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covers Orange County and its 34 cities, watching those long meetings — boards, councils and more — so you don’t have to.San Clemente’s City Council has approved a proposal to give federal immigration officials broad oversight of the city’s coastline, despite overwhelming public opposition.
Under the agreement approved Tuesday, Customs and Border Patrol can install cameras on a hilltop to keep an eye on the city’s waters for incoming panga boats. If people from the panga boats head into the city, federal agents can surveil them in residential neighborhoods. City officials will not have access to the surveillance system or how it’s being used. The agreement was approved on a 3-1 vote, with one council member abstaining.The city manager will enter into a lease with Customs and Border Patrol giving them access to the land to install the camera.San Clemente’s City Council has approved a proposal to give federal immigration officials broad oversight of the city’s coastline, despite overwhelming public opposition. Under the agreement, Customs and Border Patrol will be able to install cameras on a hilltop to keep an eye on the city’s waters for incoming panga boats. If people from the panga boats head into the city, federal agents can surveil them in residential neighborhoods. City officials will not have access to the surveillance system or how it’s being used. The agreement — approved on a 3-1 vote, with one council member abstaining — comes even as city officials have acknowledged there hasn’t been a rise in panga boat landings within city limits. As next steps, the city manager will enter into a lease with Customs and Border Patrol giving them access to the land to install the camera.City leaders directed the city manager to enter into a lease agreement with Customs and Border Patrol for a five-year term, with three five-year renewal options. Federal immigration agents will also pay a one-time fee of $10 to the city and cover electricity costs.San Clemente residents mostly spoke out against entering into the lease, with many citing privacy concerns. “ The federal government is demanding a black box operation on our soil. They're asking for a platform to monitor our coastline with zero local oversight,” resident Robin Seymour said at the council meeting.“Given that racial profiling is a common tactic of these agencies, how can you guarantee that someone who looks like me won't be swept up in something like this?” she said. Mark Enmeier, the sole voice of dissent on the dais, also raised concerns with the agreement’s lack of oversight in how the surveillance data will be used. In the city report, officials said CBP “has stated the system would be configured to avoid scanning residential areas that fall into the scan viewshed.” However, city officials said Tuesday night that the agency “can't commit contractually to not surveilling anything inside the city limits of San Clemente or inside the residential area.”with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed the agency to use its jails after coming under pressure whenMonterey Park city leaders on Wednesday night will consider a temporary halt on a massive data center project after residents raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and community.The data center proposed by SDCF Monterey Park, LLC, would be 247,480 square feet — larger than the size of four football fields.The project has been under discussion since 2024, but residents say they've only heard about it in recent months. They worry that the facility could significantly increase local electricity and water use, along with noise and air pollution from industrial equipment.It would pause the project for at least 45 days — and up to two years — and give the city time to reconsider how data centers should be regulated.What does this mean for digital equity? The California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval included a slew of digital equity requirements, such as expanding affordable internet and new fiber optic projects.. CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said requirements from the Verizon deal will benefit Californians and align with the state’s mission to expand affordable connectivity.The California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval included a slew of digital equity requirements, such as expanding affordable internet and new fiber optic projects. CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said requirements from the deal will benefit Californians and align with the state’s mission to expand affordable connectivity. “California isn’t just approving a merger, we’re securing real commitments that will connect communities, lower costs for families who need it most, and strengthen workforce and supplier diversity protections,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Our greatly expanded footprint will enable us to provide more value to more households and businesses in more regions, driving our growth and benefitting our customers and our shareholders,” Schulman said.The closed merger means Verizon must expand affordable voice and broadband plans. That includes providing free broadband service to qualifying low-income families for at least 10 years. And for at least the next five years, Verizon can’t raise rates on its affordable plans. The state also reported that Verizon must invest in 75,000 new fiber locations and build 25 new wireless towers that will reach rural areas. The decision also adopts multiple settlement agreements that include additional commitments related to affordability, service quality, labor protections, infrastructure deployment and $500 million in spending with small businesses.Some concerns remain about what these mergers could mean for customers, according to Lindsey Skolnik, manager at the California Alliance for Digital Equity. “Recognizing that declining competition in the marketplace ultimately leads to increased concentration of power over broadband pricing and service offerings, this potential outcome is deeply worrisome, especially in the midst of California's affordability crisis,” Skolnik said in a statement. Much of California’s broadband prices are driven by the Big 5 providers that include Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Cox and Verizon-Frontier. They service around 97% of the state’s 10.7 million broadband subscribers, Skolnick said. In the coming years, the Big 5 could shrink to the Big 4 if the merger between Charter Communications and Cox Communications closes.that it had offered to acquire Cox for around $34.5 billion, consolidating two of the largest cable companies in the country.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.— notably smaller than other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But ICE's budget has skyrocketed during President Trump's second term, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with, enacted last July. After hovering around the $10 billion mark for years, ICE's budget suddenly benefited from a meteoric spike.ICE is now the lead agency in President's Trump immigration crackdown, sending thousands of agents into U.S. communities. As its funding and profile has grown as part of those efforts, ICE has come under increasing criticism for its officers' actions, from masked agents randomly stopping, questioning, and detaining people and— notably smaller than other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But ICE's budget has skyrocketed during President Trump's second term, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with, enacted last July. After hovering around the $10 billion mark for years, ICE's budget suddenly benefited from a meteoric spike. "With this new bill and other appropriations, it's larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined," said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy institute. ICE is now the lead agency in President's Trump immigration crackdown, sending thousands of agents into U.S. communities. As its funding and profile has grown as part of those efforts, ICE has come under increasing criticism for its officers' actions, from masked agents randomly stopping, questioning, and detaining people andICE's sudden growth spurt follows roughly two decades of relatively modest funding since 2003, when the agency was created by merging the U.S. Customs Service with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 2015, for instance, Congress approved a budget of around $5.96 billion, which wasUnder the 2025 law, ICE has a $75 billion supplement that it can take as long as four years to spend, along with its base budget of around $10 billion. If the agency spends that money at a steady pace and current funding levels continue, it would have nearly $29 billion on hand each year. That essentially triples ICE's total budget from recent years.. And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also allocates $45 billion for ICE to expand its immigration detention system — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last June that the agency will be able to hold up to 100,000 people in custody daily. With those metrics in mind, ICE went on a hiring spree in 2025, fueled by its bigger budget. In just one year,, it"more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000." (The Office of Personnel Management, which tracks federal workforce statistics,ICE is still on that hiring spree, looking to hire deportation officers in at least 25 cities around the U.S., according to a job listing on thethat will remain active through the end of September. The starting salary for an ICE deportation officer in the Enforcement and Removal Operations division, or ERO, ranges from $51,632 up to $84,277.With base level funding for DHS and ICE due to expire at the end of January, Democrats in Congress areICE's increased budget makes sense to Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the right-wing Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group advocating for lower levels of immigration. He says the funding boost"is directly commensurate with the size of the task the agency is addressing." "ICE exists to find and remove people who are in the country illegally," Mehlman said, referring to a category that grew when the Trump administration The focus of the new spending reflects President Trump's emphasis on arrests and removals, said Margy O'Herron, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program who worked at the DOJ in the Biden administration. O'Herron said she agrees with the idea that, for years, a reasonable case could be made that DHS agencies such as ICE and CBP needed more money. But other parts of the immigration system aren't getting as much help, she said. "All of the money is going to enforcement to arrest, to detain and to deport," she said."It's not going to things like immigration hearings or immigration judges, to conduct additional review of whether or not somebody should be in the country. And that is a real problem for the system." A resident confronts a federal agent near a crashed car as they investigate the scene of a reported shooting during an operation by federal immigration officers in Willowbrook.: The operation happened at 7:05 a.m. in Compton, according to DHS in a statement on X. Officials said they arrested William Eduardo Moran Carballo, who the DHS said was not injured in the shooting. Officials allege Carballo used his vehicle and rammed law enforcement. They said an agent fired shots after"fearing for his life and safety." In a statement to LAist, the DHS said"this situation is evolving, and more information is forthcoming.” LAist has not been able to independently verify the details of the incident. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and Border Patrol did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.: The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department responded to the shooting around 7:25 a.m. at the 2400 block of 126th Street in unincorporated Willowbrook, according: Violent and deadly incidents involving federal agents conducting immigration sweeps across the U.S. have sparked intense backlash in local communities. There have been at least 17 shootings involving immigration agents since President Donald Trump launched his immigration crackdown, according to the
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