August 2025 Updates
August Calendar
Mondays: Join the SAVE DEMOCRACY ACTION GROUP, with a new name, and a renewed focus on congressional change in 2026. Postcard writing continues, with messaging designed to reach low-propensity voters in 'flippable' GOP districts nationwide. Pilgrim Place Napier Center,10:15 am - 12 noon.
Wednesdays: Ceasefire Vigil - corner of Foothill and Indian Hill - 8:00 am.
Fridays: Peace Vigil and No War on Iran Rally - corner of Arrow Highway and Indian Hill - 3:30 to 4:30 pm, and at Pilgrim Place in a new location, at the Octagonal Garden from 4 - 4:30 pm.
Sunday, August 3, 7 pm - Interfaith Vigil for the Disappeared and Fearful, sponsored by Pomona Valley Spiritual Leaders for Justice. In front of the Claremont Methodist Nativity scene, northeast corner of Indian Hill and Foothill.
Wednesday, August 6, 10 am - Food for Justice Campaign. Join us in the Pilgrim Place Napier Kitchen as we prepare an evening meal to show our support for Ice Out of Pomona strategists.
Saturday, August 9, 9:15 am - Inland Valley Citizens' Climate Lobby Chapter Meeting in the Pilgrim Place Napier Center. All are welcome.
Sunday, August 17, 2:30-4:30 pm - Ice Out of Pomona Patrol Training, offered by Union del Barrio. St Paul's Episcopal Church, 242 E. Alvarado, Pomona.
Thursday, August 21, 6-8 pm - Corazon y Mano (Heart and Hand) craft workshop. Sew, crochet, or draw 'good luck' pocket charms for our immigrant neighbors and community members. No experience required, materials provided. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 242 E. Alvarado, Pomona.
Saturday, August 30, 5-10 pm - Bringing House to Church, an event to support the St. Ambrose Episcopal Church Shower Program, offered twice weekly to those in our community who are unhoused. Tacos, drinks, and music from local DJs. Entry 'fee': one pack of new sock and/or underwear. 830 W. Bonita Avenue, Claremont.
Community Partner Perspectives
Claremont Interfaith Council Submitted by Katrina M.
The Claremont Interfaith Council (CIC) is a collaborative association of faith communities and nonprofit organizations that serve Claremont residents. Its aim is to build relationships and understanding among our members and to engage in community issues of common concern. Monthly meetings often include a speaker. The CIC organizes a service of thanksgiving every November and a baccalaureate service for Claremont’s high school graduates in June. CIC members take turns writing the monthly “Interfaithfully Speaking” column for The Claremont Courier.
CLAREMONT HOMELESS ADVOCACY PROGRAM (CHAP) Submitted by Katrina M.
CHAP is currently not operational but the City of Claremont is considering a restart. If CHAP does restart, it will start small. But at its core will be the sense of individual dignity, of helping one another, and of transformative community.
When the pandemic closed down much of the world in March of 2020, CHAP also closed down. Today efforts are afoot to bring it back. It may take a different form (or forms) but the goals will be the same: to help those without homes, by matching each participant with an advocate, someone to meet with regularly to help navigate the maze of daily opportunities and challenges that can sometimes seem overwhelming. And if possible, to find a location for an overnight program like the one that began at the Quaker Meeting House in Claremont in 2014.
CHAP owes its impetus to the Occupy Movement of 2012, which brought tent living to cities around the country, including Claremont. As interested community members talked with folks living in those tents, they found themselves learning about homelessness in Claremont. They learned that the number of homeless people in Claremont was ten times the three or four known to city officials. As they listened to individual stories, they began to ponder, “What if a team of volunteers could work with each homeless person helping him to get job training, leading to a job and a home of his own?” A committee was formed, and by the spring of 2013, CHAP was up and running, with the stated goal to “End homelessness in Claremont by the end of the summer."
By late fall of 2013, it was clear that goal was not realistic. With winter coming, CHAP volunteers worried about the homeless folks they now knew and cared about as neighbors. Mary Cooper, who was part of the leadership group, asked the Friends Meeting if they would offer their worship room as a sleeping area for men along with the smaller library for women. Assured that there would be supervision at all times, and that their neighbors were comfortable with the idea, the Friends endorsed the plan, and on January 24, 2014, CHAP’s first “guests” rolled out their cots.
From the start, the CHAP was not a shelter, but a program, with about 10 men, who slept in the Worship Room, and one or two women, who slept in the small library. Treating everyone with dignity was paramount. Words mattered: Those spending the night were not known as "the homeless," or even "clients," but rather "guests" or "participants." The volunteers in charge were not "supervisors," but "hosts," who were present from 8 pm to 8 am, in three shifts.
Once the program was up and running, the Claremont community jumped in with offers. One of the first was “cafes,” potluck suppers at Claremont churches enabling CHAP participants and church members get to know one another over leisurely, sit-down dinners. St. Ambrose Episcopal Church launched the idea, followed by the United Church of Christ (UCC). A group of Harvey Mudd students began cooking Saturday night suppers for CHAP participants when school was in session, a program that Our Lady of Assumption picked up during college vacations.
Pilgrim Place resident Karl Hilgert, who had led the process of organizing CHAP, stepped down after a couple of years. And Pilgrim Place resident Ann Marie S. stepped up, putting her educational background and her avid enthusiasm to use in boosting the participants' sense of self-worth. Men who had been shooed away from public spaces and told to “move on,” were now invited to Ann Marie’s house to munch just-baked cookies and zucchini bread, to talk about the hopes and frustrations and then watch a football game on the large television that Ann Marie bought just for such occasions.
A few CHAP highlights that stand out in my memory:
A host in her 80s who was always beautifully dressed, including a bright scarf (at 6 am!), Julie A. had a dream of cooking eggs to order for each participant. She had bought an electric frying pan, hoping to cook them in the kitchen, but CHAP kitchen rules did not allow plugging in any kind of cooker. We rigged up an outdoor cooking spot with a card table, and the participants eagerly lined up for this treat. As they ate, she asked what else she might do for the breakfasts. Jokingly, someone replied, “How about steak?” The next week she surprised them with an outdoor (Katrina's highlights continue in the column to the right.)
JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS SEEKING ASYLUM (JISA) Submitted by Sally S.
It's hard to believe that we have been working with Justice for Immigrants Seeking Asylum (JISA) for almost a decade. Although started as a group for the community at large, JISA's membership is now comprised almost entirely of Pilgrim Place residents, with participation from a few neighboring members.
Beginning with weekly visits to detainees at Adelanto, a private detention center in the high desert, we formed relationships and then took next steps, appearing in court for support and advocacy and providing post release help, which has included phones, clothes, transportation (planes, trains, and buses) and housing.
Then came the big pandemic shutdown, and our mission had to change, almost on a dime. JISA members found ways to continue the work by providing minimal legal financial support to individuals, and contributions to sanctuary churches for families being protected.
We've been to the border for protests and pilgrimages. We've written post cards, raised funds through a website and the UCC and Church of the Brethren Alternative Christmas Funds, joined policy advocacy actions and collected clothes for border missions. We've also provided educational presentations for churches and other groups.
Another new day has come along and JISA is reconnecting with the Adelanto Visitation network. It's a challenge. And we are starting a conversation to participate in food delivery to families who have had members detained and/or deported and are fearful of being out in markets, offices, schools, and the like. There are so many places to take action, but we also have to find the ones that we are capable of accomplishing given our own abilities.
CHAP History and Update, continued
steak breakfast. This story of her caring became legend, passed down from old timers to new participants.
Shelters and other overnight programs for homeless folks are probably not a place where one would look for hugs. But CHAP had Pete Nelson (a Pilgrim Place resident who died in 2020), as a volunteer. While Pete served as a faithful Wednesday evening host, Pete’s hugs became part of the CHAP culture. Pete remained a host as long as his health held out. Then he began opening up the meeting house on Sunday mornings to continue his connection with his CHAP friends. Eventually he had to stop that too. One Sunday morning, though, when he felt particularly strong, Pete made a surprise visit, and participants lined up, eager for a “Pete hug.”
One of the participants, to whom Pete was particularly helpful, was a man that some volunteers were wary of dealing with. But this man whom I will call “L,” had another side. L had come to CHAP at the same time as a very gentle man, “T,” who was in delicate health and suffered from, among other things, frequent seizures. L became T’s buddy, giving him loving care. One evening when L arrived at the meeting house, he was thrilled with a gift he had found for his ill buddy: a football helmet he could wear to protect his head when he fell.
Unfortunately the seizures continued, and each time an ambulance would take T to Pomona Valley Hospital, where he would receive treatment — a bandage for his head and perhaps a shot, then be dismissed. One Sunday morning, I remember a CHAP volunteer calling to say she had discovered T wandering aimlessly along the railroad tracks in Claremont. A while after that, T died not far from the hospital.
CHAP decided to hold a memorial service for our gentle friend and another man who had been one of CHAP’s first participants for a short time. We announced the service in The Courier and invited people who had known either of these men, including T’s sister, whom he loved but from whom he was estranged.
The “service” was structured to offer CHAP participants a chance to speak about T and what he had added to the CHAP community. Dressed in their best “bib and tucks,” they told their stories. Toward the end of the gathering, T’s sister, who had been invited, rose and amid tears expressed her thanks that her brother had had the chance to be part of such a community and the sense of peace that brought her.
News In Brief:
From CAL Matters, Submitted by Sid M.: California Migrant Education Program Defunded. For children of migrants who must travel across the state with their parents alongside the seasonal harvests, keeping up with school can be challenging. But a statewide migrant education program that helps tutor some of these children has recently been defunded by President Donald Trump — forcing some California school districts to cut staff and services. Weeks before the new school year was to start, the Trump administration halted over $6 billion in federal grants for K-12 schools. The administration later released some of the grants, under certain conditions. But money already earmarked by Congress to fund other programs including the federal Migrant Education Program — which has existed since 1966 — is still being withheld. For California, at least $650 million in federal grants remain frozen — threatening the existence of its migrant education program, which does things like send bilingual tutors to schools and labor camps. The tutors provide children of migrant workers emotional and social support, as well as help with their class assignments and college enrollment.
Afghans In California. Nearly 200,000 Afghans arrived in the U.S. in 2021 under President Joe Biden. California had more than 58,000 Afghan immigrants in 2023, with Sacramento and Alameda counties having the largest populations in the country. Many of those arrivals had helped the U.S. government in its 20-year war against Afghanistan, rendering them and their families particularly vulnerable to Taliban retribution. Some Afghan immigrants at the time were granted humanitarian parole while they applied for asylum or visas, and many are still trying to bring over family members located elsewhere. But since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has paused all refugee admissions, including those that were already approved. Trump has also banned Afghan citizens from entering the U.S., and the administration in April said it would not renew deportation protections for Afghan immigrants, which ended July 14.
From Church World Service, Submitted by Sid M.: Increased fees set to go into place following passage of One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). On July 17, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent out a policy memorandum updating fees for a number of applications made in immigration court. The fees were even higher than the new minimums required by the OBBBA. Fees are also subject to an annual adjustment to cover inflation. Separately, on Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an alert noting it will “soon” begin to collect new fees following the publication of a federal register notice. USCIS noted the fees would include a first-ever fee to apply for asylum, an annual fee which must be paid for all individuals with pending asylum claims, and various fees for humanitarian entrants to apply for work authorization. See additional analysis and a breakdown of the minimum fees required by the OBBBA here.
Trump says he will support resettlement of some Afghans who have been stuck in the UAE as uncertainty persists for so many others who supported the U.S. mission. In a July 20 Truth Social post, President Trump said he would “save” Afghans who have been stuck in the United Arab Emirates due to the ongoing January 20 refugee ban and June 4 travel ban – and that he would do so “starting right now.” Some Afghan refugees have already been processed and resettled under exceptions to the refugee ban, but the scope and details of these new actions remain unclear. Even while Trump signals support for some stranded Afghans, his administration continues to argue in court it should be able to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for approximately 12,000 who are here in the U.S. The Court of Appeals in the case (CASA v. Noem) had placed a 7-day stay on the termination last week, and further ruling is expected by the end of the day today.
Afghan SIV holder seized after routine green card appointment. Last Thursday, the New Haven Independent reported that masked federal immigration officials seized an Afghan interpreter at a routine green card application outside a USCIS office. The man lives in a New Haven, Connecticut suburb with his wife and children and is an approved SIV holder – meaning he has demonstrated risk to his life because of his service with the U.S. government in Afghanistan. The SIV holder’s lawyer issued a statement on Friday that a court has issued an emergency order preventing his deportation while hearings continue in the coming weeks. Maggie Mitchel Salem, Executive Director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven (which served the man and his family), said of the abduction: “My reaction – horror, fury.” The man is not the first Afghan who served alongside U.S. troops to be seized and placed into expedited removal proceedings while trying to follow the process laid out for him.
Board of Immigration Appeals limits access to asylum for those fleeing gender-based violence. On Friday, the BIA published a decision that found that persecution based on membership in a particular social group as defined by the applicant’s sex or sex and nationality is not sufficient to receive asylum protections. See Human Rights First’s statement on the decision and its implications for victims of gender-based violence here.
From LAist, submitted by Sid M.: The number of unhoused people living in and around L.A. is trending downward, local experts say, but that's not the case for at least one group: older adults. In the city of L.A., the number of people aged 65 and older experiencing homelessness jumped more than 17% since last year, and more than 36% in two years, according to annual point-in-time counts. Meanwhile, organizations that serve older adults are pulling back on services because of budget shortfalls while bracing for the effects of recent cuts to Medicaid. Many Angelenos rely on those services to keep them from becoming homeless or to help them get housing if they do. Besides helping with rent and food, the service provides other needs — like providing companionship and connection.
Stories You May Have Missed
An Inland Empire lawmaker wants to update rules for immigrant workers. Will Trump listen? From CAL Matters, Inland Empire, submitted by Ann T.
As President Donald Trump rushes to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh is urging him to carve out options for essential workers. Ochoa Bogh, a Redlands Republican, wrote to Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asking them to issue “expedited work permits to the millions of undocumented immigrants who are considered essential workers, such as farmworkers who provide critical services.” The effort marks a shift for Ochoa Bogh, who had long viewed immigration as a federal matter. “For years I did not want to address immigration, and now I feel compelled to,” she told CalMatters.
Republican Assemblymembers Leticia Castillo of Corona and Greg Wallis of Rancho Mirage, along with Republican and Democratic lawmakers from Southern California and the Central Valley, signed her letter urging a solution for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. including 2.5 million in California. Some California Republicans have been trying to open lines of communication between the state and the White House. Last month Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Santa Clarita Republican, asked Trump to focus immigration action on violent criminals and modernize the immigration process, in a letter with other Republican lawmakers including Ochoa Bogh. “We need to advocate on the need for immigration reform and really talk about the issues that impact California,” Ochoa Bogh said. “I’m not sure that Democrats are actually communicating with the federal government.”
Trying to bridge that gap has been complicated by immigration raids that sparked conflict between California leaders and the Trump administration. Protestors clashed with ICE agents and National Guard troops in Los Angeles last month. Perris Mayor Michael Vargas urged residents to stay inside following reports of ICE operations in the Riverside County city. And immigration enforcement on church property in San Bernardino County prompted Bishop Alberto Rojas to absolve parishioners from obligation to attend mass if they fear immigration action. Restaurants throughout the state are closing temporarily as their workers and customers avoid immigration raids, CalMatters reported. ICE raids have ‘left crops rotting” on farms from Texas to California.
“The system is broken,” Paul Granillo, President and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, told CalMatters. “So we need to look at how people get their vegetables, how people get served in restaurants, and look at construction, and appreciate that unless we have immigration reform, the average Californian is going to pay more for all these goods and services, because we don’t have enough workers.” The fallout to farms, restaurants, hotels and home-building has prompted Trump to waver between plans for mass deportations and possible concessions to employers.
Some federal lawmakers see an opening. Congressmembers Mike Levin, a San Juan Capistrano Democrat, and Youn Kim, an Anaheim Hills Republican, proposed a federal reform package called the Dignity Act of 2025, which would provide a path to legal status for immigrant workers. Ochoa Bogh said she’s trying to build support for the bill in Sacramento. The U.S. has offered various work visas and permits over the last century. The Bracero program, started during WW II, recruited Mexican workers to help on farms and other war industries. The H-2 visa program of 1952 allowed foreign farmworkers to hold temporary jobs in agriculture. Ochoa Bogh’s parents and grandparents worked under the Bracero program, so she relates to immigrants who are seeking jobs: “I have compassion and empathy for that heart.”
Guestworker visas expanded with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which also provided amnesty for established residents. In 1990, Congress added H-1B visas for skilled temporary workers, in a program that’s still widely used in the tech industry. An effective work permit program should match foreign workers to labor market needs, Granillo said: “If you limit the number to smaller than the needs of the workforce, people are still going to come here, but will come illegally or overstay their visa.” Stalled efforts to update those programs have left the country with an “outdated, slow-moving immigration system,” Ochoa Bogh wrote. Fixing that would benefit employers, while protecting workers from unsafe work conditions and unfair pay, she said: “So that we’re able to have those folks stay here, and not work in the shadows. So that they are not subject to exploitation.”
Revisit the (Recent) Past
Previous Newsletters:
August 2025 Updates
August Calendar
Mondays: Join the SAVE DEMOCRACY ACTION GROUP, with a new name, and a renewed focus on congressional change in 2026. Postcard writing continues, with messaging designed to reach low-propensity voters in 'flippable' GOP districts nationwide. Pilgrim Place Napier Center,10:15 am - 12 noon.
Wednesdays: Ceasefire Vigil - corner of Foothill and Indian Hill - 8:00 am.
Fridays: Peace Vigil and No War on Iran Rally - corner of Arrow Highway and Indian Hill - 3:30 to 4:30 pm, and at Pilgrim Place in a new location, at the Octagonal Garden from 4 - 4:30 pm.
Sunday, August 3, 7 pm - Interfaith Vigil for the Disappeared and Fearful, sponsored by Pomona Valley Spiritual Leaders for Justice. In front of the Claremont Methodist Nativity scene, northeast corner of Indian Hill and Foothill.
Wednesday, August 6, 10 am - Food for Justice Campaign. Join us in the Pilgrim Place Napier Kitchen as we prepare an evening meal to show our support for Ice Out of Pomona strategists.
Saturday, August 9, 9:15 am - Inland Valley Citizens' Climate Lobby Chapter Meeting in the Pilgrim Place Napier Center. All are welcome.
Sunday, August 17, 2:30-4:30 pm - Ice Out of Pomona Patrol Training, provided by Union del Barrio. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 242 E. Alvarado, Pomona.
Thursday, August 21, 6-8 pm - Corazon y Mano (Heart and Hands) gathering to sew, crochet, and draw 'good luck' pocket charms for our immigrant neighbors and community members. No experience required, materials provided. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 242 E. Alvarado, Pomona.
Saturday August 30, 5-10 pm - "Bringing House to Church," an event to support St. Ambrose Episcopal Church's Shower Program. Music, tacos & drinks provided; entry fee is a new pack of socks and/or underwear. 830 W. Bonita Ave., Claremont.
Community Partner Perspectives
Claremont Interfaith Council Submitted by Katrina M.
The Claremont Interfaith Council (CIC) is a collaborative association of faith communities and nonprofit organizations that serve Claremont residents. Its aim is to build relationships and understanding among our members and to engage in community issues of common concern. Monthly meetings often include a speaker. The CIC organizes a service of thanksgiving every November and a baccalaureate service for Claremont’s high school graduates in June. CIC members take turns writing the monthly “Interfaithfully Speaking” column for The Claremont Courier.
CLAREMONT HOMELESS ADVOCACY PROGRAM (CHAP) Submitted by Katrina M.
CHAP is currently not operational but the City of Claremont is considering a restart. If CHAP does restart, it will start small. But at its core will be the sense of individual dignity, of helping one another, and of transformative community.
When the pandemic closed down much of the world in March of 2020, CHAP also closed down. Today efforts are afoot to bring it back. It may take a different form (or forms) but the goals will be the same: to help those without homes, by matching each participant with an advocate, someone to meet with regularly to help navigate the maze of daily opportunities and challenges that can sometimes seem overwhelming. And if possible, to find a location for an overnight program like the one that began at the Quaker Meeting House in Claremont in 2014.
CHAP owes its impetus to the Occupy Movement of 2012, which brought tent living to cities around the country, including Claremont. As interested community members talked with folks living in those tents, they found themselves learning about homelessness in Claremont. They learned that the number of homeless people in Claremont was ten times the three or four known to city officials. As they listened to individual stories, they began to ponder, “What if a team of volunteers could work with each homeless person helping him to get job training, leading to a job and a home of his own?” A committee was formed, and by the spring of 2013, CHAP was up and running, with the stated goal to “End homelessness in Claremont by the end of the summer."
By late fall of 2013, it was clear that goal was not realistic. With winter coming, CHAP volunteers worried about the homeless folks they now knew and cared about as neighbors. Mary Cooper, who was part of the leadership group, asked the Friends Meeting if they would offer their worship room as a sleeping area for men along with the smaller library for women. Assured that there would be supervision at all times, and that their neighbors were comfortable with the idea, the Friends endorsed the plan, and on January 24, 2014, CHAP’s first “guests” rolled out their cots.
From the start, the CHAP was not a shelter, but a program, with about 10 men, who slept in the Worship Room, and one or two women, who slept in the small library. Treating everyone with dignity was paramount. Words mattered: Those spending the night were not known as "the homeless," or even "clients," but rather "guests" or "participants." The volunteers in charge were not "supervisors," but "hosts," who were present from 8 pm to 8 am, in three shifts.
Once the program was up and running, the Claremont community jumped in with offers. One of the first was “cafes,” potluck suppers at Claremont churches enabling CHAP participants and church members get to know one another over leisurely, sit-down dinners. St. Ambrose Episcopal Church launched the idea, followed by the United Church of Christ (UCC). A group of Harvey Mudd students began cooking Saturday night suppers for CHAP participants when school was in session, a program that Our Lady of Assumption picked up during college vacations.
Pilgrim Place resident Karl Hilgert, who had led the process of organizing CHAP, stepped down after a couple of years. And Pilgrim Place resident Ann Marie S. stepped up, putting her educational background and her avid enthusiasm to use in boosting the participants' sense of self-worth. Men who had been shooed away from public spaces and told to “move on,” were now invited to Ann Marie’s house to munch just-baked cookies and zucchini bread, to talk about the hopes and frustrations and then watch a football game on the large television that Ann Marie bought just for such occasions.
A few CHAP highlights that stand out in my memory:
A host in her 80s who was always beautifully dressed, including a bright scarf (at 6 am!), Julie A. had a dream of cooking eggs to order for each participant. She had bought an electric frying pan, hoping to cook them in the kitchen, but CHAP kitchen rules did not allow plugging in any kind of cooker. We rigged up an outdoor cooking spot with a card table, and the participants eagerly lined up for this treat. As they ate, she asked what else she might do for the breakfasts. Jokingly, someone replied, “How about steak?” The next week she surprised them with an outdoor (Katrina's highlights continue in the column to the right.)
JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS SEEKING ASYLUM (JISA) Submitted by Sally S.
It's hard to believe that we have been working with Justice for Immigrants Seeking Asylum (JISA) for almost a decade. Although started as a group for the community at large, JISA's membership is now comprised almost entirely of Pilgrim Place residents, with participation from a few neighboring members.
Beginning with weekly visits to detainees at Adelanto, a private detention center in the high desert, we formed relationships and then took next steps, appearing in court for support and advocacy and providing post release help, which has included phones, clothes, transportation (planes, trains, and buses) and housing.
Then came the big pandemic shutdown, and our mission had to change, almost on a dime. JISA members found ways to continue the work by providing minimal legal financial support to individuals, and contributions to sanctuary churches for families being protected.
We've been to the border for protests and pilgrimages. We've written post cards, raised funds through a website and the UCC and Church of the Brethren Alternative Christmas Funds, joined policy advocacy actions and collected clothes for border missions. We've also provided educational presentations for churches and other groups.
Another new day has come along and JISA is reconnecting with the Adelanto Visitation network. It's a challenge. And we are starting a conversation to participate in food delivery to families who have had members detained and/or deported and are fearful of being out in markets, offices, schools, and the like. There are so many places to take action, but we also have to find the ones that we are capable of accomplishing given our own abilities.
CHAP History and Update, continued
steak breakfast. This story of her caring became legend, passed down from old timers to new participants.
Shelters and other overnight programs for homeless folks are probably not a place where one would look for hugs. But CHAP had Pete Nelson (a Pilgrim Place resident who died in 2020), as a volunteer. While Pete served as a faithful Wednesday evening host, Pete’s hugs became part of the CHAP culture. Pete remained a host as long as his health held out. Then he began opening up the meeting house on Sunday mornings to continue his connection with his CHAP friends. Eventually he had to stop that too. One Sunday morning, though, when he felt particularly strong, Pete made a surprise visit, and participants lined up, eager for a “Pete hug.”
One of the participants, to whom Pete was particularly helpful, was a man that some volunteers were wary of dealing with. But this man whom I will call “L,” had another side. L had come to CHAP at the same time as a very gentle man, “T,” who was in delicate health and suffered from, among other things, frequent seizures. L became T’s buddy, giving him loving care. One evening when L arrived at the meeting house, he was thrilled with a gift he had found for his ill buddy: a football helmet he could wear to protect his head when he fell.
Unfortunately the seizures continued, and each time an ambulance would take T to Pomona Valley Hospital, where he would receive treatment — a bandage for his head and perhaps a shot, then be dismissed. One Sunday morning, I remember a CHAP volunteer calling to say she had discovered T wandering aimlessly along the railroad tracks in Claremont. A while after that, T died not far from the hospital.
CHAP decided to hold a memorial service for our gentle friend and another man who had been one of CHAP’s first participants for a short time. We announced the service in The Courier and invited people who had known either of these men, including T’s sister, whom he loved but from whom he was estranged.
The “service” was structured to offer CHAP participants a chance to speak about T and what he had added to the CHAP community. Dressed in their best “bib and tucks,” they told their stories. Toward the end of the gathering, T’s sister, who had been invited, rose and amid tears expressed her thanks that her brother had had the chance to be part of such a community and the sense of peace that brought her.
News In Brief:
From CAL Matters, Submitted by Sid M.: California Migrant Education Program Defunded. For children of migrants who must travel across the state with their parents alongside the seasonal harvests, keeping up with school can be challenging. But a statewide migrant education program that helps tutor some of these children has recently been defunded by President Donald Trump — forcing some California school districts to cut staff and services. Weeks before the new school year was to start, the Trump administration halted over $6 billion in federal grants for K-12 schools. The administration later released some of the grants, under certain conditions. But money already earmarked by Congress to fund other programs including the federal Migrant Education Program — which has existed since 1966 — is still being withheld. For California, at least $650 million in federal grants remain frozen — threatening the existence of its migrant education program, which does things like send bilingual tutors to schools and labor camps. The tutors provide children of migrant workers emotional and social support, as well as help with their class assignments and college enrollment.
Afghans In California. Nearly 200,000 Afghans arrived in the U.S. in 2021 under President Joe Biden. California had more than 58,000 Afghan immigrants in 2023, with Sacramento and Alameda counties having the largest populations in the country. Many of those arrivals had helped the U.S. government in its 20-year war against Afghanistan, rendering them and their families particularly vulnerable to Taliban retribution. Some Afghan immigrants at the time were granted humanitarian parole while they applied for asylum or visas, and many are still trying to bring over family members located elsewhere. But since Trump’s return to the White House, his administration has paused all refugee admissions, including those that were already approved. Trump has also banned Afghan citizens from entering the U.S., and the administration in April said it would not renew deportation protections for Afghan immigrants, which ended July 14.
From Church World Service, Submitted by Sid M.: Increased fees set to go into place following passage of One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). On July 17, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sent out a policy memorandum updating fees for a number of applications made in immigration court. The fees were even higher than the new minimums required by the OBBBA. Fees are also subject to an annual adjustment to cover inflation. Separately, on Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an alert noting it will “soon” begin to collect new fees following the publication of a federal register notice. USCIS noted the fees would include a first-ever fee to apply for asylum, an annual fee which must be paid for all individuals with pending asylum claims, and various fees for humanitarian entrants to apply for work authorization. See additional analysis and a breakdown of the minimum fees required by the OBBBA here.
Trump says he will support resettlement of some Afghans who have been stuck in the UAE as uncertainty persists for so many others who supported the U.S. mission. In a July 20 Truth Social post, President Trump said he would “save” Afghans who have been stuck in the United Arab Emirates due to the ongoing January 20 refugee ban and June 4 travel ban – and that he would do so “starting right now.” Some Afghan refugees have already been processed and resettled under exceptions to the refugee ban, but the scope and details of these new actions remain unclear. Even while Trump signals support for some stranded Afghans, his administration continues to argue in court it should be able to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for approximately 12,000 who are here in the U.S. The Court of Appeals in the case (CASA v. Noem) had placed a 7-day stay on the termination last week, and further ruling is expected by the end of the day today.
Afghan SIV holder seized after routine green card appointment. Last Thursday, the New Haven Independent reported that masked federal immigration officials seized an Afghan interpreter at a routine green card application outside a USCIS office. The man lives in a New Haven, Connecticut suburb with his wife and children and is an approved SIV holder – meaning he has demonstrated risk to his life because of his service with the U.S. government in Afghanistan. The SIV holder’s lawyer issued a statement on Friday that a court has issued an emergency order preventing his deportation while hearings continue in the coming weeks. Maggie Mitchel Salem, Executive Director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven (which served the man and his family), said of the abduction: “My reaction – horror, fury.” The man is not the first Afghan who served alongside U.S. troops to be seized and placed into expedited removal proceedings while trying to follow the process laid out for him.
Board of Immigration Appeals limits access to asylum for those fleeing gender-based violence. On Friday, the BIA published a decision that found that persecution based on membership in a particular social group as defined by the applicant’s sex or sex and nationality is not sufficient to receive asylum protections. See Human Rights First’s statement on the decision and its implications for victims of gender-based violence here.
From LAist, submitted by Sid M.: The number of unhoused people living in and around L.A. is trending downward, local experts say, but that's not the case for at least one group: older adults. In the city of L.A., the number of people aged 65 and older experiencing homelessness jumped more than 17% since last year, and more than 36% in two years, according to annual point-in-time counts. Meanwhile, organizations that serve older adults are pulling back on services because of budget shortfalls while bracing for the effects of recent cuts to Medicaid. Many Angelenos rely on those services to keep them from becoming homeless or to help them get housing if they do. Besides helping with rent and food, the service provides other needs — like providing companionship and connection.
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An Inland Empire lawmaker wants to update rules for immigrant workers. Will Trump listen? From CAL Matters, Inland Empire, submitted by Ann T.
As President Donald Trump rushes to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh is urging him to carve out options for essential workers. Ochoa Bogh, a Redlands Republican, wrote to Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asking them to issue “expedited work permits to the millions of undocumented immigrants who are considered essential workers, such as farmworkers who provide critical services.” The effort marks a shift for Ochoa Bogh, who had long viewed immigration as a federal matter. “For years I did not want to address immigration, and now I feel compelled to,” she told CalMatters.
Republican Assemblymembers Leticia Castillo of Corona and Greg Wallis of Rancho Mirage, along with Republican and Democratic lawmakers from Southern California and the Central Valley, signed her letter urging a solution for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. including 2.5 million in California. Some California Republicans have been trying to open lines of communication between the state and the White House. Last month Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Santa Clarita Republican, asked Trump to focus immigration action on violent criminals and modernize the immigration process, in a letter with other Republican lawmakers including Ochoa Bogh. “We need to advocate on the need for immigration reform and really talk about the issues that impact California,” Ochoa Bogh said. “I’m not sure that Democrats are actually communicating with the federal government.”
Trying to bridge that gap has been complicated by immigration raids that sparked conflict between California leaders and the Trump administration. Protestors clashed with ICE agents and National Guard troops in Los Angeles last month. Perris Mayor Michael Vargas urged residents to stay inside following reports of ICE operations in the Riverside County city. And immigration enforcement on church property in San Bernardino County prompted Bishop Alberto Rojas to absolve parishioners from obligation to attend mass if they fear immigration action. Restaurants throughout the state are closing temporarily as their workers and customers avoid immigration raids, CalMatters reported. ICE raids have ‘left crops rotting” on farms from Texas to California.
“The system is broken,” Paul Granillo, President and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, told CalMatters. “So we need to look at how people get their vegetables, how people get served in restaurants, and look at construction, and appreciate that unless we have immigration reform, the average Californian is going to pay more for all these goods and services, because we don’t have enough workers.” The fallout to farms, restaurants, hotels and home-building has prompted Trump to waver between plans for mass deportations and possible concessions to employers.
Some federal lawmakers see an opening. Congressmembers Mike Levin, a San Juan Capistrano Democrat, and Youn Kim, an Anaheim Hills Republican, proposed a federal reform package called the Dignity Act of 2025, which would provide a path to legal status for immigrant workers. Ochoa Bogh said she’s trying to build support for the bill in Sacramento. The U.S. has offered various work visas and permits over the last century. The Bracero program, started during WW II, recruited Mexican workers to help on farms and other war industries. The H-2 visa program of 1952 allowed foreign farmworkers to hold temporary jobs in agriculture. Ochoa Bogh’s parents and grandparents worked under the Bracero program, so she relates to immigrants who are seeking jobs: “I have compassion and empathy for that heart.”
Guestworker visas expanded with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which also provided amnesty for established residents. In 1990, Congress added H-1B visas for skilled temporary workers, in a program that’s still widely used in the tech industry. An effective work permit program should match foreign workers to labor market needs, Granillo said: “If you limit the number to smaller than the needs of the workforce, people are still going to come here, but will come illegally or overstay their visa.” Stalled efforts to update those programs have left the country with an “outdated, slow-moving immigration system,” Ochoa Bogh wrote. Fixing that would benefit employers, while protecting workers from unsafe work conditions and unfair pay, she said: “So that we’re able to have those folks stay here, and not work in the shadows. So that they are not subject to exploitation.”
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