bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Blanca and her family fled a deadly wildfire in January that devastated her Los Angeles area neighbourhood and burned the clothing alterations business she had owned for six years to the ground.
Her rented flat in Altadena was spared but uninhabitable, with no gas, electricity or hot water, and contaminated with toxic ash and soot.
But she was ineligible for federal help for her business or her home because she is undocumented.
Now 48, she came from Mexico more than 20 years ago with one child.
After the fire, she and her family lived in temporary housing while she and her neighbours battled with the flat building manager to clean and repair their ruined homes.

US President Donald Trump ordered a crackdown on undocumented immigrants in late January when he took office.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on Los Angeles, making thousands of arrests in the following months.
While ICE initially was not rounding up residents in burn zones, that has changed.
In June, ICE agents raided a burned property in Altadena, targeting the construction crew, and they have conducted random traffic stops and used racial profiling to apprehend people throughout the county.
For residents without legal status, the one-two punch of a devastating fire and the threat of deportation has become unbearable.
“It’s too much stress, too many emotions to work through,” said Blanca, who did not want her surname used, wiping away tears.
“There wasn’t time to recover from the fire,” she said.

More than 900,000 undocumented residents live in Los Angeles County, according to data from the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute.
The January conflagrations in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades areas destroyed more than 16,000 structures and killed at least 30 people.
Undocumented renters are already at higher risk of eviction and abuse by unethical landlords, and many who lost their homes in the fire now live in neighbourhoods where ICE raids are more frequent, according to county officials.
Displaced tenants were forced to live “in neighbouring communities where aggressive immigration sweeps … have intensified anxiety and instability for these vulnerable residents”, said Hilda Solis, a member of the county Board of Supervisors.

“As the only Latina on the Board of Supervisors and the daughter of immigrants, these raids strike a deeply personal chord,” she added.
When Blanca returned to her flat in May, it had been stripped of even its appliances and furniture. The building’s gates have not been repaired, leaving the property unprotected.
She carries bear spray when she travels to her temporary job as a carer because ICE agents on the street wear masks and present no identification.
“We’re not sure if it’s ICE and not a bounty hunter,” she said. “We can’t even go to work comfortably.”
Federal ICE agents arrested more than 2,200 people in the Los Angeles area in June alone, when raids ramped up and the Trump administration ordered military units brought in to assist agents and put down protests.


Neglected renters
Katie Clark, co-founder of the Altadena Tenants Union, said that regardless of legal status, renters in the fire zones have been neglected by local and federal governments compared with the support going to homeowners.
Even before the Eaton fire burned through Altadena, killing 19 people and destroying some 9,600 buildings, renters lacking legal status or in mixed-status households were at risk of exploitation.
Undocumented renters tell of landlords and building workers threatening to report them to ICE if they complain about repairs or maintenance.
“For all of our undocumented neighbours, we see them as even more vulnerable than they were before the fires,” Clark said.
“Certainly these overlapping crises have only intensified their situations.”

The tenants' union has sued Los Angeles County to force the public health department to inspect rental properties and compel landlords to conduct fire remediation and meet financial obligations.
In the fires’ aftermath, the county launched a six-month moratorium on evictions and a US$32.2 million financial relief fund for renters and homeowners, according to a spokesperson for County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Legal status was not part of the eligibility criteria, she said.
The application window was open for two weeks in late February.
“Renters who lost their housing or income in this disaster deserve access to every available resource, from financial relief to legal protections. My commitment is to keep fighting for the support they need to rebuild their lives,” Barger said.

Nowhere else to go
Some of Blanca’s neighbours returned to their flats in February before they were cleaned because they had no place else to go, living without heat or even windows.
They were exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other carcinogens from ash for months, according to data from the county public health department.
Officials have encouraged anyone living in or near the burn scar to have their blood tested for lead poisoning.
But many people, including Blanca, have foregone medical appointments and other day-to-day activities to limit their risk of getting caught by ICE.
Owning a business and paying taxes, Blanca said she felt secure, but not any more.
“If there’s one thing I valued or respected in this country, it was how safe I felt,” Blanca said.

Immigrant labour
Most burned lots have been cleared and sit ready for new homes and businesses.
Rebuilding is slow, however, because the construction industry relies on skilled migrant workers, the very people being targeted by ICE.
“There’s no way that you can rebuild Altadena without migrant labour, without the undocumented immigrants,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Labourer Organising Network, which supports workers’ rights.
The Board of Supervisors in July approved a motion, written by Solis, to create a cash help fund for residents affected by immigration raids and expand an existing help programme for small businesses, but details are scant, and it is unclear when the programmes will start.
No state help has been earmarked for those targeted by the raids.


Jimmy Lai’s ‘rabid hatred’ of party led him down ‘thorny path’: Hong Kong court

China’s latest stealth endurance drone, CH-7, completes maiden flight

Tokyo’s latest bid to ease tensions with Beijing, Liu Cixin on AI: SCMP daily highlights

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai used personal ties to seek foreign sanctions: court ruling

United States

Undocumented renters caught between fire and ICE in Los Angeles burn zone

Residents confront ICE and Border Patrol agents over a raid in the city of Bell, California in June. Photo: TNS

Homes smoulder to ashes in Altadena, California in January. Photo: TNS

Cynthia Lunine holds her custom-made poster during an anti-ICE protest outside the Home Depot in Pasadena, California earlier this month. Photo: TNS

The remains of a home demolished by the Eaton Fire. Photo: AFP

Parents and students look at class lists, while they arrive for the first day of school earlier this month, as teachers and volunteers patrol for the presence of ICE agents in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters

A “For Sale” sign is posted at a cleared lot on a property that burned in the Eaton Fire, while construction workers prepare to rebuild a property next door. Photo: AFP

Construction workers build a new home on a property which burned in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. Photo: AFP

Trump visits police, troops in Washington after saying he would patrol streets

US President Donald Trump visits law enforcement officers and National Guard soldiers in Washington on Thursday. Photo: AP

US Attorney General Pam Bondi hands out food to law enforcement officers in Washington on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Trump admin reviewing all 55 million foreigners with US visas for deportable violations

The departure gates at JFK International Airport’s Terminal 1 are seen in New York on August 15. Photo: TNS

At Trump’s request, 3 states sending National Guard troops to Washington DC

Members of the District of Columbia National Guard patrol along the National Mall in Washington on Saturday. Photo: AP

People demonstrate in front of the White House on Saturday after US President Donald Trump deployed National Guard members in Washington. Photo: Reuters

Uganda joins Trump’s deportation push, becoming latest country to accept US migrants

US Northern Command and Transportation Command assist ICE with deportation flights at Fort Bliss, Texas in February. Photo: Sergeant Walker Pino/US Department of Defence/AFP

A demonstrator holds up a placard to protest the increase in immigrant detainments during a “Rage Against The Regime March Against Immigration Cruelty” in New York earlier this month. Photo: EPA

Trial starts over Trump’s deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles

National Guard troops and other law enforcement clash with demonstrators in Los Angeles on June 8. Photo: Kyodo

California Governor Gavin Newsom and US President Donald Trump earlier this year. File photo: AP

Undocumented renters caught between fire and ICE in Los Angeles burn zone

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Excluded from aid, they struggle with displacement, fear, and exploitation

Excluded from aid, they struggle with displacement, fear, and exploitation