“That was astonishing to me, because almost all of the detainees that I saw were in either orange or red,” Obernolte said Thursday, July 17. “There were hardly any blue uniforms.”

The high percentage of detainees classified as criminals at the Adelanto ICE center is an exception, however, according to the agency’s own data.

About every two weeks, ICE releases updated data on those it detains. According to data released on July 7, 69% of the 213 detainees at the High Desert center Obernolte visited on July 11 were criminals. The classification includes both convicted criminals and those with pending criminal charges.

But statewide, only 28.26% of the 3,284 people currently in detention are criminals, according to ICE.

That’s not unusual. Nationwide, there were 47,238 people being detained by ICE as of July 7. According to the agency, 13,656 of those detained — 28.9% — were categorized as criminals.

ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

Threat levels

President Donald Trump‘s administration has repeatedly said it’s targeting “the worst of the worst” — including terrorists, gang members and violent criminals — in the immigration sweeps that began soon after his second inauguration on Jan. 20.

But ICE is detaining more than violent criminals, according to its own data.

The agency sorts those it detains into four “threat levels.”

“Threat level is determined by the criminality of a detainee, including the recency of the criminal behavior and its severity,” the footnotes in ICE’s Detention Statistics spreadsheet explains. “A detainee can be graded on a scale of one to three with one being the highest severity. If a detainee has no criminal convictions, he/she will be classified as ‘No ICE Threat Level.’ “

As of July 7, 36.43% of the detainees at the Adelanto ICE center were categorized “Threat Level 1.”

“These numbers confirm what we’ve been seeing for years, that the overwhelming majority of people in ICE detention do not pose any threat to public safety,” Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, wrote in an email on Thursday, July 17.

“In fact, only a small fraction are classified as ‘Threat Level 1,’ and even that designation is often vague and not always based on actual convictions,” he continued.

California detainees

The Adelanto ICE center had a higher percentage of both criminals and those categorized as “Threat Level 1” among its detainees than California’s five other ICE detention centers.

As of July 7, there were 3,284 detainees in the six detention facilities combined, according to ICE. The agency characterized 28.26% of them as criminals and 10.81% as “Threat Level 1.” And 83.7% of the detainees in California were categorized as “No ICE Threat Level.”

According to the data:

• The Adelanto ICE Processing Center had 213 detainees, 69% of them classified as criminals and 36.43% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Desert View Annex in Adelanto had 412 detainees, 35.14% of them classified as criminals, 3.62% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Golden State Annex in McFarland had 582 detainees, 50.76% of them classified as criminals, 22.55% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico had 667 detainees, 13.63% of them classified as criminals, 5.12% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield had 60 detainees, 88.83% of them classified as criminals, 49.85% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego had 1,360 detainees, 14.57% of them classified as criminals, 4.97% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”

On July 2, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, along with other local advocacy groups, sued the Department of Homeland Security — which administers ICE — accusing the federal government of unconstitutionally arresting and detaining people for the sake of meeting arrest quotas. In May, Trump aide Stephen Miller directed ICE to make 3,000 immigration arrests per day.

“The objective of this draconian crackdown is to eviscerate basic rights to due process and to shield from public view the horrifying ways ICE and Border Patrol agents treat citizens and residents who have been stigmatized by our government as violent criminals based on skin color alone,” Mark Rosenbaum, senior special counsel for strategic litigation at Public Counsel, representing the plaintiffs, said in an ACLU news release.

Meanwhile, the number of immigrants detained by ICE in California is the highest it’s been since Trump’s first term:

• In 2019, the agency detained 4,375 people in nine facilities.
• In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, that number fell to 966 people in seven facilities.
• In 2021, after the election of President Joe Biden, and as the pandemic continued, the number fell further to 794 in eight facilities.
• In 2022, the number of people detained by ICE in California rose to 1,530 in seven facilities.
• In 2023, ICE held 1,955 people in six California detention centers.
• And in 2024, the agency held 2,664 people in six California facilities.

Gaps in data

The data ICE releases about twice each month doesn’t include information on who is detained in each center, what specific crimes they’ve allegedly committed, if they’ve been convicted of those crimes or other details. The reports also exclude those being detained in hospitals, hotels, Office of Refugee Resettlement or Mexican Interior Repatriation Program facilities.

The lack of clarity in the data the agency releases is no accident, according to Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science at UCLA.

“ICE in particular does not want to release this information,” he said.

The agency’s traditional lack of transparency has been a concern for Blair, and is now heightened by Trump’s return to office.

“A group of us came together in the fall, and realized that given what kind of promises and threats Donald Trump was making around immigration, it was going to be important to be able to fact-check what they’re saying,” he said.

Blair and others created the Deportation Data Project, which publishes data obtained through federal Freedom of Information Act requests from ICE.

The data the project has received, in three waves as of mid-July, has underscored that the White House rhetoric around the detentions doesn’t match what ICE’s own records are saying.

Among “the (detainees) that do have offenses, the biggest category is traffic infractions,” Blair said. “Only 8% of detainees have been convicted of violent crimes and that’s a far cry from what (the White House’s) claims are.”

“I would certainly like to work with my colleagues in Congress to fix our broken immigration system,” he said. “But we should be able to agree that the law ought to be enforced.”

Despite the United States being deeply divided politically, Blair thinks releasing accurate and more detailed information on who ICE is detaining is important — and it’s making a difference.

Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in America and a supporter of Trump’s reelection, called ICE rounding up migrant workers whose only crime was being in the country illegally “insane.”

“Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?” Rogan said on his July 2 show.

“I think when you have the ACLU and Joe Rogan both saying there’s something wrong with these arrests,” Blair said, “hopefully these conversations will break through and help people understand what it means to arrest 3,000 people a day and who’s being arrested.”

More about ICE’s California detention centers

• 3 Southern California Democrats denied entry to a high desert ICE detention center Sunday
• 5 Southern California Democrats demand ICE detention center improve conditions for detainees
• California Republicans ask President Trump to focus immigration efforts on ‘violent criminals’ rather than ‘non-criminal migrants’
• What the data say about who ICE is arresting in San Diego
• Two Democrats and a Republican visited ICE Adelanto detention center. Only one got in

“The city of Perris has received reports of ongoing ICE operations within the area,” Perris Mayor Michael Vargas said in a video posted on the city’s Instagram and Facebook pages on Wednesday, July 9. “We urge all residents to remain calm, stay indoors when possible, and know your rights. Do not go out unless necessary and do not open the door to strangers.”

For update, see: Perris residents back mayor’s suggestion to stay home to avoid ICE

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, as of 2024, 78.3% of Perris’s estimated 83,032 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.

“The city is committed to protecting the dignity and well-being of all our residents,” Vargas concluded.

City spokesperson Stephen Hale declined to comment on the mayor’s post or the circumstances that led to it.

“We have nothing further to add,” Hale wrote in an email Wednesday. “Mayor’s statement in the video speaks for itself.”

Between June 6 and June 22, immigration agents arrested more than 1,600 people in the greater Los Angeles region, including at car washes, construction sites and day laborer hubs such as Home Depot parking lots. The crackdown has sent shockwaves throughout Southern California, leading to a host of community-run rapid response networks tracking and sharing information about immigration enforcement efforts.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about operations in Perris.

In a joint statement issued by the city Thursday, July 10, City Councilmembers Marisela Nava and Malcolm Corona said they were “deeply disturbed and disappointed” with immigration officers’ conduct and ICE operations.

They criticized officers for wearing masks, not identifying themselves and for “accosting and intimidating our community.”

“This goes beyond the original stated intentions of going after violent criminals as we are now seeing actions targeted at those with no criminal past,” the statement said. “We are also very concerned that residents are being harassed who are legal residents based on how they look, speak or their occupation.”

Perris City Councilmember Elizabeth Vallejo said in a statement that city officials are pondering ways to share resources with their residents and inform them of their rights.

“We sincerely thank our residents for continuing to look out for one another during these challenging times,” Vallejo said, according to the statement, also released Thursday. “We will persevere as a community and that is what makes Perris a truly special place.”

On Tuesday, July 8, President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, vowed that immigration agents would “double down, triple down on sanctuary cities.”

“Why? Not because they’re a blue city or a blue state,” he said, referring to areas that historically vote for the Democratic Party, “but because we know that’s where the problem is.”

In May, the Trump administration labeled Riverside County as a “sanctuary jurisdiction,” along with all but 10 of California’s 58 counties. The list was widely criticized for being inaccurate or out of date, and was later deleted by the Department of Homeland Security. Perris was not listed as a sanctuary city.

Although Riverside County continues to deny that it’s a sanctuary jurisdiction, in January, the county Board of Supervisors voted to create a web page of resources on immigration issues, request looking at local Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, participants and other “law-abiding” undocumented immigrants, and seek funding to support immigrants facing deportation proceedings.

The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed frustration with California governments, accusing local leaders of interfering with enforcement efforts.

In 2017, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 54, the “California Values Act,” into law. The law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from making their resources available to federal immigration enforcement agencies, except in the case of violence. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge brought against the law by the first Trump administration.

“It’s unfortunate to see masked agents arresting individuals within our community of Perris,” Vargas wrote in an email on Thursday. “Our hearts go out to those impacted by these policies. We encourage our residents to remain informed and to know their rights. The City of Perris remains committed to protecting the dignity and well-being of all our residents. However, the City of Perris does not have the legal jurisdiction to interfere with federal immigration officials during their investigations and as such we do not have the ability to do much beyond encouraging residents to research and to know their legal rights.”

Staff writer Jeff Horseman contributed to this report.

More about immigration enforcement in Southern California

• Fast-track deportation canceled for 3 detained in Pomona Home Depot immigration sweep
• Trump administration labels San Bernardino, Riverside counties as ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’
• Home Depot’s day laborer haven turns into immigration target across Southern California
• Federal officers, more than a dozen military vehicles descend on MacArthur Park
• ICE raids derail Southern California economy as workers go into hiding
• Perris residents back mayor’s suggestion to stay home to avoid ICE

The announcement comes after the utility pledged to rebuild infrastructure damaged in the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that erupted in January, when high winds drove flames and forced SCE to implement public safety power shutoffs that lasted for days in communities across Southern California.

Changing climate patterns and below average rainfall, when combined with extended periods of high winds, increase the risk of fire, and SCE officials say they’re obligated to do what they can to mitigate those threats. Public safety power shutoffs are one way the utility can reduce the risk of fires from utility equipment.

“We know that any outage is a hardship, including public safety power shutoffs which we use because they are necessary for safety,” SCE spokesperson Jeff Monford said Thursday, July 3.

The utility issued its advisory days before multiple wildfires broke out across Southern California, underscoring concerns about dry vegetation as the region settles into summer.

Power lines have been linked to some of California’s most devastating wildfires.

In May, SCE agreed to pay a record $82.5 million to settle lawsuits related to the Bobcat Fire, which burned about 114,577 acres, mostly in the Angeles National Forest, in 2020.

In January, even as neighborhoods devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires were still smoldering, SCE was hit by multiple lawsuits. “Despite knowing of an extreme fire risk, defendants deliberately prioritized profits over safety. This recklessness and conscious disregard for human safety was a substantial factor in bringing about the Eaton Fire,” one lawsuit read in part. More than 130 lawsuits had been filed by April.

SCE has acknowledged that its equipment and power lines may have triggered the Eaton fire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures. An official cause is still under investigation.

The company has attempted to get around the danger of active powerlines sparking wildfires by moving them underground, but it’s an expensive and time-consuming process. In April, the company unveiled a plan to rebuild the utility’s infrastructure in fire-ravaged Altadena and Malibu — areas hit by the Eaton and Palisades fires, respectively. The company estimated it would cost between $860 million and $925 million to underground 153 circuit miles, along with adding other improvements to increase the system’s reliability, especially during a crisis. No time table has been announced for the plan, as the company works to secure funding.

But potentially cutting off power to reduce wildfire risk is not without its downsides.

Extreme heat is the deadliest form of weather in the U.S., killing more than 2,300 people in 2023, although experts believe that number to be a severe undercount. High temperatures can trigger heat strokes and heart attacks. They can also exacerbate asthma, diabetes, kidney failure and other illnesses, including some infectious diseases.

According to environmental scientists, the Inland Empire region, for example, once the citrus belt of the nation, will have a climate similar to Phoenix’s by the middle of the century.

Temperatures over the Fourth of July weekend were expected to be below normal, but by midweek could reach triple digits in the Inland areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Even when the weather isn’t dangerously hot, there are consequences to turning off the power, sometimes for days at a time.

Though her Redlands neighborhood was spared the devastation the Eaton and Palisades fires wrought more than 60 miles from her home, Amanda Frye said SCE turned off her power for four days in January.

“Most people lost a lot of food. I mean, four days without power, what do you do?,” she said. “People lost hundreds of dollars worth of groceries. There was no reimbursement.”

Neighbors who didn’t have surge protectors had appliances destroyed when the power came back on, according to Frye. She was also frustrated SCE had shut off her power previously for 11 days to do maintenance on the lines and installed a weather station at that time.

“A lot of time, there wouldn’t even be wind!” Frye said. “Every time the wind blows, you’re going to shut off the power, because you didn’t bury the lines?”

In January, as the Eaton and Palisades fires blazed with high winds, communities in Villa Park in Orange County had sporadic access to power for three weeks.

Frustration led to a public forum with SCE in the spring, during which the utility said it made upgrades to part of Villa Park’s troublesome grid infrastructure.

“Although we can all understand why Southern California Edison feels the need to do these public safety power shutoffs, I think it’s, unfortunately, a mixed bag,” said Councilmember Crystal Miles.

The shutoffs hurt older residents in her district who rely on consistent electricity for medical devices, mobility and home security, she said.

“Providing power comes with inherent risks that need to be part of their operating budget, not mitigated onto my constituents,” Miles said.

The utility watches for specific conditions to assess whether a power shutoff is necessary, including considerably strong wind, dry vegetation on the ground and overall humidity.

SCE said it intends to notify affected customers about two days before potential power shutoffs, either by email, text or phone call. The company also updates its website and social media with power shutoff information.

In the meantime, Monford advised SCE customers to create an emergency plan and pack an emergency kit.

More information on SCE’s power outages and safety recommendations can be found at sce.com/outages-safety.

Staying safe in high temperatures

Safety tips from the Environmental Health and Safety office at UC Irvine:

• Drink water: Drinking plenty of water frequently is vital for those exposed to heat. An individual may produce as much as 2 to 3 gallons of sweat per day. To replenish that fluid you should drink 3 to 4 cups of water every hour.
• Take breaks: Taking breaks in a cool shaded area and allowing time for recovery from the heat during the day are effective ways to avoid heat-related illness.
• Avoid some beverages: Avoid or limit the use of alcohol and caffeine during periods of extreme heat. Both dehydrate the body.
• Stop and rest: If you start to feel symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, weakness or unusual fatigue, rest in a cool shaded area. If symptoms persist or worsen seek immediate medical attention.
• Clothing: Whenever possible, wear clothing that provides protection from the sun but allows airflow to the body. Protect your head and shade your eyes when outdoors.
• Be prepared: When in the heat be sure to pay extra attention to those you’re with and be sure you know how to call for medical attention.

For information about cooling centers operated by Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, see LAcounty.gov/heat/, OCgov.com/cooling-centers, CAPRiverside.org/cool-centers and DPH.SBCounty.gov/extreme-heat-information-and-resources.

More about wildfires and power lines

• Climate change will reshape the Inland Empire by 2048
• Lawsuits blame SCE, LADWP for Eaton and Palisades fires
• How to prepare your home for power outages, blackouts or loss of electricity
• Inland Empire faces significantly higher wildfire risk, Cal Fire says
• Edison vows to underground more power lines in wildfire zones
• Edison to pay U.S. a record $82.5 million to settle Bobcat fire lawsuit
• Southern California’s recent weather sets up for a dangerous fire season

In February, Assemblymember James Ramos, D-San Bernardino, introduced Assembly Bill 440, which would require the state to identify the state-controlled bridges and roadways with the most suicides and the most attempted suicides and report back to the Legislature on potential strategies to reduce deaths by the end of 2027.

“We need to be proactive to ensure we provide at-risk individuals with the help they need,” Ramos is quoted as saying in a news release issued by his office. “Creating strategies that build in time to reconsider fatal choices can save lives and prevent long lasting traumatic pain in families and communities.”

The bill passed the Assembly on a 79-0 vote June 2 and moved on to the state Senate.

On Thursday, June 26, the bill advanced out of the Senate’s Committee on Health by an 11-0 vote.

AB 440 is headed next to the state Senate’s Appropriations Committee.

Ramos’ bill comes after a fall in which two Rancho Cucamonga teenagers killed themselves on the 210 Freeway at the Haven Avenue overpass, in mid- and late September.

“While we’ve faced challenges  and have been met with resistance in securing Caltrans’ approval for substantial improvements such as overhanging fencing, we are continuing those discussions with urgency and focus,” she wrote.

In late fall 2024, Camacho-Curtis said, the city worked with San Bernardino County to install two suicide prevention signs at the Haven Avenue overpass. More recently, the city has been working to secure permits for the installation of overpass wing fencing at Haven Avenue.

“The city is funding this improvement directly,” Camacho-Curtis said, “as a demonstration of our commitment to proactive, local action.”

Suicide is a not a new subject for Ramos to tackle. He helped create the state’s Office of Suicide Prevention in 2020 and has continued to advocate for suicide prevention, especially in the Native American community, since then.

Ramos is not the only local legislator responding to the Rancho Cucamonga teens’ deaths.

Earlier in June, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus advocated support for Senate Bill 800. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, and sponsored by the city of Rancho Cucamonga, would install physical barriers and signage to discourage suicide at 10 Freeway overpasses in San Bernardino County, prioritizing those with the highest rate of documented suicides over the past 20 years. SB 800 was approved by the state Senate on June 4 by a vote of 39-0 and is now working its way through the Assembly.

“In the past eight months, deputies have responded to 24 calls for service at seven different freeway overpasses throughout the city of Rancho Cucamonga. During that time, there have been at least ten separate incidents involving individuals either falling or attempting to fall from freeway overpasses in Rancho Cucamonga,” Dicus wrote in an op-ed. “Tragically, four lives were lost including one in the past week involving a 14-year-old who recently graduated the 8th grade. In six other cases, deputies intervened just in time – preventing additional loss of life.”

His department has also answered similar calls in Apple Valley, Colton, Ontario and Redlands, he wrote.

“Our job as law enforcement is to respond – but also to prevent where we can,” Dicus’ op-ed concludes. “SB 800 represents a chance to do both.”

According to the Assembly Committee on Health’s analysis of AB 440, suicide is the No. 1 cause of violent death and self-harm is the third leading cause of injury-related visits to emergency rooms.

How to get help

If you or someone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, mental health resources are available, including free and low-cost services. They include:

• The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988, or visit SuicidePreventionLifeline.org
• Crisis Text Line: CrisisTextLine.org
• Know the Signs: SuicideIsPreventable.org
• The Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Resources and Programs page: SPRC.org/resources-programs
• The Veterans Crisis Line: Call 988 and press 1, or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net
• The National Council for Behavioral Health’s Find a Behavioral Health Provider page: TheNationalCouncil.org/providers/?region=CA
• Born This Way Foundation’s Get Help Now page: BornThisWay.foundation/get-help-now
• Hayden’s Corner: HaydensCorner.org

More on the Legislature, suicides

• 1 in 5 California high schoolers who responded to a state survey say they have considered suicide, analysis shows
• Here’s what 4 California school districts did to reduce the number of students contemplating suicide
• Local legislators celebrate new Office of Suicide Prevention, stress need for more efforts
• California needs to do more to prevent suicide among Native Americans, tribal leaders say
• Rancho Cucamonga mourns student after her death on 210 Freeway
• Second Rancho Cucamonga teen suicide spurs more conversations around ‘love’ and ‘support’
• Does Rancho Cucamonga have a teen suicide problem?
• How many bills did California legislators get signed into law in Sacramento?
• Does Rancho Cucamonga have a teen suicide problem?
• Opinion: Shannon Dicus: SB 800 is a life-saving step Caltrans shouldn’t delay 

“GEO clearly has to improve its treatment of these detainees,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, said during a news conference near the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, which she and four other members of Congress toured on Tuesday, June 17.

The GEO Group, which operates the detention facility on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, makes about $1 billion a year in federal contracts, Chu said. The group also donated more than $1 million to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

“So we know what this is all about,” Chu said. “These detainees need to be treated with more humane conditions.”

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Chu and two other members of Congress had previously been turned away from touring the facility on June 8. Detainees had been brought there after raids in Paramount, Compton and other areas in Los Angeles County that weekend. Padlocks on the gates prevented the lawmakers’ entrance.

Under the 2024 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, Department of Homeland Security funds cannot be used to prevent members of Congress “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.” The statute also specifically says members of Congress aren’t required to give prior notice to DHS before an inspection.

On Friday, June 13, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, was able to tour the facility.

“It shouldn’t take multiple visits of members of Congress for us to be able to enter a facility to do what is our duty — to conduct oversight,” Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Pacoima, said outside the center Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, Chu toured the Adelanto facility for about an hour and a half alongside Rivas and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Whittier and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside. The representatives and their staffs visited with detainees and inspected the kitchen, medical facilities and cells.

Chu said lawmakers spoke with one detainee who was not fed for 12 hours after he was taken into custody by law enforcement officers that he said did not identify themselves. Other detainees reportedly described being held in Adelanto without a change of clothes or towels for 10 days. Some said they were repeatedly denied access to the telephone to contact loved ones and legal representation, according to Chu.

“This is a billion-dollar industry,” said Takano. “They can get a change of clothes and more humane conditions for these detainees.”

Protesters have taken to the streets in communities across Southern California and beyond in response to federal immigration efforts in the Los Angeles area that started June 6 and were followed by Trump deploying the California National Guard — over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom — and the U.S. Marines to the city to support those efforts.

“I have a constituent who is deaf and mute. He was picked up by ICE and transported and we are still looking for him,” said Kamlager-Dove. “We have had laundromats, we have had churches we have had elementary schools, we have had small stores raided by FBI, Homeland Security in cooperation with ICE, snatching folks, not asking for identification, not providing identification for judicial warrants themselves.”

She said detainees are being sorted by race and ethnicity, which she called racial profiling.

In 2020, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to reduce the number of prisoners at the Adelanto site — the largest immigration detention facility in California — due to overcrowding. Judge Terry J. Hatter ordered ICE to whittle the population down to 475, less than half the current population, according to the congressional members.

Current immigration enforcement efforts are “cruel” and “inhumane,” Sánchez said Tuesday.

“They are not targeting criminals,” she added. “Most of what they are targeting is hard-working immigrants at their place of business.”

Members of Congress pushing for access to detention sites have had mixed results. Although the five congressional members got access in Adelanto on Tuesday, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles has been unsuccessful in his efforts to enter a federal building in downtown LA where immigrant families are reportedly being detained.

Gomez posted on social media Tuesday that he was turned away for a third time from the detention facility. According to Gomez, officials told him the facility — which signage declares to be a detention center — is only a field office used for processing, and denied Gomez access.

Staff writer Jessica Keating contributed to this story.

More about Congress and immigration

• What Southern California’s legislators got done in 118th Congress
• Fast-track deportation canceled for 3 detained in Pomona Home Depot immigration sweep
• Trump administration labels San Bernardino, Riverside counties as ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’
• 3 Southern California Democrats denied entry to a high desert ICE detention center Sunday
• Can President Trump ban masks at protests?
• How large are the Los Angeles-area immigration protests?
• ‘No Kings’ rallies draw thousands across Inland Empire to protest Trump
• Immigration raids ratchet up anxiety, empty some businesses of customers and workers
• ICE conducting raids in Pico Rivera — city official concerned about ‘nature and tone of these recent actions’

In the weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ramped up their roundups of migrant workers from car washes, swap meets and hubs such as L.A.’s Flower District, business owners and city leaders say the operations are disrupting life and spreading fear in their communities.

Sudden, scattered social media posts, some unconfirmed and others with video proof, detail the intense pace of some raids, with agents sweeping into parking lots and businesses and arresting people within minutes. Facebook, TikTok and Instagram users are posting drive-by footage of agents toting guns and reporting the time, date and location of the sightings.

In El Monte, Pablo Tamashiro said he understands the fear, and foot traffic at his yogurt shop is down, with more people ordering takeout.

“It’s clear the mood has shifted,” Tamashiro said. “Many families are sending just one person to pick up food, and what we’re seeing more and more is that younger, first-generation Americans are stepping up. It almost feels like the kids are now helping to protect and support their parents — navigating fear, language, and logistics to care for their families in ways no child should have to.”

The U.S. citizen now carries his passport everywhere, “not because I want to, but because I feel I have to. And I know I’m not alone,” Tamashiro said. “Many in our community — families, workers, small business owners — are living with the same anxiety.”

President Donald Trump’s ramped-up immigration enforcement and his deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles following protests is designed to fulfill his promise of mass deportations with a goal of making the nation safer.

Most Republicans in Congress and in many other key positions have supported the president’s action.

Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics last week week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. He has said ICE is averaging about 1,600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested “dangerous criminals.”

It is an assertion many lawmakers and city leaders decry.

Supervisor Hilda Solis will introduce a motion to the county board on Tuesday responding to the disruptions immigration enforcement has had on L.A. County’s workforce and economy.

Kelly LoBianco. director of the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity, and Stephen Cheung, president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, are also expected to speak before the board votes.

Azusa City Mayor Robert Gonzales said his concern is the many “random” arrests happening across car washes and Home Depot parking lots Los Angeles County isn’t picking up criminal elements.

Downey Mayor Hector Sosa could not confirm businesses, such as car washes and one restaurant, have closed because of ICE raids. The weekly Downtown Downey Night Market, which happens on Thursdays, was canceled last week by its organizers due to concerns about ICE activity, Sosa said.

El Monte City Manager Alma Martinez said the raids are escalating business owners’ uncertainty.

“This environment of anxiety not only compromises workforce stability but also diminishes consumer spending, ultimately stifling economic growth in our community,” she said.

Martinez said members of the El Monte City Council have been visiting businesses to show solidarity and offer support and that the city is preparing resources and initiatives to help.

“I’ve heard from hairdressers and local eateries that are closing early, largely due to a noticeable drop in foot traffic and customers, even for takeout orders,” said Duarte Mayor Cesar Garcia. “At the same time, other businesses that remain open regular hours are facing staffing challenges as employees choose to stay home out of safety concerns.”

Garcia added that the Sunday church service he attends in South El Monte had only about half its usual attendance yesterday, Father’s Day. Many people opted to watch the services online, similar to how things were during the peak of the COVID pandemic, he said.

“Volunteers were also on alert, monitoring the parking lot and keeping gates closed as a precaution,” Garcia added.

Protests that erupted in response to ICE raids, from Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies to impromptu ones held at local hotels where agents were reported to be staying has also had a sobering effect on business.

The popular swap meet held at California High School in Whittier has been closed for two weekends. News that the Whittier Swap Meet was called off on June 8 because of fears of ICE enforcement is false, organizer Moses Escalona said on June 9. But the event was canceled again on Sunday.

The Whittier Area Chamber of Commerce canceled its Camp Chamber Business Expo set for today, June 17, at the Doubletree Hotel in that city. Citing “unforeseen circumstances and out of an abundance of caution,” the event is rescheduled for July 23.

The Doubletree hotel was targeted by protesters on June 11, with several vehicles vandalized. One white van mistaken for a federal vehicle was confirmed to belong to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and was used for a routine inmate transport earlier that day, according to Shannon DeLong, assistant city manager. Deputies from Santa Clara County were staying at the DoubleTree Hotel overnight.

Protesters later broke lobby windows and entered the hotel. The crowd was dispersed by law enforcement led by the Whittier Police Department around 2 a.m., with no injuries reported and no arrests made.

Mayor Joe Vinatieri said ironically, the Doubletree in Whittier is owned by an immigrant who has brought jobs to the city as well as contributed to many causes there.

“I am angered and disappointed to think that some Whittier residents would show so little respect for the businesses and the people who make our city a very desirable place to live, and that they would do so with little or no accurate information,” Vinatieri wrote online, advising people to vet information before sharing it online.

Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Pasadena, said ICE raids are not only attacking families, but also the immigrant economy. He called on anyone with “the privilege and protection of citizenship” to go to downtown Los Angeles or any city or town where immigrants have been targeted and shop, eat out, buy things or use services from immigrant communities.

“Defy MAGA with your money,” he added, saying last week that downtown L.A. is emptier now than in the worst days of the pandemic.

Luz Gallegos, executive director of the Perris-based TODEC Legal Center, which stands for “Training Occupational Development Educating Communities,” said undocumented immigrants are scared. And not just because of the recent Los Angeles-area raids.

On Friday, news broke that immigrants’ Medicaid information — known as MediCal in California — had been given to federal immigration authorities.

“Our call center was non-stop calls on Friday and over the weekend asking what they need to do,” Gallegos said. “’If I signed up for MediCal, they know where we live, they know where we work.’”

After the election, she said, many of the immigrant workers her organization was working with stayed home, fearing immediate immigration raids. But that offers less security now than it used to.

“The community was staying home, ‘but now they know our addresses,’” Gallegos said.

People who have called TODEC were talking about changing their addresses and phone numbers in an attempt to avoid immigration authorities, along with not going into work for as long as possible.

“Right now, the community is taking precautions,” Gallegos said.

And that may include leaving the country entirely.

“We had a session over the weekend and community members were saying the cost of living in California is super-expensive. How are they going to be able to pay first and last month’s rent to afford a new place?” Gallegos said.

Many of those TODEC works with are immigrant farm workers. If they leave, she said, it’s going to affect all Americans.

“Those that are harvesting our crops, doing the worst jobs, are leaving or being deported. We’re already seeing the cost of goods going up. Who’s going to do those jobs?” Gallegos said. “What are we going to do if we don’t have a strong workforce? Nobody wants to do those jobs, other than the immigrants.”

Steve Carmona, Pico Rivera city manager, said while the city is not aware of confirmed ICE activity occurring within city limits, “we recognize that the regional climate and reports of enforcement actions in surrounding areas are creating real concern in our community — particularly among small businesses, workers and customers.”

Carmona said the officials at the historic Pico Rivera Sports Arena canceled a scheduled show out of concern for customer turnout and safety perceptions. The arena has long been a center for charrerías and other Mexican equestrian traditions as well as popular concerts.

An official with the sports arena who requested anonymity confirmed a rodeo dance scheduled for Sunday, June 15, was canceled because of concerns many of its attendees may be undocumented, but that a summer concert geared to younger guests (who will presumably be mostly permanent residents or American citizens) and set for June 20 will go on as planned.

“While we cannot confirm whether other businesses have formally closed or reduced hours for similar reasons, we understand that the anxiety in the air is affecting both workforce participation and customer behavior,” Carmona said.

Many business owners, joining nonprofits and human rights agencies, are pushing back on the icy effect of immigration operations and standing up for immigrant communities.

In Long Beach, local Mexican restaurant El Barrio Cantina created a special $13 menu of taquitos and a cocktail, with all proceeds going to ÓRALE, a Long Beach-based, immigrant-led movement fighting to protect and uplift immigrant communities. The menu was offered through the weekend.

The owner of Casita Bookstore in Long Beach postponed a weekend storytime featuring author Gabriela Orozco Belt and illustrator Mirelle Ortega.

“Out of care for our community and in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors who are deeply impacted by recent events, we’re choosing safety and support over business as usual,” they said.

Instead, the bookstore will donate proceeds from each purchase of the books to CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, in Los Angeles.

Back in El Monte, Tamashiro, whose employees are mostly local high school and college students, said he will do everything he can to keep them working, mindful they may now be their families’ only source of income.

“We’re not just here to serve food. We’re here to stand with our community,” he said. “This past weekend, local groups like Matilija Collective and Almas Closet collected donations to help neighbors in need. These efforts, from community organizations, families, and individuals, are reminders that even in times of fear, we still choose to show up for each other.”

In fact, the scale of the immigration-related protests that started June 6 in Paramount has been relatively small:

• Los Angeles County is more than 4,751 square miles, or 3 million acres, in area. (Almost 700 of those square miles are water.)
• The city of Los Angeles is about 469 square miles, or 318,912 acres, in area.
• The city of Paramount — which is not part of the city of Los Angeles, although it’s within LA County — is less than 5 square miles, or 3,097 acres.
• The weekend protests in Paramount took place on about six city blocks, or one-twentieth of a square mile, roughly 30 acres.

RELATED: Here’s how current protests compare with those in the past

If all of Paramount was involved in the protest, that would be 1% of the area of the separate city of Los Angeles and one-tenth of 1% of Los Angeles County.

The related protests in downtown Los Angeles have taken place in about a five-block area — about 25 acres or less in a city of more than 300,000 acres.

In contrast, the widespread unrest that followed the 1992 Rodney King verdict took place in about a 40-block area, or about 200 acres. That’s more than eight times the size of the current protests in Los Angeles.

Although the current protests are growing in number and scope, they’re mostly clustered around downtown Los Angeles. They haven’t yet approached what was seen in June 2020, after the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Then, there were protests across Los Angeles County, including in Altadena, Burbank, Covina, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Downey, downtown Los Angeles, Glendora, Hollywood, La Puente, La Verne, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Pomona, Redondo Beach, San Dimas, Sierra Madre, Walnut, West Covina, Westwood and elsewhere.

Just as today, the California National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles in 1992. That was at the request of then-Gov. Pete Wilson, though, rather than over the objections of local leaders, as is the case now.

As of Thursday morning, the Los Angeles Police Department had arrested more than 270 people as a result of recent protests, including dozens Wednesday night. About 12,000 people were arrested in connection with the unrest following the Rodney King verdict in 1992.

On Tuesday night, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass instituted a curfew aimed at calming tensions in the city. The curfew is specifically for downtown Los Angeles. According to Bass, it covers an area of less than one square mile or about 640 acres. That’s one-fifth of 1% of the total city of Los Angeles. In contrast, Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’ mayor in 1992, instituted a city-wide curfew that lasted six days.

More about the Los Angeles-area immigration protests

• Here’s what you need to know about LA’s downtown curfew
• A timeline of immigration-raid protests in Los Angeles
• LA Mayor Bass teams with more than a dozen other cities, urges end to immigration raids
• 4 men charged on suspicion of having destructive devices, assaulting officers during anti-ICE protests
• Your rights as a protester: What to know and what to do if you’re detained
• DA to criminals tied to protests: ‘We will track you down’

“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest. These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media network late Saturday, June 7, ahead of the National Guard’s arrival in the city the next morning. “Also, from now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests.”

The prohibition won’t stand up in court, according to Jonathan Markovitz, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.

• Also see: Your rights as a protester: What to know and what to do if you’re detained

“Trump’s threat to arrest anyone wearing masks at protests is blatantly unconstitutional,” he wrote in an email on Monday. “The Supreme Court has recognized that there are times where anonymity is essential to allow people to exercise their constitutional rights.”

The protesters in Paramount and elsewhere opposing the administration’s immigration enforcement actions have reason to conceal their identities, Markovitz wrote.

“In the current political climate, people who seek to challenge policies or practices that harm vulnerable or dispossessed communities have been especially likely to be targeted for violent reprisal,” he wrote. “It is understandable that they would take measures to avoid such reprisal, as well as to avoid potentially blatant political prosecution. Trump has no authority to carry out his threat, but his attempt to chill free speech is reprehensible.”

But there’s no absolute right to wear a mask in public under all circumstances. California has an 1872 law that bans wearing a mask, “false whiskers,” or other personal disguises for the purpose of concealing their identity in connection with breaking the law. Those who violate it are guilty of a misdemeanor.

Southern California legislators condemned Trump’s mask declaration on Monday.

“Prohibiting masks at protests are ridiculous,” Assemblymember Mark González, D-Los Angeles, said Monday afternoon. “Protesters have the right to face coverings. It’s a violation of basic rights.”

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, agreed.

“Threatening to arrest people simply for wearing masks is nothing more than an intimidation tactic designed to suppress dissent,” she wrote in an email Monday afternoon. “The real threat is the President using fear and force to silence criticism. Californians and all Americans have a constitutional right to protest and to protect themselves while doing so.”

González said he’s witnessed first-hand masked troublemakers showing up during the aftermath of a protest Friday in Chinatown.

“Agitators showed up, full masks, goggles, sunglasses, you name it,” González said. “And they immediately started jumping on vehicles.”

He said he believes the masked protesters — armed with sledgehammers, vandalizing local neighborhoods while carrying Mexican flags — were there to help create a climate of chaos.

“I don’t have proof that these are Trump supporters, but this is what Trump wants,” González said.

Trump is opposed to mask-wearing protesters, asking “what do these people have to hide, and why???” in his post. But masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been at the heart of many immigration raids in recent weeks.

On Friday, June 6, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Fox News that U.S. ICE agents need to be masked and anonymous for their own protection.

“They need to back off of ICE and respect our agents and stop protesting against them,” he said. “They’re trying to uphold the rule of law, and they don’t want to be targeted by Democrat activists. So I’m in favor of whatever protocol.”

On Friday and Saturday, ICE agents reportedly conducted raids across Los Angeles County, including the downtown LA Fashion District, Pico-Union, Cypress Park, and outside a Home Depot on Wilshire Boulevard. A parking lot at a Home Depot in Paramount was apparently being used as an ICE staging ground, leading to protesters converging on the location. Protesters were met with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Characterizing the Paramount protest as “lawless,” Trump deployed the California National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The last time a president has deployed National Guard troops without the consent of a state’s governor was 1965, when President Lydon B. Johnson deployed the Alabama National Guard to protect civil rights protesters.

On Sunday, Newsom formally asked for the National Guard troops to be returned to California’s control. And on Monday, he announced the state would sue the Trump administration over the decision to commandeer the troops.

All four renamed post offices.

That means the rate at which bills introduced by the six-member delegation — 201 in total — became law during the 118th Congress was a mere 1.99%.

But experts say that’s not unusual, and it doesn’t necessarily mean local lawmakers were ineffective.

That’s because very few bills make it to public law. Only about 1.5 to 3% of the tens of thousands of bills introduced each Congress actually become law, said Worth Hester, the assistant director of the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University.

“Passing noncontroversial bills to name buildings is typical,” Hester said. “Any number of these pass each Congress on voice vote.”

And among all 435 House members, two of the highest-ranking lawmakers came from Orange County: Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, ranked eighth among Republicans, and then-Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, ranked No. 8 among Democrats, with a score of 1.51.

Those scores come from the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint project of the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, which ranks lawmakers on more than a dozen factors, including how many bills they introduced, how often those bills were discussed in committee and how much of their bill language was ultimately enacted, even if it became law under someone else’s name.

In the 118th Congress, which ran from January 2023 to January 2025, the center found House Republicans, who held a majority, had an average score of 1.44. House Democrats averaged 0.55.

The highest score in the House went to Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican who chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, with a score of 6.793. At the bottom was Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who earned just a 0.009.

In California, Senate Democrats — which includes three from California in the 118th Congress — averaged a 1.11 score. (California had three U.S. senators during this time span due to the appointment of Sen. Laphonza Butler to fill in the seat left vacant by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death in 2023.)

The Southern California News Group also crunched the numbers on how many bills lawmakers passed into law, how much money they sought for their districts through earmarks, as well as how far their messages spread on social media as part of a broader look at the performance of senators and House members representing Orange County.

Experts say that in a closely divided Congress, few bills of any kind become law. And even then, the final version often carries the name of someone other than the original author.

“Very often, when an idea is coming up, they take an existing bill, gut it and put the idea in there. So that is usually the committee chairman’s bill,” said Matthew Jarvis, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton who studies Congress. “It might have 0.1% of that chairman’s idea in it; it’s just a vehicle that they used.”

“Most bills that are proposed die in committee,” Jarvis added.

“So, members do the little things,” he said, such as renaming a local post office.

Here’s a closer look at how each member of the Orange County congressional delegation performed:

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana (46th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 14, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 12

Earmarks requested: $14,592,031 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 0.62

Social media reach: 58,226

The one bill Correa got signed into law during the 118th Congress was H.R. 7192, which renamed an Anaheim post office the Dr. William I. “Bill” Kott Post Office Building. Kott was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who served in Europe during World War II. After the war, he became a dentist in California and later attended medical school at age 60 and practiced as a doctor until he was 89.

Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills (40th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 28, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 11

Earmarks requested: $24,362,000 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 3.92

Social media reach: 125,589

Kim’s successful bill was H.R. 3608, which renamed a post office in Mission Viejo after Major Megan McClung, the first female U.S. Marine Corps officer killed in combat during the Iraq War.

Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano (49th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 30, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: None

Earmarks requested: $17,738,535 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 1.11

Social media reach: 167,241

Levin’s bill renamed a post office in Oceanside after Charlesetta Reece Allen, one of the city’s first Black residents, who founded the Oceanside Girls Club and the North San Diego County Branch of the NAACP.

Former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine (47th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 76, none of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 9

Earmarks requested: No earmarks in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Porter famously railed against earmarks during her time in Congress, saying she believes they undermine the intended process of government spending.

Legislative effectiveness score: 1.52

Social media reach: 2,944,953

Among the bills Porter introduced was H.R. 5658, the Vote by Mail Tracking Act, which would have required all mail-in ballots to include a USPS tracking barcode, meet postal service design standards and display the official election mail logo.

She also sponsored H.R. 6490, which would have increased the late enrollment penalty for Medicare from 10% to 15% of monthly premiums. It would have also allowed more people with non-employer health coverage to qualify for special enrollment periods.

Porter opted to run for California’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2024 instead of reelection.

Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Whittier (38th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 15, 0 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 6

Earmarks requested: $13,689,279 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 0.14

Social media reach: 79,618

Among the bills Sánchez introduced was H.R. 3194, the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants, including those who arrived as minors, held Temporary Protected Status or worked in agriculture. It would have also replaced the term “alien” with “noncitizen” in immigration statutes.

She also sponsored H.R. 6031, which would have required schools to create rules that protect students from bullying and harassment based on things like race, gender, disability or religion, and to track regularly how often bullying happens.

Former Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach (45th Congressional District)

Bills introduced: 38, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 9

Earmarks requested: $27,064,210 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 2.53

Social media reach: 45,572

Steel’s lone bill signed into law during the 118th Congress was H.R. 8057, which renamed the post office at 9317 Bolsa Avenue in Westminster the “Little Saigon Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Post Office.” The newly designated post office was formally unveiled in April, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The site sits in the heart of California’s 45th Congressional District, home to one of the largest Vietnamese diasporas in the world.

Steel lost reelection in 2024 to Democratic Rep. Derek Tran.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California

Bills introduced: 31, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 6

Earmarks requested: $263,867,346 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 0.47

Social media reach: 1,873,639

Feinstein got one bill signed into law in her final year: S. 2443, which appropriated funds for energy and water development and related federal agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30.

Feinstein died in office on Sept. 29, 2023, at the age of 90.

Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-California

Bills introduced: 19, 1 of which became law

Resolutions introduced: 3

Earmarks requested: No earmarks in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 0.16

Social media reach: 64,820

Butler’s lone bill signed into law was S. 4243, which posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Shirley Chisholm. In 1968, Chisolm became the first Black woman to be elected to Congress. In 1972, she became the first Black politician to attempt to become the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

Butler, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill Feinstein’s remaining term, served for a little over a year.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California

Resolutions introduced: 14

Earmarks requested: $312,172,708 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill

Legislative effectiveness score: 2.87

Social media reach: 290,268

Padilla’s seven bills signed into law included S. 3857, the Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act, which put land into trust for San Diego County’s Jamul Indian Village of California, a federally recognized tribe.

He also got S. 4077 signed into law, which named a San Francisco post office after the late Feinstein, who served as the city’s mayor from 1978 through 1988 before being elected to the Senate.

Staff writer Linh Tat contributed to this story.

But it’s an incomplete report card, at best. A more complete picture of what lawmakers are doing in Washington, D.C., is possible — by digging into the data.

So, as the Southern California News Group has done in the past, here’s a more in-depth look at how legislators representing Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties performed in the 118th Congress, which ended Jan. 3.

Shrinking number of bills

By the most basic measure, it was a bad two years for getting anything done in the nation’s capital.

During that period, Congress saw the lowest number of bills passed into law in decades.

In terms of bills introduced and signed into law, the 118th Congress, which ran from Jan. 3, 2023 to Jan. 3, 2025, was the least productive session of Congress since at least 1974, according to data assembled by GovTrack.us, a nonpartisan website that tracks congressional data.

On average, historically, 793 bills are signed into law each two-year session, including those incorporated into other bills. In the 118th Congress, 614 bills were signed into law. Looking at standalone bills only, the 118th Congress signed 274 bills into law, well below the historical average of 513.

Historically, 5.81% of all bills introduced in a session are signed into law, including those incorporated into other bills. In the 118th session, only 3% of them were.

Legislators representing Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties were in line with the national average, seeing 31, or 3.4%, of the bills they introduced signed into law.

The shrinking number of bills passed by Congress is part of a trend, according to Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.

“Instead of passing a lot of little bills, many times in recent congressional sessions, they’ve passed a smaller number of big bills, omnibus bills,” he said.

Part of the issue was that the 118th Congress — specifically the Republicans in control of the House of Representative — spent a large amount of time in leadership fights. It took a record 15 rounds of voting for Republicans to elect former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, as speaker. Ten months later, McCarthy became the first speaker to be ousted, leading to another 22 days of leadership battles before Republicans elected Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., as speaker.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, who agreed with the “least productive label” for the 118th Congress, said he put a lot of the blame at the feet of the conservative Freedom Caucus, which both fought to oust McCarthy and then worked to scuttle bipartisan legislation late in the session.

“The American people got hurt by that,” Takano said.

During the time when the 118th Congress was legislating rather than wrestling with leadership issues, Los Angeles-area legislators fared a little better than the average legislator.

“We had some fairly senior members who knew what they were doing, like Adam Schiff and Judy Chu,” Pitney said.

Focus on quality, not quantity?

But raw numbers don’t tell the whole story.

“It sort of depends on how you measure productivity or progress,” said Alan E. Wiseman, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University.

Wiseman, along with Craig Volden, a University of Virginia professor of public policy and politics, is co-director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint project of the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.

The center awards members of Congress a legislative effectiveness score (LES). Lawmakers accumulate points for the quality and quantity of bills introduced, along with how far those bills get in the legislative process. There are more than a dozen ways to earn points, including the significance of policy proposals.

Republicans, who were in the majority in the 118th Congress, dominated the top of the scoreboard. The top score in the House belonged to Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., who accumulated 6.79 points, and the average GOP member earned an average LES of 1.44. Democrats, in contrast, had an average LES of 0.55. The average score for House members in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties was 1.12.

Democrats controlled the Senate during the 118th Congress. The top LES score belonged to Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who earned a score of 10.64. Democrats there averaged a 1.11 score and Republicans averaged 0.88. California’s senators had an average score of 1.16.

Locally, the highest ranking representatives in the House were all Republicans:

• Rep. Young Kim, R-Mission Viejo: 3.915
• Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona: 2.803
• Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach: 2.526
• Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista: 2.442
• Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita: 1.869

“I’m very, very proud of that,” said Kim, who was also the highest ranking California member of the House, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking analysis. She called legislation “one of the many pieces that makes a legislator an effective leader.”

Part of her success, she said, came from working with Democrats, including her membership in the Problem Solvers Caucus, which works to advance legislation from both Democrats and Republicans.

Despite the perception of American voters as being at their most divided in decades, Kim said she hasn’t gotten real pushback about her bipartisan approach from her constituents.

“They clap and congratulate me and say ‘we need more of you,’ ” she said.

Despite not getting any bills passed during the 118th Congress, former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, was the highest scoring Southern California Democrat in the House, with a score of 1.518.

“Even though she didn’t have anything advance into law, she was successful in getting portions of her agenda advanced,” Wiseman said.

A large number of the items that Porter put forward made progress through the House, including  H.R. 5658, which would have required vote-by-mail ballots to be trackable by the U.S. Postal Service using their existing barcoding procedure. Though the House approved the bill, it never got a vote in the Senate.

“The fact that she got things so far through the process distinguished her from other members of the House,” Wiseman said.

Legislators also get credit in their legislative effectiveness score when their ideas for bills get signed into law, even if their names aren’t on them by the time they cross the finish line.

The two professors who founded the Center for Effective Lawmaking use tools similar to plagiarism detection software to find language from failed bills that later shows up in bills that passed.

“That allowed us to account for people who were successful at working behind the scenes having the substantive portion of their bills get signed into law,” Wiseman said.

Sending funds home

Legislators’ impact can also be measured in dollars, specifically earmarks, or items inserted into bills that direct spending to their home districts.

The practice has been controversial in the past — it was banned from 2011 through 2021 — but it’s hard for legislators to say no to federal spending that benefits their local districts, according to Marcia Godwin, professor of public administration at the University of LaVerne.

“As long as (earmarks) exist, they’re going to take that funding,” she said.

Earmarks also tend to be popular with voters.

“I would gladly vote for any legislator, regardless of party or ideology, who fixed the 210 Freeway,” Pitney said.

According to data from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional agency, the average Los Angeles-area member of the House of Representatives requested $19.7 million in earmarks to benefit their home districts in the budget that covered the period from Oct. 1, 2023 through Sept. 30, 2024.

California’s senators, meanwhile, directed an average of $192 million back to the Golden State.

But not every Los Angeles-area legislator put in requests to spend federal funds on local needs.

“Katie Porter is the rare exception to that,” Godwin said. “She did not support earmarks and she went as far as repeating that while running for Senate.”

Former Sen. Laphonza Butler, who replaced Sen. Dianne Feinstein after her death in September 2023, also had no earmarks in the 2024 budget.

And not all of the requested earmarks made it back to California. The continuing resolution passed by the 119th Congress in March eliminated some funding that had been approved by the previous Congress.

In your feed

For some legislators in the social era, their biggest goal appears to be getting their message out.

Porter, who introduced 80 bills during the 118th Congress, none of which were signed into law, is a social media superstar, with 2.9 million followers combined on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter. That’s more than five times the average Los Angeles-area member of Congress, who had 597,393 followers across social media platforms as of the first week of April. California senators averaged 742,909 followers.

Porter’s not alone in making a big splash online, however:

• Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.: 5.2 million followers
• Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles: 2.3 million followers
• Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles: 1.8 million followers
• Former Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.: 1.8 million followers

Focusing on promoting their political point of view, or their participation in congressional hearings, as Porter did with the whiteboard she wielded at Congressional hearings, is a valid strategy for legislators.

“There’s legislating and there’s oversight. And when you’re in the minority, oversight takes many forms,” Takano said. “Effectiveness is sometimes being able to concentrate public concern over something.”

But social media stardom itself shouldn’t be the end goal, according to Takano.

“One could argue that … former member Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene are very effective on social media, but the hot, volatile issues they focus on don’t result in any tangible impacts for people,” he said.

Harder to measure work

It’s not easy to quantify everything members of Congress do for their districts.

Legislators provide what’s called constituent services, where an elected official helps intervene in government bureaucracy on behalf of their constituents. This can range from writing letters of recommendation for a high schooler to attend West Point to helping a voter get the Social Security benefits they’re entitled to and more.

“I can think of lots of dedicated public servants who don’t get a lot of legislation passed but are focused on other issues,” Wiseman said.

It’s difficult to measure this work, although some voters find it valuable.

“It really is hard to measure, unless you do a survey of constituents,” Pitney said. “And even in any given year, only a small number of constituents interact with their member of Congress.”

Rep. Kim says her team puts a lot of emphasis on constituent services, including helping local residents with issues with the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration.

“My director of constituent services in our office works really hard for us,” Kim said.

Congress has an in-house database that tracks the work put into constituent services. Some legislators, like Kim, put information from the database on their official websites. Kim, for example, reported on her site that her office has returned more than $28 million to taxpayers from federal agencies, although no other details are offered.

Will 119th Congress accomplish more?

“I suspect a lot of smaller things will go forward, given that we have unified control of Congress,” he said.

That could be especially true of things aligned with President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“If I was going to bet money, I’d say there was going to be a tax bill by the end of the year, but everything else is up in the air,” Godwin said. “You had a majority in all three branches in government, and very little got passed in 2017.”

Takano is skeptical the 119th Congress will be more productive than its predecessor.

“The themes from the 118th Congress are returning,” Takano said. Republicans “have a very difficult time governing, even when they have a trifecta” and control the House, Senate and White House.

Staff writer Linh Tat contributed to this story.

Previous legislative report cards

• 2024: How many bills did California legislators get signed into law in Sacramento?
• 2023: How much did your member of Congress get done last term?
• 2023: See what LA County’s congressional delegation got done last term
• 2023: See what Inland Empire’s congressional delegation got done last term
• 2023: See what Orange County’s congressional delegation got done last term
• 2015: Taking a look at record of Inland Empire Congressional representatives