Trump deportation threats cut back college attendance

Because the setting for John Steinbeck’s Fifties traditional “East of Eden,” Salinas has lengthy been referred to as a working-class, farming neighborhood. Nestled between two mountain ranges and situated just a few miles inland of Monterey Bay, town’s geographic location lends itself an exquisite, serene setting.

However not too long ago, CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, Salinas mother and father, college students and lecturers have been gripped with worry over President Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations.

Salinas has one of many highest concentrations of immigrants within the state: In 2023, greater than a 3rd of the inhabitants was born out of the countryand greater than 80% are Latino.

Inside the first week of his second time period, Trump issued a number of govt actions to extend deportations and develop the attain of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with authorizing brokers to make arrests at colleges and different “sensitive locations.” The president not too long ago halted a program that gives authorized illustration to immigrant youngsters.

Attendance at Salinas Metropolis Elementary College District has declined: In August about 95% of scholars confirmed up for sophistication day by day; by January that dropped to simply over 91%.

The district operates 4 facilities that almost 4,000 households go to yearly, which give households with meals, counseling and referrals for authorized recommendation. Its workplace employees know to ask immigration brokers for judicial (not administrative) warrants, and the district is contemplating distant digital studying for youngsters whose mother and father want preserving them dwelling.

• E.a mom of three in Salinas who requested to not be recognized as a result of her immigration standing: “I’m not worried about going back to Mexico. I’m afraid of being separated from my kids. My worst fear is that my 6-year-old will end up in a camp. … I don’t know what I would do.”

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Final 12 months lawmakers rushed a measure by to alter protections for shoppers who buy faulty automobiles, identified colloquially as “lemons.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure into regulation just a few months later. The regulation created new timetables and guidelines for shoppers searching for reimbursement for shoddy automobiles. Proponents argued that the regulation was important to scale back the backlog of so-called lemon regulation circumstances clogging the state’s court docket system.

However as CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow explains, automakers have been cut up with their assist of the regulation: Firms going through fewer lawsuits needed extra time to defend their disputes. So as a substitute of vetoing the regulation, Newsom as a substitute signed the regulation however included a directive to the Legislature to act rapidly and amend it and permit automotive makers to choose out of the brand new course of.

As a result of automakers can voluntarily observe the principles or not, there shall be two completely different authorized programs for shoppers, relying on their car — irritating and complicated not solely client advocates, however lawmakers who are actually scrambling to revise the regulation that takes impact April 1.

• Sen. Roger Nielloa Roseville Republican whose household owns a number of automotive dealerships, throughout a listening to final week: “What we have is a messy and frankly — all due respect — illogical resulting situation. I feel like I’m in Alice in Wonderland. … What’s up is down and what’s down is up.”

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Some state lawmakers have been busy unveiling environmental laws:

Without end chemical substances: As almost 400 water methods in California don’t meet state security requirementsDemocratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel of Encino launched a invoice Wednesday that will require the state’s water board to set and implement water requirements to guard residents from “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, linked to elevated well being dangers. Sen. Jerry McNerneya Stockton Democrat, additionally has a invoice to create a state fund for cities to assist them pay for PFAS cleanup in ingesting water.

Each payments come after the Environmental Safety Company, underneath the Biden administration, enacted guidelines to restrict a few of these chemical substances in ingesting water, that are being challenged in courts by business teams representing water utilities and chemical firms.

Single-use vapes: Additionally Wednesday, Democratic Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin of Thousand Oaks and Lori Wilson of Suisun Metropolis stated they’ve a invoice to ban the sale of single-use vapes in California. Citing a report by CALPIRG, a public well being advocacy group, an estimated 4.5 vape containers are thrown out per second within the U.S. Along with plastic, these containers — which are sometimes used for a few days — embrace digital parts and non-removable batteries that collectively can’t be discarded sustainably.

The speed of gross sales for California’s electrical automobiles has slowed in 2024 in comparison with the 12 months earlier than. CalMatters local weather reporter Alejandro Lazo and video technique director Robert Meeks have a video phase on what this might imply for the state’s zero-emissions aim as a part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it right here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.