Editor’s Note: Today is June 2, 2026 — Primary Election Day in Los Angeles County. Voters are deciding on Measure ER (a countywide tax increase), the governor’s race, the LA mayoral race, a countywide supervisor seat, state legislative races, and dozens of municipal contests LACP has been covering since our launch. If you haven’t voted yet, polls are open until 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots can still be dropped off at any official Los Angeles County drop box or vote center today. Every race matters. Every vote counts. — Stephen Witt, Publisher & Editor
Chu, Gomez walk into Adelanto — and demand it be shut down
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D – Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley) and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D – Downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park, Silver Lake), joined by Rep. Pete Aguilar of San Bernardino, walked into the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County yesterday to meet face to face with detainees participating in an ongoing hunger strike — and emerged calling for the facility’s permanent closure.
The three members met with detainees who launched the hunger strike on May 19 to protest unsafe and inhumane conditions inside Adelanto’s Desert View Annex. Hunger strikers have demanded the removal of mold, access to clean drinking water, adequate food, and timely medical care for individuals with chronic health conditions.
“For more than a decade, I have called for the closure of Adelanto, and today’s visit made clear why that call is as urgent as ever,” Chu said. “The detainees we met with described horrific, unacceptable living conditions that no human being should ever have to endure. The problems at Adelanto are not new, and they are not isolated. They are the result of years of neglect that have continued despite repeated warnings, congressional oversight, and detainee deaths. Adelanto has had countless opportunities to change and has failed time and again. It is time to shut down this facility once and for all.”
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, five people have died while in Adelanto custody or shortly after being transferred from the facility. The facility is operated by GEO Group, a private prison contractor that receives millions of taxpayer dollars to detain immigrants.
As LACP previously reported, the California State Senate passed the Masuma Khan Justice Act — authored by State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez and named after an Altadena Eaton Fire survivor denied medication while in immigration detention — which would establish a statewide inspection and compliance framework for private detention facilities. Similar hunger strikes have recently emerged at other GEO-operated facilities, including Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey.
“Today, I heard directly from detainees who say they have exhausted every other avenue to raise concerns about the conditions they face inside this facility,” Gomez said. “When people are willing to put their own health on the line just to be heard, that’s a sign that something is deeply wrong. No one should have to starve themselves to get basic dignity, medical care, or have their concerns taken seriously.”
Zbur fights out-of-state attacks on reproductive and gender-affirming care
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D – Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Malibu) saw the State Assembly last week pass his legislation (AB 1930), strengthening the state’s shield laws protecting patients and providers of reproductive and gender-affirming health care from subpoenas and legal actions by hostile states and federal actors seeking to identify and prosecute individuals receiving legally protected care in California.
The measure follows the U.S. Department of Justice issuing a subpoena last year to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles seeking information that could identify more than 3,000 transgender youth who had received gender-affirming care at the facility.
The subpoena contributed directly to the closure of the hospital’s Center for Transyouth Health and Development and Gender-Affirming Care program — significantly reducing access to care for transgender patients across Southern California. Louisiana officials also recently sought information connected to abortion care prescribed by a California physician to an out-of-state patient.
“Patients seeking reproductive or gender-affirming health care deserve privacy, dignity, and the freedom to make personal medical decisions without fear of political intimidation,” Zbur said. “As extremist politicians across the country attempt to criminalize legally protected health care, California must continue standing firmly on the side of patients, families, providers, and the rule of law.”
Under AB 1930, California entities must notify the Attorney General within seven days of receiving a subpoena related to reproductive or gender-affirming care, make reasonable efforts to notify impacted individuals, and wait at least 30 days before complying.
The bill grants the Attorney General authority to intervene, pursue civil enforcement actions, and seek penalties for violations.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who sponsored the bill, said these medical decisions are deeply personal and should be made by patients with their providers, free from interference by politicians.
AB 1930 now moves to the Senate.
Bass mourns Dr. William Burke — South Coast AQMD chairman and founder of the LA Marathon
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass yesterday mourned the passing of Dr. William A. “Bill” Burke — the first African American chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board, its longest-serving leader, and one of the most consequential environmental justice advocates in Los Angeles history.
“Los Angeles mourns the loss of Dr. William A. ‘Bill’ Burke — a visionary leader whose decades of service transformed our city and improved the lives of countless families,” Bass said. “As the first African American chairman of the South Coast AQMD Governing Board and its longest-serving leader, Dr. Burke made environmental justice a defining mission of his leadership, dedicating his career to the belief that clean air is a basic right owed to every community.”
Dr. Burke’s career spanned healthcare, business, civic leadership, and public service. Among his most enduring contributions was founding the Los Angeles Marathon, which has become one of the city’s signature civic institutions.
He became one of the nation’s longest-serving public commissioners and spent decades advancing equity for communities long overlooked and underserved in environmental policy.
“I had the privilege of knowing Bill personally and always appreciated his guidance, advice and steadfast support,” Bass said. “On behalf of the City of Los Angeles, I extend my deepest condolences.”
Waters warns Trump is coming for LAX
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D – Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Watts, South Los Angeles) issued a sharp warning last week that the Trump administration’s efforts to weaponize federal resources against sanctuary cities now include reported proposals that could disrupt operations at Los Angeles International Airport — threatening the nearly $180 billion in international trade and 23 million international visitors LAX handled last year.
“Trump’s revenge agenda, in which he is weaponizing the government to go after his enemies, now includes targeting American cities and the entire American economy,” Waters said. “Trump and the Department of Homeland Security now want to stop all international travel and trade coming through Los Angeles International Airport and numerous other major airports. LAX alone handled nearly $180 billion in international trade last year and welcomed 23 million international visitors. But these visitors and trade don’t just stay in Los Angeles — they go on to every part of the country.”
Waters noted the broader economic context — citing Federal Reserve data showing nearly one in ten Americans currently lacks enough food to eat — and connected the LAX threat to earlier Trump administration disruptions, including forcing TSA agents to work without pay during a government shutdown earlier this year.
She called on Americans to push back against what she described as a pattern of using government power to punish political opponents at the expense of the broader economy.
