Category: Community

The Hidden Cost of Trump’s Deportation Agenda

‘Education Chaos and Psychological Scarring’
by Peter Schurmann, ACoM | Posted September 9, 2025
Classroom
L.A. Unified Supt. Alberto Carvalho with students in a science classroom. Photo courtesy of American Community Media & LAUSD.

On Aug. 11, masked agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) handcuffed and pointed their guns at a disabled 15-year-old while he waited for his mom to pick him up from school in Arleta, California. On Aug. 8, ICE arrested Benjamin Guerrero Cruz as he walked his dog in Van Nuys, days before the 18-year-old was set to begin his senior year of high school.

These are just two in a string of examples of ICE’s aggressive implementation of the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda, an approach experts say is traumatizing kids and families and sending a chill through school communities across the country.

“This back-to-school season, children are facing the terror of wondering if their parents will be there to pick them up,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cardenas during an Aug. 28 virtual briefing. “The usual first day jitters have been replaced by fear.” read more

“I’m an immigrant – this puts me at risk”

Gold on fascism: "We are already there."
by George Gold, guest commentary | Posted August 26, 2025

When I was about 7, my family was on a camping holiday in Queensland, Australia, when my father took me aside and relayed in detail the events that led to his escape from Nazi relocation camps in Austria.

My parents were Holocaust survivors, and part of their worldwide escape took them through several countries to Australia, where they had finally settled and where I was born. I’m an immigrant, and in the United States today, just saying this now puts me at risk of summary arrest and deportation.

My father was an amateur boxer and in excellent physical condition. He had escaped three times from different camps, each time being re-captured. Following his last escape, he hid under the floorboards of his home for three weeks. He then realized he had to leave Austria or he would probably be killed. Over the next several weeks my Dad made his way through Belgium, then to France, and then hiked his way across the Swiss Alps to Switzerland. read more

Massage ordinance could pose challenge to immigrant workers

by Yucheng Tang | Posted August 22, 2025
Dan Hays. Photo by Yucheng Tang.

The City Council considered a new ordinance that would establish several operational standards for the conduct of massage establishments at its Aug. 19 meeting.

Under the new ordinance, all massage practitioners would have to be certified by the state massage practitioner regulatory body, California Massage Therapy Council (CMTAC).

Code Enforcement Supervisor Charlene Durkin said the goal is to address prostitution and human trafficking in the industry.

Three massage practitioners and stakeholders voiced objections to the ordinance during the meeting. 

Dan Hays, whose wife runs a massage parlor, stressed that he doesn’t oppose an ordinance, but the problem is that the city’s massage therapists were not engaged in the process.   read more

South Park Drive stays open to cars

Council reverses previous decision
by Yucheng Tang | Posted August 21, 2025
Councilmember Tom van Overbeek: “I realized I had this wrong.” Photo courtesy of Karen Laslo.

The Chico City Council voted 5-2 to reverse its decision to close the entire stretch of South Park Drive that runs parallel to Woodland Avenue to vehicular traffic. 

In June, the Council had passed a plan to make this stretch in Lower Bidwell Park vehicle free.  But car owners, residents and biking advocates all pushed back. Concerns included worsening traffic in the area, inconvenience for disabled people, and the loss of parking spaces on South Park Drive.

Ann Bykerk-Kauffman, a planning commissioner and founding member of Chico Safe Streets Coalition, said the potential loss of right-of-way for cyclists and pedestrians and the installation of maze gates were the biggest problems with the plan. read more

Debajito: una oda a la resistencia y la alegría

Changemakers: Con influencia de la Nueva Canción, el álbum Entremundos
by Leslie Layton | Posted August 21, 2025
El conjunto Debajito de Chico tocando en una presentación reciente. Foto cortesía de Ken Pordes.

Read this story in English here. Changemaker es una serie ocasional de ChicoSol que presenta perfiles de personas que contribuyen a la comunidad.

En la segunda estrofa de “Frontera”, el primer sencillo del álbum recién lanzado “Entremundos”, un pescador emprende el angustioso viaje desde su pueblo en Sonora, México, hasta los Estados Unidos, en busca de trabajo.

El cuento del pescador es típico de las historias que los compositores, miembros del conjunto Debajito de Chico, conocen bien. Como parte del tema “Frontera”, esperan que esta rompa con el alboroto y la represión antiinmigrante que ha seguido ensombreciendo la vida en este país.


“Tenemos una relación con este territorio”, explicó Dani Cornejo, vocalista de Debajito cuya familia materna había emigrado del estado mexicano de Sonora. “De niños, íbamos allí todos los años. Acampábamos junto a un pueblo pesquero. Esa historia está arraigada en nuestra relación con la gente del pueblo pesquero de La Manga”. read more

Debajito: A call to dance, a call to action

Changemaker: Chico band was influenced by New Song Movement
by Leslie Layton | Posted August 19, 2025
The Chico band Debajito playing at a recent Chico show. Photo courtesy of Ken Pordes.

Changemaker is an occasional ChicoSol series that profiles local people or groups contributing diversity or humanitarian work to the community.

In the second verse of “Frontera,” the lead single on the newly-released album “Entremundos,” a fisherman makes the harrowing journey from his village in Sonora, Mexico, to the United States seeking work.

The fisherman’s story is the kind of story that the composers – members of the Chico band Debajito – know well. As part of the track “Frontera,” they hope it will break through the anti-immigrant ruckus and repression that has continued to darken life in this country.

“We have a relationship with that territory,” explained Debajito vocalist Dani Cornejo, whose mother’s family had emigrated from the Mexican state of Sonora. “Growing up, we went down there on a yearly basis. We would camp next to a fishermen’s village. That story is rooted in our relationship to the people of the La Manga fishing village. read more