Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 11.
- Immigration raids target California’s farm communities.
- Gavin Newsom tells nation that democracy is at stake.
- And San Francisco embraces broad drone surveillance.
Immigration protests
1.
Federal immigration agents fanned out to California’s agricultural heartland on Tuesday, spreading panic among farm workers and their families. Immigrant advocacy groups received numerous reports of raids in the Oxnard Plain and San Joaquin Valley as agents intercepted people on their way to work, at packing facilities, and among the crops. Growers condemned the enforcement actions. “It’s just really sad and disappointing, and unlawful,” said Maureen McGuire, chief executive of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. L.A. Times
- Video showed workers fleeing through a field in Oxnard. 👉 KABC
- Soldiers mobilized by President Trump have now begun accompanying ICE officers on raids in L.A. Asked about the arrangement, a Homeland Security official said they were helping “to remove the worst of the worst of Los Angeles.” Bloomberg | N.Y. Times
2.
In a speech on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom portrayed President’s Trump military deployment in Los Angeles as a ploy designed to inflame a combustible situation. It is a drive toward authoritarianism that should worry every American, Newsom said: “California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.” He also condemned raids that he said targeted “dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers, and seamstresses.” “Donald Trump’s government isn’t protecting our communities,” he said. “They’re traumatizing our communities.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Times | A.P.
- Also on Tuesday, Trump addressed a gathering at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Los Angeles, he said, was a “trash heap” of “chaos, dysfunction, and disorder”: “We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are.” Washington Post | A.P.
3.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a House panel on Tuesday that troops would stay in Los Angeles for 60 days at a cost to taxpayers of $134 million. He suggested that the use of troops inside the United States would expand. “I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” he said. A.P. | N.Y. Times
4.
“This is fascism!”
“You’re kidnapping people!”
“Pull your fucking mask off!”
San Francisco’s immigration court abruptly shut down on Tuesday after a round of ICE arrests triggered angry demonstrations outside the building. Court officials said the measure was taken for safety reasons. The unrest in Los Angeles has inspired days of similarly robust protests in San Francisco, including a small faction of vandals who broke shop windows and spray-painted anti-ICE slogans. On Sunday, San Francisco police made about 150 arrests, more than double those reported in Los Angeles. Mission Local | Wall Street Journal
5.
Jim Newton, a veteran California journalist, argued that President Trump’s true aim in L.A. is to force a showdown of values and ultimately bring a state that rejects him to heel:
“From Trump’s perspective, California is thumbing its nose at his program for America. He’s right about that. What seems to confound him and his allies is that it’s not California’s political leadership that’s behind that contempt — it’s not [Gov. Gavin] Newsom or [Mayor Karen] Bass or the state legislature — it’s the people of the state, in overwhelming numbers and relying on deeply held beliefs.” Politico Magazine
6.
Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump’s hardline deportation agenda, grew up in liberal Santa Monica. Immigrants cooked family meals and cleaned up after him and his siblings. In recent days, Miller has portrayed his hometown in starkly grim terms: “Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers.” Los Angeles, he declared, “is all the proof you need that mass migration unravels societies.” In March, the cultural critic David Klion explored how Miller got to be this way. The Nation
7.
Other developments:
- Mayor Karen Bass ordered a curfew for roughly a square mile of downtown Los Angeles between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Tuesday, noting that 23 businesses had been looted. “We reached a tipping point,” she said. By midnight, police said they had made 25 arrests. L.A. Times | A.P.
- During a testy L.A. City Council meeting on Tuesday, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson objected to the police chief referring to ICE as “law enforcement partners.” “If we know somebody is coming here to do warrant-less abductions of the residents of this city, those are not our partners,” he said. L.A. Times
- Mike Nakagawa, a 67-year-old Army veteran, felt compelled “to support the rights of people to assemble.” Stephanie Urias, 37, said she wanted to stand up for people living in fear. “Our people are being hunted down,” she said. The Washington Post asked Angelenos why they turned out to protest.
Statewide
8.
San Jose’s City Council approved a controversial proposal to arrest homeless people who decline offers of shelter. The move comes as the city is preparing to increase its shelter capacity by more than 1,400 beds. “I don’t think it’s humane or compassionate to allow people to live or die on our streets when they are unable or unwilling to accept the help the city is able to offer,” said Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat. KQED | Mercury News
9.
San Francisco’s police force is making drone surveillance a centerpiece of its crime-fighting effort. The Drones as First Responder program, announced last fall, allows officers to pilot the aircrafts around the 47-square-mile city from the safety of headquarters, keeping eyes on suspects while police work out a plan. Now a crypto billionaire has donated more than $9 million to expand the program. “We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones,” said Captain Thomas MacGuire. Mission Local
10.
A pair of dispatches on tech in higher education:
- OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, wants to embed artificial intelligence into every facet of university life. Under the company’s vision, dubbed “AI-native universities,” campuses would give students AI assistants to guide them from orientation day through graduation. California State University is already working to make it a reality. N.Y. Times
- The columnist Conor Friedersdorf talked to professors and students at Pomona College who are trying lessen the influence of technology on campus. “What I hope that we can teach our students is why they should choose not to open their phone in the dining hall,” said Michael Steinberger, an economics professor. The Atlantic
11.
One Sunday nights, Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade is the place to be. The Salsa Familia club has been gathering for salsa dancing sessions along the open-air mall for 23 years. They are open to all, and newcomers get free instruction. Jeremy Ferguson, a local booster, recently shared a fun video of the dance party on Reddit.
12.
In 1907, a small notice appeared in California newspapers announcing a new Black utopia in the San Joaquin Valley dedicated to Booker T. Washington’s principles of self-determination. Its founder was Allen Allensworth, an escaped slave from Kentucky who became the nation’s highest-ranking Black Army officer. Black people, he was reported to say, will never “disarm their enemies so long as they are satisfied with the lower conditions of life.” Allensworth, as the town became known, thrived for a fleeting moment in the dusty agricultural lands about 40 miles north of Bakersfield. The colony peaked at around 400 residents and had a hotel, restaurants, a library, and a debating society.
But troubles soon began. The railroad bypassed Allensworth; lack of water strangled crops; and, most devastatingly, Allen Allensworth was struck and killed by a motorcyclist in 1914. In time, residents drifted away. Allensworth became a windswept ghost town and later a state park. It lives on today as a symbol of Black resilience, taking center stage on days like Juneteenth. This weekend, the annual celebration will include lectures, live jazz, food, and kids’ activities. Amtrak plans to run special trains directly to the park at half the regular fare. Bakersfield Californian | Modesto Bee
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