Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, June 20, 2025…

National Guard troops sent to Los Angeles by President Donald Trump can stay there, for now. That’s a result of a ruling late Thursday from a federal appeals court.
Health care providers in California say they’re worried immigration raids are keeping people from getting the medical care they need.
Across the country, young scientists are writing to their hometown newspapers—hoping their stories will rally public support and push back against deep federal research funding cuts.

Trump Can Keep Troops In LA For Now, Appeals Court Rules

Donald Trump can continue to control the National Guard in California for the time being after a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined he followed the law in deploying troops to Los Angeles.

The order, handed down Thursday evening, is the latest in a fast-moving legal saga playing out over Trump’s decision to call up the National Guard and U.S. Marines to the Los Angeles area in response to protests after federal immigration law enforcement agents began worksite raids and arrests two weeks ago. California’s Democratic leadership, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, has called the deployment unnecessary and illegal.

The appeals court order in a lawsuit filed by Newsom contesting the deployment isn’t surprising; the panel signaled an openness to the Trump administration’s legal arguments during a legal hearing on Tuesday.

What happens next could take one of several turns. On Friday a lower court judge, Charles Breyer, will hold a hearing on whether to return the troops to Newsom through a preliminary injunction. Breyer last week issued an order that would have temporarily halted Trump’s deployment, but the 9th Circuit blocked it. Now, the battle over whether federal troops can remain in Los Angeles is operating on three parallel tracks — the case the 9th Circuit decided Thursday, which can be appealed; Friday’s hearing on the preliminary injunction; and the full merits of the case that would be argued through a prolonged trial.

LA-Area Health Clinic Describes Close Encounter With Immigration Agents

California hospitals and clinics are on high alert as immigration raids continue and their patients — both legal residents and undocumented immigrants — are afraid to step out and increasingly canceling medical appointments.

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A Los Angeles-area clinic system, St. John’s Community Health, told CalMatters about a close encounter with officials who appeared to be immigration agents. Staff said armed officers wearing tactical gear tried to enter a parking lot in Downey, about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles, where doctors and nurses in a mobile health clinic were seeing patients, many of them walk-ins from the community.

Alfredo Contreras, the driver of the mobile clinic, said five unmarked SUVs and vans pulled up to a gate in the parking lot where they had set up, located at a drug and alcohol recovery center. Contreras and a security guard stood in front of their vehicles, blocking the entrance. Contreras said he and the guard “held our ground, we did not move” and the officers didn’t get out of their vehicles.

One of President Donald Trump’s first orders upon taking office in January was to rescind a Biden-era rule that protected “sensitive locations” — places of worship, hospitals, clinics and schools — from immigration operations.

Government data and news reports show that ICE is increasingly detaining people without criminal convictions. The same day that immigration agents tried to enter the Downey parking lot where St. John’s mobile health van was stationed, some also showed up outside two nearby churches where they apprehended people, including one elderly man, according to local news reports. Health advocates and providers say that rather than protecting people, ICE is scaring people from seeking basic medical care.

Young Scientists Rally Support For Federal Funding

Across the country, young scientists are writing to their hometown newspapers—hoping their stories will rally public support and push back against deep federal research funding cuts.

JP Flores is a graduate student from Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles. Growing up, he thought more about baseball than science. But a science teacher at Valencia High School changed his mind. “If I were to tell high school JP that he was gonna do a PhD in computational biology at UNC Chapel Hill, there’s no way. I would never believe that in a million years,” he said.

But now, he’s watching research opportunities disappear all around him. At UNC, labs focused on climate science are shrinking, transgender health grants are drying up, and some of his colleagues are being pushed out entirely.

Flores helped organize Stand Up for Science rallies in March. And he’s partnering with a local brewery to put scientific facts on beer bottles. He also wrote an op-ed published by The Signal, a local paper in Santa Clarita Valley. “I just wanted everyone in that town to know what is happening to science and what is happening to one of their residents,” he said. His letter is part of a national campaign. Nearly 600 young scientists have pledged to send editorials to their local papers, and so far nearly 80 have been published.

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9th Circuit Rules In Favor Of Trump Administration Over National Guard Deployment