Tom Steyer, a billionaire activist, is paying influencers to boost his California governor campaign while a state law offers little accountability. Some influencers did not disclose their paid posts in violation of the law, which aims to bring transparency to the relationship between politicians and content creators.
Billionaire Tom Steyer is paying influencers to boost his California governor campaign. Some didn’t disclose it. A state law offers little accountability.meant to bring transparency to the increasingly intertwined world of politics and content creators , enacting a law requiring influencers to be upfront in their posts about being paid by a political campaign.
In one of the first tests of the law, regulators have opened an investigation into one of the Steyer influencer videos. Jaz Roche, also known to nearly 11,000 Tiktok followers as @spo0kymom, hawks facial cleansing bars, baby wagons and AI tools in short social media videos. On a website where clients can pay her to post videos about their products, she says she’s based in Pennsylvania.
Yet the content creator has taken an interest in the Tiktok and Instagram accounts linked to Roche have posted 34 times in the past 10 days to boost the campaign of billionaire“Hear me out, I have something to admit,” she says in the first video, posted May 8, on an account where she describes herself as a “so-cal girlypop. ” “I did not expect the most progressive governor candidate to be a billionaire. But look at the policies, you guys.
”most expensive primary campaign in state historymeant to bring transparency to the increasingly intertwined world of politics and content creators, enacting a law requiring influencers to be upfront in their posts about being paid by a political campaign. In one of the first tests of the law, regulators have opened an investigation into one of the Steyer influencer videos.
But experts and transparency advocates aren’t optimistic: The law was intentionally designed with no real penalties, and the agency responsible for enforcing it “This is where the ‘Wild West’ analogy becomes useful,” said Dan Schnur, a political science professor and former chair of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.that includes $100,000 to Texas-based Latino mega-influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina, whose 14.3 million Tiktok followers are a coveted target for Democrats and who has endorsed Steyer. The campaign is also paying over $870,000 to a digital media agency, Group Project Digital, that solicits creators to post daily videos about Steyer.
The listing initially offered $10 per video; it was amended last week to offer $1,000 a month and now includes a sentence telling creators they need to disclose the payments. The state investigation covers just one of the influencer videos, in which content creator Isaiah Washington did not disclose that Steyer’s campaign paid him $10,000 for a now-deleted video.
It was sparked by a complaint from a pair of political social media influencers who post frequently in support of Becerra. On Tuesday, they filed another complaint alleging numerous additional paid, undisclosed posts, including from accounts in other countries.
“What he’s done is inundate the Internet in every way, shape and form to try and create an echo chamber,” said Beatrice Gomberg, one of the complainants. Among the accounts they’ve recently highlighted: @foosgonewild, which has posted memes, content about Southern California street culture and, on May 5, an interview with Steyer talking about his opposition to ICE. The account has 3.3 million followers on Instagram and 1 million on Tiktok. The Tiktok video has no disclosures.
On Instagram, at the bottom of the video description, the account notes it’s a partner with California-based social video firm Flighthouse. Neither the content creator nor Flighthouse responded to requests for comment. The Steyer campaign would not disclose how much it paid the firm.
Spokesperson Kevin Liao called Gomberg’s first complaint “baseless” and said the campaign specified in its contracts with all third-party content firms that they needed to include payment disclosures, satisfying the campaign’s legal obligations under the state transparency law. The campaign doesn’t review posts in advance, he said. Asked why the campaign had paid some creators who don’t live in California, he said, “I don’t see why that’s an issue.
”, rising to more than two in five for those under age 30. With traditional television hemorrhaging viewership and Americans hooked on the infinite scroll, campaigns are increasingly chasing posts.
They regularly hold events to court paid and unpaid influencers and sit for video interviews, aided by a new crop of talent agencies and digital media firms that represent influencers and solicit their content.last fall, political influencer Arielle Fodor received a flurry of messages warning her to stay away from him. It prompted her to post videos discussing rumors of his sexual misconduct, she has said.
He“Politics is all content now,” said Alex Stack, a Democratic consultant and former communications staffer for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Candidates need to be content creators and they need a little online army behind them to get traction. ” Roche’s videos about Steyer — some featuring her talking, some simply showing text praising Steyer over mundane videos of her life — have gotten no more than 1,100 views each. They’re posted on accounts with fewer than two dozen followers, a far cry from the millions of Californians Steyer’s TV ad spending blitz is reaching.
But they provide something critical for the billionaire candidate who’s funding his own campaign: the impression of grassroots support. In a briefing memo for creators obtained by CalMatters, the campaign’s digital firm tells Tiktokers and Instagrammers that the “title of billionaire is his biggest sticking point,” and that the campaign wants to reach California women, Latinos and African Americans.
The Sacramento Bee firstAdvertisers covet creators regardless of audience size for their ability to portray a product endorsement as an organic recommendation from a friend. Candidates courting voters are no different.
For example, an organization representing California lawyers is paying influencers to promote a ballot measure targeting Uber's responsibility for sexual assaults by its drivers. Matt Mahan’s campaign for governor has alsoSerabeth Mullaney, a part-time San Francisco content creator promoting cat treats and AI tools, turned down an offer to make videos boosting Steyer’s campaign because of her opposition to billionaires in politics.
The 29-year-old said she gets most of her news from social media so she’s concerned about the seep of paid political ads into influencer content.
“Anyone desperate to make that , they’re going to do the campaign,” she said. “Whether or not they believe in Tom Steyer, they’re going to post those videos. ”for proposing the 2024 transparency law. Before that, campaigns only needed to disclose payment for ads they posted directly; paid content on third-party platforms was largely unregulated.
But the agency primarily relies on complaints to launch investigations, and violations of the law come with few consequences — no fines or criminal charges for creators or campaigns. The only thing the agency can do is ask a court to force an influencer to disclose payments, but experts say that's an expensive and time-consuming effort for a fleeting video.
, a Santa Ana Democrat who authored the law, said paid influencers in politics are more prevalent than three years ago and lawmakers should make the requirements more enforceable.
“Transparency is like whack-a-mole,” Umberg said. “Every year there’s a new modality, and so there’s a new way to get around stuff. ”Now the gubernatorial candidates and their supporters are engaged in a mass scrutiny of all the posts boosting each others’ campaigns. Critics have also questioned the relationship between Becerra and numerous creators who have boosted his campaign since Swalwell dropped out.
The Becerra campaign has insisted it has never paid any content creator for a post. The campaign seeks relationships with creators who are willing to post for free as a blend of campaign volunteer and reporter, said digital strategist Alf Lamont.
“Paid influencer campaigns don’t carry the kind of punch that organizing does,” Lamont said. “We want to make sure we’re getting folks who truly believe in it so we don’t face the second-guesses and the ‘paid by’ and the feeling you’re looking at something that’s insincere. ”before he started creating pro-Becerra videos on multiple platforms in March, a month before the campaign hired him as a full-time social media strategist.
Gonzalez has recently been amending his posts with disclosures that he is paid by the campaign, “out of extreme caution so as not to seem disingenuous to my audience. ” Opponents point out Gonzalez and another creator who has posted numerous times in Becerra’s favor, Maggie Reed or @mermaidmamamaggie, have previously charged for content.
Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign solicited unpaid videos from both of them in the spring, and received quotes from each influencer’s agent of $7,000 to $16,500, emails shared with CalMatters show. The Villaraigosa campaign confirmed the exchanges. On Tuesday, Steyer’s campaign filed a complaint alleging both influencers’ videos were paid for by Becerra’s campaign with no disclosure. Becerra’s campaign has not reported any payments to Reed in campaign finance filings, and Lamont denied paying either creator for content.
Gonzalez, in an email, said that he had previously declined a paid offer from the Villaraigosa campaign. Reed did not respond to a request for comment. Gomberg and Kaitlyn Hennessy, friends who met at a Becerra rally, have both posted frequently in favor of his campaign — for free, they say.
The pair began sleuthing online in early May, eventually filing a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission last week alleging Steyer’s campaign hired Roche, Washington and several other content creators to post on his behalf without disclosing it. Posing as another, unnamed campaign, they emailed creators offering paid political content work to prompt them to talk about posting for Steyer’s campaign.
One account, @isabel.speakss, purported to belong to a “so cal girl sharing her thoughts” named Isabel Mendoza and has exclusively posted about Steyer since May 9. The woman in the videos appears identical to Jade Johnson, a Florida-based influencer. Since the complaint was filed, Roche and the other creators have included disclaimers in their posts. None of them responded to inquiries from CalMatters asking if they knew about the campaign disclosure law.
After a CalMatters reporter asked Johnson whether she was asked to pose as a California voter, the @isabel.speakss account on Monday afternoon removed the “so cal” description from its profile. None of those creators are listed in Steyer’s latest campaign finance filings as subcontractors of any digital strategy firm. Steyer spokesperson Liao said they will appear in the next filing. CalMatters reached out to all the creators listed in the filings; none agreed to an interview.
They include lifestyle influencers, comedians and musicians whom Steyer paid between $1,500 and $10,000, mostly through another firm, to post video interviews with Steyer or talk about his platform. One of them labeled her video a “paid partnership;” others did not disclose campaign payments or have since deleted their videos. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Pasadena Tuesday over whether the federal government has the right to access sensitive data about California’s 23 million voters.
The court also heard a nearly identical case involving Oregon.sued by the Trump administration in an effort to get access to unredacted state voter registration rolls. The administration says it wants to make sure only citizens are voting and that states are otherwise properly maintaining their rolls, for example, by removing people who have died. California has offered access to its publicly available voter file, which does not include information like driver’s license and social security numbers.
State election and privacy laws prohibit state officials from sharing that more sensitive data, and lawyers for California argue that federal laws do not allow the U.S. Department of Justice unfettered access to the state’s voter files. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Pasadena Tuesday over whether the federal government has the right to access sensitive data about California’s 23 million voters.
The court also heard a nearly identical case involving Oregon.sued by the Trump administration in an effort to get access to unredacted state voter registration rolls. The administration says it wants to make sure only citizens are voting and that states are otherwise properly maintaining their rolls, for example, by removing people who have died. California has offered access to its publicly available voter file, which does not include information like driver’s license and social security numbers.
State election and privacy laws prohibit state officials from sharing that more sensitive data, and lawyers for California argue that federal laws do not allow the U.S. Department of Justice unfettered access to the state’s voter files. Trump administration officials have given different reasons for requesting the data over the past year. But earlier this month, ato check the immigration status of voters.
NPR and other news outlets have reported on major flaws in the system, including improperlyIt differs in each state. Some states give flagged voters time to prove their eligibility; others suspend or cancel registration immediately. Voting rights groups worry that a large number of voters may be disenfranchised right before the midterm election. — some Republican-led states are resisting the federal government’s demands for sensitive voter data.
At least 15 states have agreed to provide their full registration lists, most of them Republican-led, according to theThere's no specific timeline for a ruling from the Ninth Circuit. A separate appeals court is considering the Trump administration’s demand for Michigan voter data. Depending on the outcome of that and the California and Oregon cases, observers say the issue could be headed to the Supreme Court.see the app's support page.
Los Angeles officials address the rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Koreatown on May 19, 2026, one day after a deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Los Angeles officials called attention to the rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric following a deadly shooting at a San Diego mosque.
A day after gunmen killed three people outside a mosque in San Diego, Muslim leaders in Los Angeles said the attack was fueled by a growing climate of Islamophobia in America. Local officials pledged increased security around places of worship as the investigation continues into the mass shooting. The shooters, ages 17 and 18, opened fire outside the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday morning in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
Federal investigators said the two met online and shared writings expressing hatred toward Muslims, Jews and other minority groups. Authorities also recovered anti-Islamic writings and messages carved into their weapons, according to the Los Angeles Times. A day after gunmen killed three people outside a mosque in San Diego, Muslim leaders in Los Angeles said the attack was fueled by a growing climate of Islamophobia in America.
Local officials pledged increased security around places of worship as the investigation continues into the mass shooting. The shooters, ages 17 and 18, opened fire outside the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday morning in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Federal investigators said the two met online and shared writings expressing hatred toward Muslims, Jews and other minority groups. Authorities also recovered anti-Islamic writings and messages carved into their weapons, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In Los Angeles, Muslim community leaders on Tuesday condemned what they described as the normalization of anti-Muslim rhetoric nationwide. Omar Ricci, spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Southern California, said the attack did not happen in isolation.
“Even the perpetrators of the crime were victims,” he said, “of what we call and is well-known to us in the Muslim community, the industry of Islamophobia. An industry that deliberately creates fear and division. ” “This is not a mysterious situation,” Ricci said.
“The Islamophobic industry that seeks to create fear of Muslims and tell the rest of America that Islam and Muslims are incompatible with the society in which we live — it has grown in the past year. ” Other Muslim leaders said the shooting reflects a broader national climate in which Muslims and other minority groups are increasingly portrayed as threats.
Khalid Hudson of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in L.A. said the attack should not be viewed as an isolated act carried out by two young men.
“We have to address the root cause: publicly acceptable anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric,” he said at a Tuesday press conference at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Koreatown, Local officials said law enforcement agencies across Los Angeles County have increased patrols around mosques and other places of worship following the shooting. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the attack “grossly unacceptable” and noted that it came as Muslims enter a sacred period of prayer and reflection during the month of Dhul Hijjah.
“I’ve been in close coordination with LAPD to enhance security specifically around mosques,” Bass said. “And across Los Angeles, we will do everything to keep you safe. ” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna urged residents to report warning signs of extremist violence before attacks occur.
“If you hear something, if you see something, and in this day and age, if you read something, you have to share it with us,” Luna said. “This could literally save dozens of people’s lives. ” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the shooting could have been much worse. The Islamic Center includes both a mosque and a school for students ages 5 and up, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities commended the actions of Amin Abdullah, a security guard who defended the center before he was fatally shot during a shootout with the gunmen. Abdullah also radioed staff members to place the center on lockdown, according to officials. Authorities identified the other two victims as Nader Awad and Mansour Kaziha, who were shot outside the mosque.
“We need to speak the name of Amin Abdullah, while never speaking the names of his killers,” Hochman said. “We cannot wait until the bullets are fired to take hatred seriously,” he added. “I want every resident in Los Angeles County to know that this office, in connection with this community and law enforcement, will continue to aggressively prosecute hate crimes wherever and whenever they occur.
” Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, also criticized recent federal policies placing political conditions on security grants for mosques. The Department of Homeland Security pulled federal funding from places of worship “with alleged affiliations to terrorist activities” according to reporting from Fox News.
“I just want to give one message to those that are trying to marginalize, deport, stigmatize, expel Muslims from America,” Al-Marayati said at Tuesday’s news conference. “America is our home. We are not going anywhere. ”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. An attendee wears party colors at a primary election night party for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson on Tuesday in Atlanta. Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed candidate after the president and his allies blitzed Massie with tens of millions in ads.
This was the most expensive House primary in history with $33 million total spent on TV ads and a lot of it aimed at Massie, according to NPR ad-tracking partner AdImpact. President Donald Trump got more wins in Republican primaries on Tuesday, most notably in Kentucky. There, Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed candidate after the president and his allies blitzed Massie with tens of millions in ads.
In fact, this was the most expensive House primary in history with $33 million total spent on TV ads and a lot of it aimed at Massie, according to NPR ad-tracking partner AdImpact. While Trump continues to rack up victories on his vengeance tour, general election opponents are waiting in swing districts and swing states, and Trump is a double-edged sword — popular with the base but unpopular with more than half the country.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday night's elections:Trump made it clear again that he's the alpha dog in Republican Party politics. Massie became the latest, high-profile political casualty Tuesday night. Trump said all he needed was a"warm body" to pluck the thorn-in-Trump's-side that Massie had become. And in Ed Gallrein, who served in the Navy as a SEAL officer, Trump said he got that warm body — with"a big, beautiful brain.
" In the end, it wasn't a very close race, a 10-point margin.in Louisiana on Saturday, this week has been a punctuation mark on Trump's strength with the party. In addition to Massie and Cassidy losing, another Trump foe, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also did not advance to a runoff for Georgia governor Tuesday night.
Raffensperger was at the center of the 2020 presidential election controversy in the state when Trump pressured him to overturn the election results there that saw Democrat Joe Biden narrowly win the state. Raffensperger refused to go along and now joins a list of Republicans whose political careers were shortened because GOP voters punished them after their opposition to Trump. The Senate primaries in Georgia and Alabama were also all about candidates trying to out-MAGA each other.
They hugged Trump as closely as possible to get through those contests. Trump certainly showed his strength in these Republican primaries, but primaries aren't general elections, and Alabama and Georgia, while neighbors, have become very different states. They both have conservative primary electorates, but Alabama is a much more conservative general election state. Georgia is much more purple and has two Democratic senators.
One of them, Jon Ossoff, is a top GOP target this fall. It's worth remembering that, as the Republican primary heads to a runoff between the top two vote-getters on June 16, Trump may be popular with rank-and-file conservative voters, but he's equally, if not more, unpopular with swing voters, according to polls, focus groups and reports.
His approval ratings are among the lowest of either of his terms as president, especially on the economy — the top issue for voters. This has been the Trump quandary for Republicans for as long as he's been the leader of the party. Republicans need him to turn out the base, but he's toxic with independents and now with lots of crossover voting groups, who cast ballots for him in 2024, like Latinos, according to polls.
In a general election in a place like Georgia, Republicans have to be careful not to look too extreme, if they want to have a chance of unseating Ossoff in November. One way to do that is to focus on kitchen-table issues. The economy and prices in particular continue to be voters' top concerns.
Let's zoom in on a place where that economic swing-district messaging is going to be tested, one that always seems to be full of bellwethers — Pennsylvania. There are three congressional races here, in fact, that the Cook Political Report rates as toss-ups. That includes the 7th Congressional District in the Lehigh Valley. It features freshman Republican Rep.
Ryan Mackenzie, who will now face off against Democrat Bob Brooks, the state firefighters union president. , according to AdImpact, Mackenzie stresses that he"voted for working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families, no tax on tips and no tax on overtime.
" He mentions wanting to expand health savings accounts, as well, and keeps a hard line on immigration. Is that a winning message? It will be tested, as Republicans in these kinds of districts are trudging uphill right now given the national political environment and as Democrats look to flip this district Trump won by 3 points in 2024 and narrowly lost four years earlier.
Trump's economic approval ratings are in the 30s, and people are blaming him for higher prices, according to the polls.
" —"a firefighter, snowplow driver, and union leader" who will"stand up to corporate greed and a corrupt political system. " It's a left-wing, working-class populist message that will also be tested — as will Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's political strength in this key presidential state, as he eyes a potential run for higher office in 2028. , the controversial state attorney general, in the Republican primary runoff against Republican Sen.
John Cornyn. Trump had pledged to endorse after Cornyn failed to reach the 50%-plus threshold to win the primary outright. The smart money was on Trump to endorse Cornyn to avoid a messy, drawn-out primary — and to safely keep this Senate seat in Republican hands. Operatives close to Trump were working for Cornyn, and that seemed to be the way things were headed.
But then Paxton came out strongly in support of the SAVE America Act, the voting law that Trump has championed that would require not just voter ID, but birth certificates or passports to register to vote. That seemed to put a pause on Trump's endorsement of anyone — until Tuesday when Trump flipped the script and went with the uber-MAGA Paxton. Make no mistake: this puts Texas on the map.
Texas was seen as a likely much easier win for Republicans in November with Cornyn as the GOP nominee than if it's Paxton.. This is Texas, after all, and no Democrat has won statewide since 1994. But Republicans now are going to have to back up the money truck to try to save this seat — and it will be super expensive.
Look for Trump's political action committee, MAGA Inc., with its deep war chest and now Trump's endorsement, to play heavily to try to keep this seat red.explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.nationwide. But, in California, FAFSA completion among U.S. citizens in mixed-status families has dropped—and so has their completion of the California Dream Act Application, which provides access to state-based financial aid.
The U.S. Department of Education uses FAFSA data to provide federal financial aid. Colleges also use this information to calculate how much students will pay to go to their campus. Schools then make offers to prospective students, which can be composed of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study. For many students, these packages determine where—and even if—students will go to college.
to access state-based financial aid. In 2024, the California Student Aid Commission began encouraging U.S. citizens in mixed-status families to consider CADAA as an option after learning that these students wereCollege access advocates attribute the declining completion among students in mixed-status families to fear about how the Trump administration may use their data and misinformation about the type of aid that can be accessed through the two applications.to “clarify and ensure that can be used by any student eligible for state financial aid programs, regardless of their eligibility for federal financial aid.
” According to Justin Hurst, government relations and advocacy manager at the commission, the bill is “ currently parked in appropriations.
" And “in the absence of any information on it being able to advance in its current form,” he added, the commission is advocating to have similar language included in aThe rate of high school seniors completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has hit an all-time high with the class of 2026, according to But among U.S. citizens in mixed-status families — those where at least one parent is an undocumented immigrant — FAFSA completion in California has dropped. So has their completion of the California Dream Act Application, which provides access to state-based financial aid.
That difference is even more pronounced because California is otherwise a leader in how many students complete FAFSA, which gives them access to federal student loans, work study programs and grants. According to the California Student Aid Commission, FAFSA completion among first-time applicants from mixed-status families dropped by over 3,000 students this past year. CADAA completion by students in mixed-status families fell by 910.
“That is not a small fluctuation,” said Nicole Kangas, a CSAC spokesperson, at a recent media roundtable. “That is a sharp and significant withdrawal from financial aid and higher education systems. Each one of these numbers represents a student who is a U.S. citizen and is eligible for federal aid, as well as state aid. And we should be concerned by any signs of application declines among this vulnerable group.
”The U.S. Department of Education uses FAFSA data to provide federal financial aid. Colleges also use this information to calculate how much students will pay to go to their campus. Schools then make offers to prospective students, which can be composed of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study. For many students, these packages determine where—and even if—students will go to college.to access state-based financial aid.
In 2024, the California Student Aid Commission began encouraging U.S. citizens in mixed-status families to consider CADAA as an option after learning that these students were CADAA completion among undocumented students and students with temporary immigration relief picked up a bit last year. But, generally, completion rates for this group are on a downward trend, which immigrant advocates“ California has spent years telling students that college is the pathway to opportunity.
But for many immigrant students and mixed-status families, that message now collides with another reality: fear,” Kangas said.
“Fear that applying for aid could expose a loved one to harm, and fear that the systems designed to support them may not be able to protect them. That fear is reshaping college-going behavior in California in real time, and if we do not respond with urgency, we risk losing an entire generation of students. ”“What we're hearing consistently is that students aren't opting out because they don't value college,” said Justin Hurst, government relations and advocacy manager at CSAC.
“They're opting out because they're worried that applying could expose them or a loved one to immigration enforcement, or that their information could then be accessed or misused. ” For students who fear completing the FAFSA for the first time, CSAC has instructed counselors across the state to underscore that state-based aid through CADAA is still an option — and that the latter includes legal protections to safeguard student data under the “Even when strong privacy protections do exist, confusion will often spread faster than any reassurance that can be provided, especially through social media, peer networks, rumors.
So not applying often feels like the safest choice,” Hurst said. Marcos Montes, policy director at SoCal CAN, a coalition made up of over 120 educational nonprofits, provided an example: Recently, he heard about a U.S. citizen who was inaccurately advised that if she submitted the CADAA, she would be considered for federal aid.
The student, he added, was later confused about why her financial aid package didn’t include a federal Pell Grant, which provides up to $7,395 a year for low-income families. Montes also noted that some college access advocates have wondered if CADAA completion declines among undocumented students are due to.
“But the best estimates available demonstrate that, every year, about 10,000 undocumented students graduate from California's high schools,” he said. Last year, 4,570 undocumented students completed the application, down from 8,833 in 2019.
“ The fact that we are also living in a post-DACA environment complicates things,” Montes added. “All of the students graduating from high school today are not eligible for DACA, and many wonder if pursuing higher education is even worth it if they would have very limited work opportunities during and after college. ” DACA, or the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program, grants work permits for undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children.
It’s also meant to provide temporary deportation relief. But, under the second Trump administration, at least 270 DACA recipientsThe role of advocates, Montes said, is to “empower students and families to make the best choice for them. ” If students have older siblings who are in college, or if they’re renewing their financial aid applications, the federal government likely already has their family’s information, he said — this is also true for undocumented parents who pay federal taxes.
For some, completing a FAFSA might make the most sense. But “for a student who's just really afraid” of how the federal government might use their data, he said sticking to the state-based CADAA might be the best fit. According CSAC's Hurst, the bill is “ currently parked in appropriations.
" And “in the absence of any information on it being able to advance in its current form,” he added, the commission is advocating to have similar language included in a
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