Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 24.
- Violent immigration arrest stokes anger in Santa Ana.
- Death toll rises to eight in Lake Tahoe boat accident.
- And Los Angeles hotel owners in revolt over wage hike.
Immigration crackdown
1.
Among those taken into custody by suspected immigration agents across Southern California since last week:
- a pair of gardeners in the middle of mowing a lawn in Ontario
- a U.S. citizen outside a Home Depot in Hollywood
- and a landscaper and father of three U.S. Marines who was pinned to the ground and pummeled by masked men in tactical gear.
After video of the violent apprehension of Narciso Barranco in Santa Ana went viral over the weekend, stoking public anger, the Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that he had swung a weed trimmer at an agent. Barranco’s son, Alejandro Barranco, said his father is a kind, hard-working man. When he called from detention, “he just started crying,” he said. A.P. | O.C. Register
2.
On June 12, an Afghan national who served as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and entered the U.S. legally was arrested during a routine immigration hearing in San Diego. In video of the courthouse arrest, Sayed Naser says, “I came here to make a better life. I worked with the U.S. military.” His attorney, Brian McGoldrick, said Naser was close to being granted asylum. “This administration just has this 3,000-a-day policy and is blindly grabbing what looks like low hanging fruit,” he said, referring to ICE’s arrest target. L.A. Times
3.
The No. 1 cause of death for people trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border through the Sonoran Desert is dehydration. When the photographer Lisa Elmaleh tagged along with a rescue group in November 2022, they found seven sets of human remains, including those of a boy, in just one day. And yet some people — filming themselves for social media — have made a pastime of shooting at bottles of water left by humanitarian organizations. High Country News published a moving photo essay by Elmaleh on the migrants still struggling to reach the “promised land.”
- See more from Elmaleh’s project.
4.
Other dispatches from the immigration crackdown:
- A shuttered 2,560-bed prison in the high desert town of California City is poised to become the state’s largest migrant detention center under a new deal with a private contractor. The Trump administration hopes to conduct 1 million deportations per year. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- A Long Beach nonprofit leader, Tito Rodriguez, is delivering food to undocumented immigrants who are afraid to leave their homes. There are hundreds of requests in his inbox, he said: “People are so scared that they’re starving.” Long Beach Post | Fox11
- As day laborers have vanished from Home Depots across Orange County, those who still show up are getting more work. A laborer in a lawn chair said he’s been in the U.S. for 28 years. “I may be undocumented,” he said, “but I’m not afraid.” Voice of OC
Statewide
5.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from canceling grants to the University of California for research on topics such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion.” More than $324 million in such grants to the university system had already been terminated. In her ruling, Judge Rita F. Lin said the blacklisting appeared to penalize researchers for “forbidden views.” “This is quintessential viewpoint discrimination and that likely violates the First Amendment,” she wrote. Courthouse News
6.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday that it would open up 59 million acres of federal forest lands to roadbuilding and logging, including parts of the Tahoe, Los Padres, Sequoia, and San Bernardino national forests. Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, announced plans to repeal the 2001 “roadless rule” that had preserved nearly a third of national forestland. “Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common sense management” of our natural resources, she said. Environmental groups vowed to put up a fight. Desert Sun | L.A. Times
- Senate Republicans have proposed selling off millions of acres of public lands including areas near Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and the Trinity Alps. See a map of the lands. 👉 S.F. Chronicle
7.
On the eastern side of the Sierra, across the Owens Valley, there’s a little-known overlook partway up the White Mountains. The view rivals any other in California, wrote Doug Robinson:
“I could say it’ll be ‘like you’ve never seen,’ but that sounds too much like guidebook hype. I wouldn’t do that to you. … When you first crack an eye up here, the full force of entering California will be in your face. The mountain wall illuminated in its dawn light is within a thousand feet of rising as tall as Everest above its base camp.” Alta
Northern California
8.
The number of confirmed deaths in a Saturday boat accident on Lake Tahoe rose to eight, officials said on Monday, making it one of the state’s deadliest boating disasters in years. A sudden storm whipped up 8-foot swells, causing a 27-foot power boat to pitch its 10 occupants into the water. Two of them were hospitalized. “There were trees blowing nearly sideways,” said Jeff Cowen, who worked for years as a fishing boat captain on the lake. He added: “I’ve known captains for decades and they said they never have seen anything like this.” Mercury News | L.A. Times
- See video captured during the storm. 👉 KCRA
9.
The Vera Rubin Observatory sits atop a mountain in Chile, but the $168 million camera was built over a period of seven years in a Bay Area laboratory. On Monday, the powerful new observatory unveiled its first dazzling images of deep space, a preview of what will be a 10-year time-lapse of the cosmos. “The images represent a decades-long effort by a globally dispersed team of astrophysicists, data scientists, engineers, administrators, machinists, welders, bus drivers, cooks, and thousands of others completing one of the most sophisticated objects that humans have ever built,” wrote the Atlantic.
10.
Prosecutors on Monday charged the chief of staff for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office with two misdemeanors in connection with a hit-and-run. On March 4, Richard Jue, 65, was off duty when he crashed into a parked Tesla, officials said. He didn’t report the accident for two weeks, and he initially said it was his vehicle that had been struck. A day later, he admitted the falsehood, prosecutors said. Jue was booked into jail by his own office on Sunday. S.F. Chronicle | KTVU
Southern California
11.
A Los Angeles police sergeant was struck and killed by a passing motorist early Monday after he stepped from his vehicle to help victims of an earlier crash on the 405 Freeway, officials said. Another person was killed in the initial crash, but was not identified. Sgt. Shiou Deng was a 26-year veteran of the force. “He died a hero,” Chief Jim McDonnell said. “He was out there caring for others, putting their safety before his own.” Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in the state capital. KTLA | NBC Los Angeles
12.
Los Angeles hotel owners are in open revolt after the City Council voted to boost the minimum wage for workers in large hotels to $30 an hour by 2028, a 48% hike over three years. The payroll shock comes as a pullback in foreign visitors and other issues have made Los Angeles one of the country’s poorest-performing lodging markets. Some hoteliers said they were already ready to leave. “We would love to sell,” said Jon Bortz, head of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, which owns nine hotels in the L.A. area. “But nobody will buy them.” Wall Street Journal
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