Thu. Nov 14th, 2024
A large indoor shelter filled with colorful tents, where people have set up temporary living spaces on the concrete floor. Some individuals are sitting outside their tents or on chairs along the wall, while others move around the area. The tents vary in colors and designs, with some families gathered together, indicating a communal space for shelter and respite.
Various tents at Moviemiento Juventud 2000 provide shelter for roughly 150 asylum seekers in Tijuana on July 26, 2023. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. 

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on implementing a sweeping border crackdown and undertaking the largest-scale deportation effort in history. If carried out, his proposed initiatives will have profound consequences in California, which shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. 

On day one, he has pledged to begin a massive deportation campaign. State officials and civil liberties groups have vowed to fight back, but the impact across the Golden State would be staggering. “If Donald Trump is successful with deportations, no state will be more impacted from a fiscal perspective, from an economic perspective,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press briefing last week. On Thursday, the governor called a special legislative session to start Dec. 2 as the state again positions itself to be the anti-Trump. California is home to more immigrants than any other state in the nation, about 10.6 million people, and it has the most immigrants without federal authorization to be in the country, according to 2022 numbers compiled by the Pew Research Center. 

Uncertainty, fear, and sadness were the moods at the border on Wednesday, in the hours after Trump was declared the winner. José María García Lara, the director of the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter and coordinator of an alliance of migrant advocates in Tijuana, said people are very worried about their future. Particularly anxious, he said, arefolks who have already waited in Mexico for months for an appointment through a Biden administration program through which people can seek permission to legally enter the country. Those people are now unsure if the program will be ending before an appointment becomes available for an initial asylum screening.

“For us as organizations here in the north of the country, the concern is that there is going to be overcrowding (in shelters)  … but also the tendency of a lot of the community is that they are going to want to cross irregularly based on the fact that they are going to take away aid programs,” said García Lara.

Read more about how organizations and state officials are exploring mitigating Trump measures in our latest story.


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  • Prison work. As part of a two-year investigation into prison labor, The Associated Press found that correctional staff nationwide have been accused of using inmate work assignments to sexually abuse incarcerated women. The work assignments are used to lure women to isolated spots that are out of view of security cameras. Proposition 6, which would have banned forced prison labor in California, was trailing in early election results.
  • Medi-Cal benefits. The state has been gradually adding low-income unauthorized immigrants to its public health insurance coverage, reducing the state’s uninsured rate to a record 6.4% low, but some residents are still unable to find providers and access healthcare, California Healthline reports. California provides the benefit to about 1.5 million immigrants who lack federal authorization to be in the U.S., costing an estimated $6.4 billion, according to the Department of Health Care Services.
  • Prop. 36 passes. California voters resoundingly passed Proposition 36, which would reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies, despite Democratic leaders opposing the measure, CalMatters’ Nigel Duara reports. Immigrant advocates have warned the measure could lead to spikes in deportations.
  • ER care. A recent Los Angeles Times editorial addressed how women and racial minorities face longer wait times and receive poorer care in emergency rooms. Elaine Batchelor, chief executive of MLK Community Healthcare, wrote a follow-up letter noting that structural inequities, not just bias, are also to blame
  • Homeless housing. The new owner of one of Los Angeles’ largest homeless housing portfolios has reduced security and janitorial services. Tenants tell the Los Angeles Times’ Liam Dillon that the buildings are deteriorating, the restrooms are filthy, and people are trespassing.
  • Prop. 33 fails. California voters rejected a rent control measure backed by tenant advocates and the Los Angeles nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation. It would have allowed cities to impose stricter or broader rent control measures.

Thanks for following our work on the California Divide team. While you’re here, please tell us what kinds of stories you’d love to read. Email us at inequalityinsights@calmatters.org.

Thanks for reading,
Wendy and the California Divide Team

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