Immigrant youth in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s crackdown

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The Weekly Dispatch

Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.

Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Erica Hellerstein, senior immigration, labor and economics reporter.

Last week, we told you about a Trump administration order suspending federal funding for legal aid groups that help unaccompanied migrant youth navigate the immigration court system. We shared how Legal Services for Children, a firm that provides direct legal support to hundreds of immigrant children across the Bay Area, was adapting to the sudden cut. “We are taking it day by day and will continue to do so for as long as we can,” the firm’s executive director told NBC Bay Area.

But shortly after our newsletter landed in your inbox, the administration backtracked on its own policy—rescinding the very order that had left providers scrambling just days earlier. (Welcome to the whiplash of covering Trump 2.0.) There was no explanation for the decision to restore funding for these programs, but the surprise reversal doesn’t mean that the administration’s focus on immigrant youth is over—far from it

Shortly after the funding was restored, Reuters published the details of an internal ICE memo outlining an aggressive new strategy to track down and deport hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors. The plan, which Reuters calls “an unprecedented push to target migrant children,” sorts unaccompanied minors into three priority groups: flight risk, public safety and border security. It instructs agents to prioritize children labeled as “flight risks,” including those who have received deportation orders for missing court hearings and those living with sponsors (guardians) who aren’t blood relatives.

If this crackdown moves forward, the impact on the East Bay—especially Alameda County—could be significant. The most recent data from the Office of Refugee Resettlement shows that Alameda County had the second-highest number of unaccompanied children released to sponsors in California from October 2024 to January 2025 and the 17th-highest nationwide. Expanding that timeline, Alameda and Contra Costa counties took in nearly 900 unaccompanied minors between October 2023 and June 2024, with 560 resettling in Alameda County. And over the past decade, California has received more than 81,600 unaccompanied youth—second only to Texas.

The numbers reflect what many in this community already know: Alameda County—one of the most diverse counties in the U.S., where more than one-third of residents were born outside the country—is on the frontlines of federal immigration policy.

Unaccompanied youth already face immense challenges. Many have endured dangerous and traumatic journeys to reach the U.S. Once here, they must navigate a new country, culture, and language—often without their parents or familiar support systems. As Lisa Hoffman, Co-Executive Director of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, told El Tímpano’s Ximena Loeza and Cassandra Garibay in an article published this week: “They are incredibly vulnerable and need many layers of support.” Now, in addition to those challenges, they face the external realities of the administration’s promised immigration crackdown.

That’s why advocates and service providers stress the importance of creating safe, nurturing spaces where unaccompanied youth can learn, play, express themselves freely, and build community with peers—key interventions, they say, especially in today’s political climate.

I’m working on a story about one of these spaces—centered around play and joy—in the Bay Area. Stay tuned for that. And if you work with immigrant youth and want to share what you’re seeing on the ground, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at ehellerstein@eltimpano.org.

That’s all for now—thanks for reading, and see you next week!

P.S.: A big thanks to a reader who shared resources on Oakland Unified School District’s Sanctuary District policies, which are available in multiple languages, including Spanish and Mam. You can find details about the district’s ICE-related policies and protocols here.

— Erica Hellerstein

Ear to the Ground

El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches 5,600 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. In recent weeks, many subscribers have shared their own fears and how the current political climate has frightened their children. We’ve also heard about their worries regarding ICE agents at schools, thoughts about the future of DACA and inquiries about how to create a family plan in case of family separation. Here are a few of their responses.

“I would like more information on how to identify false publications, particularly regarding claims about the deportation of individuals who have applied for a U visa. I am not the only one feeling scared; my children are also afraid to the point of thinking about going to Mexico or not leaving [the house], fearing that I might be taken away.”

“Quiero más información sobre cómo distinguir publicaciones falsas, como la deportación de personas que aplicaron para una visa U. Porque no sólo me asusto yo. Mis niños también se asustan al grado de pensar en irse a México o de no salir porque piensan que me van a llevar a mi”.

— Hayward resident

“Ending temporary stay programs, such as TPS, seems like it would be too drastic. Regarding DACA, I find it very unfair because the beneficiaries did not voluntarily commit any wrongdoing.”

“Terminar con los programas de estadía temporal, cómo TPS, me parece que sería algo demasiado drástico. Con respecto al DACA, lo consideraría muy injusto porque los beneficiados no incurrieron en faltas voluntariamente”.

— Concord resident

From the El Tímpano newsroom

Soaring housing costs make life even more challenging for Oakland’s unaccompanied minors

Amid staggering cost of living and debt, young migrants’ mental health needs take a back seat.

New rules aim to protect California farmworkers after extreme heat cut last year’s work short

Now, farmworkers in Contra Costa County look anxiously ahead to March.

El Tímpano hosts panel on Oakland’s pervasive lead problem

Experts consider potential solutions in the context of a city budget crisis and federal turmoil.

Stories we’re following

CA health care workers prep for ICE arrests. With the Trump administration reversing a long-standing policy that protected hospitals, schools, churches, and health centers from ICE enforcement, health care workers across California are stepping up their immigration legal training. At La Clínica de La Raza in Oakland, hundreds of staff members are learning what to do if ICE agents show up at their doors, KFF Health News reports. The clinic network’s plans include posting information about patients’ constitutional rights in lobbies and distributing contact information for legal aid groups. Elsewhere, health care workers are handing out red cards with an overview of immigrants’ legal rights in case of an ICE encounter. El Tímpano’s senior health reporter, Jasmine Aguilera, will be tracking how these policy shifts are affecting clinics and patients on the ground. If you have a story to share, you can reach her at jaguilera@eltimpano.org,

California Democrats’ muted defense of sanctuary policies. California’s top Democrats have been surprisingly subdued in response to President Trump’s renewed threats against sanctuary cities and states, CalMatters reports. It’s a stark contrast to their vocal defense of sanctuary protections during Trump’s first term. Take Governor Gavin Newsom: In 2017, he called California “the poster child for sanctuary policy.” Now, he’s tiptoeing around the term and has promised to veto a bill that would limit state prisons’ cooperation with ICE.

So, what’s behind the shift? There are a couple of theories. Some say Democratic leaders don’t want to provoke Trump, whose threats to cut federal funding could deal a blow to cities that take in billions in federal dollars, like San Francisco. Others say the party is on the defensive after a bruising 2024 election and concerns that voter sentiment on immigration is shifting to the right.

Either way, California Republicans are seizing the moment. A group of GOP lawmakers is pushing a bill to roll back the state’s sanctuary protections. Their proposal would force local police to work with ICE in cases involving people convicted of hundreds of felonies or misdemeanors and block cities from enacting stronger sanctuary policies than the state’s. The bill would need Democratic support to pass, but its sponsor, Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego), told KQED that his discussions with Democrats in Sacramento “have been more positive than I expected.”

Trump admin seeks mass immigration registry. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Trump administration has unveiled a plan to require all undocumented immigrants age 14 and older to register and provide their biometric data with the U.S. government—or face criminal or civil penalties. The Department of Homeland Security says the rule is part of a broader campaign to encourage undocumented immigrants to “self-deport.”

But the policy does not seem especially realistic. It’s hard to imagine what would motivate an undocumented person to voluntarily hand over personal data to a government that has made mass deportation its central policy objective. Already, conversations our newsroom has had with sources across the Bay Area suggest that people are thinking twice about all sorts of decisions that are not nearly as ominous as a government registry, like sending kids to school, showing up for immigration court hearings and going to work. We’ll be following how this plays out—and how it affects communities on the ground.

Resource of the week

This week, after receiving many questions from community members about whether it was safe to bring their kids to school, we expanded our Spanish-language immigration FAQ to include information and resources about ICE enforcement in schools, as well as guidance from the California Attorney General. We also added resources for students and families in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). You can check out the latest additions here.

Do you or someone you know work with Spanish-speaking immigrants in the Bay Area? Share it with them and let them know they can text us any questions at (510) 800-8305.

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