of rainforest between Colombia and Panama known as a major route for migrants. “She almost died,” Roberto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she eventually made it out of the jungle, she reunited with the relatives she had been walking with. Together, they made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, where she turned herself in to border officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After two months in detention, she was released to her uncle’s house in another U.S. state, and Roberto flew to see her for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a magical moment,” he said. “I had been waiting for a long time to meet her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next three years, the couple started building a life together in San Francisco as they waited for updates on their immigration cases. Sandra started taking English classes at City College. They traveled across the U.S., visiting landmarks and meeting each other’s families. They slowly covered their fridge with magnets of the places they visited: New York City, Las Vegas, and Arizona. They put up souvenirs that their new friends had brought them from their trips around the world. Early this year, they celebrated their wedding.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’re not just married,” Roberto said. “We go to the gym together, we’re together throughout the day and through the night. And we don’t get bored of each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandra, he said, is someone “everyone loves.” She buys clothes to donate to homeless shelters. She cooks for her friends and Roberto’s coworkers, and always returns from her trips with gifts for them. She calls her parents regularly and is very close to his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, Roberto said, “Many things started happening at once.” After almost a decade of waiting, Roberto secured legal status. In late June, they took a trip so Sandra could reunite with her two brothers. Soon after, he received a promotion at work. The couple was elated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were already planning their next trip to Washington D.C., and once Sandra obtained legal status, to visit the rest of the world, starting with Denmark and the Dominican Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were looking to start a family,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the morning after they learned of Roberto’s promotion, their lives took a turn when ICE arrested Sandra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\">…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto can’t stop lamenting that day. That morning, as they waited for her appointment, she was “more affectionate than normal,” taking a selfie with Roberto and giving him small kisses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She asked him to give her a hug, he said, and he told her she was being dramatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-04-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandra’s teddy bear remains untouched on the couple’s bed after she was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at ICE’s San Francisco office on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As 9 a.m. approached, Roberto told Sandra he had to leave for work. She didn’t want to be left alone and asked him to call in sick. But he was scheduled to start in 30 minutes, and decided to go in for the first part of the work day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My love,” he said he told her, “I’ll come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by the time he was clocking in, his phone rang. The call, he said, came from an unidentified number. When he picked up, he heard Sandra’s voice. She had been arrested, she told him, and would soon be moved to a detention center. Roberto rushed out of work and began calling legal aid groups. It was already too late.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like she could feel like something was going to happen,” Roberto said. “And I was so stupid … I think that if I had been with her, maybe they wouldn’t have taken her. I don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE transferred Sandra to a detention center where she remains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://locator.ice.gov/odls/\">the agency’s detainee locator\u003c/a>. And Roberto was left outside, facing new beginnings, but separated from the person he most wanted to share them with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050660\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050660\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/07112025-ICECOUPLEDEPORTED-ET-PU-12-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberto stands in the kitchen of the apartment he shares with his wife, Sandra. The space remains untouched after Sandra was arrested and detained by immigration authorities during a check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco on July 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote for CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“How can I stay focused?” he said. “I’ve gone to church a lot to beg God. I’ve gone to the beach because that’s where you feel the presence. And I’ve cried. I’ve cried so much. I won’t be at peace until we’re together again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Roberto and Sandra call every day. He sends her money so she can rent a tablet from the facility and pay for video calls with him and her lawyer. Roberto said agents at the facility told Sandra that her case would take time to be resolved, making her feel hopeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She doesn’t want to be there for a long time,” Roberto said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite urging Sandra not to sign any documents, Roberto said lawyers and nonprofits haven’t given them much hope either.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some told him Sandra might be deported to her home country. Others said that she might be able to get out of detention, but that it will take time. Some said it might be easier for her to decide to leave on her own, and for Roberto to bring her back, a path that could take years. One supposed attorney claimed he could get Sandra out in a year for $25,000 up front — an offer many nonprofits warn immigrants to be wary of. Roberto walked out. Sandra’s attorney, meanwhile, continues to fight for her pending asylum application, which allows her to remain in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ICE has also made it harder for many detained immigrants to be released, said Alex Mensing of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ). A new July policy made millions \u003ca href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/US/millions-undocumented-immigrants-longer-eligible-bond-hearings-ice/story?id=123761973\">ineligible for bond hearings\u003c/a>, and release decisions now often rely on ICE’s discretion, making outcomes “arbitrary and very political.” The current landscape could further complicate Roberto and Sandra’s desire to reunite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I want is to have her with me,” Roberto said. “That’s all I want. I want my wife to be with me again, but it doesn’t seem like it will be possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto has considered visiting the detention center so he can see Sandra in person, but lawyers and family have warned him not to, fearing that, without citizenship, he might be at risk of detention as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside his house, he said, it’s impossible not to remember her. On a cabinet near the kitchen table are three framed photographs: the two of them bundled up in Lake Tahoe, Roberto kissing Sandra’s cheek at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and a portrait of Sandra’s parents, smiling. Her favorite snacks are still stocked in the drawers. Her makeup is still in the bathroom. Her gym bag sits by the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roberto said he can’t bring himself to touch anything Sandra left behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s my best friend,” he said. “And I don’t know when I’m going to be with her again. I don’t know why they’re doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"https://eltecolote.org/content/en/ice-check-in-sf-separated/\">\u003cem>El Tecolote originally published this article\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. The couple’s names and countries of origin have been changed or withheld at their request, due to fear of retaliation. Key details were verified via ICE and immigration court records, documentation reviewed during a home visit and confirmation from legal advocates.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:20 a.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, for the first time, you can look up serious use of force and police misconduct incidents in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, along with journalism and police accountability advocates, is publishing a database that houses thousands of once-confidential records gathered from the state’s nearly 700 law enforcement and oversight agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#Howtousethepolicerecordsdatabaseyourself\">How to use the police records database yourself\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The free \u003ca href=\"http://policerecords.kqed.org/\">database\u003c/a>, which has been in the works for seven years and contains files for almost 12,000 cases, promises to give anyone — including attorneys, victims of police violence, journalists and law enforcement hiring officials — insight into police shootings and officers’ past behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cephus Johnson, whose nephew Oscar Grant was fatally shot in the back by a BART police officer in Oakland in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009, knows firsthand just how important this database will be to other families who’ve lost people to police violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ For impacted families, the first question is: ‘What happened?’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can now find details of what happened to their loved ones and how the police investigated it — or what they overlooked — without having to deal with the often frustrating process of trying to obtain the records themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting those answers, Johnson said, “is the beginning of part of the healing process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Click \u003ca href=\"https://policerecords.kqed.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a> to search the database.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050667\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1002px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050667 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1002\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7.png 1002w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7-160x65.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1002px) 100vw, 1002px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of the Police Records Access Project database.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Shedding light on secret records\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, misconduct and use-of-force records for California law enforcement officers were among the most difficult to obtain. That began to change in 2018 with the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://projects.scpr.org/california-reporting-project/\">Senate Bill 1421, the “Right to Know” Act\u003c/a>, which came about with the help of Johnson and other police accountability advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law unsealed records for incidents in which officers fired a gun or used force resulting in serious injury or death, and for officers who were found to have been dishonest or committed sexual assault. In 2021, the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">another bill\u003c/a> expanded the law to include cases of officer discrimination, excessive force and wrongful arrests or searches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11854857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11854857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural.jpg\" alt=\"Oscar Grant mural\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1394\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-800x581.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-1536x1115.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural of Oscar Grant outside BART’s Fruitvale Station, where a now-former BART police officer fatally shot Grant as he lay face-down on the platform on Jan. 1, 2009. \u003ccite>(Sonja Hutson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the new laws were just the beginning of the fight to pry open the black box of police accountability — which continues today. Agencies often slow-walk or refuse to provide records, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-police-records-california-20190630-story.html\">and have even destroyed them\u003c/a>. KQED and other outlets have sued multiple agencies, including the state attorney general, in order to force compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faced with these obstacles — and the difficulty of navigating California’s disparate law enforcement agencies, including 58 sheriff’s departments, hundreds of police departments, transit authorities and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — KQED co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://projects.scpr.org/california-reporting-project/\">The California Reporting Project,\u003c/a> a collaborative of more than 30 news outlets which is now led by \u003ca href=\"https://cjlab.stanford.edu/projects/big-local-news/\">Big Local News\u003c/a> at Stanford University, the \u003ca href=\"https://journalism.berkeley.edu/programs/mj/investigative-reporting/\">UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://bids.berkeley.edu/\">Berkeley Institute of Data Science\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew from the start that this information needed to be available to the public,” KQED Editor-in-Chief Ethan Toven-Lindsey said. “Police misconduct records shouldn’t be locked away in filing cabinets where only a few people can see them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11639714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11639714\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut.jpg\" alt=\"(L-R) Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant; and Lezley McSpadden, mother of Mike Brown stand on stage prior to delivering remarks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnson says she talks regularly with other mothers who have lost loved ones to police violence.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant; and Lezley McSpadden, mother of Mike Brown, stand on stage prior to delivering remarks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnson said she talks regularly with other mothers who have lost loved ones to police violence. \u003ccite>(Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, The California Reporting Project joined forces with the Police Records Access Project, a transparency coalition which includes the ACLU, the Innocence Project, Stanford and UC Berkeley. In 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/state-funds-development-first-its-kind-police-misconduct-database#:~:text=The%20funding%20will%20%E2%80%9Ctransform%20that%20effort%20and,launched%20by%20a%20consortium%20that%20includes%20BIDS\">$6.7 million\u003c/a> for the effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jumana Musa, director of the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), said her organization joined the collaborative because justice requires transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This information gets hidden, it gets buried, it is not accessible,” she said. While Musa will use the database to help defend her clients, she said there’s an even more acute need for law enforcement agencies get familiar with the tool: “to ensure that you’re not gonna hire people and give them a weapon and give them a badge when that person has been known to be problematic [or] dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Police Chiefs Association did not respond to KQED’s request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Howtousethepolicerecordsdatabaseyourself\">\u003c/a>How can I use the database?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The nearly 12,000 cases make up about 1.5 million pages at the time of publication — but there are several ways to search and use the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three categories divide the cases: use of force, shootings and misconduct. There is a range of document types, from investigative reports to interview transcripts and incident summaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no cost for using the tool, and you won’t be asked to provide any information to search these records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator outside Oakland police headquarters on May 29 2020, carries a sign with the words, “I can’t breathe” spoken by George Floyd, the man murdered on May 25, 2020, by police in Minneapolis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lisa Pickoff-White, co-founder and research director of The California Reporting Project, said it’s helpful to take some time to understand the kinds of cases and records in the database before drawing any conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can do keyword searches, filter your search by date or the agency that provided the records — for example, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, vs. the San Francisco Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pickoff-White suggests starting simply. “Search for things like ‘taser’ or ‘canine.’ Or search for an officer’s name. Then review the records to see if you’ve found cases where they used force or violated policy.” But remember: just because an officer’s name is in the database, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were involved in misconduct or use of force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://policerecords.kqed.org/about\">“About”\u003c/a> page explains the type of records, methodology and the limitations of the database. If you find information in the database that you don’t think should be public, you can also submit a request to remove it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep in mind this database is a living thing and is far from complete — the people maintaining it are adding new records as they receive them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who is this database for?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Victims of police violence and their families\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The records in the database, Cephus Johnson said, can give families like his who have experienced police violence a clearer picture of what took place, and help them “determine how they will get justice for their loved one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Johnson advises families to use the tool with a great deal of care because sometimes the records can contain examples of callous police behavior, negligence or descriptions of graphic injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050677 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-2000x1500.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The records in the database can give families who have experienced police violence a clearer picture of what took place, and help them determine how to get justice for their loved one. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“On top of the mourning, you’re angry, you got many emotions that you gotta really deal with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson suggests that certain family members — say, the grieving mother of someone killed by police — might be better served if a relative or friend reviews the records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s got to be some caretaking,” he said, “because we know sometimes you’re gonna hear things that you just can’t believe these officers would do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Researchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This kind of data is necessary for even basic forms of independent oversight,” said Tarak Shah, a data scientist who helped manage the Police Records Access Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shah said he’s excited about the database’s potential to contribute to criminal justice research. He’s spoken to researchers interested in how police killings get classified by independent medical examiners vs. coroners, who are under the purview of the local sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050676 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-2000x1125.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to data scientist Tarak Shah, who helped manage the Police Records Access Project, the database would not be possible without the latest advancements in AI and large language models, which were used to help categorize and sort the records, and identify and redact sensitive information. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a researcher, you might have questions about whether it’s possible to do unbiased investigations in those scenarios,” he said. Those cause-of-death determinations can mean the difference between a criminal investigation of a law enforcement officer and a death essentially going unexamined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research areas could include the intersection of mental health and law enforcement, the role drug and alcohol impairment can play in some police encounters and a better understanding of what consequences officers face for misconduct — ranging from casual misogyny and racism to excessive force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shah said the depth and complexity of the investigative files have been both the “strength and the main challenge of this project.” The database contains incredibly granular information about officer behaviors and key incidents, but the records are not neatly organized into structured data like you might see in a spreadsheet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the database would not be possible without the latest advancements in AI and large language models, which they used to help categorize and sort the records, and to identify and redact sensitive information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lawyers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police officers’ credibility is fundamental to the criminal justice system; when officers take the stand, their word often determines the outcome of a case. Attorneys can now look up officers who’ve been dishonest or biased — key information for juries assessing the truth of their testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, the primary use is to impeach officers on the stand or to be able to properly defend the client, with full knowledge of who it [is] they’re dealing with,” said Musa, the attorney with NACDL.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050710 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-2000x1500.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With the Police Records Access Project database, attorneys can now look up officers who’ve been dishonest or biased. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2019, in one of the first cases unsealed by the new transparency law, KQED uncovered the story of a Rio Vista police officer who had lied on official documents. As a result, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11730477/impact-da-dismisses-charges-against-woman-mauled-by-rio-vista-police-dog\">the Solano County District Attorney dropped criminal charges\u003c/a> against a woman who a police dog had mauled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Civil rights attorneys who often look for evidence of patterns and practices within departments to substantiate their clients’ claims could also find useful information in the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Journalists\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The one thing that moves the needle when it comes to getting accountability in the criminal legal system is investigative journalism,” said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project. “If you can expose people that are systematically breaking the law or not playing by the rules or harming people they should be protecting — when you get those stories, that’s when things change.”[aside postID=news_12017652,news_11880600,news_11828774 label= Highlights from KQED's police records reporting]Since 2019, KQED has also published more than 100 stories and two seasons of the award-winning podcast \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/onourwatch\">On Our Watch\u003c/a> using records that are now a part of the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the state, members of the collaborative:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Succeeded in forcing the city of Richmond to release\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/12/19/one-bay-area-city-73-police-dog-bites-and-the-law-that-made-them-public/\"> records revealing 73 police dog bites\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-19/sb-1421-sheriffs-department-disclosure\">Identified 70 Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies\u003c/a> with a range of previously undisclosed transgressions on their records\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-19/sb-1421-sheriffs-department-disclosure\">Unveiled records\u003c/a> that showed how a Sutter County sheriff’s deputy used his position to coerce women into having sex with him on duty.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Taken together, press coverage has helped move the needle on police reform in California. In 2020, state lawmakers passed a law requiring the state attorney general to investigate \u003cem>all \u003c/em>police shootings in which the subject was not armed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, they passed a police decertification law, putting in place a mechanism to strip officers who’ve committed egregious misconduct of their badges. This year, the Legislature is considering a number of additional \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB847&search_keywords=misconduct\">transparency\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB847&showamends=false\">oversight\u003c/a> measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Have you found this database useful?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We want to hear who you are, how you’re using this database and why. Please tell us a bit about yourself, your work and what brought you to the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgci5neDDn_OhZ3fAuqoI6rHvboIiTkjbjhxDaqy-oltQkcw/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:20 a.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, for the first time, you can look up serious use of force and police misconduct incidents in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED, along with journalism and police accountability advocates, is publishing a database that houses thousands of once-confidential records gathered from the state’s nearly 700 law enforcement and oversight agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#Howtousethepolicerecordsdatabaseyourself\">How to use the police records database yourself\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The free \u003ca href=\"http://policerecords.kqed.org/\">database\u003c/a>, which has been in the works for seven years and contains files for almost 12,000 cases, promises to give anyone — including attorneys, victims of police violence, journalists and law enforcement hiring officials — insight into police shootings and officers’ past behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cephus Johnson, whose nephew Oscar Grant was fatally shot in the back by a BART police officer in Oakland in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2009, knows firsthand just how important this database will be to other families who’ve lost people to police violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ For impacted families, the first question is: ‘What happened?’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can now find details of what happened to their loved ones and how the police investigated it — or what they overlooked — without having to deal with the often frustrating process of trying to obtain the records themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting those answers, Johnson said, “is the beginning of part of the healing process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Click \u003ca href=\"https://policerecords.kqed.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here\u003c/a> to search the database.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050667\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1002px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050667 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1002\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7.png 1002w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/image-7-160x65.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1002px) 100vw, 1002px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of the Police Records Access Project database.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Shedding light on secret records\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, misconduct and use-of-force records for California law enforcement officers were among the most difficult to obtain. That began to change in 2018 with the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://projects.scpr.org/california-reporting-project/\">Senate Bill 1421, the “Right to Know” Act\u003c/a>, which came about with the help of Johnson and other police accountability advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law unsealed records for incidents in which officers fired a gun or used force resulting in serious injury or death, and for officers who were found to have been dishonest or committed sexual assault. In 2021, the passage of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB16\">another bill\u003c/a> expanded the law to include cases of officer discrimination, excessive force and wrongful arrests or searches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11854857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11854857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural.jpg\" alt=\"Oscar Grant mural\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1394\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-800x581.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/01/Oscar-Grant-Mural-1536x1115.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural of Oscar Grant outside BART’s Fruitvale Station, where a now-former BART police officer fatally shot Grant as he lay face-down on the platform on Jan. 1, 2009. \u003ccite>(Sonja Hutson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the new laws were just the beginning of the fight to pry open the black box of police accountability — which continues today. Agencies often slow-walk or refuse to provide records, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-police-records-california-20190630-story.html\">and have even destroyed them\u003c/a>. KQED and other outlets have sued multiple agencies, including the state attorney general, in order to force compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faced with these obstacles — and the difficulty of navigating California’s disparate law enforcement agencies, including 58 sheriff’s departments, hundreds of police departments, transit authorities and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation — KQED co-founded \u003ca href=\"https://projects.scpr.org/california-reporting-project/\">The California Reporting Project,\u003c/a> a collaborative of more than 30 news outlets which is now led by \u003ca href=\"https://cjlab.stanford.edu/projects/big-local-news/\">Big Local News\u003c/a> at Stanford University, the \u003ca href=\"https://journalism.berkeley.edu/programs/mj/investigative-reporting/\">UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://bids.berkeley.edu/\">Berkeley Institute of Data Science\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew from the start that this information needed to be available to the public,” KQED Editor-in-Chief Ethan Toven-Lindsey said. “Police misconduct records shouldn’t be locked away in filing cabinets where only a few people can see them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11639714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11639714\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut.jpg\" alt=\"(L-R) Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant; and Lezley McSpadden, mother of Mike Brown stand on stage prior to delivering remarks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnson says she talks regularly with other mothers who have lost loved ones to police violence.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28734_GettyImages-583550860-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant; and Lezley McSpadden, mother of Mike Brown, stand on stage prior to delivering remarks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 26, 2016, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnson said she talks regularly with other mothers who have lost loved ones to police violence. \u003ccite>(Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, The California Reporting Project joined forces with the Police Records Access Project, a transparency coalition which includes the ACLU, the Innocence Project, Stanford and UC Berkeley. In 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/state-funds-development-first-its-kind-police-misconduct-database#:~:text=The%20funding%20will%20%E2%80%9Ctransform%20that%20effort%20and,launched%20by%20a%20consortium%20that%20includes%20BIDS\">$6.7 million\u003c/a> for the effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jumana Musa, director of the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), said her organization joined the collaborative because justice requires transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This information gets hidden, it gets buried, it is not accessible,” she said. While Musa will use the database to help defend her clients, she said there’s an even more acute need for law enforcement agencies get familiar with the tool: “to ensure that you’re not gonna hire people and give them a weapon and give them a badge when that person has been known to be problematic [or] dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Police Chiefs Association did not respond to KQED’s request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Howtousethepolicerecordsdatabaseyourself\">\u003c/a>How can I use the database?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The nearly 12,000 cases make up about 1.5 million pages at the time of publication — but there are several ways to search and use the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three categories divide the cases: use of force, shootings and misconduct. There is a range of document types, from investigative reports to interview transcripts and incident summaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is no cost for using the tool, and you won’t be asked to provide any information to search these records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11987039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11987039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/200529-GeorgeFloyd-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator outside Oakland police headquarters on May 29 2020, carries a sign with the words, “I can’t breathe” spoken by George Floyd, the man murdered on May 25, 2020, by police in Minneapolis. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lisa Pickoff-White, co-founder and research director of The California Reporting Project, said it’s helpful to take some time to understand the kinds of cases and records in the database before drawing any conclusions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can do keyword searches, filter your search by date or the agency that provided the records — for example, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, vs. the San Francisco Police Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pickoff-White suggests starting simply. “Search for things like ‘taser’ or ‘canine.’ Or search for an officer’s name. Then review the records to see if you’ve found cases where they used force or violated policy.” But remember: just because an officer’s name is in the database, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were involved in misconduct or use of force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://policerecords.kqed.org/about\">“About”\u003c/a> page explains the type of records, methodology and the limitations of the database. If you find information in the database that you don’t think should be public, you can also submit a request to remove it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep in mind this database is a living thing and is far from complete — the people maintaining it are adding new records as they receive them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Who is this database for?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Victims of police violence and their families\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The records in the database, Cephus Johnson said, can give families like his who have experienced police violence a clearer picture of what took place, and help them “determine how they will get justice for their loved one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Johnson advises families to use the tool with a great deal of care because sometimes the records can contain examples of callous police behavior, negligence or descriptions of graphic injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050677\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050677 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-2000x1500.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1110-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The records in the database can give families who have experienced police violence a clearer picture of what took place, and help them determine how to get justice for their loved one. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“On top of the mourning, you’re angry, you got many emotions that you gotta really deal with,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson suggests that certain family members — say, the grieving mother of someone killed by police — might be better served if a relative or friend reviews the records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s got to be some caretaking,” he said, “because we know sometimes you’re gonna hear things that you just can’t believe these officers would do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Researchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This kind of data is necessary for even basic forms of independent oversight,” said Tarak Shah, a data scientist who helped manage the Police Records Access Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shah said he’s excited about the database’s potential to contribute to criminal justice research. He’s spoken to researchers interested in how police killings get classified by independent medical examiners vs. coroners, who are under the purview of the local sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050676 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-2000x1125.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1111-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to data scientist Tarak Shah, who helped manage the Police Records Access Project, the database would not be possible without the latest advancements in AI and large language models, which were used to help categorize and sort the records, and identify and redact sensitive information. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As a researcher, you might have questions about whether it’s possible to do unbiased investigations in those scenarios,” he said. Those cause-of-death determinations can mean the difference between a criminal investigation of a law enforcement officer and a death essentially going unexamined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research areas could include the intersection of mental health and law enforcement, the role drug and alcohol impairment can play in some police encounters and a better understanding of what consequences officers face for misconduct — ranging from casual misogyny and racism to excessive force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shah said the depth and complexity of the investigative files have been both the “strength and the main challenge of this project.” The database contains incredibly granular information about officer behaviors and key incidents, but the records are not neatly organized into structured data like you might see in a spreadsheet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the database would not be possible without the latest advancements in AI and large language models, which they used to help categorize and sort the records, and to identify and redact sensitive information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lawyers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police officers’ credibility is fundamental to the criminal justice system; when officers take the stand, their word often determines the outcome of a case. Attorneys can now look up officers who’ve been dishonest or biased — key information for juries assessing the truth of their testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, the primary use is to impeach officers on the stand or to be able to properly defend the client, with full knowledge of who it [is] they’re dealing with,” said Musa, the attorney with NACDL.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12050710 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-2000x1500.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/IMG_1116-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With the Police Records Access Project database, attorneys can now look up officers who’ve been dishonest or biased. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2019, in one of the first cases unsealed by the new transparency law, KQED uncovered the story of a Rio Vista police officer who had lied on official documents. As a result, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11730477/impact-da-dismisses-charges-against-woman-mauled-by-rio-vista-police-dog\">the Solano County District Attorney dropped criminal charges\u003c/a> against a woman who a police dog had mauled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Civil rights attorneys who often look for evidence of patterns and practices within departments to substantiate their clients’ claims could also find useful information in the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Journalists\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The one thing that moves the needle when it comes to getting accountability in the criminal legal system is investigative journalism,” said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project. “If you can expose people that are systematically breaking the law or not playing by the rules or harming people they should be protecting — when you get those stories, that’s when things change.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since 2019, KQED has also published more than 100 stories and two seasons of the award-winning podcast \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/onourwatch\">On Our Watch\u003c/a> using records that are now a part of the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the state, members of the collaborative:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Succeeded in forcing the city of Richmond to release\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/12/19/one-bay-area-city-73-police-dog-bites-and-the-law-that-made-them-public/\"> records revealing 73 police dog bites\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-19/sb-1421-sheriffs-department-disclosure\">Identified 70 Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies\u003c/a> with a range of previously undisclosed transgressions on their records\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-19/sb-1421-sheriffs-department-disclosure\">Unveiled records\u003c/a> that showed how a Sutter County sheriff’s deputy used his position to coerce women into having sex with him on duty.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Taken together, press coverage has helped move the needle on police reform in California. In 2020, state lawmakers passed a law requiring the state attorney general to investigate \u003cem>all \u003c/em>police shootings in which the subject was not armed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, they passed a police decertification law, putting in place a mechanism to strip officers who’ve committed egregious misconduct of their badges. This year, the Legislature is considering a number of additional \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB847&search_keywords=misconduct\">transparency\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB847&showamends=false\">oversight\u003c/a> measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Have you found this database useful?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We want to hear who you are, how you’re using this database and why. Please tell us a bit about yourself, your work and what brought you to the database.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgci5neDDn_OhZ3fAuqoI6rHvboIiTkjbjhxDaqy-oltQkcw/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgci5neDDn_OhZ3fAuqoI6rHvboIiTkjbjhxDaqy-oltQkcw/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A permanent U.S. resident who was detained by federal law enforcement at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport \u003c/a>for a week is now being held at an immigration detention center, according to one of his lawyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tae “Will” Heung Kim, a Korean-born Lyme disease researcher who has been in the U.S. since he was 5, was held in Customs and Border Protection’s facility with “no daylight, sleeping in [a] chair, and no access to [a] lawyer,” attorney Eric Lee posted on the social media website X this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a certain historic, dark historical resonance to the fact that an Asian person was coming to San Francisco and kept for a week in deplorable, inhumane conditions,” Lee told KQED, referring to the treatment Asian immigrants faced on Angel Island. “This administration is dredging up everything dirty and mucky from American history and flinging it for all of us to see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim had arrived at SFO on a connecting flight to Texas after traveling from South Korea, according to Lee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why Kim was detained. Supporters of Kim have suggested that a 14-year-old misdemeanor marijuana possession charge could be the reason for his detention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people were subject to the type of conditions that he was subjected to this last week because of minor marijuana possession, over half the country would be in jail,” said Lee, who confirmed Kim’s previous charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said that “this alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a green card holder is convicted of a drug offense, violating their status, that person is issued a Notice to Appear and CBP coordinates detention space with ICE ERO,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter calling for Kim’s release, the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium said the case highlights broader concerns.[aside postID=news_12047506 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250609-SEIUProtests-07-BL_qed.jpg']“It spotlights the urgent need for accountability and transparency in federal detention practices and upholds the fundamental rights of those who call America home,” the organization, which organizes around Asian American immigrant issues, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee called the case a “double whammy” because of Kim’s role as a Lyme disease researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re seeing here is an individual who is, as a result of the administration’s crackdown, not able to participate in really critical scientific research to develop a vaccine for a disease that impacts the lives of millions of people,” Lee said. “That’s why I think this case has particularly significant implications for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim’s detention comes amid a broader ramp-up of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. In recent months, immigration attorneys have warned that lawful permanent residents — like Kim — risk being detained if they travel abroad, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/04/nx-s1-5416767/more-green-card-holders-are-being-detained-over-criminal-records-lawyers-say\">according to NPR.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Trump took office in January, ICE arrests in the San Francisco area of responsibility have increased 70% compared with the last six months of the Biden administration, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ice-arrest-immigrant-california-20395589.php\">analysis\u003c/a> by the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an immigration lawyer, to see this type of thing happen is staggering,” Lee said. “Every day there’s some new Rubicon of horrors, which is being crossed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bkrans\">\u003cem>Brian Krans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this story\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A permanent U.S. resident who was detained by federal law enforcement at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport \u003c/a>for a week is now being held at an immigration detention center, according to one of his lawyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tae “Will” Heung Kim, a Korean-born Lyme disease researcher who has been in the U.S. since he was 5, was held in Customs and Border Protection’s facility with “no daylight, sleeping in [a] chair, and no access to [a] lawyer,” attorney Eric Lee posted on the social media website X this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a certain historic, dark historical resonance to the fact that an Asian person was coming to San Francisco and kept for a week in deplorable, inhumane conditions,” Lee told KQED, referring to the treatment Asian immigrants faced on Angel Island. “This administration is dredging up everything dirty and mucky from American history and flinging it for all of us to see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim had arrived at SFO on a connecting flight to Texas after traveling from South Korea, according to Lee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why Kim was detained. Supporters of Kim have suggested that a 14-year-old misdemeanor marijuana possession charge could be the reason for his detention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people were subject to the type of conditions that he was subjected to this last week because of minor marijuana possession, over half the country would be in jail,” said Lee, who confirmed Kim’s previous charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said that “this alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a green card holder is convicted of a drug offense, violating their status, that person is issued a Notice to Appear and CBP coordinates detention space with ICE ERO,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter calling for Kim’s release, the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium said the case highlights broader concerns.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It spotlights the urgent need for accountability and transparency in federal detention practices and upholds the fundamental rights of those who call America home,” the organization, which organizes around Asian American immigrant issues, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee called the case a “double whammy” because of Kim’s role as a Lyme disease researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What you’re seeing here is an individual who is, as a result of the administration’s crackdown, not able to participate in really critical scientific research to develop a vaccine for a disease that impacts the lives of millions of people,” Lee said. “That’s why I think this case has particularly significant implications for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim’s detention comes amid a broader ramp-up of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. In recent months, immigration attorneys have warned that lawful permanent residents — like Kim — risk being detained if they travel abroad, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/04/nx-s1-5416767/more-green-card-holders-are-being-detained-over-criminal-records-lawyers-say\">according to NPR.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Trump took office in January, ICE arrests in the San Francisco area of responsibility have increased 70% compared with the last six months of the Biden administration, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ice-arrest-immigrant-california-20395589.php\">analysis\u003c/a> by the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an immigration lawyer, to see this type of thing happen is staggering,” Lee said. “Every day there’s some new Rubicon of horrors, which is being crossed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bkrans\">\u003cem>Brian Krans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this story\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> election officials share private information about voters whose registration was cancelled for failing to meet citizenship requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to letters exchanged between the city and the federal department, as well as reports from election officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOJ’s \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROHHzMDHKMPn4sokEjA3V_0SE-YgnA6k/view?usp=sharing\">letter\u003c/a>, dated July 9, requested from the Department of Elections five years’ worth of records related to registered voters who were found ineligible due to citizenship status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen Riordan, a senior official and the letter’s author, also requested a range of personal information about those voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is the latest in a series of actions by the DOJ targeting major California cities over voter data. Last month, the department \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-suit-against-orange-county-california-registrar-voters-refusing\">sued \u003c/a>Orange County’s Registrar of Voters for refusing to disclose the requested information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11680891\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11680891\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/john-arntz-e1754004589666.jpg\" alt=\"John Arntz, director of San Francisco's elections department.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Arntz, director of San Francisco’s elections department. \u003ccite>(Chloe Veltman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Director of Elections, John Arntz, \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NnTgAb13j-5Y4lhEIyVFBQ-0qS1c1K4j/view?usp=sharing\">responded \u003c/a>to Riordan on July 23, saying he would review the request but asked the department to clarify “whether records produced will be kept confidential within the Department of Justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arntz, who didn’t respond to KQED’s requests for comment, raised questions about confidentiality that echo broader concerns over fears the Trump administration could use voter data to ramp up aggressive immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the federal government has no legal standing in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The DOJ has absolutely no authority under any federal law to compel a state to look for non-civilians on their list, to dictate to states that state policy,” Becker said.[aside postID=news_12034004 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250122-OaklandImmigrants-13-BL-1020x680.jpg']Riordan cited the Help America Vote Act in her letter to Arntz, but the act requires local officials to work with their state, not federal, counterparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker also noted a pattern in the counties that the DOJ seems to be most aggressively targeting: San Francisco County, Orange County, San Diego County and Los Angeles County — all Democrat strongholds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Probably four of the counties with the largest number of Democratic Party voters as opposed to Republican Party voters were targeted,” Becker said. “With little justification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker believes the DOJ’s case lacks merit, UC Berkeley Law School’s Emily Zhang was more measured in her assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have some independent state authority not to disclose this information, are those rules superseded, or being preempted, by some federal law?” Zhang asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contrary to claims by the Trump administration, noncitizen voting is “extremely rare,” according to Zhang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the kind of fraud that they’re saying is happening,” Zhang said. “Now that they are in power, there is a pressure to kind of prove that claim, to demonstrate that this is actually a problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> election officials share private information about voters whose registration was cancelled for failing to meet citizenship requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to letters exchanged between the city and the federal department, as well as reports from election officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DOJ’s \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROHHzMDHKMPn4sokEjA3V_0SE-YgnA6k/view?usp=sharing\">letter\u003c/a>, dated July 9, requested from the Department of Elections five years’ worth of records related to registered voters who were found ineligible due to citizenship status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maureen Riordan, a senior official and the letter’s author, also requested a range of personal information about those voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is the latest in a series of actions by the DOJ targeting major California cities over voter data. Last month, the department \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-suit-against-orange-county-california-registrar-voters-refusing\">sued \u003c/a>Orange County’s Registrar of Voters for refusing to disclose the requested information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11680891\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11680891\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/john-arntz-e1754004589666.jpg\" alt=\"John Arntz, director of San Francisco's elections department.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Arntz, director of San Francisco’s elections department. \u003ccite>(Chloe Veltman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s Director of Elections, John Arntz, \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NnTgAb13j-5Y4lhEIyVFBQ-0qS1c1K4j/view?usp=sharing\">responded \u003c/a>to Riordan on July 23, saying he would review the request but asked the department to clarify “whether records produced will be kept confidential within the Department of Justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arntz, who didn’t respond to KQED’s requests for comment, raised questions about confidentiality that echo broader concerns over fears the Trump administration could use voter data to ramp up aggressive immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the federal government has no legal standing in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The DOJ has absolutely no authority under any federal law to compel a state to look for non-civilians on their list, to dictate to states that state policy,” Becker said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Riordan cited the Help America Vote Act in her letter to Arntz, but the act requires local officials to work with their state, not federal, counterparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker also noted a pattern in the counties that the DOJ seems to be most aggressively targeting: San Francisco County, Orange County, San Diego County and Los Angeles County — all Democrat strongholds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Probably four of the counties with the largest number of Democratic Party voters as opposed to Republican Party voters were targeted,” Becker said. “With little justification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Becker believes the DOJ’s case lacks merit, UC Berkeley Law School’s Emily Zhang was more measured in her assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have some independent state authority not to disclose this information, are those rules superseded, or being preempted, by some federal law?” Zhang asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contrary to claims by the Trump administration, noncitizen voting is “extremely rare,” according to Zhang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s the kind of fraud that they’re saying is happening,” Zhang said. “Now that they are in power, there is a pressure to kind of prove that claim, to demonstrate that this is actually a problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "South Bay Leaders Back Bill to Protect Immigrant Crime Victims From Deportation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/south-bay\">South Bay leaders\u003c/a> are hoping to boost safety in their communities by beefing up deportation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">protections for immigrants\u003c/a> who are victims of or witnesses to crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic Rep. Jimmy Panetta, who represents portions of San José, Santa Cruz and southern coastal communities, announced Thursday that he is taking another crack at getting his Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act passed into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very straightforward, simple, common-sensical fix that’s needed now more than ever,” Panetta said during a press conference on Thursday outside San José City Hall, flanked by a cohort of local elected officials and law enforcement brass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear, however, if the bill will be able to find enough bipartisan support with a Republican controlled Congress and under the watch of the Trump administration, some officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said his bill would remove “arbitrary” caps on U visas, a special visa that can be granted to undocumented immigrants who are victims of crime, abuse, or human trafficking and who cooperate with law enforcement or government agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critically, it would also prevent people applying for the U visas, and a similar T visa, from being detained or deported while their application is pending. It would also set timelines, allowing applicants to gain work permits while waiting for their case to be decided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024741\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-1229x1536.jpg 1229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nichole Espinoza, a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, holds a protest sign in response to the mass deportations ordered by the Trump administration, at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a time when there is great distrust in government, the Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act allows witnesses and victims to trust our criminal justice system, to come out of the shadows and to come forward,” Panetta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U visas are currently capped at 10,000 annually nationwide, and apply to people who have “suffered mental or physical abuse,” including many forms of domestic violence and sexual assault or rape, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. T visas, which apply to people who faced a “severe form of trafficking,” such as sex or labor trafficking, are capped at 5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fiscal year 2018, there were over 117,000 pending applications for U visas, and a three-year waitlist. By 2025, the waiting period increased to five years\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> according to Panetta’s office.[aside postID=news_12049817 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230817-PETALUMA-VINEYARD-FARMWORKERS-AP-ER-KQED-1020x680.jpg']The annual cap on T visas has not been reached since its creation in 2000, his office said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said the Trump administration has cast a wide net in its enforcement of immigration laws, led by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically a shotgun approach to rounding up anybody and everybody who is undocumented or even documented and has a misdemeanor or an arrest or has no record at all,” Panetta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, residents and advocates have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043139/san-jose-immigrant-advocates-protest-sweeping-ice-arrests\">protested those actions\u003c/a>, including waves of arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at U.S. CIS offices and immigration courts in San Francisco, San José and across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José Mayor Matt Mahan said the actions and the rhetoric from the administration have had an “unacceptable chilling effect” in the city, where more than 40% of the population is immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard first-hand from residents who are now too afraid to leave their homes, too afraid to go to work … too afraid to engage with law enforcement,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When any of our neighbors live in fear that reporting a crime might put their life in this country at risk, it makes everyone less safe. Our police officers lose the ability to build cases. Our prosecutors lose key witnesses. And our communities are left all the more vulnerable to violent crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050503\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan speaks about the need for deportation protections for immigrants who have been victims or witnesses of crimes, during a press conference outside City Hall on July 31, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rate of abuse against immigrant women is \u003ca href=\"https://now.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Learn-More-IPV-and-Immigrant-Womenpdf.pdf\">roughly 49%\u003c/a> — nearly three times the national average — according to the National Organization for Women. Those same victims are much less likely to report the crimes due to fear of deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman said that nearly half of all U visa applicants locally are women who have been victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, and that the county has seen a 50% increase in applications over the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We care about people being held accountable for committing crimes against others. We care about making sure that dangerous people don’t hurt anyone else,” Harman said. “The fact that victims are undocumented does not decriminalize the rape, the murder, the robbery or the scam.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said he is optimistic about the bill’s ability to find support in the House and Senate, despite the fact that he has introduced the legislation four previous times since 2017, only to see it stall out in committee reviews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have seen members on both sides of the aisle who actually want to do something, who understand how beneficial it is to have people who are willing to come here, work here, contribute here, abide by the law and to live that American dream,” Panetta told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He blamed President Trump for using immigration policy as a “political tool” in a nation of immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said whether on its own, or as part of a broader immigration bill, he hopes to see the changes in his bill enacted into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s obviously going to take leadership. We’ve got to continue to stand firm, continue to call out ICE for what they’re doing, how they’re acting, and push back on them,” Panetta said. “But at the same time, we can’t just do that. We’ve got to put forward these meaningful reforms to show where we can go in the future.”\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/south-bay\">South Bay leaders\u003c/a> are hoping to boost safety in their communities by beefing up deportation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/immigration\">protections for immigrants\u003c/a> who are victims of or witnesses to crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic Rep. Jimmy Panetta, who represents portions of San José, Santa Cruz and southern coastal communities, announced Thursday that he is taking another crack at getting his Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act passed into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very straightforward, simple, common-sensical fix that’s needed now more than ever,” Panetta said during a press conference on Thursday outside San José City Hall, flanked by a cohort of local elected officials and law enforcement brass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear, however, if the bill will be able to find enough bipartisan support with a Republican controlled Congress and under the watch of the Trump administration, some officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said his bill would remove “arbitrary” caps on U visas, a special visa that can be granted to undocumented immigrants who are victims of crime, abuse, or human trafficking and who cooperate with law enforcement or government agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critically, it would also prevent people applying for the U visas, and a similar T visa, from being detained or deported while their application is pending. It would also set timelines, allowing applicants to gain work permits while waiting for their case to be decided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024741\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250129_UCBerkeleyRally_GC-4-1229x1536.jpg 1229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nichole Espinoza, a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, holds a protest sign in response to the mass deportations ordered by the Trump administration, at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“At a time when there is great distrust in government, the Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act allows witnesses and victims to trust our criminal justice system, to come out of the shadows and to come forward,” Panetta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U visas are currently capped at 10,000 annually nationwide, and apply to people who have “suffered mental or physical abuse,” including many forms of domestic violence and sexual assault or rape, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. T visas, which apply to people who faced a “severe form of trafficking,” such as sex or labor trafficking, are capped at 5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fiscal year 2018, there were over 117,000 pending applications for U visas, and a three-year waitlist. By 2025, the waiting period increased to five years\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> according to Panetta’s office.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The annual cap on T visas has not been reached since its creation in 2000, his office said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said the Trump administration has cast a wide net in its enforcement of immigration laws, led by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically a shotgun approach to rounding up anybody and everybody who is undocumented or even documented and has a misdemeanor or an arrest or has no record at all,” Panetta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, residents and advocates have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043139/san-jose-immigrant-advocates-protest-sweeping-ice-arrests\">protested those actions\u003c/a>, including waves of arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at U.S. CIS offices and immigration courts in San Francisco, San José and across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José Mayor Matt Mahan said the actions and the rhetoric from the administration have had an “unacceptable chilling effect” in the city, where more than 40% of the population is immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard first-hand from residents who are now too afraid to leave their homes, too afraid to go to work … too afraid to engage with law enforcement,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When any of our neighbors live in fear that reporting a crime might put their life in this country at risk, it makes everyone less safe. Our police officers lose the ability to build cases. Our prosecutors lose key witnesses. And our communities are left all the more vulnerable to violent crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12050503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12050503\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250731-DEPORTBILL-JG-3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan speaks about the need for deportation protections for immigrants who have been victims or witnesses of crimes, during a press conference outside City Hall on July 31, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The rate of abuse against immigrant women is \u003ca href=\"https://now.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Learn-More-IPV-and-Immigrant-Womenpdf.pdf\">roughly 49%\u003c/a> — nearly three times the national average — according to the National Organization for Women. Those same victims are much less likely to report the crimes due to fear of deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman said that nearly half of all U visa applicants locally are women who have been victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, and that the county has seen a 50% increase in applications over the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We care about people being held accountable for committing crimes against others. We care about making sure that dangerous people don’t hurt anyone else,” Harman said. “The fact that victims are undocumented does not decriminalize the rape, the murder, the robbery or the scam.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Panetta said he is optimistic about the bill’s ability to find support in the House and Senate, despite the fact that he has introduced the legislation four previous times since 2017, only to see it stall out in committee reviews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have seen members on both sides of the aisle who actually want to do something, who understand how beneficial it is to have people who are willing to come here, work here, contribute here, abide by the law and to live that American dream,” Panetta told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He blamed President Trump for using immigration policy as a “political tool” in a nation of immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said whether on its own, or as part of a broader immigration bill, he hopes to see the changes in his bill enacted into law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s obviously going to take leadership. We’ve got to continue to stand firm, continue to call out ICE for what they’re doing, how they’re acting, and push back on them,” Panetta said. “But at the same time, we can’t just do that. We’ve got to put forward these meaningful reforms to show where we can go in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "californias-congressional-democrats-take-another-shot-at-expanding-path-to-green-card",
"title": "California’s Congressional Democrats Take Another Shot at Expanding Path to Green Card",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the Trump administration ramps up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">immigration arrests and deportations\u003c/a>, California Democrats are renewing an effort to expand a path to permanent residency for millions of immigrants — a push that’s likely to face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats simultaneously announced bills in both houses of Congress on Friday that would allow people who have lived in the U.S. continuously for the past seven years to apply for a green card under the registry provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alex-padilla\">Alex Padilla\u003c/a>, who announced the Senate version of the legislation, said the move was meant to push back against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048690/no-sanctuary-anywhere-border-patrol-raids-strike-heart-of-california-capitol\">increasing immigration enforcement\u003c/a> under President Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a father of three U.S. Marines is violently beaten and detained, when U.S. citizens are arrested for no other offense than the color of their skin, when a farmworker falls to their death during an ICE raid, we know it’s gone too far,” Padilla said from Los Angeles, where thousands of National Guard members and U.S. Marines were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910233/deployment-of-marines-and-national-guard-to-la-raises-new-authoritarianism-concerns\">deployed in recent months\u003c/a> amid mass protests over immigration raids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Immigration and Nationality Act’s registry provision was most recently updated in 1986 under the Reagan administration and applied to immigrants who entered the U.S. by the end of 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034002\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the Democrats’ proposed changes, that fixed cutoff date would be replaced with the seven-year residency requirement. It could apply to an estimated 8 million immigrants who have no criminal record and are not eligible for citizenship under the current law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla and other members of Congress emphasized that the law has been updated several times with bipartisan support since it was first passed in 1929.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, their support will be necessary to update the law again.[aside postID=news_12049389 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-02-KQED.jpg']“Our new bill is simple and common sense, and it can help fix our broken immigration system in the same kind of way that Republican President Ronald Reagan did many years ago,” Padilla said. “No new bureaucracy, no new agency, just a simple date change to existing law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/zoe-lofgren\">Zoe Lofgren\u003c/a>, whose district includes part of Santa Clara County, announced the House version of the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lofgren and Padilla unsuccessfully tried to pass similar legislation in 2022 and 2023, but both legislators expressed optimism that shifting public opinion on the scale of recent deportation efforts could bring some Republicans to their side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of my Republican colleagues are hearing the same thing from their constituents that I’m hearing from mine,” Lofgren said. “They didn’t expect a bunch of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048875/behind-the-masks-who-are-the-people-rounding-up-immigrants-in-california\">masked, armed men\u003c/a> to go in and arrest people who are contributing to the economy, who have been pillars of their communities. They’re not liking that, and this is one way to provide a remedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When pressed on the likelihood of getting the bill passed, Padilla insisted that he believes now is the moment to try again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole country has seen the extreme cruelty brought upon by this administration and the polls have shown us what we’ve believed all along,” Padilla said. “The American people disagree with what’s happening. The American people believe in better treatment, respect and opportunities for legalization for immigrants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters rally in the Mission District in San Francisco in opposition to the Trump Administration’s immigration policy and enforcement on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maximiliano Garde, the supervising attorney for the San Francisco-based La Raza Community Resource Center, said the bill would be a huge boon to millions of immigrants who have been shut out of the process to legalization, but he doesn’t think it will pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Garde said. “This administration has a lot of enmity toward not just Latinos but specifically Mexicans. … And with changing the registry, the main beneficiaries are going to be Latinos and especially Mexicans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garde added that he thinks it’s unlikely that Republican members of Congress will break away from Trump if he chooses to oppose the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see them really having the backbone to resist the pushback that they’re going to get from the White House,” Garde said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he still believes there is a benefit of introducing the legislation, even if it is doomed to fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shows that the administration is lying,” he said. “They’re not interested in helping the honest, hardworking people that have been in this country for decades. … It’s not just that that’s motivating them, it’s also just some enmity toward immigrants in general.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has suggested that he supports\u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/2025/07/11/trump-immigration-farmworkers-visas\"> temporary visas for immigrants in industries like agriculture\u003c/a>, but Padilla also expressed doubt that the president is interested in long-term paths to legalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s be clear about what the goals of this administration have been,” Padilla said. “They don’t want to fix a broken immigration system. Have they offered any plans or solutions? They want to exploit immigrants to justify their power grabs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Democrats said shifting public opinion on the Trump administration’s ramped-up immigration arrests could help the legislation, even though Republicans are in control of Congress.",
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"title": "California’s Congressional Democrats Take Another Shot at Expanding Path to Green Card | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the Trump administration ramps up \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">immigration arrests and deportations\u003c/a>, California Democrats are renewing an effort to expand a path to permanent residency for millions of immigrants — a push that’s likely to face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democrats simultaneously announced bills in both houses of Congress on Friday that would allow people who have lived in the U.S. continuously for the past seven years to apply for a green card under the registry provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alex-padilla\">Alex Padilla\u003c/a>, who announced the Senate version of the legislation, said the move was meant to push back against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048690/no-sanctuary-anywhere-border-patrol-raids-strike-heart-of-california-capitol\">increasing immigration enforcement\u003c/a> under President Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When a father of three U.S. Marines is violently beaten and detained, when U.S. citizens are arrested for no other offense than the color of their skin, when a farmworker falls to their death during an ICE raid, we know it’s gone too far,” Padilla said from Los Angeles, where thousands of National Guard members and U.S. Marines were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910233/deployment-of-marines-and-national-guard-to-la-raises-new-authoritarianism-concerns\">deployed in recent months\u003c/a> amid mass protests over immigration raids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Immigration and Nationality Act’s registry provision was most recently updated in 1986 under the Reagan administration and applied to immigrants who entered the U.S. by the end of 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034002\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034002\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/034_SanFrancisco_AlexPadillaMissionKids_06012021_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the Democrats’ proposed changes, that fixed cutoff date would be replaced with the seven-year residency requirement. It could apply to an estimated 8 million immigrants who have no criminal record and are not eligible for citizenship under the current law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla and other members of Congress emphasized that the law has been updated several times with bipartisan support since it was first passed in 1929.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, their support will be necessary to update the law again.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our new bill is simple and common sense, and it can help fix our broken immigration system in the same kind of way that Republican President Ronald Reagan did many years ago,” Padilla said. “No new bureaucracy, no new agency, just a simple date change to existing law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/zoe-lofgren\">Zoe Lofgren\u003c/a>, whose district includes part of Santa Clara County, announced the House version of the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lofgren and Padilla unsuccessfully tried to pass similar legislation in 2022 and 2023, but both legislators expressed optimism that shifting public opinion on the scale of recent deportation efforts could bring some Republicans to their side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of my Republican colleagues are hearing the same thing from their constituents that I’m hearing from mine,” Lofgren said. “They didn’t expect a bunch of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048875/behind-the-masks-who-are-the-people-rounding-up-immigrants-in-california\">masked, armed men\u003c/a> to go in and arrest people who are contributing to the economy, who have been pillars of their communities. They’re not liking that, and this is one way to provide a remedy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When pressed on the likelihood of getting the bill passed, Padilla insisted that he believes now is the moment to try again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole country has seen the extreme cruelty brought upon by this administration and the polls have shown us what we’ve believed all along,” Padilla said. “The American people disagree with what’s happening. The American people believe in better treatment, respect and opportunities for legalization for immigrants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250609-SF-IMMIGRATION-PROTESTS-MD-12-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters rally in the Mission District in San Francisco in opposition to the Trump Administration’s immigration policy and enforcement on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maximiliano Garde, the supervising attorney for the San Francisco-based La Raza Community Resource Center, said the bill would be a huge boon to millions of immigrants who have been shut out of the process to legalization, but he doesn’t think it will pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Garde said. “This administration has a lot of enmity toward not just Latinos but specifically Mexicans. … And with changing the registry, the main beneficiaries are going to be Latinos and especially Mexicans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garde added that he thinks it’s unlikely that Republican members of Congress will break away from Trump if he chooses to oppose the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see them really having the backbone to resist the pushback that they’re going to get from the White House,” Garde said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he still believes there is a benefit of introducing the legislation, even if it is doomed to fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shows that the administration is lying,” he said. “They’re not interested in helping the honest, hardworking people that have been in this country for decades. … It’s not just that that’s motivating them, it’s also just some enmity toward immigrants in general.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has suggested that he supports\u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/2025/07/11/trump-immigration-farmworkers-visas\"> temporary visas for immigrants in industries like agriculture\u003c/a>, but Padilla also expressed doubt that the president is interested in long-term paths to legalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s be clear about what the goals of this administration have been,” Padilla said. “They don’t want to fix a broken immigration system. Have they offered any plans or solutions? They want to exploit immigrants to justify their power grabs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "from-the-barrio-to-the-bookstore-las-former-poet-laureate-on-survival-and-storytelling",
"title": "From Barrio to Bookstore: LA’s Former Poet Laureate on Survival and Storytelling",
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"headTitle": "From Barrio to Bookstore: LA’s Former Poet Laureate on Survival and Storytelling | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of The California Report Magazine’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/resilience\">series about resilient Californians\u003c/a>, and what lessons they may have for the rest of us.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis Rodriguez grew up in South San Gabriel in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles-county\">Los Angeles County\u003c/a> during the 1960s, in a largely Mexican immigrant neighborhood that he said embodies resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He joined a gang at 11, was using heroin by 12, and was kicked out of his home by 15. But amidst the violence, addiction and housing insecurity, Rodriguez found a lifeline in books, and eventually became a celebrated writer, activist and L.A.’s poet laureate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Library Association \u003ca href=\"https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2009\">listed\u003c/a> his 1993 memoir \u003cem>Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.\u003c/em> as one of the top banned books in the country. The book detailed how police brutality helped fuel gang culture, addressed drug use, explored sexual themes and traced the revolutionary ideals of the Chicano movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The memoir reflected Rodriguez’s drive to cultivate creative, empowering spaces — a vision he carried into his later work. In 2003, he founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiachucha.org/\">Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural\u003c/a> in Sylmar to create a space for arts, literacy and creative engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He joined \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareportmagazine\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/sasha-khokha\">host Sasha Khokha\u003c/a> for a conversation about how reading and writing helped him survive, breaking cycles of trauma and why, in the wake of violent raids and enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">targeting L.A.’s immigrant communities\u003c/a>, creativity is key to resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049570\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049570\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poet, author, activist Luis Rodriguez reads a poem from his book ‘Poems Across the Pavement,’ at ‘Alivio,’ an open mic night in the garage of Eric Contreras. \u003ccite>(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Below are excerpts from their conversation, edited for brevity and clarity. For the full interview, listen to the audio linked at the top of this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On growing up voiceless:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When I first went to school, I couldn’t speak English … I uttered some Spanish words in the classroom and the teacher slapped me across the face in front of the class. That impacts a six-year-old kid tremendously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had nowhere to go with it. I didn’t talk to anybody about it.[aside postID=news_12039743 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/Kid-Poems-Resilience_2--1020x659.jpg']It kept me voiceless for many, many years. I was a very shy — I would have to say a broken-down — kid. So self-contained, a very sensitive young man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we moved to South San Gabriel … it was one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of L.A. County. Dirt roads, no street lamps, little shacks surrounded by well-off white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were at war not just with poverty, but with a community that was watching us. The sheriff’s deputies — like an army — were used against us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that slap continued by other means: beaten by cops, harassed by teachers. And some of us joined a gang — I joined a gang at 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On living and dying for the neighborhood:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I never thought about what I was going to be. When you joined the barrio, the gang — we didn’t call it a gang — some of us dedicated everything for it. And that meant that we were going to live and die and if we had to, we were gonna kill for the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were so tied into this web …. la vida loca [“the crazy life”]. It’s a web that holds you. But you’re not a fly in that web. You’re actually the spider. You’re putting yourself deeper and deeper in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our sense was we were prepared to die if we had to. We were gonna die in a blaze of glory that, to us, was for the neighborhood, for the barrio.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On being kicked out and finding books:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>I was 15 years old when my parents threw me out. I was already on drugs by 12, getting arrested, stealing, never coming home. I don’t blame them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My mom would say, “Eres veneno,” you’re poison — “and I don’t want you to poison the rest of the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049591\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two young Chicano men ride on the hood of a car and raise their fist during a National Chicano Moratorium Committee march in opposition to the war in Vietnam, Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1970. \u003ccite>(David Fenton/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But they didn’t know that I would love books … that I’d spend hours in the library. It opened up my imagination. It brought out that sensitive kid again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re tough, I don’t think you lose that toughness. But you can get multidimensional. Emotional balance, emotional threads — that normally get denied. And I was getting back to some of that with those books.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On the library as salvation:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When I was homeless in the streets of L.A., my favorite refuge was the library. That was really a saving grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started reading the books I couldn’t even get in schools. From Ray Bradbury and Raymond Chandler to \u003cem>Charlotte’s Web\u003c/em> and Black Power books — Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, James Baldwin, Malcolm X — I ate all those books up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a librarian — her name was Helene. She saw this rundown kid, saw that I was reading. She introduced me to a lot of books I wouldn’t have read. Librarians were open to a homeless Cholo and realized there’s a dream that could be made there in a world of nightmare.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On how he was arrested during the Chicano Moratorium, a series of protests against the Vietnam War:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They were gonna charge me for murder of three people during the so-called “East L.A. riots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff’s deputy said, “You guys started this, and three people died, you’re gonna be charged for this.”[aside postID=news_12040453 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250509-JOHN-POWELL-MD-02-KQED-3-1020x680.jpg']In fact, all three people were killed by sheriff’s deputies or police, LAPD. The idea was, we were the impetus for them to attack the 30,000 people that had gathered against the Vietnam War in East L.A., the largest anti-war protest in a community of color at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I saw terrible things. Deputies maced us in the bus while we were shackled. I saw one guy’s arm get broken. And I began to realize the power of the Chicano movement and how important it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe I didn’t want to be fighting other barrios. Maybe I wanted to be a revolutionary, conscious soldier for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was there for several days and nights. They’re not supposed to do more than 72 hours without being arraigned. [Then] they said, “Well, no charges, he’s out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I came in there as a gangster, and it politicized me.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On discovering his voice in a jail cell:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Somebody had a piece of paper and a pencil. Everybody was drawing or playing cards. I started to write.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just writing my thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-1290177311-scaled-e1753385339580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1299\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kimberly Zuniga, left, of Panorama City, has author Luis J. Rodriguez, right, sign a book of his that she purchased at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar, on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. \u003ccite>(Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I had read enough books … maybe I had a little bit of language. Some of the writings I did there ended up in two poems in my books. That was the first idea I had — maybe I could be a writer, not just a reader.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On fatherhood and generational healing:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Whatever I went through, I never wanted my kids to go through it. But I couldn’t keep my son away from the gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were living in Chicago at the time, in Humboldt Park. Rough, gang-ridden. He joined in. I tried to pull him out — and I realized, that’s me at 15 years old running away. And he was reliving my life. So I decided to dedicate myself to helping him, just not leave him, unlike my parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I told him, “Mijo, we’re gonna go on this roller coaster through hell, you and me. I’m going with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I stood by him through all his imprisonment. When I got clean — it’s been 32 years now — he did too. He got out of prison 14 or 15 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On collective change, shared struggle and resilience:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The only way to break through the madness that we’re going through right now is for us to see the commonality we have and begin to think about how we can empower ourselves to begin to run things to have governance with our agency, our own ideas and our own interests.[aside postID=news_12039754 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/20241029_CAREGIVINGPOETS_GC-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg']I think resiliency has to be centered around creativity more than anything, and it keeps you intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, resiliency is keeping intact in the midst of chaos, in the midst of fire, in the midst of a lot of pain, a lot of trauma, that you’re still intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what keeps you intact as a human being is that you have an imagination and that it’s abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s inexhaustible, this beautiful well that we carry. And then if we can keep that intact, anything’s possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On opening Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We have a bookstore, but we also have a performance space. We also have workshop centers where we teach art, dance, theater, writing, painting, all kinds of things. And we also have an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is in a community of half a million people, which is about the size of Oakland — one of the largest Mexican and Central American communities in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2219434485-scaled-e1753393070287.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044826\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2219434485-scaled-e1753393070287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A police officer holds a less lethal rifle as protesters confront California National Guard soldiers and police outside of a federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles following 3 days of clashes with police after a series of immigration raids on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There [were] no bookstores, no movie houses, no cultural cafes, no art galleries. We created a space. We’re the only ones doing it. It’s like any of these barrio neighborhoods. You can get liquor stores everywhere. You can buy guns anywhere. You can buy drugs anywhere, but you can’t buy a book.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On what is happening with ICE raids in LA:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There have been many peaceful, disciplined and creative protests in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, often with music, dance, poetry and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communities have used apps to track ICE presence in the communities to warn undocumented people to stay away, but to also provide protestors locations they can go to. We’ve had defense teams, and even teams to go door-to-door to find out who needs food, since many people are not even going shopping. People have stepped up to work food carts for those who can no longer work the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On misconceptions he hopes to dispel about his community:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mexicans and Central Americans have roots in this land as deep as anyone who has ever been here. We are not immigrants. We have the DNA of Mexica (Aztec), Maya, Inca, but also Purepecha, Raramuri, Yoeme, Zapoteco, Mixteco, Otomi, Pipil, Lenca and many more, all related to the Shoshone, Paiute, Lakota, Ojibwa, Cherokee, Cheyenne and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we may also have Spanish/Iberian and African [ancestry] after more than 500 years of conquest, colonization [and] slavery, we are not “foreigners” or “strangers.” We all belong, borders or no borders. We need to reexamine and realign to the real origins and histories of Mexicans/Central Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of The California Report Magazine’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/resilience\">series about resilient Californians\u003c/a>, and what lessons they may have for the rest of us.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luis Rodriguez grew up in South San Gabriel in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles-county\">Los Angeles County\u003c/a> during the 1960s, in a largely Mexican immigrant neighborhood that he said embodies resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He joined a gang at 11, was using heroin by 12, and was kicked out of his home by 15. But amidst the violence, addiction and housing insecurity, Rodriguez found a lifeline in books, and eventually became a celebrated writer, activist and L.A.’s poet laureate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Library Association \u003ca href=\"https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2009\">listed\u003c/a> his 1993 memoir \u003cem>Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.\u003c/em> as one of the top banned books in the country. The book detailed how police brutality helped fuel gang culture, addressed drug use, explored sexual themes and traced the revolutionary ideals of the Chicano movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The memoir reflected Rodriguez’s drive to cultivate creative, empowering spaces — a vision he carried into his later work. In 2003, he founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiachucha.org/\">Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural\u003c/a> in Sylmar to create a space for arts, literacy and creative engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He joined \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/californiareportmagazine\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/sasha-khokha\">host Sasha Khokha\u003c/a> for a conversation about how reading and writing helped him survive, breaking cycles of trauma and why, in the wake of violent raids and enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049326/as-ice-operations-expand-how-are-immigrant-allies-responding\">targeting L.A.’s immigrant communities\u003c/a>, creativity is key to resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049570\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049570\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-567417339-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Poet, author, activist Luis Rodriguez reads a poem from his book ‘Poems Across the Pavement,’ at ‘Alivio,’ an open mic night in the garage of Eric Contreras. \u003ccite>(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Below are excerpts from their conversation, edited for brevity and clarity. For the full interview, listen to the audio linked at the top of this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On growing up voiceless:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When I first went to school, I couldn’t speak English … I uttered some Spanish words in the classroom and the teacher slapped me across the face in front of the class. That impacts a six-year-old kid tremendously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had nowhere to go with it. I didn’t talk to anybody about it.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It kept me voiceless for many, many years. I was a very shy — I would have to say a broken-down — kid. So self-contained, a very sensitive young man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we moved to South San Gabriel … it was one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of L.A. County. Dirt roads, no street lamps, little shacks surrounded by well-off white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were at war not just with poverty, but with a community that was watching us. The sheriff’s deputies — like an army — were used against us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that slap continued by other means: beaten by cops, harassed by teachers. And some of us joined a gang — I joined a gang at 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On living and dying for the neighborhood:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I never thought about what I was going to be. When you joined the barrio, the gang — we didn’t call it a gang — some of us dedicated everything for it. And that meant that we were going to live and die and if we had to, we were gonna kill for the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were so tied into this web …. la vida loca [“the crazy life”]. It’s a web that holds you. But you’re not a fly in that web. You’re actually the spider. You’re putting yourself deeper and deeper in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our sense was we were prepared to die if we had to. We were gonna die in a blaze of glory that, to us, was for the neighborhood, for the barrio.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On being kicked out and finding books:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>I was 15 years old when my parents threw me out. I was already on drugs by 12, getting arrested, stealing, never coming home. I don’t blame them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My mom would say, “Eres veneno,” you’re poison — “and I don’t want you to poison the rest of the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049591\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164.jpg 1280w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-72160164-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two young Chicano men ride on the hood of a car and raise their fist during a National Chicano Moratorium Committee march in opposition to the war in Vietnam, Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1970. \u003ccite>(David Fenton/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But they didn’t know that I would love books … that I’d spend hours in the library. It opened up my imagination. It brought out that sensitive kid again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re tough, I don’t think you lose that toughness. But you can get multidimensional. Emotional balance, emotional threads — that normally get denied. And I was getting back to some of that with those books.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On the library as salvation:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When I was homeless in the streets of L.A., my favorite refuge was the library. That was really a saving grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started reading the books I couldn’t even get in schools. From Ray Bradbury and Raymond Chandler to \u003cem>Charlotte’s Web\u003c/em> and Black Power books — Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, James Baldwin, Malcolm X — I ate all those books up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was a librarian — her name was Helene. She saw this rundown kid, saw that I was reading. She introduced me to a lot of books I wouldn’t have read. Librarians were open to a homeless Cholo and realized there’s a dream that could be made there in a world of nightmare.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On how he was arrested during the Chicano Moratorium, a series of protests against the Vietnam War:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They were gonna charge me for murder of three people during the so-called “East L.A. riots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff’s deputy said, “You guys started this, and three people died, you’re gonna be charged for this.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In fact, all three people were killed by sheriff’s deputies or police, LAPD. The idea was, we were the impetus for them to attack the 30,000 people that had gathered against the Vietnam War in East L.A., the largest anti-war protest in a community of color at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I saw terrible things. Deputies maced us in the bus while we were shackled. I saw one guy’s arm get broken. And I began to realize the power of the Chicano movement and how important it was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe I didn’t want to be fighting other barrios. Maybe I wanted to be a revolutionary, conscious soldier for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was there for several days and nights. They’re not supposed to do more than 72 hours without being arraigned. [Then] they said, “Well, no charges, he’s out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I came in there as a gangster, and it politicized me.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On discovering his voice in a jail cell:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Somebody had a piece of paper and a pencil. Everybody was drawing or playing cards. I started to write.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just writing my thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-1290177311-scaled-e1753385339580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1299\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kimberly Zuniga, left, of Panorama City, has author Luis J. Rodriguez, right, sign a book of his that she purchased at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar, on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. \u003ccite>(Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I had read enough books … maybe I had a little bit of language. Some of the writings I did there ended up in two poems in my books. That was the first idea I had — maybe I could be a writer, not just a reader.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On fatherhood and generational healing:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Whatever I went through, I never wanted my kids to go through it. But I couldn’t keep my son away from the gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We were living in Chicago at the time, in Humboldt Park. Rough, gang-ridden. He joined in. I tried to pull him out — and I realized, that’s me at 15 years old running away. And he was reliving my life. So I decided to dedicate myself to helping him, just not leave him, unlike my parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I told him, “Mijo, we’re gonna go on this roller coaster through hell, you and me. I’m going with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I stood by him through all his imprisonment. When I got clean — it’s been 32 years now — he did too. He got out of prison 14 or 15 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On collective change, shared struggle and resilience:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The only way to break through the madness that we’re going through right now is for us to see the commonality we have and begin to think about how we can empower ourselves to begin to run things to have governance with our agency, our own ideas and our own interests.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I think resiliency has to be centered around creativity more than anything, and it keeps you intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To me, resiliency is keeping intact in the midst of chaos, in the midst of fire, in the midst of a lot of pain, a lot of trauma, that you’re still intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what keeps you intact as a human being is that you have an imagination and that it’s abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s inexhaustible, this beautiful well that we carry. And then if we can keep that intact, anything’s possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On opening Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>We have a bookstore, but we also have a performance space. We also have workshop centers where we teach art, dance, theater, writing, painting, all kinds of things. And we also have an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is in a community of half a million people, which is about the size of Oakland — one of the largest Mexican and Central American communities in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2219434485-scaled-e1753393070287.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044826\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2219434485-scaled-e1753393070287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A police officer holds a less lethal rifle as protesters confront California National Guard soldiers and police outside of a federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles following 3 days of clashes with police after a series of immigration raids on June 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There [were] no bookstores, no movie houses, no cultural cafes, no art galleries. We created a space. We’re the only ones doing it. It’s like any of these barrio neighborhoods. You can get liquor stores everywhere. You can buy guns anywhere. You can buy drugs anywhere, but you can’t buy a book.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On what is happening with ICE raids in LA:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There have been many peaceful, disciplined and creative protests in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, often with music, dance, poetry and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communities have used apps to track ICE presence in the communities to warn undocumented people to stay away, but to also provide protestors locations they can go to. We’ve had defense teams, and even teams to go door-to-door to find out who needs food, since many people are not even going shopping. People have stepped up to work food carts for those who can no longer work the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>On misconceptions he hopes to dispel about his community:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mexicans and Central Americans have roots in this land as deep as anyone who has ever been here. We are not immigrants. We have the DNA of Mexica (Aztec), Maya, Inca, but also Purepecha, Raramuri, Yoeme, Zapoteco, Mixteco, Otomi, Pipil, Lenca and many more, all related to the Shoshone, Paiute, Lakota, Ojibwa, Cherokee, Cheyenne and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While we may also have Spanish/Iberian and African [ancestry] after more than 500 years of conquest, colonization [and] slavery, we are not “foreigners” or “strangers.” We all belong, borders or no borders. We need to reexamine and realign to the real origins and histories of Mexicans/Central Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Updated at 12:15 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Contra Costa Unified School District is launching a new mandatory training program to teach administrators to protect students and families from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration raids\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy aims to curb falling attendance rates amid community concerns about increasing ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028076/afraid-to-go-to-school-immigrant-families-in-the-salinas-valley-are-gripped-by-fear\">presence\u003c/a> on school grounds across the state. As part of the training, educators will learn how to recognize immigration warrants and respond if they’re valid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s expected to go into effect after the school board gives it final approval on Aug. 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s current \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jzyLgkvBuUpqS1P035V_Mn8cZBCjV4V5/view\">policy\u003c/a>, which was updated in December 2024, protects all students from immigration enforcement activity on school grounds and prohibits district personnel from sharing information relating to students’ immigration statuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the updated plan, shared last week at the school board meeting, requires administrators to receive annual training on how to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-Subpoenas-Warrants_.pdf\">differentiate\u003c/a> between administrative and judicial warrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049415\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The West Contra Costa School District Offices in Richmond on July 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Judicial warrants are formal written orders by federal or state judges that authorize law enforcement officers to make arrests, seizures or searches. ICE agents who present judicial warrants are permitted to search school grounds and records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrative warrants, however, are issued by federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and do not authorize searches. Schools are not legally required to comply with administrative warrants and can refuse entry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley Labor and Education Center’s Executive Director Brenda Muñoz said that while the district has good intentions, there are some potential issues that could arise from the new policy.[aside postID=news_12049124 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/Out-of-ICE-SF-sign.jpg']Muñoz, who specializes in policymaking and education, said differentiating between warrants “is very difficult to do if you don’t have a legal background.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sees a better solution in UC Berkeley’s protocol for dealing with ICE agents, which entails redirecting them to a central office where legally trained employees can verify their right to enforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board at last week’s meeting announced that the district’s safety and emergency preparedness consultant, Michael Booker, is creating signage for school entrances, “so that families, students, staff, and law enforcement know our procedures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of these preparations, the board directed administrators to train faculty and staff on the updated policy, especially secretaries who are the first to communicate with outside visitors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials have partly attributed decreased school attendance to fears of immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049416\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The West Contra Costa School District Offices in Richmond on July 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“After Mr. Trump was elected, he made it very clear that immigration and deportation was a priority,” Board President Leslie Reckler told KQED. “And so, I think people were very scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a board meeting in April, the district’s director of positive school climate, LaShante Smith, presented data that showed attendance rates fell by 1% in February alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a real shift in our political climate,” Smith said. “We did see the impact and the effects of students not coming to school as regularly as before.”[aside postID=news_12047018 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/IMG_1067-2000x1500.jpg']Aside from protecting students from unlawful enforcement activity, the training should curb the concerns that have prevented students from attending, according to Superintendent Cheryl Cotton’s presentation at last week’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure that families know, students know, school is a safe place for them to be,” Cotton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Muñoz said the new training is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to boosting attendance rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said even if the student is a citizen, they could have undocumented parents who fear dropping their kids off at school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, there’s a negative impact when their kid’s not going to school,” Muñoz said. “But there’s a higher risk if they were to get deported and their kid is left here without parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandatory immigration enforcement training is slated to begin for administrators before school starts on Aug. 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Updated at 12:15 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West Contra Costa Unified School District is launching a new mandatory training program to teach administrators to protect students and families from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/immigration\">immigration raids\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy aims to curb falling attendance rates amid community concerns about increasing ICE \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028076/afraid-to-go-to-school-immigrant-families-in-the-salinas-valley-are-gripped-by-fear\">presence\u003c/a> on school grounds across the state. As part of the training, educators will learn how to recognize immigration warrants and respond if they’re valid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s expected to go into effect after the school board gives it final approval on Aug. 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district’s current \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jzyLgkvBuUpqS1P035V_Mn8cZBCjV4V5/view\">policy\u003c/a>, which was updated in December 2024, protects all students from immigration enforcement activity on school grounds and prohibits district personnel from sharing information relating to students’ immigration statuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the updated plan, shared last week at the school board meeting, requires administrators to receive annual training on how to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-Subpoenas-Warrants_.pdf\">differentiate\u003c/a> between administrative and judicial warrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049415\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The West Contra Costa School District Offices in Richmond on July 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Judicial warrants are formal written orders by federal or state judges that authorize law enforcement officers to make arrests, seizures or searches. ICE agents who present judicial warrants are permitted to search school grounds and records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrative warrants, however, are issued by federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and do not authorize searches. Schools are not legally required to comply with administrative warrants and can refuse entry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley Labor and Education Center’s Executive Director Brenda Muñoz said that while the district has good intentions, there are some potential issues that could arise from the new policy.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Muñoz, who specializes in policymaking and education, said differentiating between warrants “is very difficult to do if you don’t have a legal background.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sees a better solution in UC Berkeley’s protocol for dealing with ICE agents, which entails redirecting them to a central office where legally trained employees can verify their right to enforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board at last week’s meeting announced that the district’s safety and emergency preparedness consultant, Michael Booker, is creating signage for school entrances, “so that families, students, staff, and law enforcement know our procedures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of these preparations, the board directed administrators to train faculty and staff on the updated policy, especially secretaries who are the first to communicate with outside visitors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials have partly attributed decreased school attendance to fears of immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049416\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049416\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250723-WEST-CO-CO-ICE-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The West Contra Costa School District Offices in Richmond on July 23, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“After Mr. Trump was elected, he made it very clear that immigration and deportation was a priority,” Board President Leslie Reckler told KQED. “And so, I think people were very scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a board meeting in April, the district’s director of positive school climate, LaShante Smith, presented data that showed attendance rates fell by 1% in February alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a real shift in our political climate,” Smith said. “We did see the impact and the effects of students not coming to school as regularly as before.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Aside from protecting students from unlawful enforcement activity, the training should curb the concerns that have prevented students from attending, according to Superintendent Cheryl Cotton’s presentation at last week’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure that families know, students know, school is a safe place for them to be,” Cotton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Muñoz said the new training is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to boosting attendance rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said even if the student is a citizen, they could have undocumented parents who fear dropping their kids off at school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, there’s a negative impact when their kid’s not going to school,” Muñoz said. “But there’s a higher risk if they were to get deported and their kid is left here without parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandatory immigration enforcement training is slated to begin for administrators before school starts on Aug. 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "As ICE Operations Expand, How Are Immigrant Allies Responding?",
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"headTitle": "As ICE Operations Expand, How Are Immigrant Allies Responding? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>As Julia Meltzer drove to work through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles-county\">Los Angeles\u003c/a>’ Koreatown one Friday morning in June, she spotted two trucks with Arizona license plates parked in the middle of the street, facing oncoming traffic. Standing nearby were three men wearing bulletproof vests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘ICE raid — happening now,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It had been just a week since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began raiding multiple immigrant communities in downtown L.A., and tensions between residents and federal immigration agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043314/california-to-sue-trump-for-sending-national-guard-troops-into-la-after-ice-protests\">remained high\u003c/a>. From her car, Meltzer watched as the men — one wearing a vest labeled “HSI,” or \u003ca href=\"https://www.ice.gov/about-ice/hsi\">Homeland Security Investigations\u003c/a> — handcuffed another man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meltzer, the founder of L.A. arts nonprofit Clockshop, said her instinct was to intervene, but questioned, “What is even allowed? How do I insert myself into this situation?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite feeling “very freaked out,” she got out of her car and began filming as agents put the detained man into one of the vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People hold a peaceful protest and vigil where six workers were taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 18, 2025, in Pasadena, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the trucks pulled off, Meltzer saw a woman crying on the sidewalk — the sister of the man taken away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hugged her,” Meltzer said. “I just said, ‘I’m sorry.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Responding to ICE activity in the moment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Meltzer did not feel prepared for what took place that morning, she said the experience prompted her to further educate herself about how to be an effective ally for her undocumented immigrant neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s our duty to inquire, step up and recognize that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">a lot of what’s happening is not legal,\u003c/a>” she said. “This is the point when people who aren’t being taken away need to step in — especially white people, because it’s brown people who are being taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño (right), lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Luis Urbino about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump’s administration shows no sign of slowing down its immigration enforcement nationwide, with a stated goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/29/trump-ice-arrest-quota\">arresting 3,000 people per day\u003c/a>. ICE agents are detaining immigrants — both undocumented and those with temporary legal status — at their homes, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/17/ice-detention-massachusetts-man-video\">their cars\u003c/a>, at \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/07/worksite-immigration-raids/\">workplaces\u003c/a> and even at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">the courthouses where folks go for their immigration proceedings\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as more U.S. citizens are witnessing these operations, many — like Meltzer — are now wondering how to engage, whether in the moment or afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>In the moment: Alerting a rapid response network\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s one kind of social media post that organizer Socorro Montaño is very familiar with: a photo — usually of an SUV or law enforcement officer — with little context, but with a stark warning: “ICE is here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It only takes one person to upload a photo and say, ‘Oh, I saw immigration agents over here,’ and this photo will be [circulating] for the rest of the week,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montaño is a codirector for the San José-based \u003ca href=\"https://www.lunalatinosunidos.org/\">Latinos United for a New America\u003c/a> and helps lead the \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/rrninscc\">Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network\u003c/a> — a group of trained volunteers who verify community alerts about possible ICE sightings.[aside postID=news_12047875 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-13-BL_qed.jpg']The group’s motto, “Power, not panic,” reflects its focus on the importance of verified information for people living in daily fear of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\">encountering ICE agents. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to handle rumors on social media,” Montaño explained, not least because in their experience, immigration operations can end as suddenly as they’ve begun. “If people tell us that they saw a post from hours or days before, agents are not going to be there anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montaño’s advice to anyone who sees a post or a text claiming ICE is in a specific location: ask the sender if they have already checked in with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024332/ice-raids-in-california-how-to-sort-fact-from-rumor-online\">their local rapid response network. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you call, volunteers will activate and see if this is true,” Montaño said, noting that people\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/scc_rapidresponsenetwork/\"> frequently report apparent sightings of ICE agents \u003c/a>that turn out to be local police officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because if it’s not true, your post is causing panic,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting involved\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody has a role in our network,” Montaño said. “But the No. 1 need we have for allies right now is folks who are ready to be trained and go verify if ICE presence is legitimate in a neighborhood, or if it is local police.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responders are trained to observe ICE operations, they stressed — not to interfere. “Our goal is to make sure that ICE can’t work in the shadows and that they know they know they’re being watched,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Maria Moreno about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings at Mari’s Dulceria in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across California, volunteers have established \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn\">dozens of different rapid response networks\u003c/a>. And to galvanize folks who live in a place where a network hasn’t been set up yet, Montaño shared that their own team started off in 2016 as a much smaller group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First, figure out what the demand is in your community,” they said. “For us, our goal was having a hotline, finding volunteers to staff the hotline and then training these folks on the basics of \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights\">knowing your rights\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then from there, it really depends on the level of involvement you want to have,” Montaño said. “Is your goal to send observers every time? Then you certainly need somebody to train allies on how to do that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>At the courthouse: The moral support that accompaniment brings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the second Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — has adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/12/nx-s1-5409403/trump-immigration-courts-arrests\">a new strategy to detain individuals\u003c/a>: arresting them, or fast-tracking their removal, at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">their own immigration court hearings.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers and civil rights groups have spoken out against the practice. In a letter to ICE, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12044592/bay-area-lawmaker-demands-answers-after-ice-arrests-at-immigration-courts\">said that\u003c/a> “many individuals who need to use these courts are already living in fear,” and that “we should be encouraging immigrants to attend court as instructed, not making them even more afraid to appear.”[aside postID=news_12047018 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/IMG_1067-2000x1500.jpg']In response, community groups have ramped up efforts to accompany immigrants to court hearings and scheduled \u003ca href=\"https://portal.ice.gov/immigration-guide/check-ins\">check-ins with ICE\u003c/a>, offering both logistical and emotional support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those groups is \u003ca href=\"https://www.norcalresist.org/\">NorCal Resist\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that organizes a rapid response network, bail funds and legal aid workshops. Its accompaniment program has existed for years, helping refugees and asylum seekers settle into their new lives in the U.S., but “this need has grown so much now that we have ICE stalking people at immigration courts,” said Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer with NorCal Resist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in ICE activity at courthouses — and the protests it has sparked — has turned these buildings into tense, volatile spaces, as recent videos showing ICE officers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047397/ice-officers-drive-through-protesters-trying-to-stop-arrest-at-sf-immigration-court\">driving through protesters\u003c/a> outside a San Francisco courthouse show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is detained by ICE, we immediately contact their family, let them know what’s going on and get them plugged in with legal resources,” Gonzalez said. “So that we can hopefully help get their loved one out — or at least help them fight their case from inside of detention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added: “What we want to make sure never happens is that ICE detains someone, this person disappears and no one knows what happened to them or where they went.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting involved\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allies doing this work should acknowledge the risk they themselves may face, Gonzalez said. “We’re in the courts every day watching ICE, and they threaten to arrest our volunteers,” she said. Still, she added, these individuals “have made peace with that possibility, and they know that the organization will support them if it does happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You don’t even need a large organization like NorCal Resist to form an accompaniment group in your community, Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048132\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Author Rebecca Solnit (right) joins supporters during a rally outside the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on July 15, 2025, calling on ICE to release Guillermo Medina Reyes ahead of his preliminary injunction hearing. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Start small and think about: ‘Who are the impacted people I know?’ Maybe you have impacted people in your own family,” she said. “Tap into those networks that we already have in our lives and make sure that nobody is going to any of these appointments alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">Read more about the work advocates are doing in California immigration court.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Creating — and using — new online tools: Apps like ICEBlock\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After the 2024 election, Austin, Texas-based programmer Joshua Aaron started thinking about what he could personally do to protect communities he believed the incoming Trump administration would target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 2, Aaron launched \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/iceblock/id6741939020\">ICEBlock\u003c/a>, a free crowd-sourced app to report ICE sightings in public. The app allows users to report and geo-tag apparent sightings of ICE agents on a map, sending notifications to all other ICEBlock users within a 5-mile radius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we are subverting the Constitution, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">taking away habeas corpus or the rights of due process \u003c/a>of our immigrant friends and neighbors, that cannot stand,” Aaron said. He added that recent events remind him of the stories he’d hear growing up from older Jewish relatives and friends about \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2932p3/revision/1\">the Gestapo’s activities in Nazi Germany\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12045336 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250614-NO-KINGS-SAN-JOSE-AC-09-KQED.jpg']As of early July, the ICEBlock app had over 240,000 users — and had drawn the ire of the White House. In an \u003ca href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/media/attorney-general-pam-bondi-warns-iceblock-app-developer-watch-out-says-doj-looking-him\">interview with Fox News\u003c/a>, Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Aaron of “giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are” and said the Department of Justice was “looking at him, and he better watch out, because that’s not protected speech.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron said he consulted multiple constitutional and criminal law attorneys during development and maintains that the app is legal. It is, he said, “for informational purposes only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not asking anybody to incite violence or obstruct law enforcement,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some community groups have expressed concerns that apps like ICEBlock could make it easier for users to spread false sightings. Aaron acknowledged the risk of inaccurate reports but said the app includes safeguards, such as limiting how many reports a user can submit within five minutes and automatically removing all reports every four hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron also stressed that the app does not collect user data by design. Creating a tool that immigrants and their allies feel safe using is crucial, he said, and reflects his belief that technology has an obligation to social justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to do something,” he said. “When you see the atrocities that are happening in this country, you’ve got to know in your heart that you should be doing something to help fight back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/nkhan\">\u003cem>Nisa Khan\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/slim\">\u003cem>Samantha Lim\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bkrans\">\u003cem>Brian Krans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Communities across the U.S. are organizing rapid response networks, court accompaniments, and using apps like ICEBlock to protect immigrants and fight back against aggressive ICE raids and detentions.",
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"title": "As ICE Operations Expand, How Are Immigrant Allies Responding? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As Julia Meltzer drove to work through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/los-angeles-county\">Los Angeles\u003c/a>’ Koreatown one Friday morning in June, she spotted two trucks with Arizona license plates parked in the middle of the street, facing oncoming traffic. Standing nearby were three men wearing bulletproof vests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘ICE raid — happening now,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It had been just a week since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began raiding multiple immigrant communities in downtown L.A., and tensions between residents and federal immigration agents \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043314/california-to-sue-trump-for-sending-national-guard-troops-into-la-after-ice-protests\">remained high\u003c/a>. From her car, Meltzer watched as the men — one wearing a vest labeled “HSI,” or \u003ca href=\"https://www.ice.gov/about-ice/hsi\">Homeland Security Investigations\u003c/a> — handcuffed another man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meltzer, the founder of L.A. arts nonprofit Clockshop, said her instinct was to intervene, but questioned, “What is even allowed? How do I insert myself into this situation?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite feeling “very freaked out,” she got out of her car and began filming as agents put the detained man into one of the vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220155704-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People hold a peaceful protest and vigil where six workers were taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 18, 2025, in Pasadena, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the trucks pulled off, Meltzer saw a woman crying on the sidewalk — the sister of the man taken away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hugged her,” Meltzer said. “I just said, ‘I’m sorry.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Responding to ICE activity in the moment\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Meltzer did not feel prepared for what took place that morning, she said the experience prompted her to further educate herself about how to be an effective ally for her undocumented immigrant neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s our duty to inquire, step up and recognize that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">a lot of what’s happening is not legal,\u003c/a>” she said. “This is the point when people who aren’t being taken away need to step in — especially white people, because it’s brown people who are being taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño (right), lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Luis Urbino about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Donald Trump’s administration shows no sign of slowing down its immigration enforcement nationwide, with a stated goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/29/trump-ice-arrest-quota\">arresting 3,000 people per day\u003c/a>. ICE agents are detaining immigrants — both undocumented and those with temporary legal status — at their homes, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/17/ice-detention-massachusetts-man-video\">their cars\u003c/a>, at \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/07/worksite-immigration-raids/\">workplaces\u003c/a> and even at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">the courthouses where folks go for their immigration proceedings\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as more U.S. citizens are witnessing these operations, many — like Meltzer — are now wondering how to engage, whether in the moment or afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>In the moment: Alerting a rapid response network\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s one kind of social media post that organizer Socorro Montaño is very familiar with: a photo — usually of an SUV or law enforcement officer — with little context, but with a stark warning: “ICE is here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It only takes one person to upload a photo and say, ‘Oh, I saw immigration agents over here,’ and this photo will be [circulating] for the rest of the week,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montaño is a codirector for the San José-based \u003ca href=\"https://www.lunalatinosunidos.org/\">Latinos United for a New America\u003c/a> and helps lead the \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/rrninscc\">Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network\u003c/a> — a group of trained volunteers who verify community alerts about possible ICE sightings.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The group’s motto, “Power, not panic,” reflects its focus on the importance of verified information for people living in daily fear of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\">encountering ICE agents. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to handle rumors on social media,” Montaño explained, not least because in their experience, immigration operations can end as suddenly as they’ve begun. “If people tell us that they saw a post from hours or days before, agents are not going to be there anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montaño’s advice to anyone who sees a post or a text claiming ICE is in a specific location: ask the sender if they have already checked in with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024332/ice-raids-in-california-how-to-sort-fact-from-rumor-online\">their local rapid response network. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you call, volunteers will activate and see if this is true,” Montaño said, noting that people\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/scc_rapidresponsenetwork/\"> frequently report apparent sightings of ICE agents \u003c/a>that turn out to be local police officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because if it’s not true, your post is causing panic,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting involved\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody has a role in our network,” Montaño said. “But the No. 1 need we have for allies right now is folks who are ready to be trained and go verify if ICE presence is legitimate in a neighborhood, or if it is local police.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responders are trained to observe ICE operations, they stressed — not to interfere. “Our goal is to make sure that ICE can’t work in the shadows and that they know they know they’re being watched,” Montaño said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049167\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049167\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250718-RIDEALONGRAPIDRESPONSE-27-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Socorro Montaño, lead dispatcher for the Rapid Response Network, speaks with Maria Moreno about how to report ICE activity and the network’s efforts to verify sightings at Mari’s Dulceria in San José on July 21, 2025. The Rapid Response Network operates a hotline to mobilize volunteers and support immigrant families during ICE actions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Across California, volunteers have established \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccijustice.org/carrn\">dozens of different rapid response networks\u003c/a>. And to galvanize folks who live in a place where a network hasn’t been set up yet, Montaño shared that their own team started off in 2016 as a much smaller group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First, figure out what the demand is in your community,” they said. “For us, our goal was having a hotline, finding volunteers to staff the hotline and then training these folks on the basics of \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights\">knowing your rights\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then from there, it really depends on the level of involvement you want to have,” Montaño said. “Is your goal to send observers every time? Then you certainly need somebody to train allies on how to do that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>At the courthouse: The moral support that accompaniment brings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During the second Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — has adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/06/12/nx-s1-5409403/trump-immigration-courts-arrests\">a new strategy to detain individuals\u003c/a>: arresting them, or fast-tracking their removal, at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">their own immigration court hearings.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers and civil rights groups have spoken out against the practice. In a letter to ICE, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12044592/bay-area-lawmaker-demands-answers-after-ice-arrests-at-immigration-courts\">said that\u003c/a> “many individuals who need to use these courts are already living in fear,” and that “we should be encouraging immigrants to attend court as instructed, not making them even more afraid to appear.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In response, community groups have ramped up efforts to accompany immigrants to court hearings and scheduled \u003ca href=\"https://portal.ice.gov/immigration-guide/check-ins\">check-ins with ICE\u003c/a>, offering both logistical and emotional support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those groups is \u003ca href=\"https://www.norcalresist.org/\">NorCal Resist\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that organizes a rapid response network, bail funds and legal aid workshops. Its accompaniment program has existed for years, helping refugees and asylum seekers settle into their new lives in the U.S., but “this need has grown so much now that we have ICE stalking people at immigration courts,” said Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer with NorCal Resist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increase in ICE activity at courthouses — and the protests it has sparked — has turned these buildings into tense, volatile spaces, as recent videos showing ICE officers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047397/ice-officers-drive-through-protesters-trying-to-stop-arrest-at-sf-immigration-court\">driving through protesters\u003c/a> outside a San Francisco courthouse show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is detained by ICE, we immediately contact their family, let them know what’s going on and get them plugged in with legal resources,” Gonzalez said. “So that we can hopefully help get their loved one out — or at least help them fight their case from inside of detention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added: “What we want to make sure never happens is that ICE detains someone, this person disappears and no one knows what happened to them or where they went.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Getting involved\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allies doing this work should acknowledge the risk they themselves may face, Gonzalez said. “We’re in the courts every day watching ICE, and they threaten to arrest our volunteers,” she said. Still, she added, these individuals “have made peace with that possibility, and they know that the organization will support them if it does happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You don’t even need a large organization like NorCal Resist to form an accompaniment group in your community, Gonzalez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048132\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048132\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250715-ImmigrationCourtProtests-19-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Author Rebecca Solnit (right) joins supporters during a rally outside the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on July 15, 2025, calling on ICE to release Guillermo Medina Reyes ahead of his preliminary injunction hearing. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Start small and think about: ‘Who are the impacted people I know?’ Maybe you have impacted people in your own family,” she said. “Tap into those networks that we already have in our lives and make sure that nobody is going to any of these appointments alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047018/how-legal-experts-advocates-are-responding-to-the-detention-of-asylum-seekers\">Read more about the work advocates are doing in California immigration court.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Creating — and using — new online tools: Apps like ICEBlock\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After the 2024 election, Austin, Texas-based programmer Joshua Aaron started thinking about what he could personally do to protect communities he believed the incoming Trump administration would target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 2, Aaron launched \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/iceblock/id6741939020\">ICEBlock\u003c/a>, a free crowd-sourced app to report ICE sightings in public. The app allows users to report and geo-tag apparent sightings of ICE agents on a map, sending notifications to all other ICEBlock users within a 5-mile radius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we are subverting the Constitution, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">taking away habeas corpus or the rights of due process \u003c/a>of our immigrant friends and neighbors, that cannot stand,” Aaron said. He added that recent events remind him of the stories he’d hear growing up from older Jewish relatives and friends about \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2932p3/revision/1\">the Gestapo’s activities in Nazi Germany\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As of early July, the ICEBlock app had over 240,000 users — and had drawn the ire of the White House. In an \u003ca href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/media/attorney-general-pam-bondi-warns-iceblock-app-developer-watch-out-says-doj-looking-him\">interview with Fox News\u003c/a>, Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Aaron of “giving a message to criminals where our federal officers are” and said the Department of Justice was “looking at him, and he better watch out, because that’s not protected speech.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron said he consulted multiple constitutional and criminal law attorneys during development and maintains that the app is legal. It is, he said, “for informational purposes only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not asking anybody to incite violence or obstruct law enforcement,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some community groups have expressed concerns that apps like ICEBlock could make it easier for users to spread false sightings. Aaron acknowledged the risk of inaccurate reports but said the app includes safeguards, such as limiting how many reports a user can submit within five minutes and automatically removing all reports every four hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron also stressed that the app does not collect user data by design. Creating a tool that immigrants and their allies feel safe using is crucial, he said, and reflects his belief that technology has an obligation to social justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to do something,” he said. “When you see the atrocities that are happening in this country, you’ve got to know in your heart that you should be doing something to help fight back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/nkhan\">\u003cem>Nisa Khan\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/slim\">\u003cem>Samantha Lim\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bkrans\">\u003cem>Brian Krans\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"planet-money": {
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
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