The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by volunteer members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.

Issue No. 236 - July 25, 2025

ICE in Los Angeles

• A federal judge has ordered an immediate stop to the raids being conducted by ICE and other federal agencies, citing “a mountain of evidence” that the arrests were indiscriminate racial profiling, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Though the Trump administration requested a stay while it appealed the decision, the injunction remains in place.

• The Trump administration has recalled 2,000 national guard troops and 700 marines that had been sent to enforce the administration's attacks on immigrant communities. The pullback comes amid widespread reporting of discontent among the troops who were deployed in this way, including coverage of a document leak related to the failed occupation of MacArthur Park earlier this month.

• A new study reveals a 3.1% drop in California private-sector employment as the effects of the Trump administration’s ICE raids ripple into the economy at large. A decline this sharp has not been seen since the onset of COVID. Similar declines in public transportation ridership and school attendance have been observed.

• LA Taco continues to publish daily roundups of anti-immigrant raids from around Los Angeles, which may have slowed down following a recent court ruling, but have not stopped.

Health Care

• Under pressure from the Trump administration, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has announced that it will no longer provide care for transgender youth, suspending a practice that had been in place for 30 years. Kaiser Permanente has announced that it will no longer provide gender-affirming surgeries for minors.

• Planned Parenthood, California’s largest abortion provider, has lost access to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding as fallout from the recent congressional reconciliation bill, which withholds Medicaid reimbursement from abortion providers.

Housing

• DSA-LA, in coalition with Keep LA Housed, is leading an effort to revise the city’s rent control formula – which currently favors landlords – in favor of tenants. LA Public Press surveys the hardships faced by tenants in the context of this effort. Toolkit to tell city council to limit rent hikes in rent controlled units here.

• Los Angeles County officials are concerned about potential cuts in funding for homelessness services, following a Trump executive order that appears to shift funding towards entities that enforce the administration’s preferred draconian—and demonstrably ineffective— homelessness policy.

• The LA Times reports on landlords using the threat of ICE deportation in an attempt to pressure tenants into self-evictions.

Local Media

• The right-wing billionaire owner of the LA Times has announced plans to transform the newspaper into a publicly traded company in the coming year.