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. 240 - September 19, 2025

State Politics

• The 2025 session of the state legislature has closed. CalMatters reviews the bills that passed, and which the governor may sign or veto. Among these is SB 627, which would prevent law enforcement officers from wearing masks, and AB 1340, which would allow ride-hailing drivers to unionize.

Health Care

• California, in a newly-formed health care partnership with other western states, has released vaccine guidelines, which include a recommendation that all Californians 6 months and older get the updated vaccine against COVID-19. The Trump administration’s anticipated vaccine guidelines may threaten access to vaccines; the state guidelines intend to mitigate this harm.

ICE in Los Angeles

• The Supreme Court, via a 6–3 partisan decision, has overturned a district court injunction restraining federal immigration agents from arresting workers based on racial profiling. The majority offered no formal explanation for its ruling. ACLU SoCal has published a collection of statements from the coalition partners who pursued the original injunction.

• Capital & Main surveys the mental health toll on the immigrant communities who have been under siege from ICE for months.

Housing Rights

• Among the bills on Governor Newsom’s desk is SB 79, a bill limiting the restrictions municipalities may impose on new multifamily housing near heavily used public transit stations. The Los Angeles City Council voted 8–5 to oppose this bill, and Mayor Karen Bass has asked the governor to veto it.

• Mayor Bass worked with state legislators to introduce a bill that would have significantly curtailed Los Angeles’ Measure ULA, which funds affordable housing via a transfer tax. That bill has now been pulled, and will not proceed this legislative year.

• The LA County Board of Supervisors has taken the first steps toward targeted eviction protections for renters whose freedom to work has been impeded by the threat of workplace ICE raids.

Labor

• A union-led coalition has blocked an attempt to overturn the recent Living Wage Ordinance, which guarantees a $30 hourly wage for Los Angeles hotel and airport workers. The hotel and airline industries led a dishonest signature-gathering campaign to overturn the measure via a public ballot, but a union-led counter-campaign led to thousands of signature withdrawal requests, and that ballot measure has failed to qualify.

• In August, Metro fired two bus drivers who speculated about the possibility of drivers preventing ICE agents from boarding their buses. Following a public protest, they will both be reinstated, following an unpaid 60-day suspension.

• A coalition of entertainment industry unions have released a statement opposing the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

• A coalition of University of California employee unions has filed a suit against the Trump administration, charging that the administration’s withholding of federal grants to force UC university system to comply with a list of right-wing demands is an “unlawful use of financial coercion.”