Migrants get aid at last California border stop (2024)

We’ve launched a partnership with PBS SoCal for two-minute video stories each weekday. While many will be based on prior CalMatters stories, some will be exclusive to SoCalMatters.

The first aired Monday and it focuses on a crossing at the Mexico border near San Diego known as “Whiskey 8.” Migrants, sometimes by the hundreds, camp for days there in the open air, waiting to be picked up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

CalMatters’ Wendy Fry, who has been covering the border for more than 15 years, reports on volunteers including Adriana Jasso from the American Friends Service Committee, who provide asylum seekers with food, coffee, information and aid that they say authorities do not supply.

• Jasso: “We find ourselves in the country with the most wealth in the history of humanity. … And to know, and to hear over and over, from the authorities that people have to wait under these conditions.”

The Border Patrol says San Diego has become the busiest sector in the 2,000-mile southern border. In the first week of May alone, agents apprehended 8,303 migrants — compared to 3,311 in all of May 2020.

For more on what humanitarian workers are doing, watch the video segment.

As Wendy has previously reported, federal, state and local officials are grappling with the rising numbers at the border. With nonprofits and churches in the region struggling for funds and resources, Border Patrol officials say that overcrowded facilities leave them no choice but to release migrants on the streets or at transit stops, often with little resources to guide them to their final destination.

But the agency is also pouring tens of millions of dollars into expanding surveillance capabilities along the border. Over the next 14 years, it is expected to spend about $67.8 million on high-tech surveillance cameras. This has raised privacy concerns for the millions of people living on both sides of the border, particularly between California and Baja California.

Some border-area residents and business leaders argue that the federal government should spend money to hire more staff at backed-up checkpoints. They say that hours-long wait times have hurt small businesses and the regional economy.

More details: SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. on PBS SoCal and is available online at PBS SoCal and CalMatters. Reporters will work with producer Robert Meeks on the segments, which will focus on a wide range of topics. Read more about this new venture from our engagement team.

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff:

A proposal to pay for local journalism jobs in California through a fee on major tech platforms stalled last week, days after Google warned that it would stop funding nonprofit newsrooms nationwide if the measure became law

Though he would not definitely declare it dead (“you can quote a shrug”), state Sen. Steve Glazer said Friday that, faced with intense tech industry lobbying, he could not pull together the two-thirds vote required to advance his Senate Bill 1327 ahead of a crucial legislative deadline.

Last month, Google temporarily removed links to California news websites from its search results.

• Glazer: “They’re using their money and their power to threaten everybody. Their actions create a threat to democracy.”

Another tech fee proposal to support journalism, Assembly Bill 886, is stuck in the Senate after passing the Assembly last year. Glazer said he would focus now on helping revive it and “making that one as strong as possible.”

Session so far: In all, by Friday’s deadline for bills to pass their first house, 931 (61% of the total introduced) made it through the Assembly and 479 (75%) advanced from the Senate, according to legislative chronicler Chris Micheli.

Fong departs: Assemblymember Vince Fong announced just before the holiday weekend that he’s stepping aside to go to D.C. as soon as he’s sworn into Congress. The Bakersfield Republican said Friday was his last day, after winning a special election earlier last week to serve out the remainder of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s term. Fong’s Assembly seat will remain vacant until after the November election.

More on tech: The industry is also opposing a bill on artificial intelligence authored by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin. As CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow explains, the Thousands Oaks Democrat used to be a darling of Silicon Valley, having been named “Legislator of the Year” by the lobbying group TechNet in 2017.

But now she is turning the tables. Her latest bill before the Senate would require AI developers to disclose what data they use to “train” their systems. The measure, says Irwin, would give consumers a better understanding of the technology, and help curb potential biases in the AI’s decision making.

Groups including TechNet and the California Chamber of Commerce oppose the bill, arguing that it will expose tech companies’ trade secrets.

Read more on Irwin in Ryan’s story.

Pretty, pretty good. That’s the overall assessment of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget plan from the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office.

In a report late last week, the office said Newsom’s proposals to cancel one-time spending and cut some existing programs will cover the state’s budget shortfall for 2024-25 and reduce future projected deficits to an average of $10 billion, which could be handled by dipping into reserves.

• The analyst’s office: “Given this progress, we recommend the Legislature maintain a similar overall structure to the Governor’s approach in the final budget package.”

Still, because of its lower revenue estimates than Newsom’s finance department, the office said the Legislature will need to find an additional $7 billion in savings to balance the 2024-25 budget. Lawmakers have until June 15 to pass a spending plan.

Other groups are still not happy with the cuts proposed by Newsom and are figuring out what to do.

For instance, California State University campuses are considering increasing class sizes and reducing the number of part-time faculty, writes CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn. Due to Newsom cutting back his promises of expanding financial support to the university system, as well as rising labor costs, Cal State is expected to face a three-year operating deficit of $831 million through 2025-26.

To navigate the fiscal crunch, Cal State intends to use more than $500 million in reserves through 2025-26 — about 22% of the system’s one-time funds. Campuses are also keeping in mind other possibilities, such as decreasing the number of available courses, leaving various job positions unfilled and imposing hiring freezes. The system has not recommended layoffs so far, however.

• Christopher Steinhauser, Cal State trustee during a board meeting last week: “We have to do less with less. We are going to have fewer programs, fewer positions. And anyone listening to this meeting, if they think that we can do this without doing that, they’re really kidding themselves.”

For more on Cal State’s finances, read Mikhail’s story.

California’s minimum wage is being much debated lately, with the higher one for fast food workers that started April 1, and the one for health care workers that was supposed to kick in June 1, but has been delayed to July 1. What’s the impact of it all? Find out that and more in a new explainer from CalMatters producer Liliana Michelena and deputy editor Adam Ashton.

California Voices

Bill Walton, UCLA legend and Pac-12 advocate, dead at 71 // Los Angeles Times

Newsom pounces as Republicans come to Big Oil’s defense // Politico

UC strike to hit UCLA, Davis next, but is it legal? // Los Angeles Times

A safety net will not close CA’s income gap // Capital & Main

CA Supreme Court restricts COVID insurance coverage // San Francisco Chronicle

Why progressive DAs are losing their grip on the West Coast // Politico

Environmental review of final high-speed rail link released // Los Angeles Times

President Joe Biden helps CA move closer to cannabis cafes // Politico

Bay Area prosecutors get $4M to fight wage theft // San Francisco Chronicle

Dead baby sea lions near CA coastal islands alarm researchers // Los Angeles Times

Levi’s heir Daniel Lurie will self-fund run for SF mayor // The San Francisco Standard

NorCal Kaiser doctors vote to unionize // San Francisco Chronicle